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DEL.ICIO.USWe must aspire to make Atlanta as great as it can be
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If we were to time travel to 2020, would we find the Atlanta region in disarray?
Would we see a pollution-infested city with crowded highways, void of parks and natural forests? Would the region be a place of haphazard developments with multiple local governments making independent decisions that don’t relate to their neighbors?
Would there be a disconnect among citizens — either by race, wealth, ethnicity or comfort? Would we find a region within a hostile state, a metro area fractured by a division of urban, suburban and exurban communities?
An alternative vision exists.
We could travel to the future and find a vibrant region filled with people on sidewalks, hopping on street cars, enjoying parks, living in town centers connected by transit and greenways. We could find communities where all kinds of people are living, working and playing side by side — with little regard to age, income, race or ethnicity.
It’s all a matter of what we aspire to be.
One of the key builders of Atlanta — architect/developer John Portman — gave a vision shaped by philosophy and history.
“I want Atlanta to come together, not only physically but socially,” Portman said after a talk on Thursday. “I want Atlanta to realize that it’s a unique place on the planet and can be whatever it wants to be. But we have got to have the desire. We have to believe in Atlanta like we did in the 1960s. Then we had an incredible belief in the kind of city we wanted it to become.”
Back in the 1960s, then-Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. had a “Platform for Progress” — to steer the city toward the future. He called for a modern rail transit system, affordable housing, an enlightened view toward integration, the development of an international city, a home for professional sports and an area attractive to new companies and investments.
So what would be today’s Platform for Progress?
“I want Atlanta to be a 24-hour city,” said Portman, who designed much of the city’s skyline. “We have got to develop more people-friendly environments, which includes parks, streetcars and sidewalks.”
Arthur Blank, a philanthropist, co-founder of Home Depot and major owner of the Atlanta Falcons, said “We can’t give up” on projects like the Beltline, the Peachtree streetcar, ample clean water and green space.
“We’ve got to invest in Atlanta,” Blank said. “The quality-of-life issues are major, major problems. We have got to pay the price and get ahead of those problems. The choice we have is that we can become an average city or a great city.”
Blank said the state needs to help address issues in the Atlanta region, which accounts for about half of Georgia’s population and about 75 percent of its economy.
“We can’t have a state where the governor doesn’t focus on the needs of the region,” Blank said. “Atlanta is the heartbeat of this state. We need unique political leaders who have the vision and moral courage to take a long-term view on what would make Atlanta a great city.”
And that vision needs broad acceptance, according to Penny McPhee, president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
“People outside of Atlanta have to think we are a great city,” she said. “And the least of us in Atlanta also have to think we are a great city.”
Longtime minority builder Herman Russell would like Atlanta to build upon its reputation as a “versatile city with people of all walks of life; a city where people are welcome and see an opportunity to get ahead.”
Within that vision, Russell said, we need investment in the arts, including a new symphony hall and the proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights.
When we spoke, Russell was in Denver at the Democratic National Convention. He had just visited the Black American West Museum and rode back to his hotel on Denver’s light rail system.
“It was free,” Russell said. “I thought: ‘Gee, we need this in Atlanta.’ ”
We do need streetcars, along the Peachtree spine, the Beltline and on routes connecting our city’s top attractions. We also need viable alternatives to the automobile: Commuter rail, high-speed rail and implementation of the regional Transit Planning Board’s Concept 3 plan would give us that.
On our major streets in Atlanta and our regional town centers, we need wide sidewalks with well-marked crosswalks, buried power lines and an active street life of stores, restaurants and galleries close to homes and offices.
We need to get our major festivals — such as the Atlanta Dogwood Festival — back to Piedmont Park where they belong. We need to protect our trees and forests from overzealous clear-cutters and developers by giving our arborists the support they need.
We need to preserve our history, including special places and buildings that remind us from where we have come. And we need to conserve and maintain our green spaces to give people places where they can escape from life’s stress.
We need to support our educational institutions for the sake of our future generations, encouraging Atlanta’s emergence as a center for urban universities.
And we need state and local leaders — from political, philanthropic and business circles — who will work hard to lift our region from mediocrity to greatness.
“Atlanta has so many great people,” Russell said. “I don’t think we’ll sit back and let Atlanta go to hell.”
Let’s prove him right. Let’s transform Atlanta into an extraordinary city of the future.
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By John Naugle
August 31, 2008 9:40 AM | Link to this
This is a wonderful “swan-song” of an article by Ms. Saporta. I am one of many, many citizens of our great city that is very sad to see her leaving the AJC. Her updates have always been informative. In an earlier article, and in Ms. Saporta’s own words, she states: “Thanks to the AJC, since 1981 I have had a front-row seat witnessing the evolution of Atlanta as a city on the world stage and getting to know the players behind the growth of our region. I will be forever indebted to the AJC for giving me that opportunity.” Our nonprofit, Atlanta: City of Peace, Inc. would be very honored and advantaged to have someone of her esteemed experience to work with us. She obviously loves Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthplace which is fast becoming known as Atlanta: City of Peace, a global capital of peace. Ms. Saporta, you see great possibilities for our city, therefore, whatever your chosen path for the future we wish you a memorable odyssey and journey. Please stay connected with our great city so we can excel on the global stage during this New Millennium.
By v racer
August 31, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this
We need to encourage migration of those who will add to the public treasury so that many of these niceties can be accomplished. However, too much wealth is spent on failed public assistance that increases that segment of the population, attempting to force education down unwilling throats at the expense of the achievers and in having to protect citizens from local thugs. Unless these problems are solved, as a first priority, Atlanta is just another Detroit in the making regardless of the improved infrastructure you advocate.
By Charles H. Green
August 31, 2008 10:17 AM | Link to this
Maria Saporta’s departure from the AJC will leave an irreplacable void. A sad sign of the times for print media. Few local American writers are left that have had her same trusted access to our political, business or community leadership. Her beat provided readers with a “glimpse behind the curtain” through a credible prism of pragmatic honesty and time-honed perspective - context nurtured from a lifetime vested in her native Atlanta. No sensationalism, no gonzo journalism, no ‘gotcha’ cynicism. Just a plain spoken witness with a refreshing balance to deliver a story sans the hype. We will miss Maria.
By markattwelve
August 31, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this
I generally agree with Maria’s vision of our city. However, we first need a mayor and council that understand that their primary job is the mundane operations of the city. Street cars, belt lines, and museums come after public safety, clean water and efficient sewers, functioning streets and sidewalks, and other day to day functions.
We need leadership that understands that they have to know where the money is and have a plan to pay for future obligations like pensions before they can ask the rest of us to give them more money. The council and mayor will find that there is no support for a large tax increase next year to pay for these things.
Let’s look at all of these great ideas; but, let’s codify process that don’t allow present and future leaders to oblige the rest of us to pay with future tax increases for poorly planed obligations.
Do that first, then come back.
By Jeremy
August 31, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this
I agree with markattwelve that the city needs to be run more efficiently… Mayor Frankiln made great strides to that end, but the job is far from complete. There is a catch 22 here though. No one seems interested in paying higher taxes, which is understandable, but everyone complains about the city not having the funds to cover infrastructure maintenance or public health and safety needs. Perhaps this will take care of it self as more people move into the city. I would just ask everyone to consider that a few extra hundred dollars a year in exchange for a great city might be well worth the trouble. If the city is great, your property value will be greater, and your experience of living here will be more enjoyable. It’s a win for al of us, assuming that we continue to protect the ability of the working class to live here.
By A Fan
August 31, 2008 8:00 PM | Link to this
Its too bad that the AJC’s behavior ran you off. They are incredibly short sighted.
By Nina Rubin
September 1, 2008 12:09 PM | Link to this
The AJC without Maria Saporta…diminished. Your Monday column starts my week and your ideas keep percolating for the rest of it. I’m a transplant to ATL and I’m staking my claim here. It would be wonderful to see Maria’s vision become a reality.
By Dennis
September 2, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this
I will miss Maria’s columns, but……
Typical for Maria: First give lip service to regionalism and the importance of everyone in the region working together; then go directly to total focus on the City of Atlanta and the area inside the perimeter.
Maria referenced Portman, Mayor Allen, Blank, McPhee and Herman Russell. Does she even know anyone who lives outside the preimeter?
By Michael
September 2, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this
Thanks for this article. I believe Atlanta will be the standard for true future american culture. Just look at how many leaders the City produces. As a people, I believe we cannot be hypocritically, and be real honest, and really work together. We are definetely a business city, not just national, but international. Coca Cola, I believe is the most recogize name globally. We must take it slow, and not produce cheap looking projects, but projects that people cannot ignore and must have postive comments made. I believe the wisdom of great people already here, could be summon up, and those leaders come together. Atlanta possibly could overtake NYC as the financial capital of america. I know that sound far out there and crazy. But talk to Walt Disney, when he was seeing space mountain that did not exist, before constructing epcot center. Atlanta will continue to be pioneering mecca, I will even prophesy that this city will change the way business is done worldwide.
By Jo
September 3, 2008 10:41 AM | Link to this
What could Atlanta be? It could be THE 21st century model for regional planning and growth.
What would it take to get there? Atlanta has lost it’s spirit of working together to create something greater. I see a big gap between those who have brought us this far and folks now drawn to the new Atlanta who are trying to grab their piece of the American Dream at the expense of others.
I’ve lived in many places and have never seen such division and selfish isolation of families who want to live only with others who are “just like us.” The Not in My Backyard mentality runs from city to suburb. Note the recent example of organized objection to private school growth in neighborhoods. Since when are schools a blight on the neighborhod?
Small minds lead to small dreams and small results.
By Buster
September 3, 2008 11:10 AM | Link to this
We need to have developers STOP PLANTING TREES DIRECTLY UNDER POWER LINES. Take a look at the rocket scientists’ work at the Lindbergh Plaza frontage along Piedmont and Morosgo. Those trees will eventually grow up to the power lines, and then money has to be spent trimming them or pruning them into the typical ugly “V” shape. This is going on all over the city. How asinine.
By Buster
September 3, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this
We need to have developers STOP PLANTING TREES DIRECTLY UNDER POWER LINES. Take a look at the rocket scientists’ work at the Lindbergh Plaza frontage along Piedmont and Morosgo. Those trees will eventually grow up to the power lines, and then money has to be spent trimming them or pruning them into the typical ugly “V” shape. This is going on all over the city. How asinine.
By pardon me
September 5, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this
According to Penny McPhee, president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, “People outside of Atlanta have to think we are a great city.”
If Atlanta is really serious about becoming a spot on the map that is known around the world, the power in this city needs to think that way. Look at Dubai - 15 years ago, it was little more than an oil port in the desert. Now its known around the world because of the investments made in its tourism infrastructre. Atlanta may boast about having the largest acquarium in the world, but this is nothing compared to the manner of civil engineering acheivements underway in Dubai. Man-made islands, spinning skyscrapers, etc. Meanwhile Atlanta was practically on its knees begging for a Nascar museum…
By Sid
October 10, 2008 11:01 PM | Link to this
So Atlantans want “People outside of Atlanta have to think we are a great city.” —- This is a joke. I live 125 miles from Atlanta up 85 in SC and absolutely refuse to venture into the area (not just the city) unless my arm is twisted.
Until you “fix” the MAJOR traffic problems, speeding drivers on the Interstates, rude drivers, architectural miss-mash, haughty attitude about southern sport superiority, and below all a bizaarly complex and dirty airport; HOTAtlanta will always be the “Arm Pit” of the South. My choice for true, premier southern cities—Charlotte, Raleigh, and Nashville. Atlanta’s grandeur never was nor will it ever be, no matter how much it “toots” its horn. PS You know you are not in “high cotton” when your premier business is a hardware company (HomeDepot).