Fresh Loaf

1) Visit the 17th Street Art Fair for its final day at Atlantic Station.

2) In the tradition of the Harlem Renaissance, Linda Villarosa discusses her new novel, Passing for Black, at Charis Circle.

3) Brian Henson, co-CEO of the Jim Henson Company, presents his oeuvre, The Future of Digital Puppetry, at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

4) Stop by Eyedrum for the Gimme Shelter Benefit for the Madhousers, builders of shelter for the homeless.

5) Relive history and take the Grant Park Tour of Homes.

(Image by Dagmar Bruehmueller)

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Awesome news. Developers say the full-service grocer planned for the old Atlanta Dairies location will be a “mainstream” store, but not a high-end chain such as Whole Foods or Fresh Market. Regardless, if you live nearby, you’re getting a place within walking distance to buy food.

(Thanks to Paul Donsky at the AJC)

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As promised, the Beltline continues ahead. Planners for the southeast quadrant — the segment of the massive project that curves south of I-20 and encompasses Grant Park — will unveil the draft park master plan for Boulevard Crossing on Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., at the Animal Rescue Center at Zoo Atlanta. The 21-acre park is one of several new greenspaces created by the Beltline.

Stakeholders who attended a recent study group said they favored an urban confluence concept — one that would blend aspects of the city with a traditional park idea. You’d see an amphitheater with a great lawn a la Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

To view the plan, click here. Then click on “Draft Park Master Plan” under the “Boulevard Crossing Master Plan” category. A more detailed map will be shown at the Feb. 21 open house. Maps will also be on display at East Atlanta and Georgia Hill libraries after the presentation.

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Beltline planners presented the latest vision for the Southeast Study Area of the public works project to the public last night. The area in question — essentially the lower-right corner between I-20 and Hill Street — is home to Grant Park and ripe with pockets for development. As coffee-sipping residents and stakeholders milled past the easel-supported maps in Zoo Atlanta’s ARC Building, planners and study-area consultants were nearby to hand out Post-it notes for comments and to answer questions.

People in attendance said they are optimistic about the Beltline, and were more than willing to dole out their input, ranging from everything to parking for a proposed amphitheater to the location of a maintenance facility for whatever transit mode planners decide to implement. The vagaries of pro/con arguments about the project itself have given way to more specific examples of what people want to see. Comments posted on the maps and charts focused more on the details — “Trolley YES! Heavy-rail NO!!!” read one comment card — rather than generic suggestions.

The working draft of the Southeast Study Area now places several activity hubs — including retail and employment centers — near the proposed transit line. Others would be located closer to Chosewood Park and Englewood Manor. The business community has already shown a great interest in the area surrounding Boulevard Crossing Park, a 21-acre chunk of greenspace south of Grant Park that will be one of several new parks created because of the Beltline.

Planners presented stakeholders with three different concepts for the greenspace, and said people have been leaning in favor of a plan that balances urban and nature elements — an amphitheater and a great lawn reminiscent of Central Park’s Sheep Meadow, for example — more than the other visions that focus on active and passive recreation, respectively.

Also on hand: representatives from Trees Atlanta, a self-explanatory nonprofit spearheading a “museum of trees” along the project, and officials from Atlanta Beltline Inc.’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board. James Alexander of the board said it is now beginning the discussion phase of determining how the $42 million guaranteed over the project’s first five years would be used to create affordable housing.

When queried about which transportation features posed the biggest challenge to the Southeast Study Area, John Funny, a transportation consultant working on the project, said it was the resident response to the idea of a tunnel. The proposed layout includes only one at-grade — or street-level — crossing, and the rest of the proposed transit would pass through a tunnel constructed to accommodate the surrounding trails and park space. Residents, Funny said, were concerned about possible crime and vandalism that tunnel may attract. Planners think the development — both existing and new — and the number of people around the area would deter crime.

Funny — which is a great name — raised another question currently being debated by the city and the Georgia Department of Transportation: Just what is Boulevard? It’s an interesting give-to-get issue. The city says Boulevard is a collector street, meaning that it accepts traffic from major roads and then disperses it to side streets. DOT says it’s a “minor arterial.” That classification means certain speeds have to be established to keep traffic moving through the area. If residents want the street to have more traffic lights or other features aimed at slowing motorists down, Boulevard must be classified as a “collector.” But in doing such, it loses the eligibility for federal funds that only a “minor arterial” can claim.

A roundabout — a large, multilane traffic circle that helps handle flow and traffic speed — is proposed for Englewood and Boulevard. Also being discussed are chicanes — strips of grass or blockers jutting out into the road — but only along side streets.

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It’s a damn shame Curt and Christine Mann, the Grant Park couple who erected a 45-foot-tall wind turbine on their property, don’t live in eco- and rebate-friendly San Francisco — they’d be getting paid for all this. But we’re not San Francisco, and outraged neighbors of the Manns filed a suit this week in Fulton County Superior Court requesting the city pull the couple’s building permit and require them to file for a certificate of appropriateness with the Atlanta Urban Design Commission — who, with such a cool-sounding name, you wish would have an awesome website. But alas, it doesn’t.

It’s been said once before on this blog, but I’ll echo the statement because it is worth repeating. I applaud and encourage any effort by anyone out there to invest in renewable energy, recycle or make better choices not just for the environment, but for their fellow residents. It’s smart, and you might save some cash. But a huge turbine in an area that doesn’t even receive enough wind needed to eke out the benefits? Commendable for the awareness, but fruitless in the end.

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Cost of Skystream 3.7 power-generating wind turbine atop a 45-foot tower installed by Mann family in Grant Park: $15,000

Average wind speed Skystream 3.7 turbine requires for “best results,” according to manufacturer: 12 mph

Average wind speed in Atlanta, according to U.S. Department of Energy wind maps: 0-9.8 mph

Size of “unobstructed” property Skystream 3.7 requires to work, according to manufacturer: 0.5 acre

Size of Grant Park neighborhood residential lot on which Skystream 3.7 was erected: 0.1618 acre

Amount of electricity Skystream 3.7 could produce on an ideal site in Atlanta: 0.15 kilowatts per hour

Amount of electricity saved by replacing two 100 watt light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs: 0.15 kilowatts per hour

Cost of 23 watt Mini Twist Compact Fluorescent Bulb at Lowe’s closest to Grant Park: $7.27.

Sources: AJC, Southwest Windpower, Fulton Board Of Assessors, U.S. Department of Energy, TreesYesTowersNo.org, Lowe’s

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Last Friday, Atlanta’s Board of Zoning Adjustment approved Curt and Christine Mann’s plan to erect a 45-foot power-generating wind turbine in the yard of their Grant Park home. Many of the Manns’ neighbors oppose the city’s decision.

The way the AJC presents the turbine controversy, you’d think that the neighborhood dispute is a battle between an ecology-minded family and a group of grumpy, hypocritical NIMBYs.

Tit:

The Manns say they’re simply committed to relying less on fossil fuels in order to help curb global warming.

Tat:

In 2000, three-quarters of the voters in the precincts that include Grant Park voted for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore over George Bush. Gore went on to star in “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about global warming that won an Academy Award this year.

But the Manns’ tower would be ineffective, nothing more than a giant garden ornament, according to opponents.

Absent from the story is an attempt to find out if either side has a better argument.

Fact #1: Southwest Windpower, the company that manufactured the Manns’ turbine, says their residential wind turbine requires “at least 10 MPH average wind speed (best results at 12 MPH or more)”.

Fact #2: According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s wind-power maps and charts (here, here and here), Atlanta’s average wind speed is below 10 mph.

Simply put, there’s not enough wind in Atlanta to power a residential wind turbine.

The Manns may be within their legal rights to erect one, but their wind turbine makes as much eco-sense as building a hydroelectric dam across Peachtree Creek.

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