No Longer For Rent

The "For Sale" sign went up at the duplex, a few houses up the street from us, a couple of months ago.  This picture was taken in mid-September, when the grass was still green.  I haven't known any of the people who lived here for a couple of years, although Tom and I did talk to one of the residents a couple of weeks ago, when a dog from across the street had gotten out of the yard and there was some discussion about where the dog belonged.  He introduced himself and told us his wife was a teacher at a nearby public school.  The only person who lived there that I ever knew very well was our former neighbor Mathew, who played guitar at block parties.  He used to toss a Frisbee in the front yard for his dog to retrieve.  I suspect Iain has fond memories of watching Mathew and a friend of his shoot off fireworks one 4th of July.

Even though the "For Sale" sign was up, a "For Rent" sign appeared too and I hoped that that indicated that the intent was to keep it as a rental property.  One day a few weeks ago there was a man walking around the front yard.  He asked me if I knew what the place rented for.  I said I didn't know; he said that someone he knew was thinking about buying it and he'd been asked for a second opinion.

Then a couple of weeks ago a well-dressed older woman got out of a car and took down the "For Rent" sign and put it in the trunk of a car.  I asked if the place had rented, and she said no, that it had sold.  Is the owner going to knock it down and build something new?  Probably, she said.

After that the surveyors came, and left orange tape at the edge of the property and and a sign in the front yard.

Monday night when I walked the dog I noticed that there is now a sign that says the property is "Under Contract."  There was a vacuum cleaner and a mattress and springs and small dresser at the curb.  

By this morning the dresser was gone, but the vacuum cleaner and mattress and springs were still there.

The True Cost of Parking

I was in Boston in July and went to an event at Fenway Park.  The Red Sox weren't in town, so we had the ballpark to ourselves.  We got a tour; I got to sit in the press box as well as in one of the coveted seats that were added above the left field wall 10 years ago.  The Red Sox have played in Fenway Park since 1912; in 2012 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.  But here is what was most notable to me about Fenway Park (even though the picture does not capture it very well):

Look on the righthand side of the photo.  On the other side of Yawkey Way, there are bars and restaurants, and I bet it's fun being there on game night even if you don't have tickets to the game.

On the other hand, let's look at the area around Turner Field.

All there is, almost as far as the eye can see, is asphalt.  And yet, it wasn't enough.  The businessmen who run the Atlanta Braves who announced yesterday that the team is moving to Cobb County cited not enough parking along with traffic and "the fan experience" as the reasons for the move.

So they are moving outside the Perimeter, to an area near the junction of I-75 and I-285, and building a brand new stadium with multi-use development around it with bars and restaurants.  And parking -- lots of parking.

Yesterday, when I heard the news that the Braves were abandoning a city that supported them through the bad years for a county that refuses to allow MARTA to be extended there, I went pretty much straight to anger and I'm still there.  I'm angry at Liberty Media, the owner of the Braves, and think they should be honest about it and change the name of the team to the Cobb County Braves.  I'm also angry at multiple city leaders and the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority for not doing more to mitigate the impact of the stadium on the neighborhood, which would have had the additional benefit of "improving the fan experience."

Let's be really clear about this.  Developers can build malls and theme parks, but it's pretty hard to build a neighborhood from scratch.  And they don't want MARTA in Cobb County, so they are going to have to have spaces for 40,000 people and then some to park their cars.  Look at that photo of Fenway Park.  It's not just different from Turner Field because it's a hundred years old and on the National Register of Historic Places; there is almost no where nearby to park, and that's just fine because it's close to the Kenmore Square stop on the Green Line.

The problem is cars.  As long as we drive them every where we go, we *can't* create great places, because we have to have places to park.

Good luck with that theme park.