Fresh Loaf

On Oct. 14, Westview and West End residents received good news about the long-overlooked L&N railroad tracks in Southwest Atlanta: the Georgia Department of Transportation finally voted to allow the PATH Foundation to move ahead with a proposed Beltline jogging and biking trail.

For more than a year, Patrick Berry and other neighborhood residents waited for glimmers of progress on the abandoned tracks.

Unfortunately, all they saw were dumped mattresses, shopping carts, and blankets of kudzu piling up.

“When people came to the neighborhood, they’d see garbage and overgrowth,” Berry, vice president of the Westview Community Organization, says. “It gives the impression that nobody cares.”

Beltline officials say they’ve inked a deal with Trees Atlanta to begin a five-year kudzu removal process. Ed McBrayer of the PATH Foundation, which will oversee construction of the the trail, says he plans to meet with GDOT officials this week to discuss the project.

Once completed, the 1.4-mile trail will connect with the West End trail along White Street.

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Fox 5 reports that some of Atlanta’s ne’er-do-wells have turned their sights toward pricey palm trees that were recently planted in Southwest Atlanta along the Beltline. Because copper, blue jeans and flat screens just weren’t cutting it, we suppose.

The station reports that the $450-a-pop palm trees’ roots were secured with rebar to prevent them from being removed. They were purchased with a grant provided by the Arthur Blank Foundation for the $2.8 billion project’s arboretum, or “museum of trees.”

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From the AJC:

Atlanta police spokesman Otis Redmond said the Fashion Industry boutique on Oak Street near the Mall West End was burglarized about 4:30 a.m.

Ugh.

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Amount of carbon dioxide, in metric tons, Atlanta’s city government emits every year: 540,000

Amount of carbon dioxide, in metric tons, the city will emit in 2012 if it meets its carbon-reducing goal: 502,200

Percentage of the city’s carbon footprint that comes from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport: 28

Number of energy-efficient light bulbs that will be distributed to West End homeowners as part of a pilot program: 26,041

Amount, in dollars, the bulbs will save homeowners in energy costs: 2.3 million

Atlanta’s rank, nationwide, among cities with the highest number of energy-efficient buildings: 3

Percentage of Emory University’s transit system powered by recycled cafeteria cooking oil: 50

Atlanta’s rank, out of 50 cities, in terms of air quality: 42

Atlanta’s rank, out of 50 cities, in terms of metro street congestion: 45

Source: Sustainable Atlanta inaugural report, SustainLane

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SHOVELS AND SMILES: Do these look like the faces of people who just lost $860 million?

It’s a cold Saturday morning in Southwest Atlanta, and more than 100 people gather to witness the ceremonial beginning of the Beltline. It’s here in West End at Rose Circle Park where the first two miles of the project — a bike trail built in cooperation with PATH — will hug White Street and run north. Crews removed a lane of the road to build the trail.

As civic and business leaders, cyclists and neighborhood residents looked on, Beltline advocates, including Mayor Shirley Franklin, City Councilmembers Cleta Winslow and Caesar Mitchell, project visionary Ryan Gravel and others grabbed shovels and pierced the ground to mark the first phase of the public works project.

“This is exciting,” Franklin said after the ceremony. “The Beltline’s been a long time coming. And it starts with a little trail in West End. It’s a lot of hard work based on the vision of a young person. I mean, look at this crowd.” She gestures toward the mix of faces in attendance and the children playing basketball on the courts adjacent to the site. “This is what makes cities great. People from all backgrounds, coming together.”

But with all the excitement, one couldn’t help but to feel a little chagrined. It’s a really big project starting small. And it’s just two weeks after the state Supreme Court ruled that a hefty chunk of change would be off-limits to Beltline advocates. Planners and proponents of the massive endeavor have said they will push forward, with or without the school tax funds from the tax allocation district.

(Photo by Thomas Wheatley)

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