Comments on: Sprawlanta!

By: JB

JB — Sat, 08 May 2010 04:33:30 +0000

I’ve only recently heard of Glenwood Park (which is strange because I’m often around EAV and Grant Park.) I drove through it for the first time earlier this year. It’s a great looking development, but clearly kind of an empty shell. You have 2-3 anchor businesses and what seems to be a pretty low occupancy rate for residential (not a lot of foot traffic). I know a lot of this is attributable to the economy but the place could use some improved marketing.

By: Bo

Bo — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:18:22 +0000

Maybe he meant to say that Decatur offers an orgasmic way of life?

By: Brad Steel

Brad Steel — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:44:57 +0000

Although I haven’t done an audit, I’d posit that Glenwood Park is not a financial success and capital has seen significantly higher returns in sprawl and far less interesting developments. If true, that doesn’t bode well for developments similar to Glenwood Park. I believe there has been nothing similar in Atlanta even after almost a decade after inception.

With the competition for development dollars and inconsistent development codes between municipalities, sprawl will stay alive and healthy.

By: TeeRuss

TeeRuss — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:08:45 +0000

New Urbanism is well intentioned, but hasn’t quite gotten it right yet. I like what you said – it’s actually very easy to retrofit existing intown development towards a new-urbanist-like layout. The new Downtown Kirkwood is an example – building new, Main Street commercial centers within existing neighbhorhoods is much more of a natural improvement.

There are tons of trolleycar suburbs around intown Atlanta that don’t have their own Oakhurst Village or Decatur Square. Most of them are built on walker-friendly grid patterns, with smaller road dimensions, but don’t have anywhere to walk to. That’s where I would start, if I were a card-carrying New Urbanist.

By: Tombeau

Tombeau — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:52:21 +0000

blah blah blah is right. The cheap houses start at half a million. The idea is good, but let’s retrofit some existing communities rather than build some yuppie enclave that can’t accommodate 90% of the people who would like to live in a place like that.