CURT JOHNSON: The very mention of Atlanta to people who’ve traveled there on business in recent years is enough to spark stories of navigating through relentless traffic. Everybody’s got a favorite horror story of being late to an appointment or missing an airplane flight.
That’s one reputation. Another is as a hot spot for the young and talented. Martha Riche, former director of the U.S. Census Bureau told a ULI trends conference in Atlanta last month that it’s young professionals who are arriving. One result: while the region is 9th on the charts for population, it’s 57th when it comes to households of marrieds-with-children. Atlanta’s first among Southern regions, she said, in incomes over $100,000 while also showing the lowest rate of poverty. The region’s considerably above average in rates of adults with high school completion, and even with BA degrees or higher.
Some of us Casssandras have been saying that the perils of the reputation for traffic paralysis would eventually undermine the attraction for business and a youthful work force. Now two trends, formerly unfamiliar in this region, make cause us to change our Dixie tune. People in Atlanta’s suburbs are rediscovering their preference for real town centers. From Snellville to Suwanee to Norcross, Duluth, Lilburn and Sugar Hill — town centers, long neglected, are getting put back together or built from scratch. Sidewalks are showing up. Housing close by is making a comeback. The city managers say it’s what the people now want.
Meanwhile, the Trust for Public Land Georgia chapter unveiled a grand plan this winter for a 23-mile bike and walking trail, linking four new parks, expanding nine others, and connecting to 11 existing ones. Simultaneously, MARTA, the transit authority, would build a 22-mile transit ring around the interior of the region. MARTA is studying four route variations, each of which connects many major destinations and town centers.
The transit ring would cost at least $1 billion. Trails about $15 million plus right of way acquisition. New MARTA stations would add another $50-100 million. And there’s a little matter of persuading the CSX railroad to give up its 87-acre Hulsey freightyard, switching those operations to its facility near Fairburn.
But the mere fact that all this is the subject of a robust public discussion, covered extensively by Atlanta media, suggest that the Atlanta region may be getting serious about the quality of its development pattern, and livability, not just setting world records for growth.
