Completing the Streets

First there were the new stop signs on Cumberland, turning the North Morningside-Cumberland intersection into a 4-way stop (although you have to look and see that there are 4 stop signs; there isn't any other signage indicating that it is a 4-way stop).  Then the orange barrels -- a serious quantity of orange barrels -- appeared near the triangular traffic island at the East Rock Springs/Morningside/North Pelham intersection -- and the lane that allowed eastbound cars to go directly from East Morningside to North Morningside was blocked off.  The result has been backed up eastbound traffic on East Morningside at least at the evening rush hour, as the volume of cars on the road exceeds what can make it through a 4-way stop.  This should not have been a surprise to the people who planned this, as the traffic volume at different times of day is a knowable quantity, and 4-way stops are generally recommended only for intersections with "approximately equal" traffic volumes on the intersecting roads (resulting in equivalent obstruction to traffic flow on both roads in both directions) at specified volumes.

There's also work being done at East Rock Springs and Johnson Road, and North Morningside and Highland; work is also planned on East Rock Springs near Morningside Elementary School, but I don't know if that has started yet.  All of this is thanks to Safe Routes to School, a Federally-funded program to make neighborhoods safer for kids to walk to school.  In 2008, Morningside parents wrote a grant to improve safety for children walking to Morningside Elementary School.  Since all the construction started, there's been complaints from drivers about almost everything, from the 4-way stop at North Morningside and Cumberland to the changes at Morningside and East Rock Springs.  At North Morningside and North Highland, the right turn lane for southbound traffic on North Morningside is now gone.  Due to inattentive drivers, this was a hazard for pedestrians -- drivers would only look to their left for cars before turning, and any pedestrian to their right was at risk -- but I understand that that intersection now backs up at peak times as well.

Once the construction started, there was a community meeting arranged by Alex Wan at Morningside Elementary, but that was during the daytime and I couldn't make it.  The Georgia Department of Transportation sent some people out last week at 6 p.m. one evening (presumably to check out how bad the backed-up traffic was on East Morningside).  According to the MLPA, there will be a right turn lane on East Rock Springs, and they are still considering whether or not the East Morningside to North Morningside lane that bypasses the 4-way stop can be re-opened. "This will not be considered if GDOT cannot find a way to slow that traffic as it moves onto N. Morningside." Well, good luck with that. That's the fundamental problem, that people in cars assume that this nice, wide road was built just for them and that the most important thing in the world is for them to be able to get from where they were to where they want to go as quickly as possible. Bicyclists, pedestrians, people walking their dogs, parents with baby strollers are mobile speed bumps that obstruct the flow of traffic and should just stay out of their way.

In September, the Georgia Department of Transportation adopted a Complete Streets policy. The idea behind Complete Streets is that streets need to be designed for all users, not just drivers; Georgia's Complete Streets policy includes accommodation for transit users, something not include in many other states' Complete Streets policies. This is a really good thing and I am delighted to see the GDOT doing something other than planning to build interstate highways through our intown neighborhoods, but even an excellent policy cannot do it all. All the traffic-calming in the world won't slow down Atlanta's sleep-deprived, long-commuting, large coffee-consuming drivers. The angry drivers on the neighborhood email lists say that if the problem is speeding, the police should enforce the speed limits. Well, good luck with that, too; the level of noncompliance with residential speed limits is so high that enforcement would take all the police in the city. So what could be done?  Activist David Engwicht recommends reclaiming streets from cars by moving the social life of the neighborhood closer to the street, putting "something intriguing" in your front yard, and waving at drivers (which might slow them down because they think mistakenly for just a moment that the pedestrian they are endangering might actually be someone they know).

There isn't a simple solution. Engineering changes can be part of the fix, but people have to change their behavior, too. It used to be socially acceptable to smoke, and it really isn't, anymore. It shouldn't be socially acceptable to drive too fast in residential neighborhoods. Maybe every block needs an activist with a radar gun who takes pictures of license plates of speeding cars and posts them on line (something I have thought about doing). But in the meantime, Georgia policy is that pedestrians and bicyclists and transit users have the same claim to Georgia streets and roads as drivers. If there are enough of us out there, maybe it will make a difference. And maybe while we're at it we should wave at the drivers as they speed past us.

Staying the Course

The Eastside Trail on the Beltline had its official opening on Monday.  I've been wanting to get out and walk it again, including the segment north of Virginia Avenue, but I just haven't had time.  But even though I've not explored it as much as I'd like, it's clear it's an amazing opportunity and can lead to private sector investment that can revitalize neighborhoods around our city.

What kind of development revitalizes neighborhoods?  It's not so difficult.  The kind that encourages walking and gets people out of their cars.  If there must be parking, put it behind the housing and retail, but build for density so there are enough people who can get there without driving that you are not relying on huge numbers of cars that demand so much space for parking that things are too far apart and too ugly.  It's diversity, so there's places for all kinds of people to live -- students and young people just out of school, families with kids, empty nesters, retired people.  And diversity too in what's there -- coffee shops and bakeries and farmers markets and neighborhood taverns and art galleries restaurants and local retailers.  All built to human scale, not for cars.  I'm not a city planner, but this is clear to me, and I am sure it's even clearer to the people who do this for a living.

I went to the MLPA Board meeting a couple of weeks ago and there was a report about a recent City Council vote on a requested change to the city's master development plan for the Lindbergh area.  Lindbergh is already home to too many big-box stores and parking lots, and a developer wanted to but a WalMart Superstore there.  There might be a way for a WalMart to work in a location like this (but this is awfully close to an existing Target store) but not with a huge footprint and a huge parking lot surrounding it.  It is currently zoned for high-density residential, and the City Council did not have enough votes to change it.

One of the new neighborhoods in Atlanta that has benefited from the right kind of redevelopment is Glenwood Park.  There's thoughtful design, community involvement, and "nearly ideal walkable density."  It had been an abandoned industrial site that had most recently been used as a concrete recycling facility.  Now there's houses and apartments and retail and public space and (as best I can tell) it's a great neighborhood and a terrific example of how to do redevelopment right.

Now just to the west of Glenwood Park, a developer has proposed to build a WalMart.  This is in the Grant Park neighborhood, and the proposed development -- with at 155,000 sq ft store and more than a thousand surface parking spaces.  The Neighborhood Planning Unit opposes the development, which is inconsistent with the Beltline Master Plan.  For NPU-W, Chairman Edward Gilgor wrote, "This kind of aggressive ignorance is indicative not of an enlightened view of new urbanism, but rather a rather common and pervasive view of old-style suburbanism."

We have wonderful neighborhoods in Atlanta, and with the right kind of development we can have even more of them.  But big-box stores, regardless of the retailer, are just not the right kind. More from Chairman Gilgor:

More fundamentally, the proposal fails in nearly every way to comply with the goals and ideals adopted by Council in committing to the construction of the Atlanta BeltLine and Council’s bold vision of connecting and revitalizing Atlanta. Instead, the proposal seeks to wedge a typically suburban big box store into historic neighborhoods and communities that have strived for true intersection of the live, work play ideal represented by new urbanism. NPU-W urges the Office of Planning to exercise its discretion and deny the application as it had been submitted. Should the applicant decide to submit an application that does meet with the BeltLine Overlay and the Subarea 4 Master Plan, then it will find the surrounding communities, as well as this NPU, to be active partners and supporters in its endeavor.

What kind of neighborhood do you want to live in?  There's an on line petition on the Glenwood Avenue rezoning.  The Beltline is a great opportunity, but let's stick with the plan and do it right.

The Power of Ten

The Project for Public Spaces uses the idea of "the power of ten" in working with communities to help them think about their community's strengths and how to build on them.   Great public spaces are great because there are multiple (say, ten) things you can do there -- you can sit on a bench and watch people, you can get something to eat, you can look at a great piece of public art, you can listen to music, and so on.  Great neighborhoods are great because they have multiple (again, let's say, ten) places within them that are great.  Great cities have multiple great neighborhoods within them.  And so on and so on.  (It's a little reminiscent in more than just title of the famous film Powers of Ten, by Charles and Ray Eames.)

I have been thinking about my neighborhood, and what are our ten great places.  (Since it's a great neighborhood, there must be, say, ten.)  So here's my list.  The order, if it conveys anything, is probably more about proximity rather than importance or priority.

1.  Morningside Presbyterian Church.  Morningside Presbyterian provides wonderful expanse of green lawn, a parking lot where neighborhood children learn to ride bikes and where we have our block parties, picnic tables for a National Night Out event, a wonderful and safe hill for sledding when it snows, and a trail through the green space between Wessyngton and North Morningside.  Several of the 5K races in the neighborhood end at Morningside Presybterian, with the finish line in the driveway from North Morningside and after-race activities in the parking lots. There's a pre-school that is attended by neighborhood children, and a festival fundraiser (now moved to fall) that's a fun event for the neighborhood.  There's an Easter egg hunt.  And there of course is the church itself, which draws its members from the neighborhood and beyond.  They support the larger community with a variety of good works.  Sometimes they host classical music concerts and our neighborhood association meets there.  If I had to identify a place that was the heart of our street, I would say Morningside Presbyterian.

2.  Sidney Marcus Park.  Sidney Marcus Park was created from land that was acquired for the I-485 expressway that the Georgia Department of Transportation planned on building through our neighborhood.  The park is named after Senator Sidney Marcus, who helped stop that from happening.  Now there's a playground and picnic tables and (for an urban park) a fair amount of space for frisbee-throwing and tag and hide and seek.  It's a frequent site for birthday parties (and not just for little kids -- Sarah planned a surprise 16th birthday party there for Caroline.)  The MLPA hosts concerts in the park that are pleasant but attendance is largely limited to parents of pre-school children, something that I'd like to see change.

3.  Haygood Memorial United Methodist Church.  Like Morningside Presbyterian, Haygood is deeply integrated into the neighborhood and touches the lives of many people who do not attend church there.  There's a pre-school and a daycare center and an after-school program there.   That's where we buy our pumpkins in October and our Christmas trees in December; where we park when we go to vote or visit our child's classroom at Morningside Elementary; where the kids play basketball or where their Scout troop meets.   It's also a great church and it also supports a wide variety of community outreach programs.

4.  Morningside Elementary School.  Morningside Elementary is one of the defining institutions of our neighborhood.  It's a good elementary school, but what's extraordinary are the fiercely committed parents who run the Halloween carnival (a fundraiser for the PTA), the book fair, the garden, Family Science Night, the chess club, and so forth.  Most parents of young children get pulled into the parent groups through their child's pre-school or daycare or through friendships made at playgrounds, but if you haven't yet, you will be once your child starts at Morningside.

5.  Alon's Bakery & Market.  Alon's is a place to walk on a weekend morning for coffee and pastry, or to pick up a sandwich for lunch.  You can met a friend there and sit outside.  It's not the food so much that makes it a great place, on my list, although the food is very good - it's that it is a place to go where you can have a cup of coffee with a friend or chat with people that you know while you are waiting in line to pay for your croissants.  There are tables outside and benches where you can sit.  Even though the outdoor view is mostly of a parking lot, it's still a social part of the community.  Maybe someday they will take out some of the parking places and plant some trees and put benches in the shade.

6.  The Morningside Farmers' Market.  Almost every Saturday morning there's a farmer's market in the small parking lot across from Alon's.  What's available varies by season, but it's a way to support local farmers, buy wonderful food, and chat with the neighbors while you wait in line to check out the tomatoes.  Sometimes there's music, and you can walk there from our street.

7.  San Francisco Coffee Company.  Coffee, a pleasant ambiance, local art on the walls, and wifi.  Need I say more?  It's a great place to meet a friend, study for an exam, or get that Boy Scout rechartering package submitted on line.  And you can walk there.

8.  North Highland Avenue & Virginia Avenue.  There is not quite enough at the commercial area near our street (where Alon's is, and Caramba used to be) to be a destination, but just south of us where North Highland intersects Virginia Avenue there is a critical mass of restaurants, bars, shops, and public space to make it a great place.  Almost any time of day or night there are people on the sidewalks.  Coffee at Aurora in the morning, lunch Yeah Burger, dinner at George's, music on the corner.   There's also the Virginia Highland Civic Association's Summerfest festival in early June and events year round in nearby John Howell Park (also created from land acquired for the Interstate That Wasn't Built).

This, as you may note, is only eight great places and not ten.  I thought about the Morningside Nature Preserve, and Herbert Taylor Park, and the new park off Zonolite, and the South Fork of Peachtree Creek, but they all seemed too far away and not really an integral part of the social fabric of the neighborhood.  I probably would have included Caramba Café if they hadn't moved to Decatur Street.  Of course, the Project for Public Spaces folks are clear that ten is an arbitrary number; there could be eight or eleven great places in a great neighborhood just as easily as ten.  But ten's a good number.  So what have I left off?

What a list of places -- physical places -- does not capture is the neighborhood connectivity that is not linked to places.  There are active and effective neighborhood associations in both Morningside-Lenox Park and Virginia-Highland.  There's an email list in Virginia Highland that provides real-time information on lost dogs, cats in trees, yard sales, suspicious persons, BOLOs ("be on the lookout" notices) from the Atlanta Police Department, and the occasional near-real-time report of serious crime.   The result of these active and effective social networks is what Harvard University processor Robert Sampson  has called "collective efficacy" - the degree to which people trust each other enough to work together and shared expectations for action.  Sampson believes that many of the differences between neighborhoods have differences in collective efficacy as a root cause.

Which gets us back to the list of great places.  Great places support communities to develop an engaged and effective neighborhood, and engaged and effective neighborhoods can and do develop and support the great places in their neighborhood.  Wherever you live, think about your neighborhood's great places, and be part of your neighborhood's community life -- it really does matter.  

But I have to get off the computer now.  Here in Morningside, today is the Third Annual Morningside Mile Race and Block Party, which was started by Rick Chey (owner of Doc Chey's) to benefit Fire Station No. 19.   Iain will be running; I'm just going to the party.

Stopped in Traffic

It was a week ago Friday. I had left the office around 5:30. It had been a tough week and we were planning to go out to dinner. The traffic was horrendous -- southbound cars on Johnson Road were backed up onto Briarcliff. I thought that there must have been an accident. I called Tom to tell him it was going to take me a while to get home, that I had never seen Johnson Road backed up like this. It was very slow going; cars turned left or right at side streets or turned around and headed north. I turned right on East Rock Springs when I had a chance, and then was home.

Google Maps traffic showed Highland in red all the way to Ponce de Leon. We took another route to Caramba, on Monroe, where there was traffic but not the bumper-to-bumper, not-really-moving kind of traffic that was on Highland; it was more the normal Friday evening kind of traffic.

I didn't see it until later, but there had been an email earlier:

APD on scene of shooting RT @emseaelle: @ajc why is the intersection of briarcliff and ponce closed off?

That was followed by another email, describing a white Mazda at the northeastern corner of Briarcliff and Ponce, with a blanket-covered body and bullet holes in the side of a car. Springdale Park Elementary had gone into lockdown mode, and children reported seeing a man running with a gun.

There was only a little more (or a little less) information than that in the AJC story that came out that evening. The victim, whose name had not yet been released, had been northbound on Moreland Avenue and stopped at the traffic light at Ponce. (North of Ponce, the street is Briarcliff; south of Ponce, the street is Moreland. I suspect this name change has something to do with Atlanta’s racial history, but I don’t know this for a fact.) While he was stopped at the light, multiple suspects in possibly two vehicles approached his car. There was gunfire; the victim’s car proceeded across Ponce before coming to a stop at the northeast corner of the intersection. The suspects were gone, and the man in the car was dead.

That was all the news that was available over the weekend. Was it a dispute among a group of people that ended badly, or was it random? The idea that a man could be murdered while sitting in a car at a red light not far from Springdale Park Elementary School at 4 o’clock in the afternoon was very disturbing. It could have been a mother on her way to pick up her kids, a man who left work early to make it to his son’s soccer game, a woman on an evening shift on her way to work, a man on the way to the grocery store. It could have been any of us, and we could have had our children with us in the car.

I went to the MLPA board meeting Monday night, and although I got there a few minutes late I did get there in time to hear the end of the security update – the police thought that the victim was targeted by the perpetrators and it wasn’t a random act. We were all glad to hear that, as we didn’t think that people that we knew were likely to shoot us at the corner of Moreland and Ponce de Leon.

On Tuesday, the police released the name of the man who had been killed. His name was Graham Stephen Sisk. He was from Atlanta, and he was 23 years old. On Thursday, the police released surveillance video. The incident that culminated in the shooting might have started “several miles down the road,” but the police wouldn't speculate as to motive. A witness, afraid to give her name, said that a black pickup truck stopped, and a man got out, and shot the man in the white car.

At the MLPA meeting, the speaker said that the homicide was being investigated by an experienced team of officers. There were a lot of people who saw this happen; I hope they could and did provide useful information to the police. It should not be possible to walk up to a car at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, stopped at a traffic light, and shoot someone, and get away with it.  Not in my neighborhood -- not in anyone's neighborhood.

A Street Alive

Yesterday was Atlanta Streets Alive, an open streets event that has been sponsored in Atlanta by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition since 2010.  I had not heard of it until last spring, when Iain and I walked the route on North Highland from Virginia Avenue to Corley Street.  It was wonderful to be out in the city and see the street with new eyes, as a place one could walk instead of driving.  So when we heard there was going to be another Atlanta Streets Alive event this fall, we were looking forward to it, and we weren't disappointed. 

The Eastside Trail on the Beltline is very close to North Highland in Inman Park, and this time there was a loop incorporating the Beltline from Elizabeth Street to Virginia Avenue, for a total of about 5 miles.   The Beltline segment was okay (but not nearly as much fun as walking it at night in the lantern parade) -- I have been meaning to get there to see the artwork ever since Art on the Beltline started -- but the part that we enjoyed the most was the commercial section of North Highland through Virginia Highland and Poncey Highland.  The street was full of people, and bicyclists, and kids with hula hoops, and music.  It was like a party and everyone was welcome.

The team from Free Poems on Demand was there again and we commissioned a poem.

We played cornhole in Virginia Highland and bocce in Inman Park.  Other people were playing hockey and bicycle polo.

There were neighborhood-shaped jigsaw puzzle pieces, with magnets on the back, in the areas near Freedom Park, courtesy of the Freedom Park Conservancy; we collected the whole set.  

Last time I didn't take many pictures but this time I made sure to have new batteries and an empty memory card in my camera before I headed off.  But the pictures I took don't reflect the experience of the event.  The street looks empty, probably because I didn't take pictures when I was surrounded by people and bicycles.  It was wonderful to be out on a Sunday afternoon, enjoying the city.  This time we overheard lots of conversations about cars and bikes and walking; no one ever says driving on North Highland is enjoyable -- no one, ever -- but walking was wonderful.  We were waiting for the light to cross Ponce de Leon, late in the afternoon, and a man in an Atlanta Bicycle Coalition T-shirt commented to us that it just showed how terrible the traffic is, the contrast between the cars on Ponce and the "street full of life" behind us and ahead of us on Highland.

There was a participatory art project on the Beltline, in which we were invited to write something on a white satin ribbon and tie it on to poles as part of a display.  It wasn't clear to me what we were supposed to write -- a wish, a prayer, or what's important to us -- so I wrote a wish.  My photo didn't quite get the whole thing, but it got the most important part:

That's mine, just above the center of the photo.  It says "Cities for people not cars."   Open streets events are not just for fun, so we all have something to do on a Sunday afternoon.  The intention is to transform the way we see the city, and our streets, and transportation options in the city, and to make us all advocates for change.  

Count me in.