Bloglanta

Clearly College Park’s community wants to keep growing.  With the lull in the development market, College Park is growing more slowly than 3 or 4 years ago and downtown has some vacant spaces.
The City, however, has made some smart choices.  They’re using the vacant store fronts as Art Galleries.  While this is not a new idea, it is something not seen inside the perimeter much, and having the art in the windows helps in three positive ways:

1. It keeps the street scape from looking vacant and keeps traffic interested in the life of the town rather than just passing through on the way to the car rental returns.
2. It brings attention to the fact that the space is available.  That helps the Realtors and hence the value of the taxes
3. It keeps local artists engaged in the community.

It’s a shame that shopping malls, town councils, and other retailers do not see the benefit of creating inducements to let vacant space be used for art.  If you have a run down area, nothing will bring traffic in like creating a theater and gallery space.  Just look at how vital ART Station is to keeping Stone Mountain afloat and see that East Atlanta has suffered after Echo Lounge closed.

Heck, look at Underground.  It’s never recovered from Dante moving out.  Further, with no Gallery Space or theatrical performance down there, the space continues o suffer.  Now, ACPA is working with with Underground to develop some theater space on Upper Alabama.  That’s guaranteed to bring traffic in and as long as the rent is affordable, performances by emerging groups can bring those with the spirit of the adventure and the finances to afford it back to Underground to help make it alive.

Theater is the next step for the south side as well.  East Point, Hapeville, and College Park are all missing theaters in their downtown.  When they get established those town will really kick it in to the next level.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley must be really thirsty, because he wants 18 billion gallons of water from us.  He has threatened to sue the Army Corps of Engineers to get them to essentially drain Lake Acworth, Lake Allatoona, and Carter’s Lake.

Riley wants the water for Alabama and believes that the Army Corps has broken its promises.  For their part, the Army disagrees.  Riley has said that there are uses for the water kept in those lakes and that “It’s not for recreation”.  Riley complains that Alabama towns are in deep trouble and may lose access to water if they don’t get some of ours.

Here are two steps Riley could have taken, but didn’t.  He did not call the Governor of Georgia and ask for help.  If Alabama towns really, honestly, literally are going to be without water, Georgia can help a little, but the need really has to be there and there needs to be evidence of steps taken to economize the resources that are there.

That includes stopping to flow of water to Golf Courses.  That’s a step Georgia could take as well.  The Environmental Protection Agency already has safety concerns about golf courses and water use.  Limiting the amount of water they use could help all of use dramatically.  Two steps can immediately help here.  Water only the greens and water them only after sunset.  This reduce the amount of water a Golf Course uses by up to 80%.  Also use gray water for this.  The grass is less picky about the kind of water used.  That lets the most expensive, processed water go to the schools and homes that need it.

Until Governor Perdue hears from Governor Riley, he should urge the corps to maintain appropriate reservoir levels at Georgia’s Lakes.  Our citizens have needs as well and our growth rate is higher.  We’re all going to have to conserve and use water more economically, but over time, Georgia is going to keep more of its own water as our population is growing.

Sembler is talking a good game about their mammoth Briarcliff North Druid Hills Development, but talk is cheap… the question is whether the housing will be as well.  They’ve promised 1000 units of lower income housing (BTW, they’ve created a new vocabulary term for these… they’re now ‘workforce’ units).  The question is what does lower income mean in this case?  Who gets it?  Who gets to decide?

With real estate prices soaring, starter homes are in short supply.  In the area around the development 850 square foot houses are being replaced with 5000 square foot  McMansions.   There is little or no  rentable space left from $400 to $750 month left.  Perhaps a means test is in order here.  It would be great to create 300 new home owners all of whom have an income of under $30,000 per household.

The Dekalb County Commission to pass the Atlanta City Council for leadership here.  To make this project work, schools need to be relocated, a major stadium will fall and low income housing will be lost.  This is the time for the commission to require new development meet a public good.  Instead of simply requiring low income housing (which they ought to do), the commission ought also require that 20% of the land be usable greenspace and that 20% of the non housing property go to non-commercial uses such as police stations, libraries, or arts centers.

They also need a traffic mitigation plan that will off-set the added vehicular traffic to the area.  This project will be bigger than Atlantic Station and so perhaps an 18 hour shuttle running every 15 minutes to Lindbergh station might be an answer.

Development is inevitable.  Added tax revenue is great, but when a project of this scale comes along, there needs to be a public good that comes with it.

The next master plan meeting is  July 25 at Kittredge School, 2383 North Druid Hills Road, from 7 to 9 p.m. At the meeting, Alex Garvin & Associates will present their proposal for a master plan and zoning recommendations for the study area.

Places of quiet contemplation in the heart of a city are vital and Atlanta is losing them.  Yes, there are parks, coffee houses, stores, malls, sidewalks, but fewer and fewer non-commercial spaces to simply quietly contemplate.  The saddest example of this is that The Temple of All Faiths at the King Center has been locked for years.  Contemplations of Faith are no longer welcome there.

The same goes for many churches, which are now locked more often than not.  On a recent Sunday afternoon the First Presbyterian Church was locked up tight.  Even Catholic Churches are closing their doors to those who simply wish a quiet moment in a solemn setting.  Right now, only the Airport Chapel and those in Hospitals are available all the time, and even during the day few places are available.  Though, if they’re not in session, the Georgia House Chamber is a beautiful place.

Atlanta needs a space such as the Baha’i Temple in Chicago.  Anyone can go there and meditate on the world.  They will be left in peace to consider as they will.  There is no pressure to participate in their religion, though people are there if you have questions.

What prevents places like this from developing?  A few challenges seem to stand in the way.  The two worst villains are the twins of Security and Insurance Liability.  No one wants the headache.  Second, I fear that the vagrancy problem the city faces has a perceived impact.  Still, it’s sad that there is no respectful non-denomination place for all the city to gather to think, pay respects, or celebrate greatness.  Maybe that’s the next great thing on which Bernie Marcus can invest in the city…

Everyone should go see the current exhibit at MODA. The basic message is that Global Warming is coming for us because of the way we live. If we do nothing, we’re  doomed… or at least anyone with current ocean front property is doomed.

It’s also about design innovations that will let us easily transform the way we live. From Nike shoes that help your Ipod work as a pedometer to ways you can reduce the cleaning agents you use that damage water, the good of the future is in smart design.

There are also architecture projects from Jova Daniels Busby and other firms, contributions from Citizens for Progressive Transit and a video by Joe Winter and Cathy Poley. Yes. That Joe Winter and That Cathy Poley.

The exhibition uses Atlanta as a basis and compares other cities.  It points out, for example, that Barcelona packs the same number ofpeople we do into four percent of the land we use. They also use Koolhaas-like maps to visually indicate the direction of change as well as the numbers representing it.

The exhibit can be a bit preachy (one panel exhorts us to stop want to own things for after all, where we put it all?) but much of it is good work and worth catching.

This is being cross-posted everywhere.

If there is one case that the Atlanta Police and Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has to handle it’s the case of the Cabbage Town Kidnappers.

If you’re not familiar with this, at 2:30 AM on July first, two attorneys from prominent legal organizations were kidnapped outside of a nightclub.  They were not freed until 15 hours later.  The names of suspects have not been released.

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing will shut off tourism and confirm white flight fears of downtown faster than kidnappings.  While it is horrible that this happened, and the kidnappers were just plain stupid to attack someone who worked with the Public Defenders Office, this is a chance at redemption for the police department.  Heaven knows they need it.

If the police get this case solved quickly and by the book, their reputation will be partially restored.  If they give the D.A. a case that is easy to prosecute that will help too.  The District Attorney then needs to make it very clear that kidnappers will swiftly receive the full impact of justice.

The Mayor, Convention and Visitors Bureau, and club owners then need to work together to make sure that this does not happen again.  That means more police at various clubs at all hours of the night.  It means that the police are going to have to work harder and smarter and may not be able to take as many side gigs.

So far, people have felt safe moving back into the city, but if another kidnapping happens, or if worse, one is successful, those condos will become very inexpensive very quickly and Real Estate Developers will egg on an already eager legislature to punish the city.

The Mayor specifically needs to get her hands dirty here.  She needs to find the money to hire more officers, pay them more, and make sure they’re not corrupt.  She then needs to publicly put pressure on Chief Pennington to make real changes and to cooperate with the Union.  She needs to get businesses to help with some support for officers and the families.  Then, we need the cop on every corner pledge.

Downtown, you need to always be able to see a police officer.  Chicago did this in the 1970s and it made a huge difference.  Literally, there was a cop on every block, all the time.  From Castleberry Hill to the Fox and from Centennial Park to the King Center, any should be able to simply say, “Excuse Me, Mr. Officer?” and get  immediate friendly help.

Do that and downtown booms.  Fail to do that, see one major crime happen, and the whole city will lose 20% of the its property tax value over night.