By Guest Columnist MIKE “STINGER” GLENN, former Atlanta Hawks basketball player, broadcaster, book collector and lover of history.

My love of books began with my mother, Annye Wilkes Glenn, my first and best teacher. Mom first taught me literacy by reading countless bedtime and daytime stories and feeding my inquisitive and developing mind with intrigue and fascinations.

Mom, who taught elementary school her entire career, was my teacher in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. Mrs. Glenn, as I was instructed to call her at school, mandated reading periods—even in the summertime for her children- and discussions of lessons learned. She would always ask me, “Michael, what lesson did you learn from the book that you read?”

I loved sports books, but I was not allowed to limit my selections to that one area. I read about inventors, explorers, presidents, national heroes, care givers, freedom fighters, educators, and others. My thoughts and aspirations expanded far beyond the boundaries of my small community in Cave Spring, Ga.

Mom’s favorite historical figure, who has also become mine, was Frederick Douglass. She would sometimes quote Douglass’ enslaver Hugh Auld, who shouted odious instructions concerning the educational protocol for Douglass and other enslaved Americans.

Auld shouted at his wife Sophia, who had taught a young Frederick Douglass some fundamentals of reading, “Learning will do him no good but a great deal of harm, making him disconsolate and unhappy…He should know nothing but the will of his master and learn to obey it…If you teach that n____r how to read, it will forever unfit him to be a slave.”

Mom would condense and clean up the language; she would say,” If you teach him how to read, it will forever unfit him to be a slave.”

Frederick Douglass considered Auld’s tirade as his first anti-slavery lecture. It flamed the fires of his curious mind and led him toward a life of freedom and literacy. Mom made sure that we understood how created a remarkable and historical life through knowledge and inspiration provided by reading.

My celebration of Black History Month this February centers on book collecting, a passion that I enjoy all year long. Each month of the past 13 years, I have commemorated Black history through collecting rare, first edition books and sharing the information and inspiration with others.

Black history is and should be an inseparable part of American and world history. I use my passion to break down walls, integrate, promote, and share.

While I collect books that concentrate on various areas of Black life and culture, history dominates my shelves. I view history as a teacher and a healer. All the effects of today are rooted in historical causes of yesterday. By over- emphasizing effects without connecting the causes, we embrace a historical amnesia that impedes our progress and greater humanity.

The first edition books, newspapers, and other documents of my collection contain the spirit of the time in which they were published with all of the customs, laws, and beliefs that may seem foreign today.

It was in 1997 when I was introduced to the world of rare and first edition books. It followed my passion for mathematics and basketball, having earned a B.A. degree in Mathematics from Southern Illinois University and having played 10 years of professional basketball in the NBA.

I then wrote and published my first book, Lessons in Success from the NBA’s Top Players. It included quotes from famous men and women throughout history.

While researching the quotes, I searched for the books that contained those quotes, and that led me to the world of rare and first edition books and I enthusiastically started collecting books.

I found myself a custodian of a people’s memory. I was connected in a new and spiritual way to the authors and subjects of these precious time period documents of American history. I could not escape the feeling that my new interest was more than a passion; it contained a purpose.

Through book collecting, I saw a great connection between the past and the present. I was digging deeper to uncover yesterday’s causes which led to effects of today. I understood William Faulkner’s words:

“The past is never dead, it isn’t even past.”

James Baldwin summarized my thoughts even better:

“History is not something merely to be read and it does not refer merely or even principally to the past. On the contrary the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us and are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.“

I developed great affection for Zora Neale Hurston and consider her my favorite author, other than Frederick Douglass. I feel like a student of W.E.B. Dubois — his genius, research, creative analysis, eloquence, and boldness helped to more accurately define Sociology and the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.

John Hope Franklin, Lerone Bennett, Carter G. Woodson became just a few of my new historical friends.

I am blessed to have one of the world’s great collectors of African American books, Charles Blockson, as a mentor and friend. He has revealed perspectives, dynamics, and directives of Black book collectors, past and present.

Blockson for more than 60 years sought out books, pamphlets, broadsides, engravings, and everything and anything relating to Black people of African descent. In 1984 he donated his collection of 20,000 items to Temple University and served as curator until his recent retirement of the collection that bears his name, The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection.

As I was learning how and what to collect, he would advise and counsel me via the phone or in person from his Temple University office. At the end of each conversation, he would always say,” Keep collecting.” Blockson would advise me never to pay an exorbitant price for books.

“The books, at the right price, will find you,” Blockson said. He taught me that my quest was spiritual, and that I had been chosen to follow this particular path.

I discovered that early book collectors played a significant role in forming American foundations of education. Libraries and reading societies were formed or aided by the early American bibliophiles — lovers of books.

In 1815 former President Thomas Jefferson sold his entire collection, 6487, of books to the Library of Congress to help re-stock the shelves which had been destroyed during the War of 1812.

During much of the antebellum period, Philadelphia contained the largest free African American community in the United States. These individuals created institutions for the purpose of collectively challenging slavery and racism. They established churches, schools, literary societies, fraternal organizations, and businesses.

An early society for promoting education and literacy was founded by a group of free men of color in Philadelphia in 1828. The” Reading Room Society” had books donated by collectors/owners to be loaned to members of their group. In 1833 the Philadelphia Library Company of Colored Persons was established for similar reasons.

Black women, although excluded from many opportunities on the basis of race and gender, participated in the movement to empower the race through literacy. They organized a Female Literary Society in 1831.

I feel that I am in good company and traveling on an ordained path. Thanks for allowing me to share some of my passion with you. If you would like more, please visit my web site: www.mikeglenn.com.

By Guest Columnist JOE BEASLEY, director of human services at Atlanta’s Antioch Baptist Church North

PORT-AU-PRINCE — The stars in heaven over Haiti this week remind me of the strength of hope I have for the people of this island, just as the stars always have reminded me of hope during my 15-plus years as a volunteer servant in this country.

Our small mission to Haiti slept in a host home in Delmas, located between downtown Port-au-Prince and Pationsville. Well, we didn’t actually sleep in the home. Although I could have slept in the same beautifully appointed room where I’ve enjoyed countless comfortable nights over the years, our members decided to sleep on pads under the open sky with our awesome God as our watchman.

This sky and country is familiar to me. My work here has included serving as a monitor in the 1995 election; coordinating the delivery to Haiti of more than $1 million in medical supplies; and helping to sponsor an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, as well as a church, hospital and other community developments in several rural areas.

This work has enabled me to develop relations with civic and governmental leaders. Now, these relations established in the name of the Beasley Foundation will help us learn how to best help the Haitians through the recent natural disaster that augments the man-made disaster that comprises much of Haiti’s past.

The orphanage is a poignant metaphor for the potential of rebuilding the devastation of the earthquake. It promises to be a lesson about hope and cooperation. It promises to help begin to set right the wrongs perpetrated in Haiti for almost 200 years.

The orphanage lies in ruins. Years of work rendered into dust.

But the rubble represents hope. Because the children it serves survived. Nearly 30 orphans whom we lift up escaped death and even injury. And now, the plans for their future home, and those orphans who come in the future, are focusing on a new type of construction design and a new type of community that could become a model for a restored Haiti.

Joe Beasley during January trip to Haiti

With approval of Haitian ministers, we in the Joe Beasley Foundation are pursuing the construction of an orphanage that will be placed at the center of a new neighborhood. The community will be built according to a new comprehensive development plan. The orphanage itself will be the model for affordable, earthquake-proof building practices that can realistically be done in Haiti.

We know this construction method works because it’s worked elsewhere, including our own city of Miami following a hurricane. The buildings are sturdy and don’t require the skills of trained construction workers.

So much rebuilding is required that the task won’t be easy. Nor will it be cheap. But there are ways to provide for the future if the transgressions of the past are rectified. Here are three of them:

Significant money for Haiti’s redevelopment should come from France. France took the immoral and unconscionable step of making Haiti pay the modern day equivalent of $30 billion following the 1803 revolution, in which slaves overthrew Napoleon’s army.

This bit of history is included in a report issued days before the earthquake by the US War College’s Strategic Studies Institute. The report states: “France was reluctant to recognize Haiti’s independence and demanded that Haiti compensate the French planters for their losses during the revolution. Haiti was forced to pay an indemnity of 150 million francs, which crippled the economy of the fledgling republic.” The money should be repaid.

Land for new communities should come from the Vatican. The Catholic Church still owns vast amounts of undeveloped land it received from Christopher Columbus following his claim of the island. Our contacts in the Haitian ministry put the amount of land at upwards of 8 percent of the country’s total land mass. The church should divest its holdings.

The United States should play an important role by lifting the virtual blockade it’s had on the island since the days of President Thomas Jefferson. The same report issued by the Strategic Studies Institute tells about US embargoes on Haiti that started with Jefferson and continued intermittently through 2000. I maintain that the US continues to impede full and fair trade with the hemisphere’s second oldest democracy. This must stop.

These three matters are long-term objectives that the Beasley Foundation will pursue. In the meantime, we also are focused on responding to the calls from Haiti’s ministers to help them with the things they need right away to rebuild their island into a sustainable country.

We will help Haiti meet four immediate goals:

1) Shelter. More than 200,000 tents are needed to accommodate 1 million homeless Haitians. Proper water and sewer systems are necessary.

2) Food. Provisions are made for 300,000 individuals, but 1.5 million need to be fed.

3) Organize and fund a trip to Senegal and Benin. Haiti’s ministers asked us to examine the potential of relocating Haitians in these African countries.

4) Aid distribution. The Haitian government, as it exists today, must have a say in how aid is distributed. Currently, non-governmental agencies have total control over dispursements.

The challenges facing Haiti are great. The devastation caused by the earthquake came at a time the world can ill afford to help. But a world that prospered while Haiti failed must reach out to help. The orphans who survived show us that we must. The stars in heaven remind us that we can.

Joe Beasley led a delegation to Haiti Jan. 22-27. He is best known in metro Atlanta as director of human services at Atlanta’s Antioch Baptist Church North and Southeast director of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Beasley has founded two non-profits, the Joe Beasley Foundation and African Ascension. Click here for more information on the Strategics Studies Institute and African Ascension.

By Guest Columnist DENNIS CREECH,
executive director of the Southface Energy Institute

Did you know that Georgia leads the nation in green affordable housing?

Just last week, Global Green USA released its fifth green building rating summary of state qualified allocation plans (QAP) which guide the annual distribution of federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) – a vital program that encourages developers to build affordable housing. And yet again, Georgia ranks at the top of the list, tied for first place with Connecticut!

Because of the outstanding efforts of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), which is responsible for establishing the QAP for Georgia, our state has ranked at the top of the Global Green list for the past five years.

According to Michael Collins, an architect with the Office of Affordable Housing at the DCA, from 2004 to 2008 Georgia QAPs required green building elements but did not require third-party verification of these elements.

Therefore, although all developments built during this time included some green elements, only 25 percent of these projects, numbering 39 out of 160, actually obtained certification under a green building program such as EarthCraft, LEED or ENERGY STAR®.

In 2009, the Georgia DCA decided to revise its QAP guidelines to encourage third-party verification by an independent green building program. This revision, says Michael Collins, makes it easier for the Georgia DCA to track whether developers follow through on their proposals.

The revision is an important factor in Georgia reaching the top of the QAP rankings as Global Green encourages verification of four key categories of green building: smart growth, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and health protection.

As a further result of Georgia’s revised QAP guidelines, all 31 of the selected affordable housing developments to be built within the next two years in Georgia plan to certify under a green building program.

Roughly 26 of these projects will pursue EarthCraft certification, a program offered by the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and Southface. Three projects expect to be certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program and five plan to qualify for the federal ENERGY STAR®.

This is notable because green building projects promote energy efficiency and alternative modes of transportation which help low-income residents save money and advance the economic development of their own neighborhoods.

In times like these, paying the monthly utility bill and filling up the gas tank often imposes a financial hardship on low-income families, forcing them to choose between paying for energy and other basic needs.

However, as EarthCraft buildings also qualify for the ENERGY STAR, a qualification that ensures a minimum energy savings of 15 percent over code, residents of EarthCraft-certified affordable housing units save money each month on their utility bills – money they can then use for other necessities.

They also save on transportation costs because developers of EarthCraft communities are encouraged to locate their affordable housing projects near transit, bike paths and other businesses.

With the DCA’s leadership, the money that the residents of these green affordable housing developments would have spent for energy can now be re-directed to local businesses, which helps create jobs and grow the local economy. This is an especially important antidote to the rising unemployment rate in Georgia.

In addition to economic considerations, green affordable housing developments help provide a healthy indoor and outdoor environment for residents by reducing exposure to pollutants like radon, a major cause of lung cancer across the country.

They can also lower the incidence of asthma attacks, a common occurrence in low-income areas when residents are exposed to irritants like particulate matter from industrial air pollution, mold and insect secretions.

EarthCraft certified communities and buildings improve outdoor environments and facilitate more active lifestyles through walkable access to nearby destinations and green space preservation. This in turn helps to reduce obesity and its associated health care costs.

We applaud the work of the Georgia DCA for its leadership in protecting and improving the lives of Georgia’s low-income citizens. But still, there remains much work to be done.

To ensure all Georgians reap the benefits of green building, we challenge state and local governments, private sector organizations, and individuals to embrace green building opportunities, to support the Atlanta Green Building Ordinance, and to advocate for ambitious new state incentives that encourage energy and water efficiency.

Only in this way can we establish a region-wide precedence for improving lives and preserving critical energy, water and natural resources for our children and grandchildren.

Citizens celebrate at the groundbreaking ceremony of Sustainable Fellwood, a green affordable housing development in Savannah, GA.

By Guest Columnist DICK ANDERSON, director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority

(This column is in response to last week’s Maria’s Metro Column: “If we can’t do it right, maybe we should put the brakes on new transportation funding.”)

As the General Assembly takes up again the issue of transportation funding, we begin with a clear path forward in terms of needed investment, strategies that would produce superior returns and a quantified view of growth in our gross domestic product (GDP), jobs and reduction in congestion that will result.

We have made a strong business case for transportation investment. With $65 billion in incremental investment over the next 20 years, the state of Georgia could realize $480 billion in GDP growth and 425,000 new jobs.

From my view, now is the time to press forward. So, I was puzzled by Maria Saporta’s recent suggestion that we scrap our current efforts and return to the drawing board.

Following my retirement from BellSouth, I have led the effort called “Investing in Tomorrow’s Transportaion Today” or IT3.

I approached our transportation challenges as a set of business problems with no preconceived notion of any single, simple solution. While there were many views of what a solution might entail, I didn’t find a business plan for transportation — at least not one that would pass scrutiny in the private sector — one with performance objectives, strategies, investment case metrics and assigned accountability.

For the past 18 months, we have engaged the senior transportation staff at agencies such as Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA), Transit Planning Board (TPB), MARTA along with direction from the boards of these agencies.

We also have had individual meetings with Gov. Sonny Perdue and input from the public to arrive at the interim Statewide Strategic Transportation Plan that Todd Long, director of planning for GDOT, recently delivered to the legislature, speaker, lt. governor and governor for comment before being finalized on Feb. 15. The plan can be viewed at it3.ga.gov.

The plan does not favor “planes, trains or automobiles.” It favors performance per taxpayer dollar invested. Not seeing your favorite transportaion remedy offered up should not take away from a very clear direction.

As we developed IT3, we used a fact-based approach and engaged Mckinsey and Co. to help put together a compelling business case. We tested all possible strategies against key performance metrics like congestion reduction, reliable commutes of 30-45 minutes and how they would drive economic expansion.

We looked at options like investing all available dollars in transit rail only. We also looked at investing only in expanding our interstate and arterial road capacity.
All options were tested with a high degree of analytical rigor using well established transportation demand models.

In the end, it was not an either-or choice of rail versus road or urban versus rural, or commuters versus freight. The best performing transportation investment portfolio has a blend of investments that:

* keeps our core transit systems operating (eg,MARTA, GRTA, local counties);

* upgrades the speed of our interstate system with new managed lane capacity and capability to guarantee a commute time;

* complements the managed lanes with new transit options, including bus rapid transit (BRT) and rail-based circulators (streetcars) in major employment centers;

* ensures that freight is moved out of the ports and metro Atlanta and on to the final destination with maximum speed and reliability;

* positions Georgia to transform the transportation network with additional investments in transit, commuter, freight and high-speed rail as funds are available; and

* links land use and development patterns with transportation investment to increase the effectiveness by more than 50 percent to 80 percent.

And the outcomes do not present even a close call in choosing the best performing portfolio. I have had much tougher investment choices to make in my career at BellSouth.

I admit I have some pride of ownership of the IT3 direction. I think it sets a new standard of expectation for what a transportaion plan should include and as a taxpayer, I feel good knowing what results to expect for a dollar invested.

More importantly, we have the endorsement of the boards of the ARC, GDOT, GRTA, MARTA and TPB for IT3. As well, the governor expressed his support for additional transportation funding this past week based on the IT3 direction and the business case returns for Georgia citizens.

We also know what the future holds if we don’t act — increased congestion, loss of jobs, decreased quality of life and the dilution of Georgia’s competitive position.

So, Maria — this one time, I completely disagree.

By Guest Columnist ARNIE SILVERMAN, owner of Silverman Construction Program Management.

Parks promote. Parks transform. Parks stimulate. Parks sell.

You can see it in Centennial Olympic Park, which transformed a dangerous and derelict part of downtown Atlanta into a vibrant commercial center with a growing tourism and residential sector.

You can see it in Piedmont Park, a focal point for residents from all areas of the city who gather to enjoy its trails, playgrounds and nearby restaurants and shops. Piedmont Park is the back yard for the tens of thousands of new residents who populate Midtown’s high-rises and neighborhoods.

Never has the selling point of parks and other public spaces been more important. Metro Atlanta is locked in an intense competition with cities across the nation to attract economic development and new residents.

Freed by technology and freed from the traditional constraints of location, retirees, knowledge workers and businesses more and more are making decisions based on quality of life.

Parks, plazas and streetscapes are vital to promoting a high quality of life and to attracting the residents and businesses that drive economic development – economic development that will generate the property and sales taxes upon which governments depend.

For example:

• Being located adjacent to a park increases property values by an average of 20 percent.

• According to the American Planning Association, condominium prices along Centennial Park rose from $115 to $250 per square foot after the park was built. All told, the park has attracted more than $4 billion in economic development.

• Chicago’s Millenium Park generates $18 million in annual tax revenue from visitor spending.

• 5,000 new housing units are approved and under construction around what will soon be Atlanta’s Historic Fourth Ward Park.

• According to the Atlanta Development Authority, shoppers are willing to pay up to 11 percent more for products purchased along tree-lined streets than they would pay for the same items in a barren setting.

In addition to driving economic development, investing in parks creates jobs. Hundreds if not thousands of private-sector workers contribute, including local landscape architects and planners, contractors, landscapers, growers and suppliers.

And these are just the jobs created within the parks themselves. Many more jobs were created building Midtown’s high rises, the development along the BeltLine, and the housing around Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett parks.

During these challenging economic times, the cities and counties that can make their jurisdiction a more desirable product will have the competitive advantage needed to ensure long-term economic growth.

Atlanta, which has a smaller percent of its land dedicated to parks than any other major city, has its work cut out for it. If we are to win the battle for economic growth and civic vitality, metro governments must find a way to continue to invest in our public space.

As Atlanta struggles to regain its economic footing during one of the most difficult times since the Great Depression, local governments must not lose sight of these facts.

Quite simply, our parks, plazas and streetscapes – our public realm – have never before had such an impact on our competitiveness and our prospects for economic recovery.

Atlanta’s ability to bounce back from this “Great Recession” – and to continue to attract residents – will depend in part on our ability to maintain, improve and expand our parks and greenspace.

By Guest Columnist GEORGE DUSENBURY, executive director of Park Pride

Parks are the best of Atlanta; they are the worst of Atlanta. They are the foundations of community; they are the foundations of crime. They are the catalyst of economic development; they are the catalyst of middle-class flight. They are the epitome of excellence; they are the epitome of mediocrity. They promise everything before us; they promise nothing before us.

It all depends on how they are maintained.

As executive director of Park Pride, Atlanta’s nonprofit park and park advocacy group, I have seen in all corners of metro Atlanta how maintenance can make or break a park. And – though you may not have realized it – you have seen it, too.

At one end of our experience are Piedmont Park and Centennial Olympic Park – two public spaces consistently maintained at a level above and beyond the average park. The Piedmont Park Conservancy’s supplement to city funding results in a maintenance budget that is double what is spent in other city parks.

The Georgia World Congress Center maintains Centennial Olympic Park at a similar high standard. The results of these investments are parks that any resident would want in their neighborhood. They increase property values, attract residents and recreationalists, and foster a sense of pride and community within surrounding neighborhoods and business districts.

These parks are the best of Atlanta.

At the other end of our experience are parks in lower-income communities where, despite the best efforts of concerned community citizens, activity in the park most often is illicit. Graffiti, broken lights, dilapidated equipment and trash greet the parks’ few visitors.

Lacking funding, the parks department mows the grass and picks up the trash every week or so, and can only watch the sidewalks and landscaping crumble. Residents shun the park, businesses flee, and parents warn their children not to enter.

These parks are the worst of Atlanta.

It is in how parks are maintained that separates the best from the worst. Many of us are aware of the “broken window” theory of policing.

Essentially, if a city enforces quality of life laws – against litter, pan-handling, graffiti and breaking windows – it sends the message that people are watching and care enough to act to protect their community. This creates an uncomfortable environment for criminals, and an attractive one for law-abiding residents.

Parks operate under the same broken window theory. Well-maintained parks are a community asset. When parks go to seed – and unmowed lawns are the source of this metaphor – crime moves in and the community suffers.

Even a park like Piedmont is not immune, harboring prostitutes, drug dealers and other criminals in the not-too-distant past. New York City’s Central Park – feared in the Eighties, adored today – is perhaps the best national example of this phenomenon. It is easy – perhaps too easy – to forget the damage that neglect wrought on these treasures.

We must not forget, or we will again pay the price. To quote Atlanta Mayor-Elect Kasim Reed, “Budget crises come and go, but one constant seems to be that our parks are always first to suffer.”

In the short term, it is easy to justify cuts in park maintenance – to let the grass grow a little bit longer – because the decline is gradual. However, the decline also is persistent and cumulative. And because poorly-maintained parks foster crime, lower property values and drive residential flight, cutting maintenance also sows the seed for reduced tax revenue in future years – and further budget cuts.

Between 1993 and 2003, while it struggled with a declining population and shrinking tax base, the City of Atlanta eliminated nearly 250 full-time park employees – more than half its workforce.

Fortunately, there are signs that metro voters and leaders understand the value of maintaining our public realm to ensuring the economic vitality – and the fiscal stability – of their jurisdictions.

Gwinnett County dedicates a certain portion of its property tax to park maintenance. Atlanta Mayor-Elect Reed has publicly stated that: “We must ensure a dedicated revenue source for our parks and recreation centers so that they can continue to improve over time and stop being a political football.”

If we are to do what is best for the long-term growth of Atlanta – to create a city and a region that continues to attract residents and economic growth – we must invest in our parks. We must maintain them to the highest standards, so that people and industries flock to them, not away from them.

Study after study shows that our investment will be repaid. In Charlotte-Mecklenberg County, their parks and nature preserves generate $4 in revenue for every dollar in expense.

A report from 2008 showed Philadelphia’s parks generate about 100 times the amount the city spends on them each year. Similarly, a 2009 New York State Parks study concluded the 55.7 million park visitors support $1.9 billion in economic activity and 20,000 jobs.

However, the full economic and social benefits of parks are realized only when they are well-maintained. As metro Atlanta jurisdictions set their budget priorities in the years to come, they should recognize that cutting park maintenance may be penny wise, but it is pound foolish.

By Guest Columnist E. FRED YALOURIS, director of design for Atlanta BeltLine Inc.

I am often asked about my decision to move to Atlanta without a car, and, if there is time, I like to take the opportunity to bore my listener with the story of how I made this decision.

I had come to Atlanta a month before starting work at the BeltLine to attend a public meeting at City Hall. It was on a beautiful spring day, Saturday afternoon, May 2, 2008. The sun was shining, the outside temperature was 64 degrees, and you could smell the spring blossoms in the air.

It was such a nice afternoon, that, after an excellent public meeting, I decided to walk the nine or ten blocks up Peachtree to my hotel. To my naïve surprise, except for a few homeless folks, I saw no one on the sidewalks over the roughly one mile walk through downtown Atlanta!

Secondly, although it was a salubrious spring day, all the cars on the street had their windows up. Curiously, this experience helped me to understand one of the key underlying missions of the BeltLine vision: get people out of their cars and allow them to walk.

Make the streets and sidewalks attractive and safe for pedestrians.
It thus made some sense to try living in Atlanta without a car. It has not been easy, but it has been revealing, and often, very pleasing. There are many good things to be discovered on foot in this city.

During the week, I take MARTA to work. It is safe, clean, reliable, and fast. For a good portion of the trip, I can look down on the commuting cars on DeKalb Avenue, struggling to get to their ugly parking garages downtown, and think of my good fortune of being able to take transit to work.

Sometimes after work I will walk the two miles down Edgewood Ave. to my home. I have grown to appreciate the urban landscape, and note the little and big changes that occur over time in the several, now familiar, neighborhoods through which I pass.

On the weekends there are long walks to be had, either on some segment of the BeltLine corridor itself or some distinct neighborhood, near or far. I take with me my trusty map of the city and set off alone or sometimes with a friend. The urban landscape in this town has a multitude of interesting experiences to offer, some very pleasing, some distressing.

The physical contours of the city are full of texture. You know there are hills and vales and streams out there, but you feel a landscape suppressed by concrete and asphalt. The various neighborhoods are fascinating. The single family housing stock, surely Atlanta’s greatest architectural asset, is exceptional: well-designed, well-built, attractive, functional houses, sitting there with dignity and purpose.

Often, I have to walk on the streets because the sidewalks are either hazardous or non-existent. (P.S. The hexagonal pavers are costly, impractical, and unkind to pedestrians.)

And then of course, there is the tree canopy. For all its concrete bedspread, Atlanta has this most glorious spread of trees, which is best appreciated on foot. God bless Trees Atlanta!

And then there are the cars and drivers. Seeing them tear through the intersections explains at least in part why there are so few pedestrians on the streets and sidewalks. Drivers here are unaccustomed to dealing with pedestrians and bicyclists.

My friend Heather Alhadeff, a senior transportation planner for the city, and fellow carless resident, likes to point out that every driver is also a pedestrian at some point, and if we could think of ourselves in that way when behind the wheel, the relationship between cars, bicycles and pedestrians might be better balanced.

Our streets must be seen as public ways for all of us, not as a no-man’s land for all but those in cars. Heather also speaks poetically about her experiences as a walker, noting “the most profound effect, that one only appreciates once you have taken the leap to walk instead of drive, is that by walking you are effortlessly re-calibrating your psyche.

You will inevitably start noticing the world around you because you are a part of it, rather than just traveling through it on auto-pilot. Your mind relaxes and you end up getting adjusted against the effects of the forever quickening rat race.”

Another intrepid carless resident is Sally Flocks, executive director of PEDS, the pedestrian advocacy organization in Atlanta. She notes that “people are losing the habit of walking.” The movement from the house, to the car, to the office or mall has become too ingrained.

We need to think twice before getting into the car. Perhaps that errand can be accomplished on foot! Optimistically, Sally sees a rising sensitivity by some drivers toward pedestrians, especially in the city, and especially by drivers who live in the city.

Suburban drivers are much more indifferent toward pedestrians. Not surprisingly, she sees intown neighborhoods as being more insistent on an improved pedestrian realm (good sidewalks, safe crossings, calmer speed limits). There is hope for us yet, but we must get out and walk.

In the new year, about seven miles of the old railroad corridor will be open to pedestrians in segments in the northeast, southeast and southwest (go to www.BeltLine.org for information). Hiking it will be a treat. When you walk the BeltLine, a multitude of views and aspects of the city will unfold before you.

In addition to the dozens of neighborhoods through which you will pass, you will experience some of those natural textures and contours, free of asphalt and concrete. Sometimes, the BeltLine will feel like a strip of countryside, and then the city skyline appears before you.

It is a monumental asset waiting to be discovered. Perhaps you will share with my colleagues and me a most satisfying glimpse of the spectacular opportunity we have before us.

By Guest Columnist LYNNETTE YOUNG, CEO and executive director of Sustainable Atlanta

For the last 18 months, Sustainable Atlanta has engaged leaders and experts from Atlanta’s academic, business, governmental sectors and non-profits to work on updating Atlanta’s current building code to make the city a better place to live, work and play.

Unfortunately, the Atlanta City Council missed a tremendous opportunity by shelving the Atlanta Sustainable Building Ordinance (ASBO) during their last meeting as a Council on December 7, 2009.

By making the decision to not pass this piece of legislation that protects the health and welfare of all Atlantans, they have marred their legacy. They ignored an opportunity to address some of the most critical issues facing the city such as human health, water conservation, energy efficiency and heat island effect. In doing so, they have compromised the quality of life we will leave for future generations.

All parties agree that the ordinance is a technically sound piece of legislation. Sustainable Atlanta worked to ensure the ASBO involved compromise and consensus-based agreement amongst all parties.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to please everyone. The point where compromise fails is the place where leadership becomes necessary when determining the best course of action. This is where the City Council ignored the opportunity and failed to provide needed guidance. Now the ordinance will have to be reintroduced by the new council or new administration

The ASBO would impact the health of Atlantans’ in addition to the city’s environmental and economic sustainability. Numerous studies and articles have explored the link between building quality and worker health. Research shows that LEED rated buildings help enhance the indoor environment and reduce absenteeism, respiratory ailments, allergies and asthma.

Furthermore, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America named Atlanta the Asthma Capital of the U.S. in 2007 and ranked Atlanta in the top 10 worst cities for asthma in the last four years. The ASBO would have directly addressed two causes of Atlanta’s poor air quality by mandating higher energy efficiency standards and minimizing the heat island effect.

One of the most important sections of the ordinance addressed water use. In light of the recent federal judge ruling that Metro Atlanta communities are not entitled to water use drawn from Lake Lanier beyond 1970 levels, water conservation should be among our elected leaders’ top priorities. In addition, the ASBO would lessen the burden on municipal water supply and wastewater systems by reducing the overall use of portable water within new buildings by 40 percent.

Also, let’s not forget the ranking from Forbes magazine in November that called Atlanta “the most toxic city in the country.” Rankings should not dictate public policy, but they do serve as frames of reference. Whether Atlanta is the most toxic city or not is irrelevant; it shouldn’t even be a contender. Unfortunately, perception is reality.

The ASBO would also help ensure Atlanta’s position as a leader in proven and accepted building practices while improving Atlanta’s environmental and economic competitiveness.

The longer Atlanta waits to update its existing building code, the further behind we will fall. While Atlanta’s development community deserves praise for their leadership in green building, we cannot rest on past laurels. In 2008, SustainLane ranked Atlanta third in the country for green building, falling from the city’s number one ranking in 2007. It is also important to note that the majority of the buildings contributing to this ranking were institutional and not private.

Atlanta needs to focus on the triple bottom line of sustainability: people, profit and planet to attract the best employers and jobs – particularly in communities that are traditionally underserved. This measure would improve Atlanta’s competitiveness with other leading cities and even provide a competitive edge to businesses.

As we enter 2010 and transition into a new administration and council, now is the time to look ahead. We must think about the future of this city we call home. In my years of service in city government, I know our officials sometimes miss the boat.

Even so, there is still an opportunity for the City Council to look towards protecting the health and welfare of all Atlantans. This is only one piece of legislation where we need city leadership to move us forward in making Atlanta a more viable city.

I hope 2010 is the year our elected officials work together and provide the leadership to pass legislation that will protect Atlantans’ health, environment and wallets.

Note to readers: Lynnette Young wrote the first guest column for SaportaReport last February. So glad she’s back for an encore.

By Guest Columnist LAURA HEERY PROZES, AIA, executive co-chair of the Congress for the New Urbanism 18

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have tracked a virulent virus, spreading since the 1950’s, crossing borders and oceans, with host bodies adapting remarkably to this disease.

Americans have adapted to the imbedded foreign bacteria, unaware of the extent that lives and health are compromised. In fact, we have been living remarkably well with the virus, perhaps similar to how we integrate cancer, diabetes, asthma, hypertension into daily lives.

Symptoms from the virus are mundane, such as obesity, and other symptoms have new names, such as Nature Deficit Disorder. We have prostheses to offset the health and lifestyle limitations, elevators to avoid stairs, cars to our doorsteps.

Yet, as we rely on technologically advanced artificial aids, unfortunately our underlying physiology diminishes further. Just as body chemistry adapts to rely on nicotine, or addictive habits take over increasing space in the brain, our lives are so adapted around this virus that restoring to a pre-virus, healthy condition is an enormously large-scale, costly, daunting proposition.

Elusive memories of how we lived before this virus, and those qualities of daily life, are now more occasional — say, on a special visit to an historic or healthy place. As we more cleverly adapt, the conscious triggers fade that would compel us to reclaim basic health.

However, an increasing body of research and metrics from the CDC, other rigorous and credible research sources now confront us. We now know that the “Sprawl Virus” is a pre-condition for obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, social isolation, mental health dysfunction, drought and unnatural weather patterns related to urban heat island effect, soil and air contamination, water scarcity, foreign bacteria migration due to climate change.

Widespread loss of walkable, bikeable, age-diverse, livable neighborhoods and commercial, civic places, in countrysides, garden suburbs and cities, is a symptom of the Sprawl Virus.

Public infrastructure with low initial costs, long-term inefficiencies and diminishing value, high energy use, waste of water, natural resources — and disproportionate tax use to tax base – are other symptoms of the Sprawl Virus. Streets with no sidewalks, disconnected development, the absence of a physical sense of community or traditional neighborhood and the lack street or transit networks are also the Sprawl Virus.

Unlike original, traditional suburbs with nearby “main streets” and walkable neighborhood parks and schools, Sprawl Virus development patterns remove topography, natural stream beds, pervious areas that replenish water tables, greenspaces, good soils for agriculture, mature trees and shade. Both human ecology and natural ecology are largely removed.

We once thought that the Sprawl Virus was a naturally occurring, “free market” phenomenon. Now we know that public policies of decades ago converged to create the Virus and stimulate the spreading of Sprawl.

An obscure detail, often communicated by Andres Duany, a founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, is that low interest mortgages designed to avert a depression at the end of World War II, did not include renovations of existing house stock. A viral response to that federal mortgage incentive program became all new residential subdivisions and in-town neighborhoods, which has experienced two decades of deferred maintenance, were left behind.

Public infrastructure, public policies, banking and mortgage incentives, public zoning and building codes public agency regulations and standards, and recently, Wall Street securitization standards, triggered viral market responses and conspired to create false demand for a product that is rarely the actual market preference.

Yet, now household economics are converging with the issues of livability and public health.

Walkability is raising house values according to recent surveys conducted by CEOS for Smart Cities. Investment value in more efficient, sustainable development patterns and positive health outcomes are converging. The meaning of “sustainability” extends to financially sustainable as well as ecologically sustainable for humans and wildlife.

Research groups, such as the Center for Neighborhood Technology (www.cnt.org) map car-dependency costs on household expenses. Metrics on duration and number of car trips per household, the extent of our time and lives seated in cars, are mappable by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and other metropolitan planning organizations.

Four divisions of the CDC and in their Healthy Community Design Initiative, have apparently been gathering research that links public health issues to the built environment. The extent of CO2 emissions and impervious surfaces, how these contribute to drought, flooding, extreme weather patterns, are more measurable.

Information on how to “cure” the Sprawl Virus will be demonstrated and disseminated with 18th annual, national Congress for the New Urbanism, organized with assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta May 19 to 22, 2010. Link here for more info.

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) includes decision makers and thought leaders who define best design and development practices for land, neighborhoods and communities, who reform public policy and who guide infrastructure planning to support market-driven, sustainable communities.

By Guest Columnist State Sen. DOUG STONER (D-Cobb)

In little over a month, my fellow legislators and I will be returning to Atlanta to begin a new session under the Gold Dome. This will be my eighth session of representing my hometown of Smyrna and South Cobb County, including two in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate.

The coming session appears similar to my first session in 2003. Georgia was just beginning to recover from a recession, and revenues had dropped for 18 straight months. We had nearly exhausted our reserve funds and were facing a $600 million budget shortfall.

How did my fellow legislators, along with Gov. Perdue, confront this budget challenge in 2003? First, the new governor picked the most conservative of the three projected revenue estimates for the coming year. Second, the governor proposed a mixture of budget cuts and increases in tobacco and alcohol taxes.

It was a prudent, fiscally balanced approach that previous governors had followed. The reasoning behind this approach was to make necessary cuts in non-essential services during a recession, while reducing the cuts on vital state services, such as education and healthcare, which are always in greater demand during economic hard times.

Unfortunately for Gov. Perdue, his own party would not support him in the House. The then-Democratic majority passed the proposed mixture of cuts and a 25-cent cigarette tax increase without most of the Republican Caucus. This lack of support was due to Republican members’ desire to stay “ideologically pure” instead of joining us in governing the state’s fiscal affairs.

The Republican-controlled Senate followed suit by rejecting Gov. Perdue’s budget compromise with the House, cutting $400 million out of K-12, technical, and higher education funding. In the end, education cuts were restored to the 2004 budget.

Unfortunately, this was a sign of things to come. Since gaining control of the legislature in the 2004 election, this need by my Republican colleagues to base public policy totally on ideological purity, appeasing the 20 percent of the electorate that votes in a Republican primary, has repeated itself on many issues.

From attempting to criminalize promising stem-cell research on chronic diseases at Georgia universities and in the private sector, to the $1.2 billion in state funding cuts to our local school systems, my friends across the aisle seem to be driven by the most ideological of their supporters instead of the common good for the state.

Anyone who has worked with me in the General Assembly knows that I’m a bi-partisan problem solver. But I can no longer remain silent while this partisan prison that my colleagues and friends across the aisle have constructed threatens the future prosperity of Georgia and its citizens. This partisan OCB (obsessive compulsive behavior) has served to create a looming structural budget deficit by the middle of the next decade, leaving the state unable to fund basic government services or invest in desperately needed infrastructure for job creation and viability in this 21st century global economy.

So, you ask, when is Georgia going to become a southeastern version of California? By 2015, according to projections as recent as 2008, if we continue the fiscally irresponsible belief my colleagues across the aisle repeat to themselves and anyone who will listen that we can continue to give special-interest tax breaks and tax cuts with no impact on revenues.

My father, a very successful businessman, gave me some advice on one essential truth about life: there is no free lunch. However, my colleagues have created a belief in some citizens that they should not have to pay any taxes, and somehow their city, schools, and state will still provide services. Unfortunately, due to a recession that has lasted 20 months, the bill on the supposed free lunch for Georgia and its citizens will come due three years earlier than projected – in fiscal year 2012.

Let me give you a quick scorecard of what we faced in funding the 2010 budget. The Governor and the Republican leadership faced a $3.1 billion shortfall in creating the FY 2010 budget in comparison to FY 2009.

The governor and the General Assembly balanced the budget with over $2.2 billion in various reserve funds, Federal Stimulus dollars, and the elimination of the Homeowner Tax Relief Grant. These funds are non-recurring; therefore, they must be replaced over the next two years with another revenue source. This can only occur either from growth in current sources or adding new sources.

Otherwise, the only alternative is to cut as much as $2.2 billion on top of current cuts from the FY 2012 budget. We could start by updating our antiquated Department of Revenue, which, according to latest estimates, misses collecting nearly $1.6 billion a year in current taxes. We could also increase the cigarette tax to $1 a pack and raise between $300 million and $400 million a year, while also reducing teenage smoking.

My Republican colleagues have argued for years that we have a spending problem, but Georgia ranks in the bottom 10 states in per capita spending. They also argue that we can reduce the budget by eliminating waste and inefficiency, but Georgia has the highest performance management grade in the Southeast and is one of the top eight best-managed states in the country, according to Governing magazine.

What we have is a revenue problem. The Republican majority sees nothing wrong with giving away $1.5 billion in tax cuts and tax breaks to special interests, while at the same time slapping a $480 million tax increase (the largest in our state’s history) on everyday Georgians. The elimination of the Homeowner Tax Relief Grant is costing the average homeowner an extra $200 to $300 on an annual basis.

The special-interest tax breaks and tax cuts the Republicans are so fond of were created, for the most part, in the name of job creation. But there is no accountability on whether the purpose of those tax breaks is being fulfilled. Georgia’s unemployment rate is higher than ever. There are fewer jobs in our state now than there were at the beginning of this decade. And the Republican leaders at the Capitol call themselves “conservative”? No one in their right mind would run their private business or household budget in such a fiscally irresponsible manner.

We indeed have a revenue problem that can be solved only through fundamental tax reform, linking our budget needs to a 21st century tax system. We have to develop a fair and adequate tax structure that enables us to fund high-quality services and make long-term infrastructure investments in education, transportation and water resources if Georgia and its citizens are to prosper in the global economy.