In 2023, the City of Atlanta outpaced all metro area counties in population growth and is now the largest it’s ever been. Despite the media narrative of chaos and decline, urban centers across the country have rebounded quickly from the pandemic and are poised for further growth.
Now that the first part of the 2019-2020 Georgia Legislative Session has ended, here’s a rundown of a few things that did and did not pass.
Weekly Links: the long story of building codes, fires, wood-based construction, Texas Doughnuts, superblocks, and the other oddities that created the uniform look of apartment buildings. And, a denial of a rezoning request has led to a landfill fire in South Fulton that’s been burning for 5 months.
It’s that time again: the Georgia Legislature has once again convened to debate new laws. So far the legislature has proposed mandatory cybersecurity training for kids, guns in parks (no fireworks, though), and an expansion of
Weekly Links: Atlanta Planning Commissioner Tim Keane is taking a real hard look at your building design proposal and it better not be bad. Also, should we try a cap-and-trade system for affordable housing? No. And, a hyper loop prototype is finally unveiled.
Weekly Links: Our incentives to lure the company included Amazon-only MARTA rail cars and renaming streets after Amazon products. Plus:
1.) Atlanta plans to combat minimum parking requirements, something that should unite the left and right; and
2.) How NIMBYism and anti-density movements are eerily similar to voter suppression efforts.
This week, a global livability study says Atlanta fell in the rankings due to riots. Ah…okay. Also, as part of the ongoing Amazon charade, Atlanta will apparently offer the company $1 billion in incentives to locate their HQ2 campus in the downtown gulch. And Atlanta officials are finally treating public signs like works of art that actually try to inform people of rules.
As the Economist recently showed, gentrification is about more than just the economics of shuffling people around housing units. Unfortunately, it was the magazine’s complete disinterest in addressing the complexities of the issue that proved the point.
Can We Drop the Media Narrative of Cities Being in Decline?
People Should Just Give Up on North America
A Notorious Asylum’s Haunting Encounter With a Strange Trespassing Law
Georgia’s Conservation Measures Prove Pivotal in the Water Wars
It’s Likely Earth’s Six Warmest Years on Record Are the Last Six Years
Remembering the Time Andrew Jackson Decided to Ignore the Supreme Court In the Name of Georgia’s Right to Cherokee Land
The Fictional Alcohol Law That’s Destroying Lives
The Dawson Forest Site: Atlanta's Intriguing Former Nuclear Aircraft Site Turned Nature Conservancy
Booting is Confusing, Unfair, and Counterproductive
Social Engineering and Transit-Oriented Development: The Rhetoric That Keeps Atlanta From Progressing
