My father owned a local hardware store for almost 30 years, and I have fond memories of hanging out and working there, with the locally owned stationery story, movie theater, pharmacy, and grocery on the same block. Each successive block was also populated primarily with independently owned businesses, usually operated by their owners, most of…
In Boston, scientists measuring the city’s greenhouse gas emissions have found what they call a “weekend effect,” a clear drop-off in the amount of carbon dioxide entering the city’s atmosphere on Saturdays and Sundays. In Fresno, researchers have discovered that backyard water use increases with wealth, as does backyard biodiversity. And in Los Angeles, ecologists…
Blaine Weber of the Seattle architecture firm, Weber Thompson, offers a very comprehensive — if somewhat Pacific Northwest-centric — roundup of the trends that are driving urban mixed-use development. The more vital urban centers of the United States are about to experience cultural shifts that will shake the country like a 9.0 earthquake — in…
NorSouth Companies, the large Atlanta-based senior center developer, is building a 121-unit project to EarthCraft Multifamily standards, the company says in a press release posted to our Inside Stories section. The $15.7 million project, Hearthside Brookleigh, is now under construction and slated to begin occupancy early next year. Among the features: Energy Star appliances, LED…
Backed by a flexible investment strategy, Cousins Properties Inc. is pushing its development side as it juxtapositions to get in on the acquisitions end of the commercial real estate game. David AuBuchon, analyst for Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co., considers Atlanta-based Cousins as one of the “more compelling investment opportunities” in his coverage area….
How do you make a 10-to-16 lane highway that handles 350,000 cars a day lovable? That was essentially the question facing about 75 people, me included, last night at a visioning session on the Downtown Connector. Beautifying Interstates 75 and 85 — in this case the stretch that runs from Turner Field north to the…
One of my favorite bloggers on sustainable development just posted an article, rich with his usual insight, on the Beltline. Kaid Benfield is based in Washington, so Atlanta residents familiar with the Beltline’s incremental twists and turns should excuse him for not being up, for example, on the prospects for transit funding that might come…
The Marietta mother convicted earlier this month of vehicular homicide in the traffic death of her four-year-old has just received a light sentence and a chance at retrial, according to Twitter accounts coming from the Cobb County Courthouse. State Court Judge Kathryn Tanksley ordered offered the new trial after issuing a sentence of 40 hours…
Here’s the note Cobb County Communications Director Robert Quigley just sent in response to my inquiry about Cobb County Transit stops in general and the stop where Raquel Nelson’s son, AJ, died in particular: After consulting with the county’s legal office we are declining the opportunity to participate in this story due to concerns over…
This month’s conviction of Raquel Nelson on a vehicular homicide charge and the death last year of her four-year-old son A.J. near a Cobb County Transit stop may have at least one silver lining: It focuses attention on the unsafe conditions faced by bus riders in parts of metro Atlanta that aren’t built for pedestrians….
