Downtown Atlanta Master Plan (Buckhead: rooftop, restaurants, bus)

[jsvh]

Yeah, people need to stop freaking out about this stuff. Cars will still exist downtown and you will still be able to get there by car if you want. All that is happening is things like making the area a better place to live, work, and shop is being given a higher priority than being an ideal place to drive.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by jsvh

A large market does not equal booming / fast growing one.

GM is a large car company.

Tesla is a fast growing car company.

Please re-read the quote of yours I posted, comprehend what you actually wrote, then try that again. If I still need to explain it to you, I will.

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

It's only 'useful' to the 95% because we've prioritized the car so much with next to no viable alternatives to the car. Getting more alternatives in place would also be useful, if not more so.

Only 8% of the core population lives within a mile of a rail (or high-capacity transit) station, and even fewer do within the metro as a whole.

Commuter buses and buses cover more, but there are still massive gaps, and generally unusful frequencies.

Is it any wonder why such a small percentage of our traffic uses transit if they can't even really get to it in the first place?

So, then can you explain why we need to add more people and more density before we can add transit, or do you also find that position baffling and ridiculous?

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Please re-read the quote of yours I posted, comprehend what you actually wrote, then try that again. If I still need to explain it to you, I will.

Yes Sam, please explain my quote to me. You apparently know what I am saying better than I do.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

So, then can you explain why we need to add more people and more density before we can add transit, or do you also find that position baffling and ridiculous?

Well, as I've advocated for in the past, I would like us to do both at the same time.

Baring that, mixed-use density allows people to manage life without, or at least with a minimum of, cars, and allows us to add population while minimizing impacts.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by primaltech

My ultimate goal for Downtown would be if you could look at a Google Maps satellite/ birds eye view of Downtown, and see zero parked cars at all, anywhere within the bounds of Downtown. That entire area.

The parking would still be there, but there would be no surface parking, and no standalone buildings for just parking only. Parking deck buildings would have human space built on top of them, hiding the levels of parking from a top down view.

Many of the parking garages are not capable of supporting the weight of residential housing. Instead the top levels should be converted to green roofs to absorb and clean stormwater runoff.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Yes Sam, please explain my quote to me. You apparently know what I am saying better than I do.

It was in response to an article talking about how NW Atlanta brought more than half of all new office space in the entire metro, to which you claimed it was the largest market, so of course it must have the most new space. If it brought more than half of the entire metro, then it would stand to reason that it is the fastest-growing. So let's look at the data again:

http://www.colliers.com/-/media/file...t.pdf?la=en-US

Downtown (transit-connected) barely absorbed any new square footage.
Midtown (transit-connected) did pretty well.
Buckhead (transit-connected) fared little better than downtown.
Perimeter (transit-connected) barely did anything.
Northeast Atlanta (somewhat transit-connected, depending on location) did nothing.
South Atlanta (only transit-connected in parts) did better than downtown or midtown.
Northwest Atlanta (no transit at all) absolutely crushed them all.

So, again...the area of the city which has done the most new office space by far is the area without any transit, and most of the transit-connected areas aren't really doing all that great. So, I'm just trying to figure out how the transit connected areas are the ones killing the others.

Originally Posted by cqholt

Many of the parking garages are not capable of supporting the weight of residential housing. Instead the top levels should be converted to green roofs to absorb and clean stormwater runoff.

I assume he meant that new construction would have parking under the residential area, and not so much new buildings being built on top of existing garages.

[jsvh]

Again, you are failing to account for size.


Data from your link:

NW has a total inventory of 36M SF. Midtown has 22M SF.

NW has a YTD absorption of 160K. Midtown has a YTD absorption of 210K.

NW has an absorption rate of 0.44%. Midtown has an absortion rate of 0.95%

NW is not the fastest growing sub market.

And even still, net absorption from one quarter for office is not the same as "growth".


You might claim a similar thing with population:

The city of Atlanta added 9,900 people last year. Cobb added 12,800.

Yet, Atlanta is still faster growing because it has a population 439,600 vs 750,300 in Cobb.

Giving Atlanta a faster growth rate of 2.26% vs 1.7% in Cobb.

Also keep in mind that Atlanta is 134 sq mi and Cobb is 345 sq mi.


Reality is, NW Atlanta is getting crushed by transit-connected areas in new developments and major relocations.

[cqholt]

The NW Atlanta market has a huge boundary.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Many of the parking garages are not capable of supporting the weight of residential housing. Instead the top levels should be converted to green roofs to absorb and clean stormwater runoff.

Agreed.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Many of the parking garages are not capable of supporting the weight of residential housing. Instead the top levels should be converted to green roofs to absorb and clean stormwater runoff.

I would be okay with this. More so even if the street level was converted, somehow, into commercial space.