New Urban Roswell

Entries in MARTA (4)

Sunday

Apr112010

New Urban Roswell Update

Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 02:17PM

We've got a few news items of note this week from Roswell, around town and even outside the country.

Roswell

One large item to report here in Roswell from earlier this month is the groundbreaking of the midtown streetscape improvement project. We haven't seen anything of note just yet but we can't wait to see the finished product in a year or so.

Milton County: Not This Year - NorthFulton.com - Personally, I'm not in favor of seceding from Fulton county. I just don't personally feel that it's necessary. I actually feel that if anything, there should be more county consolidation in the metro area. The paying more tax for fewer benefits just doesn't resonate with me. How many states should cut ties with the federal government under that argument.

Metro

We were happy to see some progress on the Beltline this week.

Second Portion of Beltline Complete - wsbradio.com - Another segment of the Beltline trail opened this weekend. From what we can tell, it looks very professional and it should be a symbol to people that the Beltline will actually happen.

Dunwoody Envisions Significant Mixed Use Development - Champion Newspaper - This is more of a 20 year vision but it is promising nonetheless.

MARTA Faces Drastic Cuts - Creative Loafing - Can someone please do something about this? It's not looking good for a transportation bill under the gold dome for the third consecutive year. I think we can all agree that cutting MARTA train and bus service on Fridays would be bad for the local economy and bad for everyone's car commutes.

Beyond

Mindspring Founder Takes New Urbanist Movement to Costa Rica - InsideCostaRica.com - Charles Brewer is nothing short of bold. His development in south Atlanta, Glenwood Park, has won national acclaim and is truly a great accomplishment. If you haven't seen it, you should take an opportunity to drive down and grab a bite to eat and walk through the neighborhood.

Upcoming Events

Alive After Five- 4.15 - This year's Alive After Five season kicks off on tax day.

Good Urbanism 101 - 4.15 - 5.4 - This is an educational event sponsored by the Georgia Conservancy. There are six classes on quality urban design. The course costs $200.

Dogwood Festival - 4.16 - 4.18 - The annual Dogwood Festival will be held in Piedmont Park. This one is always a safe bet for a good time and you can appreciate Atlanta's largest park.

Inman Park Festival - 4.24 - 4.25 - The Inman Park Festival is Atlanta's largest festival. We love this festival for many reasons but the fact that it is in the beautiful walkable neighborhood of Inman Park is probably the number one reason. Inman Park is one of the few neighborhoods in Atlanta that exhibits many of New Urbanist characteristics. Be sure to take MARTA if you go.

Congress for the New Urbanism - 5.19 - 5.22 - The most influential minds in the new urbanist movement will be here in Atlanta for the 18th congress. The theme this year is Rx for Healthy Places and is a joint effort with the CDC.

Go Wild in Roswell - 5.20 - 6.6 - This is a citywide celebration of nature that will feature different events on different days. Check out the link for details.

Atlanta Streets Alive - 5.23 - This one is still a little while away but it is a really interesting concept.

Michael D Hadden |

Peach Bites

Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 11:57AM

We haven't posted a Peach Bites column in a while so we have built up quite a backlog. There has been a lot of buzz about water and transit over the past month and we've tried to capture the highlights in today's post.

Georgia to Appeal Water Ruling - Who didn't see this one coming? We'll see what happens but one thing I know for sure, the federal government will not cut millions of people off from their water source. Well, I'm not 100% sure about that but politicans want votes and thirsty people don't vote for the politicians who let them go thirsty... - GPB

New Reservoir Proposed for North Georgia - I don't know what to think of this one. On one hand, I say it may be a good idea since it will set aside 8,000 acres of the 10,000 acres of wilderness that the city owns in the Dawson Forest. However, the other tells me that $650 million to build a dam that will disrupt natural habitat is insane when we haven't exhausted our water conservation efforts. Atlanta Business Chronicle

Clayton County Among Nation's Most 'Water Wise' Counties - American Rivers recently named Clayton County one of the nation's most "water wise" communities. The wetland filtration system that Clayton County created years ago is integral to its ranking. While keeping wetlands in tact, Clayton County was able to maintain a 230 day drinking water supply at the height of the drought while Lake Lanier was as low as 90 days. This is a win for the environment and for the people of Clayton county. - Atlanta Business Chronicle

Half a Penny for Metro Transportation Just Not Worth the Trouble - If you've ever been in sales (or politics), you learn quickly that compromise rarely means mean win-win. Moving from a penny sales tax to a half-penny sales tax increase is a compromise that panders to political pressure and doesn't follow logic or the spirit of the tax. It's boring stuff but worth a read if you are interested in the future (or lack thereof) of transit in Georgia. - Saporta Report

MARTA Could Run the Beltline - Sure... Let's see if MARTA can run MARTA first... I have my thoughts on MARTA and it's future but that's not for a Peach Bite comment. I'm sure it's inevitable and it would make for the most seamless transit experience but MARTA just has so many issues. There is a better way and I'll touch on that in a later post. - AJC

Atlanta Streetcar Makes Pitch for Public Funding - I'm a huge proponent of the Peachtree Streetcar. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that the only reason other people are excited about it is because it is really the only 'shovel ready' transit project in Atlanta that affords us the opportunity to get some government cheese. If we do build it, my prediction is that it will be wildly successful. Expect to hear something from the Feds by Feb 2010. - Saporta Report

Atlanta-Chattanooga MagLev Rail Gets Dose of Cash - This could be one of the first steps taken in the south to connect the region with a 21st century transit system. The Federal Transit Administration is providing $14.2 million to pay for environmental and engineering studies on a MagLev train that could connect the two cities. Imagine zipping to Chattanooga in 30 minutes. This would be good for business, recreation and image. - AJC

MagLev Train Shuttle to Braves Stadium? - Okay... Do I really think we need this?? NO. But, it would be crazy cool. Stepping back to reality though, let's take that money and move it to the Beltline. Or just build a regular train service. MagLev is totally unnecessary for this type of shuttle system. Let's focus on the Atlanta-Chattanooga MagLev. - Atlanta Unsheltered

Beltline Names New CEO - Brian Leary, vice president of Atlantic Station, was recently named the new CEO of Atlanta Beltline Inc. This looks to be a good move. With this though, I am predicting a change of the northwestern path of the Beltline to now cut through Atlantic Station instead of going to the north and west of it. We shall see.. - Creative Loafing

Beltline's Feasibility Rides to Forefront - The worrisome thing about the Beltline is that the financial plan around securing funding is primarily based on increasing property tax revenues. The plan was devised prior to the real estate market crash back in 2005 and hasn't been changed. Finding $1.7 billion from property tax revenues might prove impossible in the new environment. Personally, I believe that the project is integral to the city and the 'leadership' will find a way to make it happen regardless. - AJC

Metro Atlanta Needs a Metro Solution to Transportation - Jay Bookman gives some very interesting insight on the history of transportation planning in the state and the current and future needs. A really notable fact is that the state of Georgia ranks 49th in per capita dollars spent on transportation. The other was that metro Atlanta accounts for ~28% of transportation spending. I wanted to see if that was proportionate to the population and found that it is significantly below. Approximately 60% of the residents of GA live in the metro area. We need to let to politicians know that change is needed. - Jay Bookman (AJC)

MARTA Wins Solar Energy Grant - Marta is planning to use $10.8 million in federal grants to put solar panels on top of bus canopies. The panels will be installed at the Laredo Bus Maintenance Facility in Decatur. This will be the largest PV system in GA. - Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta Bests San Francisco for Green Building - For some reason, Atlanta doesn't seem to get the respect it deserves in this area. We're good but we could be better. Right now, we're 5th in the nation in LEED certified buildings at 53. Chicago has 88, Portland has 73, Seattle has 63 and DC has 57. San Fran is right behind us at 50. - San Francisco Chronicle via Chicago Tribune

Lovett's New Green Middle School - The unfortunate thing is that most Atlantans can't afford to send their kids to Lovett. But, the school's commitment to sustainability and environmental issues is something to be commended. The new facility is seeking LEED Gold certification and has a green roof and rainwater harvesting system among other features. - WSBTV

Going Green Pays Off - Man, I hate the phrase "going green." What does it mean? It seems to me that it's up to anyone's interpretation. Am I 'going green' because I use CFLs or bring reusable shopping bags to Whole Foods for my groceries?? Well, that's not the point of the article. The exciting thing that I took from this article is that the Westin downtown will finally be replacing the windows lost during the tornado. And... those windows will be thicker, darker and better insulating. There are a few other buildings that are highlighted like 1180 Peachtree and the Emory University Conference Center Hotel. - AJC

Don Wells Named Atlanta's 2009 Cox Conserves Hero - Mountain Stewards, Wells' non profit organization, will receive a $5,000 donation from Cox Enterprises. - Trust for Public Land

Recycling Pick-Up Back On in the City of Atlanta - How exciting! Recycling! Wow! How are other cities going to compete with us now that we have recycling again? We are truly 'going green' here in Atlanta. - The Buckhead Blog

Stay tuned for next week's installment of Peach Bites. Feel free to send me any articles or stories that you come across at michaeldhadden@gmail.com

Michael D Hadden |

MARTA Was a Pioneer.. Was...

Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 12:57PM

This is a very depressing little video from Citizens for Progressive Transit. What it tells me is that Atlanta has been passed by simply by letting the status quo rule the political scene. For too long now, there has been an atmosphere of complacency. Unfortunately, we are now seeing what complacency leads to. It is still unbelievable to me that Cobb and Gwinnett county have never become part of MARTA. Now, we have Oxendine talking about building a parallel connector. When will the politicians understand that building more roads is a 20th century solution to our transportation woes??

Michael D Hadden |

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Thursday

May142009

Revolutionizing Transit in Atlanta - Wouldn't That be Nice

Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 09:59PM

image courtesy of Citizens for Progressive Transit

We stumbled upon the website for Citizens for Progressive Transit (www.cfpt.org) the other day and their ideas definitely piqued our interest. They are a grassroots organization that is committed to bringing improvments to public transit in our region by working with MARTA and our regional leaders. There isn't much substance to the website yet but we really found their transit map very interesting. It takes the current north/south, east/west MARTA lines and completely revolutionizes them. Obviously, it is a pie in the sky type vision given that we can't even get movement around how to use existing funds for our transit needs. However, it is nice to see a vision. The Beltline was once just a vision too and today we see a great amount of progress on that project.

Take a few minutes of your time and just imagine how a revolutionary transit system would change the face of the city.

Michael D Hadden |