Atlanta too hot for cool people
July 11, 2007 at 8:23 am by Ken Edelstein in NewsA quiet warrior for smart growth is leaving Atlanta’s sprawl, pollution and increasingly hot climate behind for the Far North. I wonder whether a scary spiral is underway around here: forward-thinking people leaving because they see problems on the horizon.
Jim Chapman shamed the rest of us with his selfless lifestyle and forward thinking. He biked around this town since 1992 while he studied transportation at Georgia Tech and worked in a job advocating saner planning. When I first met him, he was executive director of an organization before its time: Georgians for Alternative Transportation.
Now he’s a planner and researcher for Lawrence Frank and Co., which is run by one of North America’s leading experts on sprawl’s hidden subsidies and costs. Frank is himself an Atlanta refugee: In 2003, he moved from Georgia Tech to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he’s now a professor.
Chapman, his wife Jennifer and their kids are moving back to the couple’s hometown: Rochester, N.Y., on the relatively cool shores of Lake Ontario, where the economy’s been suffering for years. People move all the time. The Chapmans are moving to be close to family, and Genesee Cream Ale. Whatever the reason, Atlanta didn’t have what it took to hold on to a smart guy who’s helped make this community richer.
There was plenty of joking about fleeing north as Atlanta gets hotter at a going-away party for Chapman on Saturday. But the joking reminded me of my growing unease that the region’s increasing heat, severe droughts, special-interest-toting politicians, dependence on coal and pesky mosquitoes are going to turn our metro area into a depressed hell-hole. I’m wondering how widespread the concern is.
Send to a friend:
July 11th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Apart from the effects of the urban heat shield associated (a phenomenon associated with all large cities) has Atlanta really gotten measurably warmer in the recent past?
Hey, even if we are getting warmer it might not be all bad news!
“The temperature in Atlanta is 5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit higher than outlying areas, and this excess heat produces increased rainfall and thunderstorms.”
Imagine how dry and parched it would be without all the sprawl, man.
Source: http://science.nasa.gov/NEWHOME/headlines/essd26apr99_1.htm
One more thing: maybe your publication could do its part to discourage sprawl by refusing to run ads for real estate sales and development? And what’s with those car ads? And what’s with the thousands of miles your drivers log on the roads each week to stock the boxes? If you want to implement some changes, CL might be a good place to start.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Eugene: It’d be nice to believe that the increasingly violent storms brought on by higher temps were a real relief. Unfortunately, whether they’re caused now by the sprawl-island effect you cite or will be caused more and more often by global warming ( http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/nsfc-nss050907.php ), they’re actually a sign that moisture’s evaporating more rapidly out of the soil and that, as the article you reference says, that moisture is being returned to the ground too quickly for plants to absorb. While no one could say it’s in itself a sign of global warming, the agitated hydrological cycle we’re seeing in Atlanta this summer — harsher droughts, more violent storms — is precisely the kind of thing climate models have predicted from global warming since the late 1980s.
As for CL’s environmental citizenship: I’m all for a much steeper gas tax that wouldn’t place businesses in weaker competitive positions just for being good environmental citizens. For the time being, though, you appear to be enjoying a pulp-free, gas-free Loaf via the miracle of the Internet. Enjoy!
July 12th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Climate aside, the thought of moving to a more progressive place (ex: Austin) has crossed my mind. Smaller, more compact, hosts 2 BIG music festivals annually, technology-driven economy…..
To say I’m not in love with Atlanta anymore would be an understatement.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Apparently, the Dust Bowl thought the Global Warming Party invitation read 1930, rather than 2030. Such a social faux pas. haha
July 12th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Ken - driving around using up precious natural resources and polluting the air all the while, just to stock far-flung distribution boxes with a product that is already available on the internet? Such profligacy. Why if I didn’t know better, I would say CL is putting its profit margin ahead of environmental concerns, which is generally something that draws intense scrutiny from alternative weekly type newspapers. Hey, if I didn’t know better I might think you were acting like a capitalist. Well, I might think that if you weren’t in favor of forcing Georgians to shell out even more for gas so your enterprise could be subsidized with tax breaks of some sort, that is. Also, I’m pretty sure you know that increasing fuel taxes hits low income folks disproportianately hard, right? Usually, that’s something I would think you’d be against. I guess when it’s your own interests at stake, things might look a little different?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Why, Eugene, I didn’t realize you cared so deeply for the poor! How touching.
What part of I’m-all-for-raising-gas-taxes-that-would-make-it-more-expensive-for-our-drivers-as-well as-for-other-papers’-drivers-to-deliver-papers do you not understand? Too many folks (some liberals, but particularly Chambliss-style “conservatives”) have gotten stuck in their respective PC doctrines. Like my Great Uncle Irving used to say: “Doctrine, schmoctrine.”
For equity’s sake, though, as well as to mitigate the economic impact, we should raise the gas tax gradually while using part of the money to encourage saner development and transportation patterns (good for working poor — and everyone else to get to their jobs) and part to offset the expense by raising the minimum income level deductible from taxes.
Or we can continue making like Theodoric of York ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodoric_of_York,_Medieval_Barber ), by considering the obvious solutions and then saying: “Nah!”
July 12th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
>Why, Eugene, I didn’t realize you cared so deeply for the poor! How touching.
Ken, I expressed no opinion on poor people either way. As I suspect you are already well aware, what I said was that I would have expected you to have more concerns for their well-being. I don’t have a great uncle to quote here, but if I did I suspect he would reiterate the question about why you guys continue to slaughter trees, log countless road miles, and pollute the air incessantly when your product is available on the internet. Like I said, it’s almost like you’re putting your profits ahead of the environment.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any problems whatsoever with your business model, but I would expect someone who constantly grouses about sprawl and pollution (you) to see that your company could easily qualify for the same harsh criticisms that you aim at others.
In any case, thanks for the responses.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
As a lifelong reader, I have nothing but love for the Loaf. But what’s up with the relentless Atlanta bashing these days? It seems like every week CL prints a new take on what’s irrevocably wrong with my hometown. I appreciate the role of critical journalism in catalyzing positive change. But both the closing sentiments of this article and John Sugg’s piece this week (and many others in recent months) seem to have taken on a tone of dour resignation in the face of imminent municipal doom.
You dudes are depressing me. It’s summertime in Atlanta, and I want to party. I’ll still take Marta to work and show up for my NPU meetings and all those good progressive city things. Just give me some coverage to be happy about, Creative Loafing. I know you still like it here, too.
July 12th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Matt: I was born in Dalton, but Atlanta’s really my hometown, just like you. I also love it, in too many ways to mention here. Hell, we celebrate a lot of great things about Atlanta in every issue, whether it’s the Young Blood Gallery or Corndogorama or the promising young leader of the Beltline (Terri Montague) featured in this week’s issue (and on this blog). But, looking toward the horizon, I also fear we’re facing some really serious problems around these parts — not so much because of our not so-great city government, but because state and metro leaders are ignoring and are even making worse things like transportation, water shortages, education and the tax base. Yeah, let’s celebrate and enjoy our amazingly unique, open, creative culture. In the process, let’s try to make sure we don’t destroy it.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Gas taxes? The only more regressive tax would be on food or air.
Wait!!! I just had a Liberal policy brainstorm beamed into my head from Central Command! Given the obesity levels in America that harm our collective physical and economic health, I propose we tax the living crap out of food. Make it cost three or four times as much as the market would ordinarily charge and people will lose weight and be healthier. Especially with all that walking to work due to $ 5/gallon gas. I know it sounds Draconian, but we know what is good for them better than they do anyway.
Sounds fair, right?
Who cares that working class and poor people have to eat for basic survival? They drive long distances to work because they can’t afford to live near town and that doesn’t stop us from taxing gas, car registrations, toll roads, tires, repair parts, etc. in order to serve the Greater Good *as defined by us of course).
Brilliant!!!
BTW, the government makes 10 times as much on a gallon of gas as a gas company becasue of taxes.