Atlanta the City

Photos by Darin Givens: [email protected]. Non-commercial use of photos is permitted, with attribution. Commercial use not permitted.

[atlantathecity]

Lovely sights on a visit to Atlanta's South Downtown . That second pic is KMM & Co. which makes hand-crafted leather goods on site.

It's true that there weren't a lot of people on the sidewalks, but it's getting easier to see a future where Downtown is lively all the time! Some key ingredients: removing all the dead spaces, adding residential units, and making MARTA more attractive to ride.

There's more to be done beyond that short list but those are majorly important things, IMO.

[atlantathecity]

The view of the sunset from inside Civic Center MARTA Station this evening...very nice.

This station is built into a bridge over the interstate, and it has large windows on the side. I assume the architects designed the station with these sunset views in mind.

It opened in December 1981 after years of construction that required the elevation of West Peachtree Street to accommodate the track. M. Garland Reynolds and Partners with Welton Becket Associate Architects of Los Angeles designed the station.

[atlantathecity]

We took MARTA to Downtown and visited The Center -- or 'The CTR' as it's branded -- this weekend for lunch. I was eager to see the renovation of the space, following the end of its previous incarnation as CNN Center.

The array of restaurants in the food court is impressive. The prices seem high, but I guess that's the norm for Downtown. We were particularly pleased that there's a Morelli's Ice Cream here now!

You can see all the food options listed at thectratlanta.com

The bar in the middle reminds me of the one at Politan Row in Colony Square, which is yet another modern food court (or food hall? I assume 'food court' is outdated) built inside a 1970s city-in-a-city.

This structure opened as the Omni International Complex in 1976, along with a hotel (still here) and a coliseum (now gone). CNN used to have headquarters here.

Complexes like the Omni and Colony Square were designed to focus primarily inward instead of being oriented toward the street, which used to bother me. But I'm mellowing on them thanks to the great *new* stuff in Downtown and Midtown that does 'address' the sidewalk. IMO, it balances things out.

[atlantathecity]

If anything in Atlanta deserves the name "concrete jungle," it's the massive viaduct-posts and parking decks around SEC MARTA Station. It's interesting to see the shift to greenery near the south side of the station platform. Nature finds a way.

[atlantathecity]

It was a nice evening for a visit to Downtown with the family! We took MARTA to Garnett Station and had a great dinner at El Tesoro, spotted some friends on the sidewalk and chatted, then checked out the World Cup watching event at Underground Atlanta, then bought some groceries at Azalea Market, and took MARTA back home.

[atlantathecity]

This was a heartwarming sight: I walked several blocks of West Peachtree Street today (a little after 5pm) and saw a constant stream of cyclists and scooter riders using the new bike lane! To my eyes, an actual network of quality bike lanes is taking shape in Midtown little by little.

What's your experience, cyclists? Is a quality network emerging in Midtown?

[atlantathecity]

Mitchell Street in South Downtown was a lovely place for walking even on a quiet Sunday night when most of the restaurants were closed and the World Cup crowds were gone. The renovation of these old buildings is a huge plus for the historic heart of Atlanta.

[atlantathecity]

I took MARTA to South Downtown to check out the scene tonight. Look at all the bikes!! There are bikes parked all over, and pedestrians on the streets, and crowded restaurants. Very cool.

[atlurbanist]

In case you're wondering where the rail goes. It goes here.

[atlantathecity]

There are a lot of impressive "before and after" views in Tech Square. This one may seem minor but it always catches my attention. The street feels so wonderfully different with this parking lot replaced by a tall building (with a coffee place at the bottom). Biltmore Place at Spring Street.

[atlantathecity]

I watched the sunset go from orange to deep red while walking home last night. I like having skyscrapers on the horizon.

[atlantathecity]

Our trip on the new MARTA bus system today: a combo of the 7 and 22 buses to get to the Glenwood Park neighborhood and the newly opened section of the Beltline path that's immediately south of it. Both buses were on time 🙌

[atlantathecity]

We rode the new Bus Rapid Transit line from South Downtown to Summerhill! The bus itself is really comfortable and the covered platforms are nice.

My wife asked: "when does it get 'rapid'"? Good question. We did seem to be spending a lot of time stopped at lights. I assume (and hope) there's more to be done for light priority.

It arrives every 10 minutes, so that much of it is 'rapid'.

[atlantathecity]

Two extremes of Atlanta transportation: trains and cars. Unfortunately, cars heavily dominate our city to the detriment of both walkability and transit ridership; and the number of people who live in walkable distance to train lines is severely limited. But we can change that.

I'd like to see the city build a denser kind of urbanism -- one that prioritizes the vehicles in the top photo (MARTA rail) and lessens the dominance of the vehicles in the second (cars on I-75/85).

And if we do it right, many trips could be taken by sidewalk or by bike lane. That's what density can bring. Meanwhile, car-scaled sprawl hurts us all.

Why not just extend MARTA rail for many miles in all directions to reach people where they are now? It's not simple.

While we should always keep trying to find funding for greatly expanding rail lines in Atlanta, the sad political and economic reality is that rail expansion will happen in small pieces over very long periods of time, if it happens at all. For the foreseeable future, heavy-rail transit is so expensive to build into the suburbs that Metro Atlanta and state leaders aren't even seriously considering it. I'm not suggesting we abandon the dream of expansion, but it's important that we don't put all of our eggs in that one basket when it comes to undoing car dependency.

We need to focus heavily on building walkable (and affordable) density near the existing MARTA lines, while better serving suburbs with less expensive options like buses or on-demand shuttles. And of course it's possible to build walkable spaces in suburbs as well and to serve them with buses.

My point is that land-use has to shift in order to make better transit access possible, both in the suburbs and in the city.

The bulk of the current urbanism of Metro Atlanta was built very intentionally for cars by way of massive freeway investment, car-scaled zoning, and more. Retrofitting efficient transit into that sprawling footprint isn't a one-note task; we shouldn't simply ask for train lines to be expanded as if that's the only change needed. The full solution requires bold reinvention of our entire urban design.

[atlantathecity]

Do you think Atlanta would do better with a grid or radial design?

Interesting question! Whether you're referring to the City of Atlanta or to the greater Metro Atlanta area, I think we've ended up with a complex hybrid of radial designs with some grids interspersed

I doubt there's a way to overlay or retrofit any kind of greater order to that system of streets. But I do think we could make much better use of the areas that do have either a grid of streets (and there a surprising number of gridded-street nodes in Atlanta) or areas that just have a high density of street intersections, regardless of gridded-ness. Studies show that a high density of street intersections per square mile (or per kilometer if you prefer) is associated with greater pedestrian activity, providing more opportunities for routing. On the opposite end, areas that have long stretches of road with no intersections are less conducive to efficient walking, biking, or even transit service. So unless we're able to create new roads -- and we probably won't, though the Atlanta Beltline is one outlier where a new transportation route was created -- it's best to look for opportunities within the current system for adding new infill density and new transit lines. Meaning: focus primarily on adding pedestrian-oriented density (along with great ped infrastructure and transit options and bike lanes too) in places with a high density of intersections.

[atlantathecity]

Downtown Atlanta's afternoon commute. Many Georgia leaders drive through this, to and from the Capitol.

Is their bias against public transit (and cities) so harsh that they never think: "this stinks; maybe we should start providing state funds to MARTA"?

In case you're unaware: MARTA is the largest U.S. transit system without state operating support. Georgia provides it with none.

It blows my mind that this continues to be the case decade after decade.

I'm not saying we should invest in transit simply as a way of addressing car congestion. Studies are actually mixed on whether that even works (long story short: creating pedestrian-oriented urban spaces is needed too).

But at least give people better *choices* for getting around efficiently on public transit versus cars.

[atlantathecity]

It's nice to see both historic preservation *and* new development happening on Auburn Avenue in Downtown Atlanta! This investment couldn't be happening to a better street. May it continue. 🙌 Auburn Avenue should be second only to Peachtree Street in terms of being a highlight corridor for Atlanta, IMO. Once a few more parking lots get turned into new developments, and once two or three more empty, historic buildings get renovated, Auburn will be well on the way to becoming the place it should be and honoring its rich history.