MM: Ponce City Market Fly-Through, Music Midtown Announced, and Einstein’s Advice to His Son
Decatur Metro | June 18, 2013
- Ponce City Market fly-through offers look inside the pending development [CL]
- Music Midtown Headliners: Red Hot Chili Peppers & Journey [Facebook]
- Passenger trains essential to Atlanta’s downtown hub [Saporta Report]
- Marvel at the Falcons “over the top” stadium proposal [Atlantic Cities]
- Einstein’s “secret to learning anything” advice to his son [BrainPickings]
That Ponce City Market fly-through is pretty fun to do. Especially to watch the people–the walking movements are pretty good–that’s not easy to do. The men seem to all stride and many of the women have high heel walk. And every once in a while, one of them has unique movements, like bopping to music or chatting with someone else.
The Market itself seems like a store/office mall, a well-done mall, but still a mall. Probably a good use of the space.
Looks like you’d get a lot of exercise walking through those long corridors in search of
coffee? organic vegetables? or whatever.
It has the walk all day to buy one thing IKEA feel to it.
Perhaps, but it does appear to have a very important thing IKEA lacks (by design): multiple exits.
I think I saw a dope deal go down in the fly-through.
Haha I saw it too!
Apparently they’ve solved the age-old purse snatching problem: no one will be carrying purses anymore.
when purses are outlawed, only outlaws will carry purses
From the article about the proposed Falcons stadium…
“Replacing the Georgia Dome, once the largest domed stadium in the world (and the biggest state-funded construction project in Georgia history), will cost approximately $1 billion dollars. Around $200 million of that money will come from Atlanta and Fulton County hotel taxes.”
That’s BILLION. With a capital “B.” What a huge fu**ing waste of money. Money that can be used toward much more important things, such as infrastructure and transportation improvements. Yes, I’m aware that a nice stadium keeps the team here and brings in money, but come on. Will we ever really see the return (before the next time the stadium needs replacement)?
This just pisses me off.
But think of how it will revitalize the surrounding area! Oh, wait. Stadiums don’t do that.
You get that you and I are not funding it, correct? The NFL, the team, ticket holders and likely some corporate sponsors are paying it.
That $200 M isn’t there without the stadium. The city doesn’t have the guts or the cache to enact a hotel tax merely to ‘fund infrastructure improvements’. While I am not privy to the back-room deals, I am guessing there are some significant fiancial commitments to improve ‘adjacent areas’ to the stadium as well…
Like it or not, sports are a big-time business and require big time investments. Like marketing dollars, it is hard to articulate the exact benefit that spending has…
And Scott — while it might not have had a huge impact on the surroundings in Atlanta (though you could argue some hypothetical differences), there are some other examples (Coors Field in Denver, ATT Park in SFO come to mind) that stadiums were the core of major re-development efforts.
A stadium CAN provide a core and catalyst for successful redevelopment and rejuvenation of adjacent communities. It hasn’t happened in Atlanta yet, but it could. Personally, I think there are many better things to do with the money that’s going to be invested in the new stadium but if it’s coming, then we have a responsibility to get it right this time.
You are right there are financial commitments to adjacent neighborhoods, encapsulated in a Community Benefits Agreement. I am just starting to pay attention to this, so don’t know much about it but found this to be of interest. http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/05/atlanta-can-get-stadium-right-this-time-with-community-benefits-agreement/
“Like it or not, sports are a big-time business and require big time investments”
Require? The Falcons are not required to have a new stadium. They — meaning their billionaire owner Arthur Blank — would merely prefer a new stadium.
Petco Park in San Diego had a very large impact on the development of the Gaslamp District. I do not see any similar development happening here though.
that’s hilarious! …but the Georgia Dome is real
My hope is that the columns and wood floors aren’t quite as “clean” as they look in the fly through. If done right, this is going to be a jewel of a place. If done wrong, it’s going to be Atlantic Station.
I toured it last summer before they got started. The floors and columns all had, uh, “character” that I don’t think can be cleaned up that easily. I can’t imagine it won’t still feel old in there. Riding in the huge elevators was fun and the view from the roof is pretty neat.
Also, the developer is chipping in to fund improvements on Ponce from Boulevard to N Highland. Think Peachtree Street in Buckhead with medians, landscaping, and improved sidewalks and streetlights. If what I was told is accurate, these improvements will also create a Beltline connection to Ponce near the new bridge (which I wish was twice as wide since the Beltline is so busy over there).
Not sure where the project is in the engineering/design/construction phase (and the TSPLOST defeat may have pushed the timetable back) but I believe it is a programmed project.
I, for one, am excited about the Cloth store at PCM. Almost as much as I can’t wait for Baskets – that’s one thing this city has been missing for years!
What is the Cloth store? Googled it and couldn’t find it. Baskets?
PSST — He’s riffing on the deliberately generic store names in the fly through…
I hear “The Cafe” pulls a great ristretto.
Duh. Gullible again. I guess I was focussing more on the animated high-heel stride and not enough on the store names. I probably need to go to the Glasses store.