Broadcast from the Bluff: Atlanta’s open-air heroin supermarket
After WABE-FM reporter and weekend anchor Jim Burress finished grabbing sound for Stuck in The Bluff: AIDS, Heroin and One Group’s Illegal Quest to Save Lives, a 30-minute documentary that airs tonight, he drove home, crawled into bed and stared at the ceiling for hours. “I could not wrap my head around everything that I saw,” he recalls of his day chronicling the work of the nonprofit Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition’s needle exchange program. “There’s the drug use and the drug sales, the nonprofit doing this work and the neighborhood itself. Spending time there forces you to ask: ‘Is this a forgotten land? Are these people basically being sentenced to a neighborhood like this because that’s the easiest solution?’ No matter what side of this issue you fall on, you’re going to be challenged as a listener hearing the stories of these people. This is a deep, complex and troubling issue.”
Taking a spin at the Polaris
The reimagined Polaris opens to the public June 10. The iconic revolving restaurant that first opened in 1967 now houses two living room spaces, a bar, and a small restaurant. There's a definite emphasis on cocktails and socializing over dining.
The Braves asked for an awful lot-and Cobb is evidently prepared to give it
You can dig into the twenty-page acronym-loaded MOU - or "Memo of Understanding" - between the Braves and Cobb County at your leisure (here's the pdf) but here’s the main takeaway: the Braves asked for lots of control and they’ve been promised it in a sweetheart of a deal that would run through the 2046 baseball season.
Across from the massive movie studio, Pinewood Forest was designed with creatives in mind
In Fayetteville, 15 miles south of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and just across the street from Pinewood Atlanta Studios, Pinewood Forest is designed as the kind of mixed-use community where “positive collisions” happen among neighbors—and where picturesque streets might serve as the backdrop of a Hollywood blockbuster.
You can’t ride the Atlanta Streetcar yet. But you can run a 5K along the track
If everything had gone according to schedule, we’d all have been riding the Atlanta Streetcar for months now. While the start date for the light rail system is still uncertain, the track, stops, and other infrastructural elements are in place. To promote the (eventual) launch of the system, the City of Atlanta and Central Atlanta Progress are hosting a 5K race along the route this Saturday. The race is sponsored by Siemens, the manufacturer of the streetcars that will (eventually) glide through downtown Atlanta.
Commentary: Dear Braves fans, stop taking it out on Cobb
Listen you ITP people, there’s no reason to get personal. We Cobb residents didn’t ask for a baseball stadium any more than you Atlantans lobbied to kick the Braves out. Please direct your anger at Braves owner Liberty Media and your *own* elected officials. Hating on Cobb County is like an ex-wife blaming her husband’s new spouse, even though she’s the one who initiated the divorce.
Mayor Reed and APD kick off public safety forums
About a month ago, my neighbor’s Jeep Cherokee was stolen. In the annals of city crime, this is hardly a noteworthy theft. Except that I live in a gated loft development with on-site security. And that said Jeep then was used in an attempted burglary; apparently such twin misdeeds—stealing SUVs and using them to haul off stolen stuff—are a trend this summer, according to the cops who responded to my neighbor's complaint. Also, I should mention it was the second time this particular Jeep has been swiped and that a couple months ago someone was carjacked at gunpoint in the same gated lot.
Six reasons to love Home Park
Bordered on the north by Atlantic Station and the south by Georgia Tech, Home Park is in the heart of west Midtown. And yet the compact neighborhood remains somewhat hidden in plain sight—well, as hidden as a neighborhood can be when it abuts a premier university and a sprawling outdoor mall and entertainment complex.
What are you doing this weekend? October 11-13
Well, the huge event of the weekend is Atlanta Pride, the celebration that started in the 1970s and just keeps getting bigger and better. The 2013 massive list of events includes parties, performances, an artists market, a Eucharist service, Lady Gaga-inspired yoga, workshops, films, a car and motorcycle show, and, of course, one hell of a parade. Piedmont Park and environs. atlantapride.org
There’s more to the Alpharetta’s explosive mixed-use growth than Avalon
The metamorphosis of Alpharetta’s formerly sleepy downtown was no accident, albeit a few years behind the rest of metro Atlanta’s post–Great Recession construction boom.
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