Today’s Headlines

By Ashley Robbins | | No Comments
  • Santa Rosa County Commission Considers Raising Taxes for Road Work (Pensacola News Journal)
  • Palm Beach County Commissioner Talks Uber, TriRail (Sun Sentinel)
  • Should Tampa Embrace New Urbanism? (Tampa Bay Times)
  • Atlanta-Area Electeds Approve Tax Money for Sports Arenas Without Public Input (Saporta Report)
  • GRTA Board to Approve Route Changes Wednesday, Including Three New Routes (AJC)
  • MARTA Hopes to Raise Employee Morale With New Benefits Package (Saporta Report)
  • Drivers Ignore Beg Button Signal on Atlanta Stroad Designed for Speed; WXIA Only Sees the Bus
  • Memphis Area Transit Authority Investing Grant in Bike-Share Program (Memphis Daily)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Today’s Headlines

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  • Durham Mayor Proposes Rental Assistance Downtown and Near Transit (News & Observer)
  • Public Input Sought in Tampa PD Bicycle Enforcement Probe (WTSP)
  • Miami Chamber of Commerce: Miami-Dade Should Look to Denver to Model Transit Plan (Herald)
  • Congress’s Inability to Tackle Transpo Funding Delays Gulf Coast Passenger Rail Study (AL.com)
  • Nashville MTA Has Not Kept Up With Growth, Holds Public Meetings on Strategic Plan (Tennessean)
  • Manufacturing Lobbyist: Transit Investments Help Economy (AJC)
  • Executive Director Looks Back at 10 Years of the Atlanta BeltLine (Saporta)
  • Athens Transit Releases Real-Time App, Google Transit Interface (Banner-Herald)
  • Clemson Area Transit System Set to Release Real-Time App (Independent Mail)

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Today’s Headlines

By Ashley Robbins | | No Comments
  • More Than Twice the National Average of Charleston Commuters Rely on Biking/Walking (Post & Courier)
  • Charlotte Regional Planning Group to Vote on Tolling Project August 19 (Charlotte Observer)
  • The Augusta Chronicle Looks Back at the Railroad That Made the Town What It Is
  • Albany Transit Director: New Buses Would Improve Ridership (WALB)
  • Why Does SunRail Not Have the Bicycle Improvements That Tri-Rail Is Getting? (Orlando Sentinel)
  • It’s Time to Live With the Reality of All Aboard Florida (Palm Beach Post)
  • Archaeologists Worry About Impact of All Aboard Path on Historic Village Underground (WTVJ)
  • The Sun Sentinel Asks What Would Happen If All Aboard Florida Can’t Repay Its Bonds

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via ATL Urbanist

Streetcar Tour of Bad Land Use in Atlanta

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Streetcar tour of bad land use in Atlanta “If you look to the left, you’ll see yet another surface parking lot; next up, an abandoned building; and here, we see a parking deck.” Think of how much more useful the Atlanta Streetcar would be if these parking lots, empty lots and abandoned buildings were apartments, condos, offices, retail… This morning when I walked along Auburn Avenue, the streetcar was almost completely empty, just like it is every weekday morning when I see it pass – and every weekday night. It fills up midday with tourists, which is great (it’ll be packed full at 2pm w/ riders going to and from the King Historic area, the Curb Market and Centennial Park, which is encouraging to see). But consider the potential we have for it to also be a commuter tool and nighttime entertainment tool for locals, if only we could get these dead spaces filled. This is the promise of the streetcar for the historic Sweet Auburn area – to help build transit-appropriate development where there is blight and underused property. As of now, it serves mostly as a means of shuttling tourists past the blight so that they don’t have to walk through it. I wrote a post almost identical to this a while ago. I hope next year I don’t have to write another.

Today’s Headlines

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  • CSX Wants to Sell, Not Rent, Tracks for Tri-Rail Extension … (Curbed Miami)
  • … Including Trackage to Homestead (Curbed Miami)
  • Polk County Commissioners Approve Gun Range Next to Silver Comet Trail (ATL Bike)
  • Miami New Times Clarifies Bike Laws, “So Quit Arguing About It”
  • North Florida MPO Seeks Public Comment on Bike Plans (WJXT)
  • Charlotte Public Consultation for Lynx Light Rail Expansion Starts Next Week (Rail Journal)
  • Decatur Arts Alliance Calls for Designs for Bike Racks and Benches (Decatur Metro)
  • Mayoral Candidate Warns Nashville It Could Be the Next Atlanta, Whatever That Means (Curbed)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Today’s Headlines

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  • Unfinished Road Projects From the 1980s Are Soaking Up NOLA Transpo Funds (Advocate)
  • Florida Development Finance Board Unanimously Approves All Aboard Bonds (WFTV)
  • MARTA Adds Four New Bus Routes to Clayton County This Weekend (Atl Biz Chronicle)
  • Hillsborough MPO Votes Interstate Widening as a Priority (Tampa Bay Times)
  • Miami-Dade Transit Counters Ridership Drop With Fleet Upgrades (Miami Today)
  • Bonita Springs Halts Road Widening to Consider Complete Street Improvements (Bike Walk Lee)
  • Fixing Up Nashville’s Aging Homes, Not Building New Ones, Key to Affordable Housing (Tennessean)
  • Bridgestone CEO: Transit Initiative Is “The Price of Growth” (Nashville Biz Journal)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Today’s Headlines

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  • Vote on All Aboard Bonds Set for Today (WESH)
  • SunRail Not as Likely as Express Bus Service to Receive Toll Revenue (Orlando Sentinel)
  • South Carolina Highway Patrol Blames Pedestrians for Uptick in Fatalities (Post and Courier)
  • City of Atlanta Signs Off on Parking-Oriented Midtown Development (Saporta)
  • New Flyer Buses Made in Anniston, Alabama, Headed to Macon (Anniston Star)
  • Myrtle Beach Bus Drivers Take Defensive Driving Training After String of Crashes (Daily Journal)
  • North Carolina DOT Accepting Proposals for Community Bike/Ped Planning Grants (NC Consumer)
  • Jefferson Parish Transit to Expand Weekend Service (Times-Picayune)

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Today’s Headlines

By Ashley Robbins | | No Comments
  • “I’m All Aboard” Proponent Coalition Formed Ahead of Bond Vote (Palm Beach Post)
  • Orlando Sentinel: Privatization of Lynx Should be Studied, Not Rushed
  • Estimates for Miami Tri-Rail Extension Could Get Blown Up by CSX Demands (Miami Herald)
  • Sanibel Bicycle Club Launches Digital Safety Campaign (BikeWalkLee)
  • New MARTA Tax Necessary for Expansion, Federal Funding (AJC)
  • 100 People Die a Month on Georgia Roads and No One Bats an Eye (Slate)
  • Atlanta Streetcar Resumed Service Monday Morning Following Weekend Repairs (Atl Intown)
  • Nashville Chamber Regroups for Transit Push After Amp Failure (Nashville Biz Journal)

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via ATL Urbanist

The Adaptive-Reuse Trinity on Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta

By ATL Urbanist | | No Comments
On Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown Atlanta you can stand in one spot and see three of the coolest adaptive reuse projects the city has to offer. In former lives, they were: a Ford automobile assembly plant, a Sears outlet/distribution center, and a railroad that ran between them. In their current incarnations they serve as examples of how to create a thriving, walkable neighborhood in a place that was, for a period, pretty bleak. In the photo above you can see the Ford Factory Lofts. It has residences on top, and a retail strip retrofitted into the bottom on its east side. By the time it was undergoing residential conversion in the mid 1980s, it had served as a car assembly plant, a War Department induction center, and a storage facility for the military. Here’s the scene in 1985. The Ford factory building (obviously gutted and undergoing construction) sits behind a sign promoting a new Kroger supermarket – a store that still sits beside the lofts today: Below is a 1940s photo of the giant Sears, Roebuck & Company distribution center, completed in 1925 with additions made in following years. After Sears left in the late 1980s, the building loomed for many years as an empty or mostly-empty behemoth on this street, reminding all passersby of the loss of economic activity in the area (particularly when combined with other empty buildings nearby in the 1980s-90s). Over the last couple of years, the structure has undergone a mixed-use conversion as Ponce City Market. The finished product includes 517,000 square feet of offices, 300,000 square feet of retail, and 259 residential units. We took a walk through here a few weeks ago and it’s a marvel. Several retail shops are already open, with more to come soon:Trains used to unload merchandise into the Sears building via a railroad that ran in between it and the Ford factory. Now that railroad – which itself sat unused for many years – is the Atlanta Beltline’s northeast trail. This multiuse path delivers cyclists and pedestrians to the Historic Fourth Ward Park just south of these buildings, and in time there will be a direct pedestrian connection with Ponce City Market (there’s already a connection to the Ford lofts side). Pardon the old photo, but I couldn’t get a good new one due to the combination of constant traffic on the Beltline and the lush greenery of trees (not complaining). So here’s what the trail looked like a few years ago when construction was just beginning:I need to visit this spot at night some time. That Sears building used to creep me out in the 1990s when it was dark outside. I’m eager to have a happier visit and see it with lights on in the windows because of the residents inside.

Today’s Headlines

By Ashley Robbins | | No Comments
  • How One Crash Ignited a Fight to Make Lee County’s Roads Safer (News-Press)
  • Tampa Bay Should Look to Raleigh for Inspiration on Downtown Redevelopment (Tampa Bay Times)
  • Raleigh Civic Leaders to Release Ten-Year Vision Monday (News & Observer)
  • Chapel Hill Transit Requests Funding From County (Chatham Journal)
  • Charlotte Brings Back the Past With Streetcar Line (Cold Springs Shops)
  • Cape Coral Seeks Bicycle Friendly Designation (News-Press)
  • The Herald Sun Finds Some Residents Opposed to Durham’s Orange Line Rail Project
  • SC Plans Road to Beach Through Bear Preserve With No Protection For Bears (Charlotte Observer)
  • Cobb Deputy of Transportation Apologizes for Congestion From Braves Move North (Atl Biz Chronicle)
  • Atlanta Streetcar Shut Down For Weekend For Repair of Power Delivery System (City of Atlanta)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

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