Peachtree Street Alive

Atlanta Streets Alive, the wonderful Open Streets event that is sponsored in Atlanta by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, came to Peachtree Street on May 19.  The first Atlanta Streets Alive event I attended was last spring, when North Highland was closed to cars between Virginia Avenue and Inman Park.  Iain and I spent a Sunday afternoon exploring the neighborhood in a way I'd never seen it - it was amazing.  Then there was another one in the fall that included the same route but added the Beltline trail.  It was good to get people on the Beltline, and we enjoyed it, but there wasn't the density of bicycle hockey, performance art, and street food, with the event spread out over a longer route.

This spring the event -- now with major support from the City of Atlanta, thanks to Mayor Kasim Reed -- moved to Peachtree Street.  The route went from West Peachtree to Ellis Street, starting north of Woodruff Arts Center and ending downtown.  The weather had seemed to not be cooperating, with heavy rain forecast, but the rain was supposed to end by early afternoon, and by the time 2 p.m. came around, the rain had stopped.  So Iain and I packed up our rain jackets (just in case) and headed off.

The street closure at the north end of the route was confusing motorists -- a police officer was waving them to turn around but they seemed incredulous.  There was no one else there, at that point, but Iain and I walked down the middle of the street just because we could do it.  There wasn't much activity until we got close to Woodruff Arts Center.  The Museum of Design Atlanta had a bicycle decorating activity set up.  Since we were bikeless, we didn't stop but we appreciated the idea.  Nothing seemed to be going on at the Arts Center other than music playing through loud speakers.  At Colony Square, there was a stage and more amplified music, but nothing that looked like we wanted to stop and check it out.

On down the street, we had lemonade at the Atlanta Women's Club and took a tour.  I didn't know the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta was on Peachtree, but we walked by that and also by a FDA building that I also had never noticed.  There were performers outside the Laughing Skull.

We found a water station at 5th and Peachtree that hadn't been set up.  We (I guess that would more accurately be "I") decided to remedy that, so we set the table up, assembled the corrogated cardboard recycling containers, and took one of the empty 5 gallon water jugs across the street to the taqueria/bar across the street and asked them to fill it up with water for us.  They did and we had a completed water station as our contribution to the success of Atlanta Streets Alive -- and thanks to the guys at Escorpion for helping us out.

Our favorite Atlanta Streets Alive activity, Free Poems on Demand, was set up in front of the Fox Theater.  Jon Ciliberto took Iain's order for a poem about MARTA ("how bad it is" was what Iain said; I suggested a more positive approach of how much better it could be) and we continued on down the street.  

There was the REI climbing wall, food trucks near the section of the street that crossed the Downtown Connector, and tables and chairs where people were enjoying their food.  

We saw friends and neighbors on bicycles and browsed through the Army surplus store.

Outside the Shakespeare Tavern there were costumed actors but disappointingly no Shakespeare being performed on the sidewalk.

We counted churches on Peachtree (seven, as I recall) and marveled that on Atlanta's Main Street there were boarded up buildings.

On the way back we picked up our poem, which Jon read to us.  

Late in the afternoon the rain started again, but only lightly.  Most of us took out our rain jackets and umbrellas, but some people took refuge on the patios of bars and restaurants; they were full with people, watching the people walking with their dogs, riding their bikes, walking with friends and family.

No one walks on Peachtree; it's a street that the cars own. Except for a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, when at the last minute the weather mostly cooperated and for just one afternoon we got to see the street how it might be, if only we had the will to do it.