I’m not sure. In fact, I’m going to be really bloggy and just post this photo of dirt moving and bulldozers and activity at the vacant Urban Gardener property on Boulevard near I-20, without being able to share any details.

UPDATE: See comments for details on new garden center slated for the spot.

I’m looking through council agendas right now, but I have to say, the city council appears to post a wealth of documents online without making the information easy to navigate.

Or, I’m a tool.

Anyway, it’s such an important property in Grant Park that I am thrilled to see any movement there at all.

I spoke with someone at the Urban Gardener when the shop moved to East Atlanta, and the woman said the drought did them in. It’s a large property, and as you may know, the Urban Gardener folks had fittingly outfitted it with a ton of flora and fauna.

Boulevard is such a key thoroughfare on the east side of the city, and yet design-wise, it blows. Like so many streets and intersections in Atlanta, it’s just allowed to be ugly, even though for the most part it has good sidewalks, and is a natural conduit between Grant Park, Cabbagetown and development on Memorial.

Also, the folks in charge of the prefab on Glenwood at the corner of Boulevard have been tidying up their property and there is a sign that says the property will be discussed at an urban design meeting this month.

Good, good please do something with the property. A make-shift parking lot for the beauty salon across the street doesn’t really cut it for me.

And last but not least, another restaurant will join Six Feet Under at the Jane on Memorial. See photo below!

Related posts:

1. Boulevard crosswalk, part two Wow, this blogging thing appears to work! District 1 Councilwoman...
2. Crosswalk on Boulevard I would like the city to add an official crosswalk...
3. Dobbins to discuss “Urban Design and People” Georgia Tech Professor Michael Dobbins will discuss his book...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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 the rest of this post on our new blog: My Green ATL.

Related posts:

1. Let’s walk over to the Plaza and catch a flick [caption id="attachment_3204" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Photo credit: Karla Jean Davis via...
2. Cityscape: Ponce [caption id="attachment_1159" align="alignleft" width="375" caption="Ponce, near Freedom Parkway"][/caption] One simple...
3. Now this is smart growth I love to walk up to the Sweet Auburn...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Possible candidate for Atlanta city council

Instead, I’m tipping my hat to Dave Williams of the Atlanta Business Chronicle for simply having the patience to wait out Atlanta City Council, and file a story last night at 7 p.m. on council approving funds to help Atlanta apply for federal stimulus funds to build a streetcar line.

Several city agencies are working with MARTA to prepare an application to compete for federal stimulus funds. Council gave the approval yesterday for the mayor to broker a deal with MARTA and other agencies with respect to the costs of preparing the application, which is due in September.

I wrote yesterday morning about City Council considering the request for streetcar application funds, and I went to the 1 p.m. City Council meeting yesterday afternoon to follow up on the issue.

Here’s a citizen’s report of what happened:

The meeting began at 1:22 p.m. Yes, the 1 p.m. meeting began at 1:22 p.m.

Council then presented what it calls “proclamations, commendations and other special awards” until about 2:05 p.m.

The proclamations included one for Inman Park Dine Out for Public Safety.

At this point, I had my first clue that I had bought a ticket for Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey.

The proclamation for Inman Park included samples from Jake’s Ice Cream. And by samples I mean, bowls of ice cream for the council members, brought out in individual servings for each councilperson.

A couple of minutes of oohing and ahhing over the ice cream ensued until finally a member of the audience yelled out, “I don’t have none!”

Uh, yeah, what he said.

Are you kiddin’ me? You’re using taxpayer resources (the building, the lights, the staff time) to indulge in ice cream while a crowd, who’s been waiting since 1 p.m. for an actual council meeting, looks on, noses pressed up against the glass?

At 2:07 p.m., public comment — thank God — started.

At 2:35, council begin to consider the items on the 66-page meeting agenda.

I only lasted until about 3:45, and in those 80 minutes, here’s what council discussed:

*An ordinance about judges, which mostly involved some councilmembers correcting another councilmember about what the ordinance really entailed

*An ordinance to boot cars of people who have three or more outstanding parking tickets

Council considered the ordinance on booting cars for at least 40 minutes. It’s hard to say what they were thinking.

I guess you could cite them for sensitivity to public relations, because most of the discussion hinged on how to notify 30,000 scofflaws that they have three outstanding parking tickets and the next one will get them the boot. By how, I mean, do they send notification via postcard? Do they send it first class mail? Would sending it via postcard violate privacy laws?

I know the council has to deal with nitty-gritty issues such as parking tickets. But it was breathtaking to see how much time they devoted to a matter so small as sensitively notifying lawbreakers that a real penalty is coming if they continue to violate the law.

I can only hope they spent that long talking about the stimulus funds application, which could lead to streetcars — a real development, a real change, a real chance for putting the city on a new path.

But I don’t know because I didn’t have five or more hours to devote to the meeting.

You know that phrase “When in Rome, do as the Romans”? I really try to follow that; when I was in Rome, I didn’t try to tell the Romans how to live.

And I would really like to hold my tongue, because it was my first council meeting, and I’ve only been back in Atlanta for a year.

Maybe this was an exception. But I doubt it.

At one point, I wrote a note to myself: “Do these people not have anything better to do with their time?”

Actually they do: many of the councilmembers could be seen throughout the meeting talking on their cellphones, conferring with aides, stepping out of council chambers altogether, while other councilmembers discussed legislation.

I’ve always considered local government as a crucial arbitrator of how we live. The people in local government decide what happens on my street, in my neighborhood, in my city — not Barack Obama.

I’m really at a loss for words.

Related posts:

1. Council to vote on streetcar grant application The list of items City Council will discuss today...
2. Streetcar announcement today — I hope! [caption id="attachment_3131" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Photo credit: kevinseanw via Flickr "][/caption]...
3. No go on the Peachtree Streetcar Ariel Hart of the AJC reports that Atlanta will not...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

District 1 Councilwoman Carla Smith called me this morning at 9 a.m. to follow up on my request for a crosswalk on Boulevard at I-20 in Grant Park.

She said that intersection is actually owned by the D.O.T., so it’s going to take more than a smile to obtain the crosswalk, but I would say we have officially started the process!

As I said yesterday, it would be helpful to install walk/don’t walk signs that provided a dedicated period of time for walkers to cross through the intersection. Right now, the walk/don’t walk signs at that intersection give you about three seconds to cross before they begin to flash, and cars are permitted in the intersection throughout that time.

Plus, there’s no sound — you know that beeping sound that tells drivers walkers are permitted through the crosswalk.

Walking south on Boulevard from Cabbagetown, one finds it very difficult to see if traffic is coming up the I-20 exit ramp.

Some may say this is an odd spot to walk. But first off, there’s a sidewalk — which tells me walking is permitted.

Secondly, if you live on the east side of Grant Park, it makes sense to walk to such destinations as Cabbagetown, Oakland Cemetery, Stone Soup Kitchen on Woodward, the buslines and businesses on Memorial, etc.

So the next step, believe it or not, is I have to draw a little map of the intersection. Ms. Smith said that expedites the request. And then I should give the councilwoman’s assistant a call, and we will go from there.

I will keep you posted on my progress!

Has anyone else successfully lobbied for streetscaping improvements in their neighborhoods? I would love to hear from you.

Related posts:

1. Crosswalk on Boulevard I would like the city to add an official crosswalk...
2. Boulevard crosswalk: the finale (for now) You may recall I was trying to use the...
3. Boulevard crosswalk — Part III Maybe this happens to you. You retrieve your voicemail messages...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Atlanta Councilwoman Anne Fauver

That leaves her 2005 opponent, Steve Brodie, as the only announced candidate for the seat. But candidates for this year’s city elections have to early September to qualify to run.

“I believe that eight years is about the right amount of time for public service in the same position,” Project Q quotes Fauver as saying in a letter. “That’s enough time to try out your fresh ideas, figure out how the system works, and expend all that wonderful energy for change that motivated you to run in the first place. After eight years you begin to be part of the system, and you find yourself with less energy to pursue better ideas and, frankly, with less faith in the ability of the system to be responsive to them.”

A common rap against Fauver was that she acted from the start a part of the system. She sided, for example, with Mayor Franklin and against most Neighborhood Planning Units in her district during her first term in the fight over the Piedmont Park parking deck. Propelled by anger over the parking deck and other issues, Brodie — who had virtually no prior civic involvement — lost to her by only five votes in the 2005 election.

Candidates may qualify for Atlanta’s municipal elections Aug. 31-Sept. 4. The election, which includes contests for City Council, Council president and mayor, is scheduled for Nov. 3.

Related posts:

1. Council District 6 and the Atlanta tree ordinance The last question at last night’s forum for the City...
2. NYT weighs in on Atlanta election again So it’s not only Il Corriere della Sera in Milan...
3. Council OKs streetcar app $, but I couldn’t wait [caption id="attachment_1471" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Possible candidate for Atlanta city council"][/caption]One...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A state ethics investigation is trying to find out whether Lisa Borders, president of the Atlanta City Council and one of the leading candidates in this year’s Atlanta mayor’s race, lobbied state legislators on behalf of her employer without registering as a lobbyist.

A complaint filed with the State Ethics Commission alleges that Borders, then a vice president of Cousins Properties, lobbied in 2007 for passage of the Georgia Smart Infrastructure Finance Act, commonly known as the “private-cities” bill.

Rest of story here.

Related posts:

1. Terminal Station blogger to vote for Borders There are some great local blogs here in Atlanta and...
2. Business group ranks Borders & Reed highly Lisa Borders scored 95 and Kasim Reed 93  in the...
3. Beltline mayoral forum: Which candidate scored? One nice thing about a mayoral debate in a city...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.