Cityscape: Ponce
Ponce, near Freedom Parkway
One simple question: Would you walk here for pleasure?
To elaborate, would you stroll here? Would you hang out with friends here, take photos, lollygag?
I’ll answer: NO!
Sure there’s a sidewalk, but that doesn’t make you want to walk there.
As new urbanist Andres Duany said last week when he visited Atlanta, “We made places that were unpleasant for pedestrians.”
A stone’s throw from the heart of the city, it’s classic suburban architecture and streetscaping — buildings pushed way back from the street so the super-attractive parking lot can go out front, revolting store signage and an ATM thrown in the mix for good measure.
Just to add insult to injury, you can see something more attractive — something that actually inspires us as humans — in the distance but trust me: visually, you can’t get there from here (it’s the Bank of America building on North Ave.).
And it’s not as though I chose the one bad spot in that particular stretch of Ponce de Leon. It’s pretty unpleasant from every angle. Let’s take a look!
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One less vacancy in Grant Park
I’m not looking to make this blog Grant Park Central (ahem!) but I want to mention that a bike shop is moving into a vacant spot on Woodward Ave. between the Cabbagetown Clay Works and Stone Soup Kitchen.
I love it when vacancies are filled, particularly in long-established retail corridors. The infrastructure is already there and another business, if done right, can only help the other businesses.
It’s especially vital in neighborhoods like Grant Park with grandfathered-in rows of retail shops that enhance the neighborhood’s homey feel, but typically cannot expand.
Now how about the vacancy on Boulevard two doors down from Solstice? That’s not a good location for something?
A word about the new bike store: according to its Web site, No Brakes “provides Atlanta’s urban cyclist with a relaxed environment where you can feel comfortable whether you’ve been riding for years or are just getting started.” It sells custom built wheels, original apparel and accessories.
It will leave a quirky, home-grown business community on Rogers St. in Kirkwood for the new spot in Grant Park. Store opens July 10.
More on 525 Moreland
Ben King at Terminal Station blog picks up on what I wrote about the proposed development at 525 Moreland in East Atlanta and adds some great information about the developer. Check it out!
Even if you don’t care about 525 Moreland, you should check out Terminal Station just to see a fantastic archival photo of one of Atlanta’s majestic old train stations — alas long gone.
As I mentioned on Ben’s blog, the proposed mixed-use development at the corner of Moreland and Glenwood avenues is of interest to me because I think it could be a good gateway to East Atlanta from the Glenwood Avenue neighborhoods of Ormewood Park and Glenwood Park. Plus it could begin the transformation of Moreland, which is just ugly and uninviting in that section (and most sections, actually).
In addition to the parcels on Moreland, the complex includes two houses on Glenwood Ave. that are just beyond saving.
Electric version of ZipCar in Baltimore
Wouldn’t this be cool to have in Atlanta? An electric version of the car-sharing service that ZipCar already offers here?
The Canadian company Electrovaya is showcasing 10 of its electric vehicles in Baltimore:
The nation’s first all-electric car-sharing program debuted Tuesday at the city’s Inner Harbor, with manufacturer Electrovaya hoping urban residents seeking to go green and curious tourists will take the concept for a spin.
Electrovaya Inc. is offering its Maya 300 for rent at the Maryland Science Center. The car can go up to 120 miles (193 kilometers) on one charge of its lithium-ion battery system, and it gets its juice from a regular 110-volt outlet.
I’ve always thought that Atlanta should’ve built an incredible transportation museum, commemorating all the planes, trains and automobiles that the city was built upon, but also dedicating to showcasing and researching green transportation. (To me, it made much more sense in this city than the aquarium, but Bernie Marcus never listened!)
It would’ve been the perfect starting gate for electric-car sharing.
Beltline: A fait accompli? (more on Duany)
What I took away from Andres Duany’s visit to Atlanta last week is coming out in dribs and drabs here.
I was looking at his plans for the five neighborhoods that sought his help, and I was struck by how he and his team incorporated Beltline infrastructure (which is to say, proposed Beltline infrastructure) into the plans as if it were a done deal.
(In particular, I’m referring to plans for Boulevard Crossing in southeast Atlanta, below Grant Park. You can see Duany’s proposal on the Web site of the Atlanta Regional Commission, which invited him to Atlanta).
My point isn’t to drag down the Beltline. I live about three blocks from the Beltline and sometimes I fantasize about boarding the streetcar proposed for my section.
What I’m saying is, have we reached the point where we can really take it for granted that the Beltline is going to happen?
Or is it that the nine-day charrette Duany presided over in February, and the plans he produced for Boulevard Crossing, Toco Hills and three other neighborhoods are all so theoretical in nature that we might as well heap the Beltline on top?
In a previous post, I mentioned the $300,000 the developers spent to bring Duany to the ARC event. I really hope he didn’t come as part of some theoretical exercise.
But most people in Atlanta, myself included, have little first-hand knowledge of the Beltline. It’s right beneath our noses but access is restricted or available via a bus tour (for the weekly Beltline tours).
Folks like Angel Poventud are trying to make people more aware of the Beltline. But I’m guessing in most people’s minds, not to mention in just plain reality, it’s a remote possibility. So can we really include it in other development plans as though it’s a done deal?
Virginia says goodbye to cul-de-sacs
Photo credit: /\/\ichael Patric|{ via Flickr
In an effort to reduce traffic and improve connectivity, Virginia earlier this year said it would only maintain “new subdivision streets that meet its connectivity, road and sidewalk requirements,” according to a story in the Washington Post.
The story continues, “That’s a big stick, because unlike in Maryland and most other states, the Transportation Department maintains and plows almost all of Virginia’s roads, including streets with as few as three homes.”
New urbanists such as Duany, who was quoted in the WaPo article, say cul-de-sacs increase traffic on so-called “collector” roads because there’s no other exit for people who live in such developments. No backroads. Duany mentioned the law during a workshop Thursday sponsored by the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Virginia says homes arranged around cul-de-sacs are de facto private developments that the state should not have to maintain.
Oh we are living in interesting times!
Inman Park Properties — what a mess
The great Terminal Station blog links to info on Creative Loafing’s site about foreclosed properties owned by Inman Park Properties, which from most accounts is on the verge of collapsing. CL gets you interested with a Clermont Lounge headline, but I think the other properties are more interesting (including a group of stores on Ponce once anchored by the old Goody’s film developing store). I’m kind of sick of the overcoverage of the Clermont.
Indeed, Ben at Terminal Station mentions the John B. Gordon school in East Atlanta, which sits vacant. I like Ben’s idea that the school could have been a great condo conversion — I say ‘could have been’ because I just don’t know what all would be required to rehab it back into civilization.
It is curious to me that in the supposed heart of Hipster Central, East Atlanta, there aren’t apartments or condos right in the village. I mean hipsters have to have some place to sleep, and given the hours they keep, I’m not sure maintaining a single-family home is in the cards!
There is a developer taking steps to convert a host of properties at the corner of Moreland and Glenwood into a mixed-used development that would have a residential component. (Properties on Glenwood, Moreland and Portland avenues are being converted from the Low Density Residential Land Use Designation to Low Density Commercial). Plans for the project, dubbed “525 Moreland Ave.,” include buildings of varying height (three-story/five-story) and a rooftop garden.
To orient you, the intersection in question is currently home to Buffalo Chicken. Now that’s a classic!
I welcome anything that will remove blight from our neighborhoods and install some density, and I hope to report more on 525 Moreland Avenue later. But I just hope it’s not another case of a company like Inman Park Properties buying up properties and not seeing things through.
Jesus vs. Limbaugh – ‘Society needs hypocrisy’
It’s not difficult to be a better Christian than Rush Limbaugh. Hell, I’m a non-practicing Jew, and I’m a better Christian than Rush Limbaugh
The oxy-moron (a few minutes ago) on the fact that adulterer Mark Sanford was a big sanctity-of-marriage, religious right politician: “Society needs hypocrisy.”
Jesus on the subject of hypocrisy: “Judge not that ye be not judged.”
Brief eavesdrops on nutcase talk radio is one of my vices, and Atlanta’s talk-radio dial only turns to the right. Today, all these guys are playing logical Twister to explain why politicians from the party that dragged the country through an impeachment over adultery should get a pass for their own transgressions. It’s hilarious.
But you gotta love Limbaugh’s brazen knee-slappers. His point: Hypocritical adulterers are more laudible than non-hypocritical ones, because they have “standards”: “Give me a society any day where there is hypocrisy rather than one where there is moral equivalency.”
Cityscape: Guess where?
Meow meow meow
Not an especially original idea — Atlanta Magazine and Creative Loafing have similar features, and I love them both. But this gives me an opportunity to highlight some of my favorite corners of the city.
Take a guess where I took this photo!
There could be a prize in it for you….
Duany: Time to get things right Atlanta
I attended a two-hour workshop this morning that featured noted new urbanist architect, Andrés Duany.
As I mentioned, Duany was back in Atlanta today to wrap up an Atlanta Regional Commission project on lifelong communities.
He led a nine-day charrette in February at the request of officials in Conyers, Toco Hills and other neighborhoods in the metro area to help the communities adjust to the demands of an aging population. The towns that participated in the Lifelong Communities charrette have found that their existing housing for senior citizens, existing transportation systems and the current orientation of commercial amenities are no longer a good fit.
I will have more to say about Duany’s visit to the Atlanta Regional Commission today but I want to quickly throw a few thoughts out there.
Duany’s not the only one who has said the recession is an opportunity to take a break from the type of development that has dominated, and give careful thought to re-making our communities so they actually serve all of their residents – not just all of their cars.
But he drove the point home today to a group of people who may have to listen: planners and officials from area communities who know their residents are aging and know that they cannot serve these constituents properly anymore.
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