New York Times features Atlanta Beltline
Intown residents can now have an uninterrupted journey from five different neighborhoods to Piedmont Park and Grady High School (seen in the foreground above).
The Atlanta Beltline was originally proposed by Georgia Tech student Ryan Gravel as his master’s thesis and has since been discussed, debated, and (finally!) developed. The trails, parks, and connectivity that the Beltline will bring to Atlanta will link over 45 neighborhoods!
Many Atlantans are looking forward to the benefits the Beltline will bring. A Grady High School student recently wrote about the reasons he loves the Beltline, Curbed Atlanta frequently features development news along the Beltline, and now major media publications like the New York Times are chiming in. Check out what the New York Times had to say!
Until last year, the old railroad tracks that snaked through east Atlanta were derelict. Kudzu, broken bottles and plastic bags covered the rusting rails.
But these days, the two-mile corridor bustles with joggers, bikers and commuters. Along a trail lined with pine and sassafras trees, condos are under construction and a streetcar is planned.
The Eastside Trail, as the path is known, is one of the first legs of an ambitious proposal that has been in the works since the early 2000s — to transform 22 miles of vine-covered railroad into parks, housing and public transit around Atlanta.
“We are changing Atlanta into a city that you can enjoy by walking and riding a bike,” Mayor Kasim Reed said. “We have been so car-centric that you didn’t experience the city in an intimate way.”
But the Eastside Trail is only a start. And while some civic boosters, among them Mr. Reed, are calling for the pace to accelerate (he wants to see the entire loop paved and streetcars installed within a decade), the fulfillment of the grand plan, called the Atlanta BeltLine, is not assured.
“Rails-to-trails” projects are gaining steam across the country. Every year, 450 miles of railroad fall out of use. Cities are converting the unused tracks into green space and bike trails.
In Chicago, an elevated three-mile path is being built atop an old freight line. Seattle is turning 13 miles of track into bike trails. Four million people a year travel on New York’s version, the High Line, which runs along an elevated platform above Manhattan.
In total, more than 21,000 miles of railroad track has become paths across the country, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The nonprofit group says 9,000 more miles are available to be converted.
The BeltLine would be the most expensive rails-to-trails project, urban planners say. It would add 40 percent more parks to Atlanta. Only 4.6 percent of Atlanta is parkland, compared with 25 percent in New Orleans and 19 percent in New York.
“Projects like this come along very rarely,” said Christopher B. Leinberger, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in urban redevelopment. “If Atlanta finds money to add rail, the BeltLine will be one of the most important transportation projects of the 21st century.”
