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MARTA still has an incredible amount of public relations work to do.

A friend of mine lives very near Chastain Park and works about halfway between the Garnet and 5 Points MARTA stations. With over 300,000 conventioneers in town this past Friday, she drove to work. She drives to work anyway. This amazes me.

That she does not see MARTA as a better alternative on a regular day is a testament to Atlantan’s deep passionate love for their cars. That she does not take it in the midst of two conventions, one of which brought nearly 200,000 people to downtown and made it so that it took 45 minutes to go 1500 feet means that she is not getting the message.

The question is why? Part of it is that she’s white, grew up in the suburbs, and her parents are not spivs. The counties, city, and MARTA have not done a good job of showing people the advantages of mass transit. The state has been wholly unhelpful in this regard. There should be a coordinated campaign to educate people on how to use MARTA and to make it better.

These authorities need to court the media so that there are front page stories indicating that everyone, not just conventioneers, but citizens as well, need to take the trains. Then the city and Fulton Co. needs to take some of the tax revenue they will collect and use it to help fund more buses and trains on the system. If you simply tell folks they have to ride, but then to do not provide additional capacity on the system, the public relations campaign will fail.

Lastly, though it will be very difficult, more parking is needed. The Buckhead station (closest to Chastain Park) has no parking. It needs a Garage. Perhaps a garage can be built on Lenox Rd. behind the station and a pedestrian bridge built to it similar to the one in East Point. That will ease the ability of new N.W. Buckhead residents to use MARTA.

The need to convince folks to ride MARTA comes at a tough time both for MARTA and in the world. Lack of State funding continues to impede MARTA’s progress, while across the world countless cities are grappling with the influx of cars. In Paris, automotive traffic has gotten so bad that you must live in the city to drive there on many days. Regrettably, the only American City where that is practical is New York. Everywhere else, the disruption will be too great.

The trick is to give people good alternatives and let them choose, of their own volition, to give up the car. The problem is that to do that, the non car option genuinely has to be better.

I love Atlanta, problems and all, and in my 53 years have never really considered living elsewhere. The problems in Atlanta are a lot less unique than many people realize and only come under such national scrutiny because of Atlanta’s remarkable post- World War II growth.

When the problems of sprawl first began emerging as a national issue a bit over a decade ago, a great deal of exaggerated nonsense was written about the city of Atlanta. That it had no core, that downtown was largely dead, that there were no really walkable areas in the city, and so forth.
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Atlanta is a city that thrives with conventions. In fact, one of the big selling points for building Hartsfield Airport was to attract more convention traffic, and Atlanta was in the vanguard of that industry.

Now, however, things have become much more competitive. More cities than ever before are developing convention centers and business still has not reached pre 9-11 levels.

With small conventions and more cities competing to host them, the pressure is on Atlanta.

How are we responding?

The good news is that we continue to have a powerhouse convention and visitors bureau. The ACVB aggressively markets Atlanta and provides services to conventions so that they will come here. Further, their strategy is to build town loyalty.They want conventions to come here once and then come back repeatedly. They are so big that they provide a single form from which they’ll send you a proposal to provide everything for your convention.

Lauren Kenworthy, an ACVB representative, says Atlanta has some great things going for it. First, there are 90,000 hotel rooms in walking distance of the Georgia World Congress Center, which is the largest convention hall in the U.S.A. Second, you can get to the hall and most hotels on MARTA transit straight from the airport.

Third, a number of cultural attractions are coming on line that make Atlanta an attractive destination. The Georgia Aquarium and the New World of Coke, in conjunction with Centennial Park will increase the density of cultural attractions, increasing the likelihood that families will accompany conventioneers to Atlanta.

Fourth, she points out that nearly all major sports venues are downtown. I had never thought of this as a vital element in being a serious convention city, but it makes sense. There is a certain attractiveness to finishing your days events and then crossing the street to go see the game. Apparently, this is a big convention draw.

Atlanta’s main competition is Chicago, Orlando, and Vegas. They are the other cities with similarly sized facilities. Disne… I mean Orlando’s attraction is pretty obvious. So too with Vegas. Chicago has the advantage of being THE American City. It is both new and classic. This is where Atlanta begins to struggle.

Atlanta does not have the clear brand identity that the other cities have. Any southerner will tell you that Atlanta is not in the South. Any Northerner will tell you it’s too Southern. It has no defining character.

Other ground level problems remain as well. Downtown has seen retail die on the vine. Macy’s closed so there is no landmark department store. Muses, Riches, and Kesslers no longer exist in any meaningful way. Further, the high end boutiques that draw conventioneers are yet to find a niche in town. Underground has some, but its stability remains a key concern. Stores are yet to find a conformable environment in Fairlie Poplar. This lack of high end retail impedes both convention folks and folks who might otherwise consider living downtown.

Atlanta, as with other cities, also faces a vagrancy problem. Pan handlers lead to a perception among visitors that streets are not safe and that the environment is not what it should be. As one policeman said “Please don’t feed the bears!”.

I was surprised to learn that Ms. Kenworthy did not see a large scale entertainment facility such as Jillians or Dave and Busters as making a significant difference in attractiveness for conventions. If this is because there are already enough other smaller entertainments so that such a facility would not make a difference, that’s promising! If it’s because such a facility would dominate other entertainments, it means that Atlanta’s cultural commitments have a ways to go.

Ms. Kenworthy says that Atlanta could handle far more conventions than are currently planned. There is still more capacity than interest. More retail, successful sports teams, a revitalized Underground, and more cooperation with Central Atlanta Progress and the city will help attract more tourists and conventioneers… and that will forge a stronger Atlanta.

[On a personal note, Ms. Kenworthy is a delightful person who was very giving of her time. I am most grateful.]

Unless you’ve been out of the loop for a while, you may have heard that Atlanta is faced with conflicting problems.

The city wants commuters to use transit, but it does not want regional buses clogging up Peachtree Street.

This creates a great opportunity! For a long time, Atlanta has wanted an intermodel terminal, MARTA has wanted more money, and commuters have wanted a more pleasant experience! All of these problems could be combined and solved in one shot.

MARTA, in conjunction with developers, needs to build a top quality bus station and mixed use tower that connects to MARTA’s rail lines. They could do this either at 5 points or in Midtown station.

The optimal 5 Points location would be on Forsyth street just across from the Atlanta Federal Center. Currently, there is a decaying building on a large lot. This building could easily be torn down and replaced with a structure similar to the Chicago and Northwestern Line station in Illinois. The result is that people could get to work and play from the suburbs, easily connect to MARTA, and get a positive retail and office environment. Further, if MARTA co-developes the building they can earn the income!

But wait! There’s more! If MARTA is the prime property owner and works with the both the regional bus agencies and the city, they could get some state money. How, you ask? Lease the bays. If the city and MARTA work carefully with the regional transit agencies, those agencies can lease bus bays. Since they receive money from the State, they can pass some along to MARTA. In exchange, they will get better facilities to load passengers and one where weather makes less of a difference. The passengers, employees, and city will all be better off!

If the 5 Points location does not work out, there is a vacant lot behind the Midtown MARTA Station. Just as they did with Lindbergh, MARTA can develop office, retail, and a bus terminal that is convenient to the highway and the train. Again, the regional bus systems get a better transfer location, MARTA makes income, and the passengers get a better environment.

This project will take vision, cooperation between several agencies, the interest of the private sector, and smart planning, but the investment could well be worth it!

Recently, a comment here spurred me to think about the difference between cities and towns.

I think, at some level, there is a central difference between a city and a town. In a city, there are tons of people all living and working anonymously from one another. In a town, everyone lives and works with far fewer degrees of separation. As the saying goes, ‘everyone knows everyone’.

To illustrate this point and some of its effects, let’s compare two communities of which I am very fond: Atlanta and East Point.

In the city of Atlanta, thousands of people have moved in from all over the world and try to get along in a growing city. Few of them know each other and virtually no one would claim to know everybody. The resources of the city are growing so fast that it’s impossible to see it all. People do not view Atlanta as one community. Rather is has several neighborhoods where people find local association. Even the Mayor does not try to know everyone. Mayor Franklin has done a great job thus far, but she doesn’t even make the attempt to learn the names of all the people at the events she attends. There are just too many. Rather, she emphasizes that she knows the people who can make changes that will improve the city: the movers, shakers, and resource barrons.

The city revels in its cosmopolitan elements: prominent chains, a variety of foods, a hotel population which is about 10% of the city at any given time. It rests on it’s bigness and its impersonal nature to be muscular and get things done.

Contrast this with East Point. At their recent festival, Mayor Hilliard went out of her way to meet every one she could and to try to get their names right. People were pleased and expected the Mayor to know them. In fact, through one or two people, it seemed that everyone knew everyone. East Point is a growing community, but it endeavors to be a small town. It wants to be regional. It wants its local focus. Residents know that their affiliations with each other are what will guarantee a strong community. Rather than seeking cosmopolitan additions such as Starbucks, Crate and Barrell, or Anthropologee, East Point is trying to keep local retailers going that will bring the services residents find attractive. They want these businesses to be locally owned and operated precisely so that everyone will know they and they will have to be responsive to the community.

So, do want to live in a community so large, you can get lost and if you’re a household name, it means you’ve made it? Or do you want everyone to know your name because you know all of theirs and a little something about them? Your answer will help you decide where you should live.

Have you been to Buckhead recently? You might have missed a recent trend. It’s reverting forward. Buckhead is becoming both more urban and more residential simultaneously. It will be fascinating to see what this brings over the next 5-10 years.

If you are a long time Atlanta resident, you likely remember Buckhead’s conversion from Atlanta’s upscale residential neighborhood into it’s go-go party district. This change climaxed with the Olympics and the Superbowl. A number of circumstances lead to rapid change away from Buckhead as party village concept and back toward a residential neighborhood. Now, however, this is a community of high rise urban living, and not of single family houses.

While Buckhead remains a vibrant restaurant and bar district, a majority of construction is residential. Tens of thousands (literally) of condominiums and luxury high rise apartments are being added every year; this trend promises to continue until at least 2008. The result is that of the 50,000 people expected to move into the city each year, 30,000 per year could easily move into Buckhead.

According to an ARC report, there is no longer one Buckhead. Really, there are now at least two. One is the traditional Buckhead Village area anchored by the 5 points intersection of Peachtree, Roswell, and E/W Paces Ferry. The other is the area around Lenox Mall and the GA - 400 interchange.

How will the community handle these new folks? I’m far more optimistic about the village than Lenox. The village already has provisions to work with a pedestrian model. Yes, people may need to drive in and out if they don’t work near their residence, but they can enjoy their non business lives on foot. There are several dry cleaners, food shops, drug stores, news stands, and book stores in the area.

The area around Georgia 400 is much scarier. To live your life, you still need a car: it’s all traffic, all the time. The Buckhead Uptown Connector will help ease business day congestion and provide MARTA connections, but it doesn’t connect to the Buckhead village or run on the weekends. Further, residents are trapped between an office park, shopping mall, and an enormous expressway. Residents will either have to demand intense changes and ensure years of additional construction or the market will collapse. Either prospect is not pleasing.

Those in the village may well enjoy a great quality of life while creating in Atlanta a true urban, elegant, and friendly neighborhood. Old time residents will appreciate it and visitors will too!

‘And now a good hand for my friends Paul Shaeffer Ladies and Gentlemen…’

‘I have in my hand here tonight’s Top 10 list’. Tonight’s list: Top 10 ways you know you live in an actual city…

10: You have a subway system that gets people from where they live to where they work! [Atlanta gets a D here. MARTA is great for conventioneers or getting people from business to entertainment, but it has not saturated housing yet. The beltline, however, will make great improvements]

9: Your city’s sports teams sell out whether your team makes the play-offs or not. [Atlanta gets a C. The good? Support for the Thrashers. The bad? The Braves don’t sell out their play-off games. Two words: The Hawks.]

8. You have more than two universities that people from out of your city would clamor to attend. [Atlanta gets a B. It’s not Boston, but Tech, Emory, GSU, and the CAU schools make an important contribution. The question is how to better integrate Emory and CAU in particular into the life of the city.]

7. Your city has neighborhoods in which signs must be in languages from three different continents. [Atlanta Gets a D. This only happens in Chamblee & Norcross, and those places have not been made very pedestrian friendly; in fact, they’re strips more than neighborhoods.]

6. The city has a red light district. [Atlanta gets a B] As one comedian says, ‘It may be Metropolitan in the day time, but it sho’nuff Stewart at night!’

5. Your International Airport has flights that are actually international! [Atlanta gets an A]. Biggest Airport in the world with a concourse just for international? We win.

4. Your city has a full time opera company. [Atlanta gets a C]. Atlanta’s Opera community is growing, but there is only one part time company. Opera requires a sophisticated, educated audience with resources and a dedication to this art form. William Fred Scott does a great job, but New York has 3 full time companies. We’ve a way to go.

3. Your restaurant community is so large, that no one in town could possibly sample all the cuisine available. [Atlanta gets a B. We have a wider variety of food than nearly any other southern city…. which is about the same as saying that we have a great baseball team when compared to the mets.]

2. You have a Jazz Festival worth attending. [Atlanta gets an A. We do. It’s a shame so few people attend, but we have one of the countries most vibrant jazz communities. ]

And the Number 1 way you know you live in a real city….
CHess Hustlers!!! [Atlanta gets a B. There are actual chess hustlers, but only a few and only in Woodruff park. Chess is a hotspot for intellectually competitive people everywhere. When you see a Georgia State professor competing against a Slavic construction worker who just beat the Jamaican who owns the board, things are looking up!]

One could make the argument that Atlanta is the biggest small town in America. Why? Because Peachtree is our one main street. It runs north-south from south of downtown passed Oglethorpe University. Most important buildings in the city are on this street. Moreover, the city’s other major streets are also North South. Northside Drive, West Peachtree, Spring, Piedmont, and Moreland, all run North South.

Contrast this to Chicago or Chattanooga which have a grid. Not just one North South Street, but a series of North-South & East-West streets that form districts and make them easy for walking people to navigate!

East-West viability is going to be vital to Atlanta if it is going to continue growing in ways that don’t lead to more traffic. Don’t believe me? Look where the housing market is booming… and where it isn’t.

Buckhead Central is developing Housing at every opportunity. People are moving into the central business district of Buckhead as fast of possible precisely because they can walk places. There is enough concentrated into one space that nothing is too far away. To have the concentration, you need two axis, not one.

Look also at East Point. Even with some serious political divisions, the village’s natural layout leads toward success. Yes, it has a main street, but they also have looked east-west and have developed a vibrant community with great loft space that is attracting the best of the creative class.

Contrast with Virginia Highlands, whose housing market has weakened from it’s most intense frenzy. Why? Because walking from one end of the highlands to the other would take well over an hour. Lots of folks visit the district. Fewer want to live there now.

Districts with the grid are going to do well. It’s easy to move about and everything is close. Districts that keep to the one long string theory might well have a harder time.

Fairlie Poplar should have exploded by now.  It should be so popular
that no part of Atlanta could compete with it…  In fact, many in
Atlanta have been waiting for that to happen for 30 years.

Fairlie Poplar is the part of downtown bounded by Peachtree on the east,
Marietta St. on the South end, Centennial park on the west and Peachtree
Center on the northside.  If ever you wanted a smidgen of New York
City in Atlanta, you’ll find it here.

During the Olympics, lots of old stores and office buildings were converted
into loft space, and it was expected that the neighborhood would finally
take it’s place as a hot spot.   It has the Tabernacle, lovely
turn of the century architecture, the Rialto, plenty of parking, and easy
access to MARTA.  So where are all the people?

As pointed out in the previous entry, Georgia State students did what
residential lofts could not do.  They added life to that part of town. 
Unfortunately, they are only a beginning.

Though it pains me to say this, what it needs are the chains. 
It needs a 24 hour Whole Foods, 24 Hour Starbucks, and a 24 hour drug store. 
More than that, it needs a Jillian’s.

“Are you nuts?”  I hear you cry…  Yes, maybe, but try this
on for size…  Those brand names indicate to people from outside
the city that the community has reached a certain level of stability. 
Additionally, those large chains can leverage additional police presence
and security.  When people generally feel safer, they’ll venture out
more.  When they venture out more, the community becomes more attractive
and the smaller more interesting shops stand a much better chance of making
it!

Please use these links and explore the neighborhood!

• Fairlie-Poplar
  on the web!
• Icon Bar and Bistro
• 11th US District Counrt of Appeals
• Theatrical Outfit
• The Tabernacle
• Ted’s Montana
  Grill
• Rialto Center for the Arts