Let me just say from the outset that I’m a park guy. I devote a lot of energy to preserving old and establishing new greenspace in the urban landscape. The BeltLine is a linear park, so you'll understand my affinity. When I moved to the Old Fourth Ward in 2004, the BeltLine was a vision, but the reality was a corridor covered in kudzu – wrong kind of greenspace. Parts of the neighborhood had begun to show some life, but from where I lived a walk to Cabbagetown was the closest beer. Edgewood … [Read more...]
Featured Articles on the BeltLine Lifestyle
Check out these in-depth articles about the coolest people, places, and things to do on Atlanta's BeltLine and it's environs. Some topics deserve more detail, and here's where you'll tap into feature-length articles about what's happening now and what's next for a project that will never be completely finished.
Do you have a unique perspective you would like to share about the BeltLine? Want to sow some idea seeds on how to make Atlanta's best project since the Olympics even better? We're always looking for good, relevant content and like to feature guest posts by some of the area's best wordsmiths. We're leaving the 10,000-foot view to other sites and want to bring the lens down to the up-close-and-personal, man-on-the-street level.
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P3 Could Fast Track Streetcars on the BeltLine
Atlanta’s very first electric streetcar was an entirely private venture. Joel Hurt owned some dirt outside the city that he developed into Inman Park, Atlanta’s first planned subdivision. In 1886 Hurt connected Inman Park to his Equitable Building, Atlanta’s first downtown skyscraper, with a streetcar that ran east and west on Edgewood Avenue. The Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railway Company would claim yet another first as America’s first profitable streetcar line. The era of the … [Read more...]
ATL Snow Jam ’14: Another Case For Walkable Intown Living
As I walked to my meeting at Condesa Coffee, I noticed that the accumulating snow was starting to get slippery. Not a big surprise, I thought, as the temperature was dropping fast. Less than an hour into my meeting the Barista said that they were closing early, due to worsening travel conditions. That’s when I noticed the stalled traffic on Boulevard, waiting to get on the 75/85 Downtown Connector. As it turned out, many of those drivers would have been better off not using the Interstate … [Read more...]
Historic Fourth Ward Park, Meet Eastside Trail
Although they're only separated by a couple hundred feet, Historic Fourth Ward Park and the BeltLine Eastside Trail have seemed worlds apart due to steep and brambled topography, fences, the ruins of an old railroad trestle, and a cave dwelling troll. Just kidding about the troll. There is simply no direct way for those enjoying the 12 acre park, playground, and pond to access the linear park that is the Eastside Trail, or vice versa. That is soon to be remedied with a "gateway" trail. The … [Read more...]
Atlanta BeltLine Bicycle Shop
Location, location, location – we’ve all heard that joke and Atlanta Beltline Bicycle Shop (ABBS) is LOL. Every day the Eastside Trail of the Beltline is heavily used by active urbanites. Some of these urban travelers are bringing bicycling back to the ATL. In the late 19th century there were more bike shops on Peachtree Road than banks. Bike races at the velodrome were bigger than baseball with the Atlanta Crackers, and ladies and gents rode their bicycles out to picnics and parties. Today … [Read more...]
Happy Trails to Trader Joe’s Midtown
Three years ago we were in a pickle. We had started 2009 with the mantra “On the BeltLine in ‘09!” I wanted to relocate to a BeltLine neighborhood and focus my real estate career on what I saw as the evolution of Atlanta. By Thanksgiving we had relocated to the Old Fourth Ward, but my real estate business had virtually flat lined due to the financial aftershocks of 2008. Then we decided that my wife couldn’t continue her employment in a toxic work environment at a southside nursing home. She … [Read more...]
Four Loans to Get Your Greenovation Done
Working with Home Buyers on historic home greenovation projects has been a specialty of my real estate career. The greenest properties in Atlanta are those that are already built in the 45 historic neighborhoods that touch the BeltLine. A search of FMLS today for homes classified as “Fixer Uppers” shows a total of 155 on the market, many of which are in said nabes. So there’s plenty of stock available to purchase and renovate for those kindred spirits out there. Of course, to pull off a … [Read more...]
Our Atlanta Botanical Gardens Adventures
There are many wonderful advantages to living just two blocks from the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail, one of them being an enjoyable bike ride to The Atlanta Botanical Gardens! It first occurred to us to pedal to the petals this summer when we took a little “stay-cation” to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. Turns out it was a very good idea. We rode the Eastside Trail to Monroe and stopped for lunch at Woody’s. We each had a Polish Sausage Dog and a Sweetwater 420 - DEELISH! Then, … [Read more...]
Saturday Morning on the Eastside Trail
That's Sugar pictured above. She loves to walk...and meet people….and eat. So do I! That’s why we spend our Saturday mornings on the BeltLine Eastside Trail.. We start our morning routine on Auburn Avenue in the King Historic District in The Old Fourth Ward which is just a couple of blocks west of the BeltLine. We stroll past Lotta Frutta offering a nod and a “Good morning” to the folks sitting outside enjoying their Latin American fruit cups, smoothies, and breakfast fare. Then we cross over … [Read more...]
A Circle of Forest in the City in a Forest
Typically when you think urban, you think of concrete, asphalt, iron, glass, stone -- lots of hardscape and not-so-many trees. Rarely do you think of any metropolitan space as a green oasis, but Atlanta has long held a unique position in large metropolitan areas as the “City in a Forest” due to it’s abundance of trees. National Geographic recently gushed: For a sprawling city with the nation’s ninth-largest metro area, Atlanta is surprisingly lush with trees—magnolias, dogwoods, Southern … [Read more...]
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