Atlanta Streets Alive, Back in West End

It was a few weeks ago that the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition brought Atlanta Streets Alive - the Coalition's wonderful Open Streets event - back to the West End.  They had been there last spring for the first time.  That time, after I finished my volunteer shift in the information tent, and was walking around in my Atlanta Streets Alive logo T-shirt with "Volunteer" on the back, several people approached me to ask about the event.  What is this?  Why are the streets closed?  So I told them that it was an event to get all of us to experience our city on foot or on a bike, that it had taken place (thanks to the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition) over the last several years in other neighborhoods, but it was the first time it had come to the West End.  This time, my volunteer assignment was to be a greeter, so I approached people and asked them how they were doing.  Sometimes I asked if they lived in the neighborhood and if they said "yes," I asked if they participated last year.  I think every person I asked said "yes" to that. 

It had rained in the morning but the event was pretty much rain-free.  I suspect that the weather kept some people away who otherwise would have been there, but it didn't keep us away.  This was our first Atlanta Streets Alive on bicycles.  I had to work the first part of the event, so Iain took off on his own.  Early on he ran into Cole from Terminus Legion, and ended up riding with him around the route.  

The greeter business was slow, but I talked to the people I could talk to and got my picture taken many times by the Coalition's photographer, who once removed my backpack so the "Volunteer" would show on the back of my T-shirt.  I haven't seen any of his pictures, but here are some of mine.  Since the last Atlanta Streets Alive event, I bought a bicycle, so this was my first time to do the event on a bike.  As a result, almost all my pictures are from when I was working as a greeter.

Here's the group assembling before the bicycle parade.  I was glad to see the sousaphone players were back, but I didn't get to hear them play.

I told this woman she looked fabulous and asked if I could take her picture.  She graciously agreed.

Here's Chantelle Rytter on one of the famous phoenix bicycles.

And someone else on another one.

And someone on a three-wheeled bike without a phoenix.

This is the only picture I took after I finished my volunteer shift and headed off on my bike.  This area (near the Shrine of the Black Madonna) was very congested so I was walking my bike through the crowd and got to see these women playing drums, up close.

But mostly, once the volunteer shift was over, I rode my bike.  I traded my "thanks for volunteering" coupon for a can of Fat Tire beer and discovered that it's not that easy to ride a bike while drinking a can of anything, so I threw it out after a mile or so.  Somehow I missed the team from Free Poems on Demand who were there somewhere, but I didn't see them.

I was on my second loop around the route when I saw Iain seated at a picnic table having chicken and vegetables with Cole and some other people, including a couple of guys who used to live in the neighborhood.  This was  at the same community organization where we'd gotten food the last time, so I knew it would be good.  So I stopped and after I got my plate they made a place for me at the table and there was great conversation.  We had to leave before the others because Tom was going to pick us up soon.  

So it was another terrific Atlanta Streets Alive.  If it wasn't for this event, I probably would not have bought a bike.  And last week, while I was out of town, Tom bought one too.  So we'll be ready for the next Streets Alive event, which is September 27, on Highlnd.  Don't miss it.

Atlanta Streets Alive -- North Avenue Edition

Last Sunday was Atlanta Streets Alive, the wonderful open streets event organized by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.  This time the route was from the intersection of Virginia Avenue and Highland Avenue south on Highland through Poncey-Highland into the Old Fourth Ward, then north on Boulevard to North Avenue, then past the Ponce City Market and Historic Fourth Ward Park back to Highland, in a lower-case sans serif "d" shape, 4.5 miles in length.

I volunteered for the early shift to help with tactical urbanism projects.  We met on the stretch of North Avenue between the Historic Fourth Ward Park and Ponce City Market.  Our first task was spray painting the slates of some wooden shipping pallets, repurposing them as mobile blackboards.

Next, we constructed protected bike lane in along the Ponce City Market-side of North Avenue, with plastic bollards, plants, and sandwich board signs.  A man with a leaf blower came when we were done and cleared debris from the pavement.

Once that was done, I got a taco from Tex's Tacos food truck.  

The young woman who took my order said it was her boyfriend's truck and this was his third week of operation.  She recommended the chicken taco and I got one of those and one carne asada.  They were both terrific.  (Business must have been ended up being good because when I came by with Iain later, they were out of carne asada.)

I was still on North Avenue when the bike parade came through, with the famous huge flying phoenixes.  I think that's Chantelle Rytter in the lead.  

By then Iain was on his way home from mock trial, so I went home to meet him and then we walked the route on foot.  I took lots of pictures, and if you weren't there, I'll show you a little bit of what you missed.

There were people.  I think this couple was on Highland.

There were lots of children.  Before I took this photo I asked a woman standing nearby if I could take it.  She said "sure," and as I was taking the picture, she hastily added that this little girl wasn't actually with her.

There were friends and neighbors.  We saw Mia at Java Vino.

Even the APD officers seemed to be having a good time.  This was at Highland and Ponce De Leon.

There were dogs.  This one was near Ponce City Market, and the one below was near Blind Willie's.

This faux dog was spotted on Boulevard, on the back of a bicycle.  I think I'd seen the rider-bike-mannequin without the dog head previously at one of the Streets Alive events on Peachtree.

We spotted this pup at Java Vino and Iain and I were both struck by how much he looked like a younger version of Leonard; he has the same longer hair on his ears that Leonard does.  We told his owners that he looked like our dog, a Labrador retriever-Australian shepherd mix.  They were surprised and said their dog was also a Lab-Australian shepherd mix.  And it doesn't show in the photo, but he also has a patch of white on the chest and long white coarse fur at the tip of his tail, just like Leonard has.  So I bet this is what he looked like when he was a puppy.  If he ever needs a picture of himself as a pup for a project at dog school, I'll just use this one.

There was music. There was blues at Blind Willie's.  (There also was jambalaya, which Iain got for lunch before he had the taco.)

There was zumba at several points along the route.  This was near Highland and St. Charles.

There was a marching band.  We saw them later, performing at North Avenue and Freedom Parkway.

There was dance music on Boulevard.

And this trio was performing on North Avenue, near Ponce City Market.

There were plenty of other things to see and do.  There were people playing bicycle polo and a little kids' soccer field on the parking lot on Highland across from American Road House.  Iain and I played a couple rounds of corn hole; neither of us did very well.  On Highland, there was ping pong.

On North Avenue, there were acrobats from the Imperial Opa Circus.

The poets from Free Poems on Demand were set up on Highland.  As we always do, we requested a poem -- this one about the Braves moving to Cobb County -- but we didn't wait for it and were unable to circle back by to pick it up.  I need to follow up with them on that, as this is always one of our favorite Streets Alive activities.

This wonderful collection of portraits (part of this year's Art on the Beltline) was on North Avenue.

There were a couple of large constructions on Boulevard that were created by architecture students at Southern Poly State University.  This is one of them.

 And there were the other tactical urbanism interventions along the route.  The blackboards we had painted were all along the route, and cross walks had been decorated with sidewalk chalk, in a sort of temporary intersection repair-type intervention.

 This one, on Boulevard, was set up as a participatory color-by-number activity.  Iain and I colored in one of the large red squares before we moved on.

And here's the protected bike lane that we'd constructed earlier, when we came back by later.

It was a great event, and I'm so glad we went.  There were a couple of disappointments, though, besides not getting back by the Free Poems on Demand table to pick up our poem.  The commercial areas of Highland were totally packed with people and bikes and activities, but Boulevard seemed underutilized.  Atlanta Medical Center should have had displays and health screening in front of their facility, but once again they were completely missing.  The only sign of life we saw in that stretch of Boulevard was this stethescope-carrying guy in scrubs who was on a cigarette break.  

There also was nothing going on this time at Fort Street United Methodist Church.  One bright spot on Boulevard was a lively scene at Blueprint Church, near the color-by-numbers crosswalk, 

This was the last Streets Alive event of the year; already I'm looking forward to the next one.  And if Atlanta Medical Center needs any ideas about what kinds of activities they should have, the next time Streets Alive is on Boulevard, they should feel free to get in touch with me.  And maybe they could include some information on smoking cessation.

Addendum from October 6, 2014:  I got the poem by email!  Thanks to Zac Denton for writing it and Jimmy Lo for emailing it.  Here it is:

Walking in the Rain

The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition hosted the second Atlanta Streets Alive event of the year a couple of weeks ago, on May 18.  This was the first Streets Alive event I attended without Iain, who had left for Dresden a few days earlier.  Rain was forecast; I had volunteered for the set-up shift, and told Tom that that was the only time I *had* to be there, that if it was raining hard I would come home after that.  It was also unseasonably cool, and expecting to get wet, I wore my long underwear.  This was not typical Atlanta weather.

My assigned partner and I set up water stations along the north end of the route but that was all that they needed us to do, so after we were done I got lunch at Cafe Agora.  I had ordered it to go but while I was there it started to rain pretty hard so I stayed there to eat.  While I was there the police officer assigned to the nearby intersection stopped in for coffee.  He didn't look very happy.  It didn't look like it was going to be a great afternoon.

The participation was down, for sure -- I've not seen a head count for this one -- but it was still fun.  While it did rain off an on throughout the afternoon, if you were dressed for it, you were fine.  There was the bicycle parade, heading north on Peachtree.

There wasn't much live music this time, but there was recorded music being played at several places along the route, and these two volunteers were dancing.

The wet pavement provided a good surface for chalk art, which I saw in several places.

There were lots of people taking pictures, and I took some pictures of people taking pictures.  The man with the suitcase, who I imagined was from out of town and had stumbled onto the closed street and been surprised, was taking a picture of a musician at Peachtree Center.

These young men formed an impromptu chorus line in the middle of Peachtree Street.

And these two older ladies were being photographed as another photographer captured the scene.

I'm not quite sure what this was but it would scare me to have it this on the back of my bicycle.  It was (I should add) not an actual person.

There were a couple of food trucks and other vendors in the usual place, over the interstate, and when I went by the first time business was very slow.  They were busier when I came by the second time and I was hungrier, so I got an ice cream sandwich from Atomic Ice Cream.  It was unequivocally the best ice cream sandwich I ever had.  I talked with the man selling them about the weather.  I told him that I had been astonished when I lived in Boston that people ate a lot of ice cream, all year round.  He told me that Seattle had the highest per capita consumption of ice cream sandwiches in the country.  I said, well, it's a Seattle kind of day here today, so I guess it's a good day for an ice cream sandwich.

As it happened, a couple days later I left for Seattle, and the weather was fabulous.  Clear and sunny.

Atlanta Streets Alive -- West End

On Sunday, Atlanta Streets Alive came to West End.  Atlanta Streets Alive is an open streets event organized by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.  The first one I attended was in May 2012, when Atlanta Streets Alive was on Highland Avenue.  Since then, they've been back to Highland with a loop on the Eastside Trail of the Beltline, have been on Peachtree Street a couple of times, and extended the the Highland loop to Boulevard.  I think I've been to every single one, since then, and have progressed from attendee to volunteer to $12 a month supporter.  (On Sunday, my volunteer assignment was to work in the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition's tent, getting people signed up for memberships.  One woman told me, well, I don't really ride my bike that much.  I told her I was a member and I don't even have a bike.  She didn't join, but lots of other people did.)

I was in the tent working at 2 when the event started.  The opening remarks were close by but the bullhorn the speakers were using didn't work well and I couldn't hear much.  But Ceasar Mitchell, the President of the Atlanta City Council, stopped by and introduced himself, and later Cleta Winslow, representing District 4 on the Atlanta City Council, came by but she didn't introduce herself.  We did have a good view though of the Seed & Feed Marching Band's opening, non-marching, set.

After I finished my volunteer shift, Tom dropped Iain off and we headed east on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard.  Although the estimate for the number of participants was substantially less than some previous events, the music was absolutely the best of any Atlanta Streets Alive event I've attended, and I am not talking about the Feed & Seed Marching Band.  There was music in front of churches and in parking lots along Ralph David Abernathy.  It was amazing.  And I didn't even take a picture at the Wren's Nest, where the Atlanta Jazz Festival had set up a stage.

These musicians were playing on the steps at West Hunter Street Baptist Church.

A sousaphone ensemble was playing near Howell Park.

There had been a band earlier outside the Shrine of the Black Madonna, but they were packed up and gone by the time we got there.  But there was great music at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.

There was another band outside the West End Performing Arts Center, but I didn't take a picture there either.

The route took us south on Murphy Avenue, past The Metropolitan, which Tom had described to me as "kind of like the Goat Farm," except that unlike the Goat Farm, the Metropolitan has actual goats.

It also has this really cool tower, which appeared to be inhabited, based on the curtains covering the windows.

There was a giant chalk board where we were invited to write down something we wanted to do before we die.  I had to think about it for a moment; I wrote "walk through Europe."

Then the route took us across West Whitehall Street and west on White Street, which took us to the Westside Trail on the Beltline, which we followed back to Gordon-White Park.  There were a few side trails, and the Streets Alive team really wanted us to stay on the correct route.

There was more.  We got Jamaican food for a late lunch from the women's agricultural group set up near Gordon-White Park, and a poem from Jon Cilberto of Free Poems on Demand.  ("I remember you," he said, when Iain and I approached the table.  To Iain, who was still trying to come up with a subject for a poem, he said, "you want something political.")  We picked up our poem on our second cycle past the table.

There were kids drawing in the street with sidewalk chalk, gymnasts doing flips and jump ropers doing complicated double dutch jump roping.  

There were people on bikes, on foot, in wheelchairs, on scooters, and on roller blades.  It was a great afternoon to walk around the city, listen to some music, eat some food, walk around some more.  

Did you miss it?  Not to worry -- the next one's back on Peachtree, on May 18.

See you there.