Atlanta Pecha Kucha — Wow!
Boulevard at Edgewood
Do you know these people? They get together once a month to hear brief presentations about design, architecture, city living, sustainable living, you name it.
They met last night at Octane on the West side and I went along because the evening’s theme focused on advice or questions for Atlanta’s next mayor.
So many of the presenters said interesting things so I will mention just a few things that seemed new or novel to me (Angel Poventud, angelic as always, presented information on the Beltline, but it was really just a review/update).
Perhaps the most impressive presentation came from food writer Christine Lauterbach who asked why are there hundreds of food carts/trucks in Portland and almost zero in Atlanta?
Uh, good question!
She showed a slide with a photo of the empty lot on Boulevard seen above, suggesting that underused spaces such as this one could be a great place for lunchtime food trucks.
There’s so much about it that I like: grass-roots commerce, infill development, maybe some interesting ethnic food.
Another presenter, I think, if I understood correctly, showed through slides how he went about “engaging public space” in novel ways, and he thinks the city needs to encourage/permit residents to have more of a connection to our public spaces.
At the very least his presentation was notable because he said he had received a grant — as in money! — to study the engagement of public spaces. Wow!
Perhaps the worst part of the night was the sense that the creativity and the passion for Atlanta urban life expressed by the Pecha Kucha presenters was largely lacking from all of the mayoral candidate forums.
Indeed, one of the organizers, Harley Etienne, said he had heard more concrete solutions during the the course of the evening than in the entire past year of campaigning.
Presenter Paul Moore came to a similar conclusion, throwing up random quotes from actual mayoral candidates that in isolation, at least, just seem lacking in inspiration and vision. He also said Denver is installing 119 miles of rail — right now.
You can argue that these folks are exaggerating, but if I were a mayoral candidate, I would be really concerned about not inspiring some of the more passionate supporters of Atlanta.
Let’s end it on a semi-high note, though.
One of the organizers said, “Atlanta sucks but Atlantans don’t.”
I probably wouldn’t say “sucks” but I hear what he’s saying.
Now how do we fix this? How do we move these ideas out of Pecha Kucha and into actual policy and decisionmaking in the city?
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Comments
10 Comments on Atlanta Pecha Kucha — Wow!
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Jasher on
Mon, 19th Oct 2009 11:34 am
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Jasher on
Mon, 19th Oct 2009 11:37 am
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Jeanne Bonner on
Mon, 19th Oct 2009 12:20 pm
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R Walker on
Mon, 19th Oct 2009 1:02 pm
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Jeanne Bonner on
Mon, 19th Oct 2009 2:58 pm
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R Walker on
Mon, 19th Oct 2009 5:32 pm
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Joeventures on
Mon, 19th Oct 2009 10:44 pm
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Alfredo Aponte on
Wed, 21st Oct 2009 9:39 am
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Jeanne Bonner on
Wed, 21st Oct 2009 9:51 am
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Anonymous on
Sun, 7th Feb 2010 4:55 pm
You asked “How do we move these ideas out of Pecha Kucha and into actual policy and decisionmaking in the city?”
Simple: reach out to the mayoral candidates and let them know about it. They’re pretty much all on Facebook, Twitter, etc. I know for a fact that Lisa Borders responds back to her messages.
Also, is there a way to see these Pecha Kucha presos online?
I think they will be posting the videos on the Pecha Kucha site and on Vimeo.
Here’s a link to their site:
I think this idea put forth by a few smart growthers that ‘Atlanta sucks’ is counter productive. Who wants to listen to ideas from someone that thinks Atlanta sucks? I’d love to improve some things like transit but this is a great city and a great place to live.
As citizens we shouldn’t be settling for transit projects like the Beltline that will take a generation to come to fruition. We should refuse to support it in its current form. Instead we are all lined up behind it as if it will be some kind of revelation when its here.
R Walker, Atlanta doesn’t suck and it’s good of you to take a firm stance on this.
I think the person meant, “The city isn’t everything we’d like — by a long shot — but wow, by contrast, the people who live here are really great!”
That said, anyone coming from a city such as London or Boston or, I guess, freakin’ Denver, needs to be prepared that this is a city that’s behind. It’s a city that does not have the same level of amenities or convenience as other cities. It’s a city that needs to spend money on basics like upgrading the sewers and doesn’t have any money for light rail or streetcars.
Now there are lots of reasons for this, and no one person is to blame. But I think the people who are all rah-rah-rah about Atlanta don’t push for enough change, and are not willing to admit, ‘Wow here is a problem, this is an area where we are lagging.”
People like to say Atlanta is sprawling in the same way people say New York is busy. Being sprawling is NOT good, and there are so many ways we pay the price.
Take the food truck idea from the Pecha Kucha. For whatever reason, the good ethnic food has been exiled to Buford Highway. I wouldn’t even consider most of BH in Atlanta, but if I want good ethnic food, that’s the best place to go. And that sucks because I don’t live anywhere near there and if I’m entertaining guests, I just don’t want to take them somewhere with a view of a parking lot.
I badly want these same improvements to the city but I don’t think its fair to compare Atlanta to London, New York, Boston, Chicago. Those are much older cities and some with physical and governmental constraints on growth and development that Atlanta has never had.
Now a comparison to Denver is fair. I don’t know where they came up with their money but I’m guessing it wasn’t all local tax dollars. Even so I’m sure people were willing to pony up some dough for a transit solution that they would actually get to enjoy. It shows you that it can be done if there is a will to do it. There is no way Denver is more dense than Atlanta. We need to address localized transit before we address regional transit. I live in midtown and rarely leave the midtown/vahi/morningside area. Our current transit doesn’t address this except for a smattering of infrequent bus service.
Walker — Denver’s money for their transit program came in through the FasTracks program. Htere’s a page that gives an overview of the financing: http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/main_33
The biggest momentum for the project came in when the entire region voted in favor of a region-wide tax to finance it. Local jurisdictions (counties & cities) also came in with additional funds from their general budgets.
The region-wide cooperation and State enablement that made Denver’s FasTracks possible are two elements that we have historically lacked here in Atlanta. As far as I’m concerned, all the infighting we have here — comparisons to other cities aside — is what really sucks so much.
Hello,
First, thanks for the write up for Atlanta Pecha Kucha. Atlanta Pecha Kucha is an informal forum for creative work that encompasses a range of disciplines, as long as they stay within a 20×20 framework: 20 slides running for 20 seconds each. In other words, each presenter has 400 seconds (6 minutes and 40 seconds) to tell their story.
Last Sunday was Volume 13 of Atlanta Pecha Kucha – and it was a special ATL-focused edition. We did an Atlanta: Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve type of night, hearing from local Atlanta citizens who are doing their own parts, in their own ways.
The presenters attended the event with “Open Letter(s) to the next mayor of Atlanta”. So, understandably there was a bit of drama, yet that should not be viewed as a bad thing either. Additionally, we sent invites to all the mayors and even got verbal confirmations. However, only one showed up for the evening and only one other sent an apology note for missing out due to unforeseen circumstances.
Finally, all the presenters will be available for viewing online as we convert their 20 into video format. You can find more at AtlantaPechaKucha.com and hopefully you will be able to attend our next volume in November. If you are interested in more information, ideas on presenting or to hear what is happening – please sign up to our newsletter too.
The organizers of Atlanta Pecha Kucha are Alfredo Aponte, Mark Cottle & Sabir Khan. We ensure that every Atlanta Pecha Kucha will be a rich mix of presenters and promise that you will never see more then one discipline twice. Our goal is to to cross all creative disciplines, and we hope it will spark interest in different disciplines too.
Thanks Alfredo! You gave a really great overview. I definitely want to attend the next session and I hope my post will inspire other Atlanta Unsheltered readers to go as well.
What’s the theme for next month?
I want to ask? What about the low income people? What about the homeless people? These are human beings that you, these Atlanta Corporate fools, and these sell out politicians do not care about! How can Atlanta be the best city in the world when it is trying very hard to get rid of the lower class? All you people care about is “YOUR OWN CLEAN PLACE TO LIVE.” So you can feel very arrogant and feel that you made it to the top of the world! I bet you people do not even care about the neglected cats and dogs in the city!
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