DECKS IN DOUBT: Atlanta parking deck collapse spawns investigation on campus

I'm not afraid to admit I am proud of this article. It was a classic "fly by the seat of my pants" example.

I arrived at the paper around noon on Wednesday, ready to do my managing editor's job of deciding where to put each of our articles in the paper for Thursday. We discussed in Tuesday's budget meeting we'd have a story about parking and tie in the new parking decks in light of Monday's parking deck collapse in Atlanta. The same construction company that built the Atlanta Centergy One deck is now building two parking decks on campus at the University of Georgia.

I checked in with the news editor to see how all our stories are coming along and he tells me we're going to make the parking deck story separate from the downtown parking story, which is fine by me. But our news editor was swamped and it being summer, we have few news writers we can call at a moment's notice to quickly turn around a story — especially one of this caliber.

So I offered to take the story. In a matter of hours — somewhere between three and four — I was able to do all my research, interviews and write the article, all while also doing my job as managing editor. It was an intense afternoon, but I am so pleased with the results.

And after that huge buildup, click here to read my article about how Monday's parking deck collapse in Atlanta is affecting UGA.

*Photo credit: Waites Laseter, photo editor of The Red & Black