Darin Givens | April 23, 2024 There are many logical reasons to cast a critical eye on the streetcar extension to the Eastside Beltline, and we should never spend this much money without arguing. But folks, please stop acting like we can only build rail for the current conditions in a place – this wrong assumption is the foundation for too many arguments against Beltline rail. We should build rail for the future version of Atlanta. Obviously, we’ve screwed up in the past and built rail for “current conditions” and not for walkable growth, and that’s a set of mistakes we should remember… We bu ..read more

by Darin Givens | April 21, 2024 This is a map of the racial distribution of the population of Atlanta in 1924. African American areas are highlighted in light red, and the city limits in green. This comes from an excellent 2021 dissertation called “How the Car Won the Road: The Surrender of Atlanta’s City Streets, 1920-1929” By Laura Drummond, Georgia State University. Passages from the text: ——– “The two largest concentrations of African Americans are in the two areas north of the east-west rail line: Auburn Avenue to the east; Atlanta University Center to the west. South of that rail line ..read more

I’m grateful for this recognition! Propel ATL has included me among the recipients of their annual award this year, the Blinkie Award, recognizing me for ‘transportation media’. It’s nice to be noticed, and it’s very cool to be part of this great group of awardees. The awards are given out at their annual fundraising event on May 1st. Huzzah! Meet our 2024 Blinkie Award winners ..read more

atlantathecity: As I was reminded while walking here earlier today, the sidewalk on Edgewood Avenue is way too narrow. Folks regularly have to step into the roadway to pass others. It shouldn’t be like this anywhere, but especially not on the streetcar route. We’re missing an opportunity to match transit investment with great pedestrian conditions. Please look into redesigning this as a shared street, Atlanta! This is an incredible success story waiting to happen. Some people complain that the streetcar “doesn’t go anywhere people want to go,” but I see the problem as being that we have 2.7 ..read more

atlantathecity: The pedestrian/bike phase on the traffic light at Memorial Drive & Bill Kennedy Way is a wonderful thing to see, especially on a lovely & vibrant Saturday afternoon. I stepped off the 107 bus and was able to immediately use the signal due to how long it lasts. Also my new camera has a feature for fixing wobbly movements and that’s neat (I have neurological issues that affect my balance & I walk with a cane). This is a state road, y'all. Never let it be said that improvements on a GDOT route are impossible. Good things can happen ..read more

threadatl: Whenever you see problems on MARTA that are related to operations spending (maintenance or staffing or frequency of service) – please think about an image like this one, where massive amounts of dead space or low-density developments surround our major investments in transit. In this case, Oakland City Station. The two things are intrinsically connected. A big portion of MARTA’s annual operations budget comes from fare collections. More riders = more annual spending for MARTA’s maintenance and staffing needs. Unfortunately ridership stats for MARTA have not been impressive in rece ..read more

I accept that it’s my destiny to be a cranky old man, so embittered by years of urbanism losses that I struggle to appreciate the good things. Nothing will change that. But I fear for the young people today who are excited about urbanism issues. I don’t want to see them grow bitter and hopeless from the lost battles. I want them to win ..read more

Thinking about our visit to the pedestrian-scaled West Village in NYC a few weeks ago and wishing we hadn’t sprawled our cities in a car-centric direction in the late 20th century. All steps toward undoing that damage are appreciated ..read more

Top: Ponce City Market, for reference Bottom: the Civic Center property, at the same scale As of this year, the Civic Center has been closed for 10 years. In 2017, three years after it shuttered, the Civic Center was sold by the city to the Atlanta Housing for $31 million with a promise of affordable housing to come. Two different development groups were selected over the years since then, but both pulled out of the project before producing anything. A third development group is now trying to put something on this property. According to an article in Urbanize Atlanta a couple of months ago ..read more

Darin Givens | April 13, 2024 According to WSB news, Senator Jon Ossoff recently announced that $2 million in federal funds will create 20 new affordable housing units in Atlanta. In general, I think that’s a really good use of public money. But I do have concerns about the location… The homes will be inside the Browns Mill Village development in south Atlanta; pictured is the entrance to it on Browns Mill Road. Per Google Maps, it takes 1.5 hrs to get from here to Midtown on MARTA, versus an 18 minute drive. Or it’s a mile walk to the stop for the 78 bus to East Point (46 minutes total, or m ..read more