"Sustainability" in Metro Atlanta equals Transit, Parks, Housing, and Walkable Centers (Decatur: low income, foreclosure)

[aries4118]

‘Sustainability’ in metro Atlanta equals transit, parks, housing and walkable centers | SaportaReport

[ATLTJL]

There's lots of good food for thought here, but also plenty of BS. For example:

1. Build transit – lots of it: People are flocking to cities and metro regions across the world in search of jobs and opportunity. It is the way this country will grow and Atlanta can be part of it, but not with a 1950s style transportation system and strategy built around freeways and long commutes. The Transportation Investment Act referendum vote scheduled for July 31 will be a milestone in shaping our region’s history, with an opportunity to generate over $3 billion in new funding to build and maintain transit in region. Such an opportunity won’t come around again for some time.

Most people will agree that Atlanta needs better transit, but I would hardly call our system "1950s." That would imply that we have long commutes and absolutely no public transit, when the fact is we have a lot of miles of heavy rail and a fairly complex bus network. Besides, this is not as easy as it sounds. You can't just will to build transit and have it happen, there are so many issues to address and debate at every turn. Other cities have better transit, but none that are as spread out as Atlanta. It's a unique problem and there's no real precedent for addressing it. And the bigger question is how do we build a system that in 2060 won't seem "so 2012."

2. Create more parks and greenspace: Atlanta is one of the most under-parked major cities in the nation according to the annual scorecard compiled by the Trust for Public Land. In New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and many other region, local leaders have focused on creating or expanding greenspace in various forms (Millenial Park in Chicago, the High Line in New York City) as a way not just to improve quality of life but to generate new economic activity. What is most interesting and exciting is that this movement involves not just creating new major urban-style public parks, such as those proposed along the Beltline, but smaller sized greenspaces such as by transforming “dead” concrete playgrounds into active neighborhood parks and creating other kinds of new public spaces.

Well, this is a load of garbage. I guess the author never heard of Inman Park, Candler Park, Grant Park....neighborhoods that have the word "PARK" in their names because they are built around PARKS. The truth that nobody wants to address is before Atlanta can worry about building new parks, it first needs to secure the parks it already has. That's difficult to do when the city won't deal with homeles groups that insist upon feeding homeless people in the middle of Woodruff Park and making sure it remains a place that most people who contribute to the economy wouldn't be caught dead. Is this supposed to be a "build it and they will come" idea? You can build it, but you have to make sure the right people come, or else you're just building tomorrow's beautiful slum.

3. Rebuild our housing/revitalize our neighborhoods: The current five year economic downturn has particularly devastated Atlanta’s housing sector and many of its neighborhoods, particularly lower-income and working-class communities. Atlanta can only be truly revitalized when a comprehensive and well funded local/state/private effort can be mounted to aggressively attack the foreclosure and vacancy cancer and provide opportunities for new development. The sustainability agenda needs to be inclusive, and address social equity issues to be truly successful.

Blah, blah, blah, just another talking point. How is government supposed to address foreclosure and vacancy? Force banks to accept deadbeat borrowers who do not pay? Force landlords to lower rents so that they can fill their vacancies with tenants? And what is a social equity issue? Hmmm, if you ask some of the tenants of the condo buildings where a certain number of units were reserved for low income buyers how that whole strategy is working out for them, you'd probably get a pretty different opinion on social equity. Why don't we just have the city build Communist block style housing and assign units to people?

4. Create more and better examples of sustainable living: The author and urban planner, Chris Leinberger, notes that Atlanta has at most four “livable, walkable” neighborhoods or communities, compared to dozens in Seattle, Denver, Washington, D.C., and many other regions. Changing the tapestry of urban life is a complex process that generally takes years, and involves thousands of private investment decisions, not just public dollars. But we need to look to build on our current successes in places like Decatur, Midtown, and Virginia-Highlands, as well as suburban town centers like Woodstock and Suwannee, make them even better, and help other communities move in the same direction.

I stopped reading when the article pointed out that we had at most 4 walkable neighborhoods and then talks about 5 success stories that we should try to emulate. I don't know what the criteria are, but he conveniently left out Perimeter center, Atlantic Station, the Peachtree corridor of Buckhead.....

I'm really surprised by this column because the Trust for Public Land is a genuinely good organization. It sounds, though, like they would be best suited for sticking to their individual vision and let city planners and voters handle the larger issues.

[cqholt]

Atlanta is one of the most under-parked major cities in the nation

This must be reference to the metro area. I know in Kirkwood alone, there are 5 parks within a neighborhood of 2 square miles. There is need for public park space in the suburbs and inner-ring suburbs, but the older in-town neighborhoods, they where built with public space in mind.

[ericsonga]

Originally Posted by cqholt

This must be reference to the metro area. I know in Kirkwood alone, there are 5 parks within a neighborhood of 2 square miles. There is need for public park space in the suburbs and inner-ring suburbs, but the older in-town neighborhoods, they where built with public space in mind.

Let's not go crazy. Some of the suburbs are very well represented in parkland. Gwinnett County has over 10,000 acres of active and passive parks and was named the #1 park system in the country a couple years ago.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Well, this is a load of garbage. I guess the author never heard of Inman Park, Candler Park, Grant Park....neighborhoods that have the word "PARK" in their names because they are built around PARKS. The truth that nobody wants to address is before Atlanta can worry about building new parks, it first needs to secure the parks it already has. That's difficult to do when the city won't deal with homeles groups that insist upon feeding homeless people in the middle of Woodruff Park and making sure it remains a place that most people who contribute to the economy wouldn't be caught dead. Is this supposed to be a "build it and they will come" idea? You can build it, but you have to make sure the right people come, or else you're just building tomorrow's beautiful slum.


.

Well that's just silly. Woodruff Park is the only park you mentioned where you'll find any significant number of bums, yet you seem to be saying that Atlanta's park system is overrun with bums. That's not even close to a true statement.

Cabbagetown Park is a new park, and there aren't any bums there. Proof that the city can build new parks and the right people will come.

[ATLTJL]

Haven't been to Cabbagetown Park, but let me ask you....would you feel safe walking around there at 2am on a Tuesday?

You might say that you can't expect that in any park, but I used to hang out in Lenox Park at all hours of the night, all kinds of crazy nights. Never a single issue, never even the threat of an issue.

Even Piedmont Park will occasionally have people sleeping in the ladder for the slides at the playgrounds at night.

[nyte3k]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Well, this is a load of garbage. I guess the author never heard of Inman Park, Candler Park, Grant Park....neighborhoods that have the word "PARK" in their names because they are built around PARKS. The truth that nobody wants to address is before Atlanta can worry about building new parks, it first needs to secure the parks it already has. That's difficult to do when the city won't deal with homeles groups that insist upon feeding homeless people in the middle of Woodruff Park and making sure it remains a place that most people who contribute to the economy wouldn't be caught dead. Is this supposed to be a "build it and they will come" idea? You can build it, but you have to make sure the right people come, or else you're just building tomorrow's beautiful slum.

It doesn't matter if YOU think there are plenty of parks in Atlanta just because it sounds like we have a lot of parks, the studies have already proven this. There is no point of arguing this point.

And securing a park from homeless? That would be crazy. A park is a public space and some parks may or may not have homeless people there. That's what happens when you live in a city. And I would say the real reason people don't hang out in Woodruff Park is simply because no one lives in downtown Atlanta, that area isn't the greatest part of town which is no fault of the park itself, and there isn't much green space in that particular park for too many people to hang out in.

I think there is no problem with creating more parks. I'd much rather see an empty park than a new Walgreens or $3 Car Wash.

[nyte3k]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Haven't been to Cabbagetown Park, but let me ask you....would you feel safe walking around there at 2am on a Tuesday?

You might say that you can't expect that in any park, but I used to hang out in Lenox Park at all hours of the night, all kinds of crazy nights. Never a single issue, never even the threat of an issue.

Even Piedmont Park will occasionally have people sleeping in the ladder for the slides at the playgrounds at night.

You don't really offer a solution though. It may feel unsafe to walk in some parks at 2am, but what is the alternative? Walking down a street or parking lot at 2am?

[JPD]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Haven't been to Cabbagetown Park, but let me ask you....would you feel safe walking around there at 2am on a Tuesday?

Now that's even sillier. Parks are closed at that hour. Parks are intended to be used during daytime and evening hours, not the middle of the night. I would feel uneasy walking anywhere at 2 am, and that has nothing at all to do with Atlanta's park system.

[pria114]

I think a lot of us are oblivious to how Atlanta truly measures against other cities on sustainability.

Our transit, parks, etc. are no where on par with world class cities, even a lot of second tier cities beat us. The numbers...

Plastic bag ban - 13 California cities including suburban cities (Plastic Bags: Local Ordinances | Californians Against Waste), Portland, Coastal North Carolina, Seattle, South Hampton, NY, Los Angeles: proposed....Atlanta NOT EVEN A SUGGESTION.

Public curbside residential composting - San Francisco (mandatory), Portland, San Jose, Seattle, Hutchinson, Minnesota, Rapid City, S.D, Atlanta...NOPE

Population that takes public transit - NY, NY: 50%, Washington, DC: 17%, Portland: 25%, San Francisco: 30%......Atlanta: 4.7%

Most Walkable Cities (in order) - #1 - NY, NY, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle...#20 - Atlanta

Bike Trails/Paths - Austin: 50 miles, Eugene, OR: 150 miles, Portland: 200 miles, San Jose 253 miles ( 400 mi. by 2022)......Atlanta: 30....(226 mi. by 2020 - mostly from the Beltline)

Parks ( ACRES OF PARKLAND AS PERCENTAGE OF CITY AREA ) - NY, NY: 19.5%, Washington, DC: 19%, San Francisco:18%, Jersey City, New Jersey: 17.3%, Boston: 15.8%....Atlanta: 4.6%

To summarize, Atlanta is not even a "sustainability" contender. Let's not pretend.