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...]

Highland Park Has #1 Amenity Sought by Home Buyers

A 2008 report by the National Association of Homebuilders touted greenways and trails as the number one amenity that people look for when picking a new neighborhood.  Highland Park sales certainly seem to substantiate that claim. One third of the planned 66 townhomes have sold or are pending so far this year for John Wieland Homes.  The builder can't seem to build them fast enough. And at mid-300 to high-600 thousand dollars a pop. The development sits at the juncture of Inman Park and Old … [Read more...]

Location-efficient Living on the BeltLine

As one of Georgia's first certified EcoBrokers, I am naturally focused on residential energy-efficiency. Over time I've learned that the location-efficiency of a residence usually trumps the energy-efficiency in terms of savings to the home owner. Consider the following scenario [courtesy of Invisible Energy by David Goldstein]: A buyer purchases a home at the approximate median US home price of $175,000. If the buyer puts down 20% and finances $140,000 over 30 years, here's roughly what … [Read more...]