Two events served as ideal bookends of how Atlanta is doing — good and not so good.
Central Atlanta Progress held the “State of Downtown” breakfast on Wednesday Oct. 22 at the Commerce Club.
Two days later, the “State of the Region” breakfast was held at the Georgia World Congress Center, also in the heart of Downtown.
A common denominator connecting both was Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
“It’s time to shine some light on Downtown Atlanta,” Dickens said at the Oct. 22 event. “It has some of the most critical four-square miles in the city. I’m so proud of the momentum we have right now. Downtown Atlanta is rising. I’m all in about making Downtown and Atlanta the best city to raise a child.”
Both events were a perfect opportunity to take the pulse of how the region is doing – beginning at its very core.
“What’s working is collaboration,” Dickens said after the Friday morning event. “We are doing this together through public-private partnerships – South Downtown, Centennial Yards, Underground Atlanta. Government and business are being very intentional about Downtown. We are making a bold statement. We are making a neighborhood investment with community collaboration.”
The mayor has made Downtown Atlanta a priority by making it one of the focus areas in the city’s recently unveiled neighborhood strategy.
Maurice Cox, a national leader in city planning and development, is consulting with the city on how to make Downtown Atlanta a thriving neighborhood. Cox is currently Harvard University’s Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design.
“A city has many, many souls. But there’s only one heart, and that’s its Downtown,” Cox told key Atlanta leaders at the Downtown breakfast. “Y’all are on a roll.”
Cox spoke of transforming auto-centric spaces into pedestrian-oriented spaces. When he was head of city planning in Detroit, he was able to integrate the streetcar with urban improvements while connecting public spaces.
According to Cox, the goal is to create 20-minute neighborhoods — areas where one can live and access needed services within a 20-minute walk.
“If Downtown is going to thrive, it’s going to thrive as a neighborhood,” said Cox, who talked about the potential transformation of Underground, the Stitch and all parts in between.
Ironically, the walk from the Commerce Club to the future area of the Stitch on Downtown Day showed some of our shortcomings. Sidewalks and bicycle lanes were blocked, showing a lack of respect for pedestrian spaces and bike lanes.
One way to improve Downtown would be for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to designate Underground Atlanta as an Enterprise Zone (a designation that’s already been given to Centennial Yards and is being considered for South Downtown).
In the interview, Dickens weighed in: “We need that Enterprise Zone.”
What’s not working Downtown is “an outdated public perception,” the mayor said. “When people come Downtown, they will see all the activity.”
Dickens is also strategically positioned when it comes to the Atlanta region. He is completing his second year as chair of the Atlanta Regional Commission, the first time a mayor of Atlanta has held that position.
And it looks as if Dickens will continue his regional leadership role. He is the only candidate who has been nominated to be ARC’s chairman for the next two years.
When asked about the “State of the Region,” Dickens said collaboration was in “full display” at the Oct. 24 event.
“Being one great region requires everyone to play well together and not be outside of the group project,” Dickens said. “It needs every county and city leader being involved.”
When he was asked about what’s not working regionally, the mayor quickly responded.
“We are making limited progress on regional transit,” Dickens said. “The very people who complain about traffic are the people who have the power to change it.”
ARC released its 2025 Metro Atlanta Speaks survey, where respondents mentioned a lack of housing affordability as the top issue in the region.
The second biggest problem? Traffic was mentioned by 24 percent of the respondents.
The solution? Expanding public transportation was the top answer given by 39 percent of respondents.
Unfortunately, the Atlanta region and MARTA have been unable to expand their rail system since 2000, when the last two stations opened.
“The most important job centers are connected by MARTA rail,” said Anna Roach, ARC’s executive director and CEO. She added that the region added 64,400 to our population last year, and there was strong growth in the City of Atlanta. “Still, we cannot take our growth for granted.”
A keynote guest of the State of the Region was Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, along with Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Among the world’s largest airlines, Delta ranks first in revenue and brand value. Hartsfield-Jackson is still the world’s busiest airport.
Dickens observed that both Delta and the airport are at the top of their game, and now it’s important for both to “keep that spot.”
During breakfast, Glydways, an alternative system of autonomous cars, was highlighted. Glydways is part of a pilot project with the Airport Community Improvement District to connect the Georgia International Convention Center with the nearby arena.
Glydways is also vying to be the transit solution to connect passengers traveling between Hartsfield-Jackson’s domestic and international terminals. MARTA and the firm VHB are analyzing which transportation mode would be the best alternative to the current airport bus service.
There have been complaints that the current service does not work well for arriving and departing international passengers who want to use MARTA, which only serves the domestic terminal.
“That’s a missing link,” said Brian Gettinger, Glydways’ senior vice president of growth for the Americas. “The airport moves 3,000 people a day between the international and domestic terminals. Our technology would be very attractive in that corridor. We just want to be one of the options that’s considered.”
Another common denominator between Downtown and metro Atlanta is the uncertainty that exists when it comes to disappearing federal funding for urban and regional projects — whether it’s the Stitch, MARTA or pedestrian-bicycle trails that have been planned.
It will be necessary for the state to step up and fill the void — making sure metro Atlanta continues being Georgia’s economic engine.
At the “State of Downtown” breakfast, Dickens said the Georgia Department of Transportation could be an important partner to help build the Stitch.
“Make friends with GDOT,” Dickens joked. “Love on those people.”
In short, Downtown Atlanta and the entire region will need to work with the state to forge innovative partnerships aimed at creating healthy communities with housing and jobs connected by transit, trails, the arts and parks.
An idea that should be repeated throughout the country and which Atlanta can be pioneering model for is:
In the core of each city; there is most likely a converge of roads/highways/private & public vehicles, as well as appliances & tools which denude the air-quality through internal-combustion. The common theme connecting all of these is the is the emission of c02 – while c02 is a commonly demonized gas, the reality is that c02 is literal food for the vegetation which Atlanta loves to pride itself on, however, an often maligned by-product of ICE (internal combustion engines) which spurs the demonization.
There is an opportunity staring the city in the face which, in my opinion, has received such little attention considering the synergistic energy it has, borders on malevolent disregard.
The idea of The Stitch capping or, covering the connector highway through Downtown can serve not as a method only of creating a visual improvement and can serve as a way to keep tax Dollars in the city, it creates a litany of altruistic synergies but I’ll list three here. Firstly, it covers the emission-creating highway through the most densely-populated city in the state which, increases in-city air quality making the city a more attractive geography in which to raise a child, or age-in-place increasing tax-revenues for the city, and finally it will increase social cohesion and comity in the city, all of which are ingredients that Mayor Dickens aims to ameliorate.
By covering the highway we reduce the emissions through the city, noise and health-deteriorating alike. Through the creation of these benefits we almost instantly create a better environment for children and seniors, both of which are demographic goals of Mayor Dickens.
Through the creation of this achievable project, unlike ‘The Big Dig’ in Boston, we are creating a gentler, more attractive landscape for parents to raise children and for seniors to have a refuge to enjoy their remainder without having a harsh gray highway serving as a constant reminder of their removal from nature, we can even increase urban nature!
By having seniors with children we can help create a better sense of community and through this generational mixture we can create even more synergies, on top of the innumerable ones created by The Stitch.
Considering the relatively low-cost I am wondering why the design for this cant be done by a GT student on their lunch-break, this has too many synergies to comfortably list in a comment box of this awesome publication.
Bonus:
We can have small gardens bookending this project growing tomato’s and lettuce for The Varsity – we can call that burger ‘ATL Glorified Burger.’
I look forward to reading your SaportaReport. It is how I keep up with what is happening in Atlanta. You Report is always informative and newsworthy. Thank You!