Fur trappers: The real pro-animal activists
'Fur is Green' model, brought to you by the Fur Council of Canada.
You gotta love the moxie of the Fur Council of Canada’s “Fur is Green” campaign:
This Atlanta book could become the decade’s manifesto
![Kevin and Hannah Salwen outside their old house. [Photo: Courtesy of Kevin Salwen.]](http://atlantaunsheltered.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/KH-outdoor-pockets-300x200.jpg "Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen")
Kevin and Hannah Salwen outside their old house. [Photo: Courtesy of Kevin Salwen.
Kevin and Hannah Salwen are the authors of The Power of Half — a book that’s generating national buzz for its appeal simply to cut something in your life in half and to use the savings to help others.
A couple of weeks ago, Parade ran an excerpt. Then, it was the subject of New York Times column by Nicholas Kristrof. The Selwans also have been featured on NBC’s Today show, in the LA Times and on Belief.net.
I happened to see Kevin and Hannah speak last week at TEDxAtlanta (organized by the Atlanta communications firm Unboundary) where the theme was “re:purpose.”
Read the rest of this article at MyGreenATL.com.
Bonner names her Atlanta desire
I often think I’m quite witty, even if evidence to support the claim is lacking.
To wit, the headline of the post is meant to spoof this headline from the Denver Post’s online edition:
“Romer Names his Colfax Desire: Streetcars”
You can read the whole story here, though I will warn you, if you live in Atlanta, the story may seem as depressing as “The Departed” and “Million Dollar Baby.”
I suppose that’s why I wanted to parody the headline.
The quick summary is that Colorado State Sen. Chris Romer is going to introduce a bill that “would take a portion of higher vehicle registration fees and flow the money to a special district that would coordinate financing, construction and operation of a streetcar line on Colfax Avenue in Denver and Aurora,” according to the newspaper.
‘”It’s been a dream of mine to restore streetcars to Colfax; they change the way people live,” said the 50-year-old Romer, D-Denver, who grew up not far from the area’s longest street.’
(The story also includes this key detail: “The state began collecting higher registration fees after last year’s legislature passed the FASTER transportation measure to pay for highway, bridge and transit improvements.”)
In the past week, I’ve written about Charlotte’s intention to apply for federal funds to build a streetcar system, and its existing lightrail network.
Now this.
I’m still learning the lay of the political land here in Georgia, but I look forward one day to reading a headline like this:
Reed (or insert another Atlanta/Georgia politician’s name) Names his Atlanta Wish: Streetcars
The perfect city building? I think so.
I love this building at Peachtree and Fifth.
It adheres to the classic city architecture form that includes retail on the ground floor and residential on the upper floors.
It’s stately, and given the controversy over building plans at 10th and Monroe, it’s really not too tall. I mean, does this building offend or worry anyone?
I think it would be pretty cool to walk downstairs and slip into a chic bistro (Eno) for dinner or just a drink.
Look at the afternoon sunlight streaming in the windows!
And when you’re returning home from errands, you can pat yourself on the back that you live in a building that adds to the richness of the neighborhood, instead of detracting.
So what am I getting at?
Well if you have something that works — and I don’t think this building has gone into foreclosure and I looked at property records for residents and I don’t see a lot of foreclosure notices — why not replicate it?
To be sure, there are other buildings of a similar size in the city. This one, for example, which houses Utrecht art supply on the ground floor:
But, well, how about some more?
Gosh I see empty lots all over Atlanta and I wonder if people are thinking a little too big. On the other hand, I like that the folks who built this building understood this is a city; one and two-story buildings need not apply. At the same time, it’s not so large that neighborhood groups begin to agitate when the developers make the proposal.
The perfect city building, no?
How Tea Party rumors gain traction
Ostensibly, the Tea Party meeting I attended Tuesday night in Peachtree City was about the “cap-and-trade” climate change bill that Congress is now considering.
But a passing reference to an unrelated rumor was more interesting. And it said a lot more about the way the Tea Party rank-and-file gets worked up over things that aren’t even happening.
This week’s baseless rumor apparently is that President Obama is planning to ban protests on the National Mall. “Treason,” one Tea Partier responded when he heard that. Another yelled something about “revolution.”
Here’s the video. Below’s my explanation of why the rumor appears to be totally baseless.
Boulevard crosswalk: the finale (for now)
You may recall I was trying to use the power of citizen activism to make my neighborhood more pedestrian-friendly.
I often walk up Boulevard from Grant Park to Cabbagetown or Oakland Cemetery, crossing over Interstate 20 (I even see people jogging through this area).
Unfortunately, while there are crosswalks as you walk over the on and off ramps for I-20, the ‘walk/don’t walk’ lights were not working great and I thought it would be helpful to walkers if there could be a short interval in which cars were prohibited from entering the crosswalk.
And so I enlisted Councilwoman Carla Smith, who represents my district on City Council, to see if the DOT couldn’t see its way to helping us out (since the crosswalks are part of interstate on/off ramps, they fall under the DOT’s jurisdiction).
You can find my last post about it here. Carla managed to find a sympathetic ear at the DOT, which conducted a study of the crosswalk, but as she told me recently, we can’t get what we want.
The DOT has agreed to refresh the crosswalks, and I’ve noticed the ‘walk/don’t walk’ signs are working better, specifically by giving walkers a longer period of time to cross the street before flashing the orange ‘don’t walk’ symbol.
But it’s really not enough because cars can still enter the crosswalk even if the ‘walk’ light is on, as you can see in the photo above.
If you look at the photo, you’ll see the white, solid ‘walk’ symbol.
And yet there is a car moving through the intersection.
So can I really safely cross the intersection on foot? Uh not really.
Carla said all is not lost — she’s ever the optimist — and thinks we may be able to revisit the issue again with the DOT.
But for now, watch it when you walk up Boulevard. It may be called Boulevard but there are many spots where you are not meant to stroll.
No, really, this train is bound for Charlotte
Charlotte, N.C. — you now the city where that light rail car is headed — is applying for $25 million in federal funds to build a streetcar line.
That would be on top of the light rail system.
The Charlotte Observer reports that city council voted 7-4 on Monday to apply for a grant that would pay for most of the cost of constructing a 1.5-mile line.
The newspaper also noted that three Republicans on the council and one Democrat voted in favor.
You can read the whole story here.
Maybe Oxendine was hunting for water
The John Oxendine shooting accident had nothing to do with this man.
Aha! Now I’ve figured it out. That “not a Dick Cheney” hunting accident involving John Oxendine, his sons and some guy straight out of an episode of Petticoat Junction wasn’t an accident after all.
It was a reconnaissance mission on behalf of the thirsty people of Georgia.
Think about it: Yesterday, Oxendine announced that, if elected governor, he’ll take up with the U.S. Supreme Court a Georgia request that Tennessee let us pipe water from the Tennessee River to metro Atlanta.
Could it be mere coincidence that someone in Oxendine’s hunting party peppered a northwest Georgia man with buckshot just one week earlier?
Hear me out: The incident occurred on Walker County property owned by a man whom the current insurance commissioner is supposed to be regulating Read more
This train is bound for Charlotte
As a freelancer, I pitch story ideas and sometimes editors bite and sometimes they don’t.
Last week, the global conglomerate Siemens came to Atlanta to show off a light rail car that will be part of Charlotte’s transit expansion. I thought it would make a great story, but I was the only one.
Or was I? Maria Saporta was on it, of course, and from her column I learned that the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce actually laid track to properly display the car, which can also be used as a streetcar.
Laid tracks? You have my attention now.
Maria mentions a lot of great things, so please check out her column.
But I would like to mention one thing former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory said while he was in town.
McCrory, who Maria points out is a Republican, said you need to marry transit with the existing transportation network and expansions need to make economic sense. And he said you can’t build transit without a land-use plan.
“The right is only going to want to build roads. The political left will want to put transit everywhere out of fairness. This is not a fairness issue,” McCrory said. “There needs to be an inter-connected system of sidewalks, bikeways and buses.”
Doors of Inman Park
I did my own personal photo hunt one day in Inman Park, and here’s a glimpse of what I came up with.
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