In a recent Atlanta Magazine spread asking “dozens of Atlantans” for advice for new Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Decatur’s Own  Lain Shakespeare and Andisheh Nouraee inadvertently showed the broad spectrum of expectation for Atlanta’s massive BeltLine project.

Mr. Shakespeare has great hope…

Atlanta’s best idea is already at work: the BeltLine. The BeltLine’s potential addresses many of Atlanta’s problems so effectively, there’s no reason not to follow its lead. By focusing on what people need to thrive instead of exclusively on what cars need to thrive, Atlanta will become safer, healthier, and more competitive. Expanded transit, connected neighborhoods, affordable housing, and complete streets will foster denser and more vibrant communities.

Mr. Nouraee?  Eh, not so much…

Admit the BeltLine is a park with a bike path, not a mass transit project.

Hat-tip honors go to Mr. Nouraee

This morning’s AJC asks its readers – and many Atlanta experts – “Are metro Atlanta’s growth days gone?”, and then goes on to document metro Atlanta’s financial struggle in a post-Lehman Brothers world.

I humbly suggest that such a question skirts the real issue at hand in favor of easy observation, and is a lot like unharnessing your horse, moving him to the rear of your cart, and commanding “Push!”.

What exactly is wrong with asking “Has Atlanta’s era of unbridled growth finally ended?”.

Well, to me that’s a lot like looking at your house-flipping uncle, who lost his shirt when the housing bubble burst, and worrying about whether ol’ Uncle Teddy can keep risking the farm and coming out ahead.  It completely misses the real challenge of a suffering metro area or family member, which is “Can Atlanta/Uncle Ted alter its/his behaviors in an era of new realities?”  Can you make the necessary changes or not?

Dang, let’s hope so.  Because gone are the days when Atlanta could make no mistakes – or at least not suffer the consequences of mistakes.  Growth covered up all wrongs. Develop poorly – build the subdivisions far and wide, jam the highways, underfund your transit.  Structure your city budgets under the assumption that growth lasts forever. Because it does, right?

Growth periods are great.  But just like too many Snickers bars or too much folic acid in your diet; too much sustained growth will get anyone into trouble.

And now the day of reckoning is upon us, as it is for many cities.  It’s time for Atlanta’s leaders and residents to man up and show they can run a 21st century city with more limited resources and an uncertain future.  We need to make more thoughtful decisions about growth patterns, cut the fat out of the budget and fund the projects that can prove results.

Thank goodness the era of growth has ended.  I’m not sure we could have handled any more good fortune.

There’s an excellent article in this morning’s AJC about all of the Peachtree Street development projects that never made it off the drafting table before the recession hit.  The article itself is entitled “The City That Was Never Built”, but it reads more like a wishful romp through “The City That Could Have Been”.

While I enjoyed the article and Peachtree’s development ride of the aughts as much as the next city advocate – especially Midtown’s – I am also sort of glad for the break in the action.  Yes, I know that development historically comes in spurts propelled by the national economy, but I think we pretty much exhausted the market this time around.  And instead of thinking too much about “what could have been”, which is a guilty pleasure shared by both progressive city advocate’s version and preservationists alike, we should spend more of our energy reflecting on all that was accomplished.

Peachtree’s transformation over the past decade has been incredible, but I for one am glad for the break in the action.  Not just because supply had far exceeded demand, but also because I becoming a bit worried that our clearly 1970s downtown, would soon have two glassy, one-decade sister business districts up the street. Healthy growth is one thing, artificial growth is another.

And besides, even though we may no longer be building at a rapid pace, fulfilling that city-wide, consumerist desire, Atlanta’s next decade could prove even more interesting than it’s last.  If and when these newest projects fill with residents, we could see the true revitalization of a downtown, once thought to have been abandoned forever.

Yesterday, NY Times architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff, wondered out-loud if the luxury residential tower has taken the place of the civic building as the great urban landmark of the late 20th/early 21st century’s “Guilded Age”.  (For a nice sample of NYC’s luxury towers click here)

If so, Atlanta’s got plenty of new landmarks whether they want them or not. Though they are becoming a more dominating presence along our skyline, it seems that these works of modern architecture are lacking the residents to pay the bills. Atlanta condo sales are down an astonishing 12% since last year.

Yet many developers continue to build. Some have no choice, others may need to reevaluate.

(Picture of 12th & Midtown courtesy of MyUrbanCity)