A Great Overview of the Beltline

This Week in Atlanta

There are some great things going on this week. We have several Beltline meetings and the Farmer's Markets are coming into full swing.

May 4 (Monday)

630pm - 830pm - Beltline Public Workshop - Northside Study Group

May 5 (Tuesday)

6pm - 7pm - Westside Beltline 101

6pm - 10pm - Georgia Organics - 5 Alive on the Westside ($)

630pm - 830pm - Good Urbanisim 101 Class ($, Registration Required)

May 6 (Wednesday)

1145am - 1pm - Green Chamber of the South - Green Wednesdays (Registration Required)
430pm - 630pm - YMCA Earth Service Corp @ Piedmont Park

May 7 (Thursday)

8am - 5pm - The South's Recovery - Making it Accountable & Green (Registration Required)

6pm - 7pm - Northeast Beltline 101

630pm - 830pm - Good Urbanisim 101 Class ($, Registration Required)

7pm - 9pm - Movie Screening - The National Parks: America's Best Idea (Registration Required)

May 8 (Friday)

National Public Gardens Day

6pm - 7pm - Atlanta Bicycle Coalition - Courteous Mass Ride

May 9 (Saturday)

8am - 1230pm - Alpharetta Farmer's Market

8am - 12pm - Sewanee Farmer's Market

9am - 12pm - Serenbe Farmer's Market

9am - 12pm - Trees Atlanta - Candler Park Mulching

9am - 1pm - Piedmont Park Green Market

9am - ? - 2nd Annual Greenstock Day (Woodstock)

12pm - 1pm - Southwest Beltline 101

Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable - Atlanta's Transportation Destiny

On Friday, the Southface Institute held its monthly Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable. The event is held on the first Friday of every month and brings together many of the most influential individuals , businesses and non-profit organizations involved in making Atlanta a more sustainable city. The event was started over eight years ago and has grown into an impressive meeting.

The topic of discussion this month was Metro Atlanta’s Transportation Destiny and as you can imagine with the recent political events, it was a very interesting discussion that left the experts choosing their words wisely. The Panel this month was made up of:

• Kevin Green, Executive Director, Clean Air Campaign
• Cheryl King, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)
• Tad Leithead, Senior Vice President, Cousins Properties; Chairman of the Transportation and Air Quality Committee, Atlanta Regional Commission
• Maria Saporta, moderator, Atlanta Business Chronicle

The panel was very insightful and really shed light on the inner details of the issues, past and present, surrounding the political log jam that has evolved on this topic. I have to admit that I was thoroughly impressed with Mr. Leithead who had a thorough grasp of all of the issues and was confident enough to answer even the most pointed questions.

One of the questions that resonated with me had to do with the party polarization that has come about around the transit issue both here in Georgia and nationally. I cannot understand why if you are a conservative then you must be a car person and if you are a liberal then you are a transit person. Ultimately, all forms of transportation in this country are subsidized so there can’t be an argument that one form of transportation pays for itself while another does not. It, of course, was not the purpose of the roundtable to settle partisan and philosophical issues.  The one thing that I was suprised did not come up once was the Beltline.  I figured that for sure, someone would bring that up.

Here are some of the main points that were made in the discussion:

• Companies are reconsidering moving to Atlanta due to Traffic.
• Virtually no progress has been made on transit in 10 years.
• The rest of the state needs to realize that if Atlanta goes, so goes the state.  Thus, the state needs to consider a more integrated funding approach for transit.
• Most Atlantans don’t have transportation choices except what road to take to get to work.
• Charlotte may pass Atlanta on this front as they have figured out how to work together with the state. Atlanta is no longer the little engine that could in the south. Everyone is shooting to be the next Atlanta (without the traffic)

If you are interested in listening to the roundtable, you can access it on Southface’s website here.

Also, if you would like to attend any in the future, they are on the first Friday of each month and are open to the public. Admission is $10 for members and $15 for non-members if you pre-register. Prices jump by $5 on the morning of the event.

May Marks the Beginning of Smog Season

The Clean Air Campaign blog has a good post from a few days ago to kick off Smog Awareness week. There is a lot of great info so I suggest you check the post out but here is a summary.

• The One Ton Challenge helped keep 3600 tons of pollution out of metro Atlanta’s air.
• Rainfall this year is expected to be above normal according to the Farmer’s Almanac. That will definitely help pollution levels.
• Atlanta ranks #23 out of the 25 top cities for Ozone pollution according to the American Lung Association’s State of the Air report released today. L.A. was #1. The report also ranked for Year-Round Particulate pollution. Atlanta came in at #17 on that front. The final ranking was Short-Term Particulate pollution where Atlanta didn’t make the list.
• Last smog season had almost 30 days with unhealthy levels of ground level ozone and/or particle pollution.

Kudos to the Clean Air Campaign for its initiatives at engaging individuals and businesses to help create a healthier environment.

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May is National Bike Month

image by Francois Schnell

Hopefully all of you bike owners out there will take advantage of the nice weather we are having and participate in National Bike Month. I’m trying to pedal a couple of times a week to work even though Alpharetta isn’t all too bike friendly.

You might even want to incorporate biking into your regular weekly commute after May ends. It’s a great way to get some exercise and reduce your footprint.

Additional resources:

Clean Air Campaign Rewards Program

Atlanta Bicycle Coalition Website

National Bike Month Website

PeachBites

EPD Says Air Will Be Cleaner When New Coal Plant is Built

GPB News

"The state's top environmental regulator for air pollution says the air in eastern Georgia will be cleaner if and when a coal plant is built near Sandersville in Washington County." This must be one of those new "clean coal" plantsl.

Georgia Organics 12th Conference: A Success

Go Green InTown
Unfortunately, I missed this one. Hopefully I'll be able to get to next year's conference. The conference and trade show had over 1100 attendees and was the largest in the 12 years of the event. Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, was the keynote speaker. You can see his speech here. If you have never heard or read Mr. Pollan and you are interested in sustainable and healthy food, check out the clip or read one of his books. It was great that Georgia Organics was able to bring such a big time name to the event. We are fortunate to have such an organized group right here in Georgia focusing on local and organic food production.

Old Suburbia Must Fit Into New Society

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Our love affair with shopping is on the skids. Ghost-town strip centers already abound. It’s not hard to imagine dead malls pocking the landscape like buffalo carcasses amid the tumbleweeds in old Westerns." Ellen Dunham-Jones' book Retrofitting Suburbia details a recreation of the suburbs or "new suburbia." She says that metro Atlanta is one of the top three metro areas undertaking suburban retrofits with projects such as Smyrna Market Village and Perimiter Place in Dunwoody. It's good to see that Atlanta is finally starting to get it. Unfortunately, we got it right at the wrong time for real estate.

Toxic Cloud in Forsyth County Disipates

GPB News

This one was scary. Authorities recently had to evacuate 80 people from a kitchen and bathroom faucet manufacturing plant. The cause of the yellow puff of toxic smoke was an inadvertent chemical mix.

Movie Review - Earth

This was pretty much just a condensed version of the BBC series Earth that was released in 2007. It was fun but the brevity really inhibited the documentary's ability to educate the audience thoroughly. Some of the action shots were incredible though and it was worth the ticket price just to see them on the big screen.

All in all, it was entertaining and visialy stimulating if not educational. I don't think this film will really cause anyone to act differently or change their habits. I would suggest renting the Blue Ray version of the Made for TV version as it is much more thorough and educational. At least Disney will be planting a couple more trees for us.

This Week in Atlanta

The past two weeks have been very busy with festivals and events celebrating Earth Day and the environment. We are getting back to normal a bit this week but there are a few interesting things going on from the Beltline to seminars. Here's a preview of what is going on this week:

April 27 (Monday)

530pm - 700pm - Celebrate the Beltline @ Park Tavern

630pm - 830pm - Beltline Public Workshop - Westside Study Group

April 28 (Tuesday)

630pm - 830pm - Good Urbanisim 101 Class ($, Registration Required)

April 29 (Wednesday)

12pm - 1pm - Green Chamber of the South - Green Wednesdays Networking Lunch ($, Registration Required)

630pm - 830pm - Good Urbanisim 101 Class ($, Registration Required)

April 30 (Thursday)

8am - 5pm - The South's Recovery - Making it Accountable & Green (Registration Required)

630pm - 830pm - Good Urbanisim 101 Class ($, Registration Required)

April 31 (Friday)

730 - 9am - Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable - Metro Atlanta's Transportation Destiny

10am - 5pm - Kitchen & Bath Industry Show & Conference

May 1 (Saturday)

8am - 1230pm - Alpharetta Farmer's Market

8am - 12pm - Sewanee Farmer's Market

830am - 330pm - Trees Atlanta - 1st Annual City in the Arboretum Conference

10am - 5pm - Kitchen & Bath Industry Show & Conference

1pm - 6pm - Decatur Cool Cities Campaign - Tour of Green Buildings

3pm - 9pm - Decatur Green Fest

May 2 (Sunday)

10am - 5pm - Kitchen & Bath Industry Show & Conference

EarthShare of Georgia - Party in the Sky

We were fortunate enough to be able to attend the EarthShare of Georgia Party in the Sky this year. We started off by doing a little volunteering to help set up and then enjoyed the party. The evening could not have been nicer. There were about 350 or so people in attendance and from what we could tell, the fund raising went well. Some of the prices on the silent auction items were getting pretty high. I had my eyes on a pair of cuff links that quickly escaped my budget. Oh well!

The facility was one of the best event sites that I have had the opportunity to visit in Atlanta. It was in Atlantic Station on the 18th floor of the 201 17th Street tower. The location was very fitting for an Earth Day party since as you probably know Atlantic Station is the largest urban brownfield re-development in the nation. The view was incredible looking out over downtown and midtown. it was very nice to mingle and have a few brews compliments of the SweetWater Brewery.

We hope that the event was a big success for EarthShare and I foresee that we will be back next year to help out and enjoy the party. Thanks to EarthShare and all of the sponsors who made this event possible!

Happy Earth Day Atlanta!

We hope that everyone takes some time today to recognize the importance that a healthy planet plays in all of our lives.  It is our belief that education and thought are the starting points for an improved relationship with the environment and our natural world.  Until we start to realize our impact on a large scale, changes that truly make a difference will be difficult to achieve.  There are so many areas where education and leadership are needed in order to fix what we have done.  The good thing is that there are people all over the world working hard to effect the kinds of changes in human behavior that are needed.

Here in Atlanta there are several events that are going on.  You can get out and learn more about how you can help at Atlantic Station, The Atlanta Botanical Garden, The Atlanta Zoo and several others.  Check out our Earth Day Events entry or go over to Atlanta Green Parenting for some others. 

Have fun today and hopefully we can all remember to treat every day like Earth Day