Beltline to lay down mulch and open part of path
Fresh from my four-hour Beltline walk this morning, I’m pleased to say the Chief Beltline Volunteer (Angel Poventud) says the organization that’s building the trail and transit line will put mulch down on a portion of the path so that people can begin to use it.
Angel, who led a small group on a tour of the southwestern and southeastern stretches of the 22-mile rail corridor today, said the Beltline folks hope to have the mulch down and part of the path open by February or March of next year.
I would like to think I’m responsible for this turn of events because I suggested something similar in an earlier post!
But I would guess many people have suggested this very same idea to the Beltline folks.
Open it up while you work out the details so that people can begin to imagine the possibilities and incorporate the path into their lives.
As part of the project, mulch will cover portions of the western part of the trail, near West End, and portions of the northeastern section, from I-85 south to Dekalb Ave., said Ethan Davidson, an spokesman for the Beltline.
Davidson said the Beltline is still working out the details of the mulch plan and could not say when the project would begin or confirm when the path will open to the public.
“We are looking to open up stretches to the public as soon as possible,” he said.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, for many people in Atlanta the Beltline is something imaginary or nebulous or at the very least hidden in plain sight.
I will be posting more comment and photos from this morning’s walk, which passed through the West End, Adair Park, Grant Park, Ormewood Park, Glenwood Park and Reynoldstown neighborhoods.
(The photo above shows a part of our group as we walked the part of the Beltline that crosses over Glenwood Ave. and through the Glenwood Park neighborhood.)
I hope Chinamex chooses a downtown address
A Chinese company will establish a U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, according to a story by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
AND, the company, Chinamex, is concentrating its search for space on downtown, Midtown and North Fulton County, the ABC said.
Maybe that’s what all companies say, and then they go ahead and move to North Fulton or another suburban area. But I hope city and state officials are pushing hard for a downtown/Midtown location since Chinamex is not a manufacturer (the ABC said the company will establish an incubator; I’ve seen others incubators and unless this one is dramatically different, I would guess a downtown/midtown location would suffice).
I was disappointed last month when NCR announced it would relocate its headquarters to Gwinnett County from Ohio. Any headquarters that moves here should ideally go into an area that’s already established — no earthmovers should be involved in the building of its site.
I know it’s a big win for Gwinnett, and Gwinnett is not going anywhere and is already established. But no one from outside of Atlanta relocates to the “Gwinnett area” or the “Cobb County” area.
Everyone, including myself, relocates to the Atlanta area.
Case in point: there are large multi-national companies located off Powers Ferry Road in Cobb County that successfully lobbied for an Atlanta mailing address when they relocated here.
So a big welcome to the folks at Chinamex; I hope you will help the city of Atlanta reach its full potential by locating downtown or Midtown.
The new face of smart growth? It’s you
It started with porch parties.
But, shoot, porch parties can only take you or, in this case, the Poncey-Highland Neighborhood Association, so far.
Jim McMahel, a president of the association, said he realized the neighborhood desperately needed a master plan about five years ago when developers began to buy up parcels of land and propose ambitious new buildings in that part of Atlanta, which is south of Virginia-Highlands.
In an interview earlier this month, McMahel said, “Here is this tiny little neighborhood that didn’t have a lot of volunteers, trying to deal with someone like Wayne Mason who has $25 million to throw around and hire the best lawyers and planners to push through what he wants. We recognized very quickly if we had a master plan that was recorded with the city that we could reference that and send a developer to that,” in order to preserve the neighborhood’s character.
(By way of explanation, Mason bought land in the P-H area that he later sold to the Beltline; developer Trammell Crow expressed interest in building a 20-story building on the site of the North High Ridge Apartments on Highland, seen in the photo above, McMahel said.)
So McMahel and other residents of Poncey-Highland began to raise money to pay for a master plan, which they believed would cost as much as $40,000.
“I kept saying we need to do something,” McMahel recalled. “We did not have a clue as to how we were going to raise the amount of money. We were raising it through porch parties and socials at restaurants. And we managed to raise $1,000 and set it apart. But we were not getting anywhere with that.” Read more
Cityscape: Woodruff Park (The chess players)
I love watching people play chess in Woodruff Park downtown, especially those who duke it out on the big board. I love the way the game can ensnare anyone passing by to stop for a few minutes and watch the moves.
Sure, it takes all kinds at Woodruff Park. There’s always a guy preaching that the end of the world is coming. But there’s also usually a crowd of Georgia State students between classes, officeworkers on lunch break, tourists on the town, and even a few bloggers.
One more.
Read more
FPT=Baby Beltline (especially with soundtrack)
As I was jogging along the Freedom Parkway trail Friday afternoon, I felt a sense of déjà vu.
From the path, I peered into the back patio at Across the Street in the Old Fourth Ward. I saw a make-shift skate park, and benches arranged in a shady semi-circle.
I caught a glimpse of a beautiful three-story house I can’t see from Highland Avenue, where I had entered the trail.
I spied an enticing rooftop deck that I think may belong to Park’s Edge restaurant in Inman Park. Leaning over a bridge that straddles a tiny creek, I watched golfers tee at the Candler Park golf course.
In short, I saw things I cannot normally see from the road, and I traveled seamlessly from one neighborhood to another.
And I thought: this is what the Beltline will be like.
Read more
Slow Food Atlanta Eat-in at Piedmont Park 9/7
Slow Food Atlanta is organizing an eat-in at Piedmont Park on Sept. 7 to support the use of fresh veggies and the elimination of processed foods in schools.
Organizers, including Lady Rogue of Rogue Apron, hope to make it the biggest picnic in Atlanta (not sure if that would be the biggest this year, the biggest ever, or what, but they want it to be big!).
Here’s part of the email I received from Lady Rogue:
ATLANTA’S BIGGEST PICNIC WITH A GREAT CAUSE!!!
Woohoo, that sounds more interesting, right? Basically, school lunches blow. We could make them better by adding vegetables, instead of all that processed bullhonky. So, let’s have a giant picnic, and join 181 other picnics nationwide in a show of support. Neat, huh?
Essentially, I am trying to pluck out “influencers” in our community, invite them to a BYOB grassroots organizing session August 5th where SFA leader Judith Winfrey can get ‘em all informationalized, and then set them loose to help publicize this event amongst their circles.
RSVP link for the informational session is here: tinyurl.com/rogueeatin.
*End of email*
For more information on the picnics or the campaign to improve school lunches, go here.
Studioplex Green Market — Worth a stop
All farmers markets are good, if only because they connect us with fresh fruits and veggies.
But there’s something about the Studioplex Green Market that makes food-shopping especially pleasant. I think it’s because its home is not a parking lot!
In fact, I would argue that the farmers market at Studioplex, a mixed-use condo development in the Old Fourth Ward, has the best location of any of the markets in the city, and a good selection of veggies, bread, legumes and greens.
Studioplex was once a cotton warehouse and the central corridor of the complex, where the farmers market sets up, is a partially open-air pavilion that’s absolutely perfect for a market of any sort — but certainly for a farmers market. I don’t want to smell car fumes while I look at cucumbers!
I had seen the signs for the market around the neighborhood but a friend who lives nearby and who, like me, is a member of a CSA, told me it was worth a stop. I think the prices are good, and I liked the variety of goods (I bought heirloom tomatoes, three varieties of hot peppers and spiced peanuts).
Info:
Studioplex Green Market
Irwin St., near Auburn Ave., The Old Fourth Ward
Saturdays, 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Now through the fall
Tom Price’s moment of climate-change silence
U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga.
U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Marietta, provided an inadvertent moment of levity last month on the House floor. I stumbled upon it while researching a Media Mayhem column for the Mother Nature Network. Before watching, please note two points:
1) As Creative Loafing’s editor, I instituted a policy that an image of Ned Flanders always run instead of Price’s picture. My wisdom has been affirmed: Price’s call for prayer over a climate-change bill is just what Ned would have done. I love the fact that the person who posted this video on You Tube titled it “Okily-Dokily.”
2) Flanders’, er, Price’s claim that “accurate” predictions say dealing with climate change will cost 2 million-plus jobs is unadulterated bunkum — which only makes it funnier.
What is this bullshit?
A shih-tzu sans bulldog genes (Courtesy: Wikipedia)
The guy walking down the sidewalk on the other side of Peachtree had one normal looking dog — a handsome, lanky puppy that must have been a lab mix.
The other dog? I’d never seen anything like it.
It was gray and white, with wiry hair, a big tuft of which rose from the top of its head. From across the street, you could see its under-bite jutting out further in the front than the nub of a tail that poked off the rump. The dog was husky, but not quite as wide as a bulldog, and it stood on scruffy, stick-like legs.
“What kind of dog is that?” I called from across the street. It was early Saturday morning. We were the only two people around.
“It’s a bullshit,” he said, grinning ear-to-ear. This guy, I thought, relishes that question every time it’s asked.
“A … whaaa? A bullshit?”
“Yeah. A bullshit. He’s a mix between a bulldog and a shih-tzu.” Read more
Reviving bus idling debate
Photo credit: Joeventures via Flickr
Some people take issue with the pollution, noise and unpleasantness created by commuter buses when they idle in downtown traffic, as evidenced by an article that ran in the AJC in June.
I’m not interested so much in whether the buses can be ticketed for idling too long.
My question is this:
Why do non-Fulton County buses pick up and drop off passengers at so many spots in Fulton County (namely downtown)? Why not have the buses pick up or drop off passengers at stations at the outermost edge of MARTA’s system, closest to the county of origin of the bus company?
I was walking in Woodruff Park last week around rush-hour and I saw a Cobb County Transit bus drive by. That bus was about 10 miles from the border between Fulton and Cobb counties.
Why is a Cobb County bus so far away from its home territory? Why not route the bus to a MARTA station closer to the Cobb County border?
Some may say Cobb County riders don’t want to ride on MARTA. But I have to guess what I’m saying is what the bus systems originally envisioned.
Why? Because in the case of Cobb County, at least, the county’s bus system uses the BREEZE card, which MARTA also uses, allowing for smooth, free transfers between the two systems.
What I find interesting about the AJC article is the following quote:
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