Circle Line on Track
The city of Atlanta is on the verge of possible transportation progress. Recently, Mayor Franklin and Cathy Woolard held a news conference to update interested folks in the beltline.
Were the full promise of this project realized, I think it could create a second kind of donut around the city.
Right now, I-285 serves as a donut effectively demarkating the city from the burbs. To get outside 285 without a car is really tough. Your options are limited. What the beltline and similar projects may do is create a revitalized city where people who want to live outside their cars move and a group of suburbs where the cul-de-sac mentality pervades.
Some facts:
- If fully realized the beltline will have about 22 miles of track
- The city, as of yet, owns none of the track
- The Atlanta Regional Commission has put the project in its plans to achieve by 2030 and funded $150M worth of developement and research
- Congressman John Lewis (Dem. Ga. 5) and GSU President Carl Patton are on board.
- As planned, the project would also include green space and connections to bike paths.
What was astonishing in the press conference is the number of agencies whose fingers would be in the pie, and the amount of coordination it would take to get something done when the entire project sits in one municipality. In the Press Conference over a dozen agencies were mentioned.
It’s also amazing that the benefit here is not obvious universally. In any situation, it’s key to find the baptists and the bootleggers. The baptists are Mike Kenn, the pavement lobby, and folks in rural Georgia. Right now, it’s tough to tell who the bootleggers are.
June 4th, 2004 at 6:20 pm
It’d be nice if it could be done before 2030. I’ll be 78 years old then, and while I’m sure I’ll enjoy riding it then, it would be nice if Glenwood Park had some public transit other than the Number 9 bus, which is being slowly garroted.
August 15th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
Does anybody have photos of:
Oxford Bookstore as a bookstore on Pharr Road, Atlanta,
Rio Mall, on Piedmont Road
Lindbergh or Broadview Plaza on Piedmont Road,
Sears on Peachtree in Buckhead,
Please help me through my midlife crisis!
Steve
August 15th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
About 24 years ago, at Toco Hills Cinema, you (a guy) saw someone who looked like you, so much so that you and that person were in shock.
Steve
August 17th, 2005 at 7:56 am
Why are you asking for pictures of Oxford Bookstore…? Isn’t it still around? I’m confused…
October 11th, 2005 at 12:44 am
Hi Amber,
I don’t, as you might surmise, check this page that often.
Oxford has long been gone, both the one on Pharr road and the one which was replaced by a garden store at Peachtree Hills.
Such a loss.
There is an Oxford comic store on Piedmont, and although they have knowledge of the previous owner, were unwilling to share anything with me.
I feel sure the owner would have photos, of the store, or his architech, now dead, would have taken some.
Just a memory to me now, but a pleasant one.
Steve
February 3rd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Is this still an active site? I’m researching my newest book “Atlanta As a Small Town: Stories of Growing up Southern” I grew up in Peachtree hills, with the Piedmont drive-in, Mooney’s Lake Amusement Park, Broadview Plaza and much more. Just curious if you or anyone commenting perhaps have pictures of those areas in the 50s and 60s? I’ve gotten quite a few pictures through Georgia State University. My first book “Burlington Northern Adventures: Railroading In the Days of the Caboose” is about my years as a brakeman, conductor and trainmaster working freight trains throughout the West. It starts with me and my childhood friends hopping freight trains in Atlanta. I loved my years with the railroad, even though my 1979 seniority date was in Grand Forks, North Dakota with the Burlington Northern. Boy, was it cold up there! If you get a chance, check out my website at http://www.bnrailstories.com and my blog Trains, Law, Movies and More at http://cabooselaw.blogspot.com/ ( you can also just google “cabooselaw”) And check out my actor listing at the Internet Movie Database. I play a disgruntled railroader in the Timothy Hutton/David Strathairn movie “Heavens Fall” All the best, William Brotherton
April 7th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I knew some Brothertons that went to North Fulton.Bill and I think Matthew.Try old North Fulton yearbooks for those photos.
November 24th, 2007 at 7:40 am
Hey Guy Adams: I did go to NF and I do have a brother Matt. Shoot me an email to william@brothertonlaw.com. William
December 27th, 2007 at 9:11 am
My father was the architect for the old Buckhead Sear’s. Hopefully, buried somewhere in his papers and photo collection, are some good photographs of that store. Steve, let me know how I can send them to you if they are there.
sbarrett@law.ga.gov