It's very telling that someone at the AJC instantly equated new people with new cars on the road.
And yet I don't see anyone at the AJC highlighting the relationship between car dependency and urban design, or calling for an end to unsustainable low-density sprawl.
Y'all need to speak up on this, local media. It can't just be the domain of amateur urbanists like me.
Sorry to be a downer but it's been a weird Atlanta news week for me. Two big projects I wasn't particularly excited about, the redo of Five Points Station and The Stitch, are full steam ahead.
I hope both of them prove my doubts to be wrong. But I seriously dislike the plan for Five Points which appears to be a very expensive lateral move. And it's going to cause closure of access to the station for 18 months starting in June. Better be worth it.
As for The Stitch, I accept that I'm probably in a minority in having serious doubts. It's definitely not where I would spend $150mil of federal money for improving Atlanta's urbanism.
If the Stitch ends up truly creating a great neighborhood space with affordable housing included, I'll be first in line to say "I was wrong" and applaud. But if, 15 years from now, Atlanta is the butt of an international joke because The Stitch was a bust and provided nothing but an incredibly expensive plaza and a couple of new hotels, I'll be pissed.
This has been an installment of Grumpy Old Man Shakes Fist at Sky. See you next time.
prguitarman
