Saturday, June 19, 2010
Transit / Enviro Beltline gets $5 million for Piedmont Park-DeKalb Ave. bike trail
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 1:48 PM
And it's legit: Beltline officials expect to begin construction this fall on a bike trail that would connect Piedmont Park to DeKalb Avenue.
Mayor Kasim Reed, city councilmembers and project officials this morning accepted two checks — each for $2.5 million — from Kaiser Permanente and the PATH Foundation on behalf of Sarah and Jim Kennedy at a scorching event along the Beltline's northeast segment near the Masquerade. A project spokesman says the trail would open to walkers and cyclists next summer.
Nearly two years in the making, the trail project will connect the city's most iconic greenspace and the Morningside, Ansley Park, Midtown, Poncey-Highland and Old Fourth Ward neighborhoods before ending at DeKalb Avenue. (A Beltline spokesman said plans call for the trail to continue, but the $5 million contribution will only cover the proposed portion.) Work-out stations will be along the trail, so you can finally challenge Councilman Kwanza Hall to a push-up contest.
You can read our thoughts about what this project means for the Beltline on our earlier post about the surprise announcement. In short, this trail could only bring more awareness to the project and help with securing vital federal funding.
One thing that's important to note as some wonks might be scratching their heads: The design phase for all 22 miles of the Beltline corridor — a multi-year process in which the renowned firms Perkins + Will and James Corner Field Operations fine tune the Beltline's overall look and feel — is still underway.
An urban designer will tell you it's important to sort out those details before crews start moving dirt and pouring concrete. You want a seamless, fluid design that incorporates every Beltline feature — parks, trails, benches, lamp posts, whatever.
A Beltline spokesman, however, says the objective is to have the design phase completed in the northeast segment before fall, around the same time crews are scheduled to begin construction on the trail.
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beltline = never gonna happen - it's been what - like 8 years now? can this city get anything done?
Someone needs to ask the important question: Is perkins + will doing the design for the trail? Or is path foundation? Seems pretty backwards that we'd sign a three year design contract and then start pouring concrete before it's complete.
Stephanie Ramage of The Sunday Paper is challenging folks to arm wrestling matches. Thomas, are you and your readers really ready for your push up contest with Kwanza?
This is great. I live in Midtown but love the neighborhoods in SE Atlanta, so this will give me a super easy bike route.
BTW - thanks for the update.
I don't really have a good sense of how this fits in with the overall design and schedule, but speaking personally this is awesome.
At least SOMETHING is coming of all this. Given how the City has squandered the financing of everything else (overpaying Wayne Mason, overpaying for Vulcan Quarry, having that $10M under table payoff to the broker then never mind the bond issuance messes), it's amazing anything substantive ever happens. Oh that's right - other entities pay for it, like that sweet skate park !! The only reason the Old Fourth Ward park ever happened was the City couldn't sell City Hall East otherwise b/c it needed the retention pond to help fix the basement flooding (so that probably came out of Watershed funds). If the Beltline ever happens it will be in spite of the City and Beltline Inc., not because of them~
The trail will be tremendous, but what will it do to promote transit within the core of the City?
trail won't keep the fixie phags from taking lanes and corking intersections, what fun is it wearing $1000 worth of spandex on a $5000 bike if no one can see you?
After living in the UK for several years in the early 90s, I can say from experience that it's wonderful to live in a city like Atlanta where there is a constant drive to "move forward". I thank the Piedmont Park Conservancy everyday as I ride in the park and look at the wonderful expansion, the newly grassed ex-parking lot (the new parking deck is a huge improvement). Now the belt line will allow me to ride my bike to the Forth Ward park and to my friends in L5P. Kudos to those that are actively participating and or donating time/money to these projects.
I can't wait for this to be paved. I hadn't yet been on the unpaved part that's been open for a few months, but today my girlfriend and I rode our bikes on the section from Inman Park to City Hall East (technically for us it was to BookHouse Pub). Nice scenic ride and probably the flattest route I've ever ridden in Atlanta, but the gravel is pretty far from ideal on a road bike.
My favorite art in that stretch was probably the two graffiti murals, one of which was definitely not official beltline art (on a building with about 10 cartoon faces) and one which I didn't see a sign for so I assume it wasn't official (4 big rodents with the words "Please don't buff us we never hurt anybody"). There was some interesting official stuff too.
Hey Jason,
Your comment about the art on the BeltLine, the 10 cartoon faces on the wall, is in fact official BeltLine Art from the Art on the BeltLine Project, a mural done by Spencer Murrill called Forward March.
The other piece you mentioned under Freedom Parkway was not part of Art on the BeltLine but is a wonderful new addition to the city. Someone put a lot of time, energy and money into that. I like it as well.
Cool. I wish it wasn't behind a chain link fence. I didn't see any marker for it, but I wasn't looking very hard. Hopefully soon I'll have a chance to go around and see all of the artwork.
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