New Urban Roswell Review

I think the big thing going on in Roswell this past couple of weeks was the movement forward on the Grimes Bridge/Norcross Street round about.  I am a strong proponent of the round about for several reasons not the least of which is safety.  Kudos to the city council for making the necessary concessions to the residents impacted.  Enjoy this installment of the New Urban Roswell Review!

Roswell

Roswell to Present Plans for Big Creek Bridge Project - AJC

This will be presented tomorrow night, June 29th, at the Doubletree on Holcomb Bridge.

Roswell Mayor Says He'll Veto City Budget - AJC

This quote from Mayor Jere Wood says it all:

"For the first time in memory ... the City Council has voted to spend more to run Roswell’s government than we expect to receive,"

Region

Atlanta Leaders Hope Streetcar will Win in 2nd Round of U.S. TIGER Grants - Saporta Report

I'm not so sure about the proposed route.  The former proposal was a much better proposal for actually impacting transit in the city for people that live in the city.  I feel that this proposal is reaching and grasping for anything that we can get.

Opportunity Exists to Create a Regional Transit System; New Leaders at the Helm - Saporta Report

Sounds like people in high places are actually starting to realize that a truly regional transit system is needed here in Atlanta.  Notable Excerpt:

"the real opportunity that is unfolding is that the Atlanta region is starting to think about consolidating all our disparate transit agencies into one integrated system — fulfilling the original vision of four decades ago when MARTA was supposed to be a five-county transit agency."

Developer: Work on Streets of Buckhead to Resume - AJC

Ben Carter claims to have the additional funding needed to resume and finish construction on his Streets of Buckhead development.  That hole in the ground needs to get finished otherwise it will leave a huge scar in one of the nicest spots of Atlanta's most famous streets.  He says construction will resume in July.  We'll see.

Is it Game Over for Atlanta - NewGeography.com

This article posits that Atlanta has reached maturity and it will be much harder to grow and improve for the capital of the New South. Notable Excerpt:

Though perhaps it is too early to declare “game over” for Atlanta, converging trends point to a possible plateauing of Atlanta remarkable rise, and the end of its great growth phase.

The converging trends they discuss are: Slowing Growth, Aging Infrastructure at Capacity, Other Competitive Cities in the Southeast, Being Caught in the Middle of its Sprawling Growth Phase and its Urbanization Phase at the Wrong Time and finally Atlanta Being at Maturity

Ga Tech to Study Aerotropolis Health Impacts - Atlanta Business Chronicle

$147k to determine the health impacts of building on a former industrial site right next to the Airport.  Is constant jet noise hazardous to your health?

GM Doraville Plant Plan Still in the Works - Atlanta Business Chronicle

New Broad Street of Florida is still looking to purchase and develop location of the former GM Plant.  We should know more by the end of the summer.  On the company's website they quote president David Pace as saying;

"this is the best urban infill site in the country for a large transit-oriented development."

I don't disagree.  This is also the same company that did Celebration and Baldwin Park in Orlando.  

Beyond

Why They Hate Us - A New Urbanist Dissects the Movement's Critics - Architect Magazine

This is Jeff Speck's rebuttal of an article that was moderately critical of his most recent book The Smart Growth Manual.  He does a good job dividing up the critics and addressing each group. Notable Excerpt:

How, by any possible stretch of the imagination, could it be considered efficient, healthy, or even acceptable to have spent the better part of a society’s wealth constructing a national landscape in which most citizens require a one-ton, poison-belching prosthetic device to satisfy their daily needs?

The Death and Life of Buffalo's Parks - City Parks Blog

This post makes a good quick case for smarter development.  Essentially, it states that we have invested so much in expensive infrastructure that we are not able to progressively work on schools, parks, cultural institutions and other public services.  This made me think of Mayor Wood's promise to veto the Roswell city budget due to deficit spending.    

Enraged at the Gulf Spill and the Appetite for Oil that Led to it? Stop Land Development on the Fringe - Kaid Benfield NRDC Switchboard

The first paragraph sums it up: "Enraged at the spill in the Gulf and the American appetite for oil that ultimately caused it?  Stop land development on farmland, forests and other fringe locations and direct future development to close-in opportunities.  A massive new study, years in the making, makes it crystal-clear that it can make a big difference."

Poverty Comes to the Suburbs - Governing.com

Suburbs watch out.  Christopher Leinberger calls them the next slums and this article takes a look at the reality of increasing poverty rates in a wealthy Chicago suburb.  Notable Excerpt:

Poverty is on the rise in suburban areas nationwide. Some of it is pure demographics: More people are moving to the suburbs, so more poor people live in the suburbs. But there's more to it than that. The housing crisis and recession have hit suburbs harder than other places, which means foreclosures and unemployment have an outsize impact on suburban communities. By 2008, according to the Brookings Institution, the nation's suburbs were home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in the nation.

Facts & Fun

Painfully Hysterical Daily Show Clip on the Presidential Response to the Oil Spill

81 percent of Georgians live in the 15 metropolitan areas in the state, 84
percent of the jobs are in these metro areas, and they account for 89 percent of the GDP of the state.