It didn't take long for the comments on CityNerd's new video about Atlanta to get taken over by Beltline transit arguments 😂

Take a gander at the video. It's always cool to see the city from the eyes of a thoughtful visitor!

Development of Atlanta's Gulch is very exciting but one thing I hope we're being mindful of in the process: this spot is part of the watershed for Proctor Creek. I don't think that gets enough attention.

Stormwater runoff sends pollution from petroleum residue (all parking lots have that) into the creek, complicating longstanding efforts to clean up the water. This has undoubtedly been a problem in the past given the amount of asphalt that has existed in and around the Gulch for decades.

According to the Proctor Creek Watershed Improvement plan from the Atlanta Regional Commission, parking facilities and paved roads contribute "a large amount of runoff to the Proctor Creek impaired stream segment. Anything deposited on these impervious surfaces may enter the creek via the stormwater system."

A stormwater plan is likely required for the Gulch development as it is for all big construction projects. I'd love to see more than the base requirements filled here, though. Go 110 percent and make this a particularly excellent example of sustainable growth.

BTW if you haven't visited the Proctor Creek Greenway near Bank head MARTA Station yet (second image), I highly recommend doing so. It's lovely.

Coming out of North Avenue MARTA Station, I always enjoy looking at the Norfolk Southern offices and recalling that this used to be nothing but a parking lot (second image).

It was disheartening to walk past that expanse of asphalt, especially next to a train station. This feels nicer from a pedestrian's perspective.

Transit votes fail in Cobb & Gwinnett and I'm weary

Darin Givens | Nov 6, 2024

Voters in Cobb and Gwinnett Counties both rejected chances to boost funding for transit in this election. What the fudge, people?

The hope was that voters would be more likely to support these measure than previous ones because this time they weren't about joining MARTA.

Seems like they might as well have made them MARTA votes after all.

The transit-tax referendums would have supported new bus lines and rapid transit systems. Only 38% of votes in Cobb supported theirs; though it was at least closer in Gwinnett, with 47% in support of theirs.

And in case you needed another reminder that "shared identity doesn't necessarily equal shared goals" -- Cobb and Gwinnett both voted blue in this election. They just didn't feel like going all the way and supporting transit.

So the struggle bus continues to struggle, and of course it's the most vulnerable among us who suffer when transit options are weak. I had hoped things were changing for the better with support for transit ridership in the core counties. Maybe they are in a very slow way, but slow acknowledgement of the needs for sustainable, equitable mobility isn't good enough in 2024.

What action can we take? For now, support the *heck* (pardon my language) out of proposals to add affordable housing near existing transit lines, especially ones with good pedestrian infrastructure. Market-rate housing is needed in these spots too and we shouldn't block those, but obviously affordable units are the biggest need. Dense up.

And support the ever-loving *shizzle* out of any proposal to improve existing transit conditions so that riding buses (and trains) is an obviously awesome option.

What else?

Transportation planning tends to over-emphasize the speed & flow of cars while giving crumbs to the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, & transit riders. It's crucial to get a better transportation balance within the existing design of urban streets through redesigns. BUT...

Don't forget to demand better land use as well.

When much of our urbanized space is designed at a scale for cars it's too easy to criticize progressive street redesigns as pie-in-the-sky ideals that "punish" people who live and/or work in these spots. We need to make it so that those criticisms are less easy.

In the short term we should absolutely do what we can to redesign streets for bike/ped safety and transit efficiency. But in the long term, it's essential to retrofit pedestrian-oriented spaces into cities and suburbs for the sake of ensuring comprehensive, equitable access to safer streets in and to mobility options.

Happy Halloween! 👻

Source:

https://x.com/heflinhollis/status/1851977670638108813?t=uIbHrLWRd3KrjqSt3Qc1WQ&s=19

In 2017, the owner of the Medical Arts Building in Downtown (GBX is their name though the specific owner in tax records in an LLC) got a $3 million grant from Invest Atlanta to help prepare the long-vacant building for conversion to offices. It didn't happen.

Then in 2019 the plan changed to a hotel (see rendering in the second image). It also didn't happen.

They tried to sell it in 2022 but it looks like they weren't able to, judging from property tax records. I assume they're hanging on to the building for now in expectation of a property-value windfall after The Stitch gets built across the street.

And though it's offensive to me that we have to put up with eyesores like this on Peachtree Street until a massively expensive investment in freeway capping comes along, it will be somewhat fitting: I've read that the reason the building emptied out decades ago was that construction for widening I-75/85 blocked access to it and all the tenants left.

The building opened in 1927, long before the interstate highways existed. It's protected from demolition because the facade is owned by the non-profit Easements Atlanta, which I love -- we need to protect these treasures, though we also need to prevent them from being disused and unmaintained.

The parking apocalypse of Peachtree Center Avenue

Darin Givens | Oct 23, 2024

Such a bizarre sight. From the sidewalk on Peachtree Center Avenue in Downtown Atlanta, you can only catch a glimpse of the apartment building constructed a few years ago atop an existing parking deck (new floors of parking were added as well).

I don't mean to slam the apartments -- I appreciate the new residential construction and I'm sure the views are impressive.

But as you can see, they don't add much to the street vibrancy. The problem stretches beyond this one property though -- this stretch of street is marred by gobs of parking, including the two decks pictured in the second and third images that are neighbors to the first one.

I'm posting this for two reasons:

1.) I don't want anyone to wrongly think that this addition of new apartments was an urbanism failure because it hasn't added vibrancy to the area -- obviously, this is an extremely troubled spot in terms of its land-use and it will take much more than a single residential building on top of a giant parking to address it.

Perhaps retrofitting some additional retail into the bottom of decks? And no, I don't agree with anyone who argues that it's OK to have a few streets that are trashed by dead spaces as long as others nearby are not. It's not OK, particularly in transit-rich Downtown.

2.) What psychological effect does walking (or even driving) here have on people? After my visit yesterday I felt kinda awful about the city for a while. Clearly I'm especially sensitive to the built environment, but I can't imagine anyone walking away from this place while feeling great about the city.

I took this photo over six years ago and nothing has changed in that time. It looks the same.

You're seeing a man run across an un-signalized pedestrian crossing on Piedmont Avenue, near North Avenue, to get to Publix. He's running because a small cluster of cars is barreling toward him (out of frame behind me) with no sign of slowing down.

I took out my camera in expectation of this scene because I'd just had the same experience while walking here.

The design of this section of Piedmont sends a psychological signal to drivers: "this looks like an interestate highway or a race track, so drive fast and don't bother looking for pedestrians."

This is a city-owned street with apartments all around. We're not just failing to give alternative transportation options a chance with this design. We're failing to be basically sympathetic to people who aren't in a car. And we're doing it year after year.

Atlanta has made many strides over the past few years with street design. They're well worth celebrating. But we shouldn't stop being shaken by the lingering danger that affects people in the problem spots.

Something that's also happened over the past six years: a health emergency left me with permanent neurological damage that affects my mobility. Now I see a scene like this and I'm forced to imagine what it will be like for me to slowly pass through with a cane. I want the city to look out for all of us, but I can't help but feel particularly protective of everyone who's incapable of running from the danger.

Darin Givens | Oct 22, 2024

Could a shared street have made Downtown Atlanta more resilient? I think so.

by Darin Givens | Oct 15, 2024

Empty storefronts and nearly-empty office towers plague Peachtree Street in Downtown Atlanta today. The ones pictured below are in the Peachtree Center area south of Baker Street.

There are various reasons for this sad situation. But one possible culprit I'd like to address is the street design: It looks like Richard Bowers' success from a few years ago with pressuring Mayor Dickens to kill the Peachtree Shared Street project hasn't done anything to add life and success to the street.

Maybe car sewers and downtowns don't mix well?

In case you're unfamiliar, Atlanta's planning department had a project a few years ago to create a shared street on a section of Peachtree in Downtown. Here's the vision for it, as a conceptual rendering.

It was based on designs seen in places like New Road in Brighton, UK. Cars would be allowed but heavily de-centered.

After a year of building out an initial first phase of the redesign for Peachtree, a powerful property owner named Richard Bowers, who wanted to maintain the car-focused design, threatened legal action against the city. Mayor Dickens caved and pulled the plug.

Now we have this instead:

You can't help but wonder what this section of Peachtree might look like today if the Shared Street design had been allowed to move forward. Could it have offered some level of resiliency amid the nationwide trend of emptying office buildings?

I believe it could have. Various studies have found that pedestrian and bike infrastructure can have positive effects on local economies. A shared street seems likely to have similar results.

It's not too late, by the way. We could bring it back. The project plan is still available to view:

https://www.atlcitystudio.org/peachtree-street

Thanks much to Instagram user slowlydistancing for sending me these pics of new bollards on the 5th Street bike lanes in Midtown!

Very cool. Years worth of studies have shown that protected bike lanes get more people to choose cycling. Bit by bit, we're building a network of these.