The Future of a Car Reliant City

I grew up in suburban Florida where mass transportation and a walkable community were outlandish topics so Atlanta, comparatively, is a transportation mecca. Not to say that Atlanta doesn’t have work to do. Like many other cities, Atlanta is faced with setbacks that are up to the city leaders to address. After the initial implosion of TSPLOST the dreams of Atlanta becoming a city that doesn’t depend as much on their cars seemed doomed. A year and a half later, there’s been a lot of rumblings around town lately about Atlanta’s transportation “issue” and ways the City is trying approach it and prove that it – in certain areas – is an alternative commute-friendly place. Below are some examples of how Atlanta is trying to incorporate new and old ideas into its transportation infrastructure.

I’m sure everyone is well aware of Atlanta’s traffic woes but significant strides are being taken to offer other options to residents. Progress has been most noticeably evident over the past couple years in areas like Midtown and parts of Downtown. To solidify that statement, the City of Atlanta was recently awarded a bronze level “Walk-Friendly” honor. The “gold level” wasn’t achieved but at least it means the City is making progress and hopefully will continue to work on its walkable options. With more walkability comes positive attributes like less car reliance, healthier communities, supporting local business, more green space, etc. Supporting efforts include the newly paved bike paths around Atlanta and, of course, the always popular and one of my personal favorites – the Beltline.

Another effort to help with transportation that has been getting a ton of press is the streetcar that’s currently being built downtown. Atlanta is looking to its past for inspiration and currently constructing a 2.6 mile path from Downtown to the Martin Luther King Jr. historic district, which is located about a mile away. The streetcar will be the first modern line in Atlanta and hopes to reach North Atlanta in the coming years. The “past” is referenced here because back in the day – before cars – Atlanta was reliant on streetcars as the main source of transportation. Now – due to congestion issues and lack of transportation options downtown – the City has decided to bring back the streetcars to provide a more efficient system and hopefully put an ease to traffic.

Atlanta Streets Alive! is another program that the City is backing – allowing people to get out and just be social. The streets are closed for four hours in a participating neighborhood and the whole objective is to encourage people to take part in outdoor fun by walking or biking. According to the Streets Alive! website the three goals they strive for are to celebrate neighborhoods, expose attendees to outdoor fun, and to encourage people to take the streets by foot or bike.

While Atlanta still has to overcome a lot of obstacles to truly become a walkable city with a plethora of transportation options, progress is happening. It might not be as swift as many may like but as the old saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

With Neighborhood Stabilization, There is No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

By Alexia Alvey, Operations Manager.

As we all know, one of the main factors that led to the Great Recession was the housing crisis that affected communities throughout the nation. An incredible number of houses went into foreclosure, and many of them were left abandoned for long stretches of time with no maintenance or upkeep. Even as parts of the country continue to recover from the recession, numerous neighborhoods remain in distress, hampered by large numbers of homes in disrepair. To address this issue, housing groups in the metro Atlanta area are attempting to purchase and renovate 7,500 homes to help hard hit neighborhoods.  The Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership and Resources for Residents and Communities are focusing on new revitalization efforts to build communities up along with neighborhood associations to fix what has happened in neighborhoods the past couple of years.

As someone who has been renovating a home in a transitional neighborhood in Atlanta for nearly the past two years, this concept immediately appealed to me. I then thought of other areas that were hit harder like Florida, Nevada, and Michigan, where headlines about property values seemed more like bad jokes than real news.  In these areas, different solutions are being deployed. Michigan recently kicked off a $100 million anti-blight effort to demolish abandoned homes to give the neighborhoods more of an appealing quality.  Some 7,000 homes in five cities will be demolished as a part of this effort. When I read this news, my inner-preservationist said, “Instead of spending federal grant money to tear things down, where are all the flippers and developers?”

But I quickly came back to reality. I live in a city that seems to have an abundance of developers, flippers, and “regular Joes” that want to invest in the area. But for places with limited future potential and market demand, what can be done?  Is it simply up to the remaining residents to maintain their own properties? If outsiders swoop in and purchase a really cheap house and fix it up will that encourage more businesses and people to come? Certainly, in many of these distressed areas, the problems go much deeper than empty houses to include things like pervasive poverty, failing schools, and ineffective leadership. In these cases, demolishing structures that are too far gone to save economically may be the only realistic first step on the road to revitalization.

Even in states such as Michigan, California, Nevada, Florida, and Arizona, forecasts seem to indicate that housing market stability will increase in the future.  But though there’s talk of stability and growth, there are still many houses that are going into disrepair because they stand empty. Communities all across the country are best-served by facing these issues head on, regardless of which solution works best for their specific situation.

Public Art Makes Places Better

By Alexia Alvey, Operations Manager.

When people think about public art, they often think big, recalling larger-scale works like Cloud Gate in Chicago or other large sculptures in major cities. But this is not always the case – public art can also include anything from lighting an underpass to activating underutilized spaces and buildings.  Based on what I’ve experienced, I feel like there’s an ever growing appreciation for public art around communities.  This is especially true in Atlanta, where there is an ever-growing list of initiatives that both engage the community and give back to it using public art.

One example is Living Walls, an Atlanta organization that uses local artists to paint and decorate primarily older, unkempt buildings around the city.  According to their Facebook page, they “bring together street artists, academics, and the public at large to activate and engage communities.”   A lot of the art through Living Walls is concentrated in the Downtown/Old Fourth Ward area of Atlanta (see my previous post about my neighborhood here) which is where I took notice.  The buildings are not necessarily dilapidated, but when you take an otherwise plain, older building and add something interesting to it, it makes the building aesthetically more pleasing and also makes the surrounding area seem a lot more contemporary and hip.  Since they’re focused on keeping the artist base in Atlanta, it adds another aspect of community pride.

Another art initiative that popped up in Atlanta is called Dashboard.  They have a really neat concept of taking vacant buildings and using the space to have artistic performances.  According to their website they want to “activate raw space with radical contemporary art to inspire neighborhood development and cultural awareness. “

Other examples from Atlanta and elsewhere include Elevate from the City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs; Art on the Beltline in Atlanta; REV Birmingham light displays; Lake Worth, Florida’s Street Painting Festival; the many sculptures along the Urban Trail in Asheville, NC.

But, why the need for public art?  What does it do except add visual interest?  As Michael Beadle of Smoky Mountain News said of the public art initiative in the City of Waynesville, North Carolina, “To local residents and visitors alike, public art establishes that unique sense of place, an identity, a familiar landmark that attracts people and keeps them coming back.”  To me, the pretty much sums it up.

The Old Fourth Ward Becomes New Again

By Alexia Alvey, Operations Manager.

As most of our clients and loyal blog readers know, all of us here at Market Street are passionate about making communities better, and often write about best practices and interesting initiatives from around the country. Given that I primarily work behind the scenes to make sure the things you don’t see run smoothly as opposed to being out and about in client communities, I’d like to share what I see on a daily basis and what’s closest to my heart – the fine city of Atlanta. To narrow it down, let’s discuss some of the transformative happenings in my very own neighborhood, the Old Fourth Ward. 

To give some background, the Old Fourth Ward houses the MLK Historic District and was one of the most prominent neighborhoods in Atlanta in the late 1800’s. Starting in 1960 and continuing into the 80’s the neighborhood drastically declined, losing population and become a center of concentrated poverty. 

Today though, there is an unbelievable amount happening in this tiny area east of Downtown. Let’s start things off with Ponce City Market. On the brink of Midtown lies a massive structure built in 1926 that used to house the Sears and Roebuck Company. When Sears left in the 80’s the city was left with 1.1 million square feet of emptiness. After some minor use through the 90’s the building just sat until Jamestown Properties scooped it up in 2011 and is now redeveloping the property that’s similar to Chelsea Market in NYC (also another one of their projects). This has to be one of the most buzzed about developments in the City of Atlanta. It’s slated to open in 2014 and already has tenants lined up to be a part of the action. Because a paragraph won’t do it justice, read more about this redevelopment in a blog that Evan Robertson wrote back in April. 

There’s also another project going on that you may have heard of called the Atlanta Beltline, which is the transformation of old railroad tracks into recreational paths for the community to use. While there has been a ton of controversy over public funds and lots of political jargon about the project, I’m still really excited about it. Mostly because one of the first sections, the Eastside Trail, is complete and right down the street from where I live but also because the benefits of the trail have been multiplying by the minute. Spurred by this 2.5-mile stretch of concrete, a new park has been developed, numerous new businesses have arrived in the area along with even more slated openings to come, and there is a sense of community and excitement that I haven’t experienced before in my seven years in Atlanta. 

One of the less-buzzed about projects happening right down the street from me is Krog Street Market. Right next door to the Beltline and down the street from Ponce City Market lies yet another massive space that was built in the late 1800’s as a stove and iron pan manufacturing facility. A portion of the space is already in use as a restaurant and the remaining portion will be used to house more restaurants, apartments, and a farmers market. 

There’s more to the renewal effort than taking old buildings and occupying them again. This part of the effort includes working on the actual residents in the area. The Old Fourth Ward houses an infamous street named Boulevard, which has unfortunately become known for crime and poverty. 

In 2012, Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall declared 2012 the “Year of Boulevard” vowing to make some changes that include crime prevention and education reform. So far the Atlanta Police Department has moved a precinct on the street and there have been numerous education efforts including summer camp scholarships, internships and entrepreneurial mentoring, along with partnerships with Operation P.E.A.C.E. I’ve seen the catchy slogan, “Yo!Boulevard” on numerous signs and flyers surrounding the area. Even though this portion of the neighborhood’s renewal isn’t as sexy as all the other development happening in the area, I think it’s the most important. To even think about transforming a community, you have to start with the residents. Let’s hope that Mr. Hall sticks to his guns and continues the effort.