Seeing New York City through an Atlanta lens

NEW YORK CITY — Metro Atlanta leaders returned from a three-day trip to NYC full of ideas and observations of how our region can evolve into a vibrant metropolis.

Nearly 150 people from the Atlanta region went on the 27th annual LINK trip, which is organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission. I reached out to about a dozen people who were on the trip to get their insights about how Atlanta could benefit from what they saw.

Although I was not part of the official LINK delegation, I decided to be in New York during those three days and put together my own LINK trip with my guide, Louis Alvarez, a New Yorker who is like a brother to me.

Obviously, with nearly 150 participants, this column only scratches the surface of the LINK trip and the lessons delegation members learned during those three days. I welcome attendees and readers to share their thoughts in the comments section below. Last week, I shared the observations of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who also is serving as chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

“A number of people on the trip wondered: “Why New York?” said Bill Bolling, the retired founder of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, who is the only person who has been on every single LINK trip. 

Bolling quoted Mike Alexander, ARC’s chief operating officer, who was part of the first session.

“Mike’s point was a big takeaway,” Bolling said. “We have got to think big – bigger. The scale is different. We have to be courageous. We are in a long game. The decisions we make today are going to affect us for the long term. New Yorkers really do think big.”

Bolling also saw more unity during this year’s trip than he has seen in the past. He credited that to Dickens serving in the dual role as mayor of the largest city in the region and as chair of ARC and fully participating in the discussions, which he said “changed the energy” during the trip.

“It was the largest group we’ve ever had. It was more diverse, and an average, it was younger,” Bolling said. “For the first time, it really felt regional. In the past, it felt like it was Atlanta in contrast with the rest of the region. The Chairman-Mayor (Dickens) didn’t speak from an Atlanta viewpoint. He was speaking for the entire region.”

Terri Lee, president of the Atlanta Housing Authority, was attending her first LINK trip.

“New York is a city of ‘Yes’. And they are not just saying yes to the traditional. They are saying yes to the impossible,” Lee said. “They are making monumental investments in housing, homelessness, technology and transit.”

Both Lee and Frank Fernandez, president of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, were struck by the “level of partnership” NYC has with the State of New York. 

By comparison, the State of Georgia’s financial relationships with the City of Atlanta and the region are not as intertwined. It’s especially true when it comes to investments in transit. New York City has the most robust transit system in the United States, and it has strong support from the state. MARTA is the largest transit agency in the country that does not receive regular operating support from the state.

Jay Bailey, president and CEO of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, was on his second LINK trip.

“This year was the most closely aligned in helping drive the narrative of what Atlanta could be,” said Bailey, who added the speakers were phenomenal. “New York has all the problems that Atlanta has, but you have to add three zeros. A $300 million problem here is a $3 billion problem in New York.”

To understand the difference in scale, consider the $11.8 billion that is being spent on the “Eastside Access” project – the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s largest capital project. 

The complex project, built 15 stories below ground, stretches nearly eight city blocks under Grand Central Station, eight miles of tunneling and 40 miles of track to serve the Long Island Rail Road as well as the modernization of the Harold Interlocking Yard.

Former Atlantan Paul Grether (who used to work at MARTA) is the acting chief of Grand Central Madison Station. He gave Louie and me the grand tour of Grand Central’s Madison Station project during rush hour on Aug. 14.

“It is one campus, but we operate as two facilities,” Grether explained. “Why do it? This part of Manhattan has grown to be the largest office and employment center in New York.”

Grether, who has been with the MTA for five years and has been in his current role for the past year and a half, said it is like a little city with its own police department and fire department.

“Every day is different,” Grether said. “You are only as good as your last rush hour.”

Currently, the only rail project in metro Atlanta that is underway is the extension of the Atlanta Streetcar along the Eastside Beltline trail. The current estimate for that project is $230 million, a rounding error when compared to projects in New York City.

Collie Greenwood, MARTA’s general manager — who wasn’t able to attend LINK this year — said it is hard to compare the two. About 50 percent of New Yorkers use transit on a daily basis, compared to only 7 percent in the MARTA service area. But Greenwood said metro Atlanta should keep promoting greater use of transit.

But it’s not just transit. 

New York’s Citi Bike program is the largest bikeshare program in the country, with 25,000 bikes and over 1,500 stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Jersey City, and Hoboken.

Mike Alexander led a group on a 12-mile bike ride around Manhattan on the morning of Aug. 15 before the day’s panels began.

“The bicycle and transit infrastructure in New York was just insane,” said Michael Halicki, president and CEO of Park Pride. “New Yorkers demand transit.”

Over the past decade or two, New York has been turning over more and more of its pavement from automobiles to pedestrians and bicycle infrastructure.

A high-profile example is Times Square. In February 2009, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Times Square would be turned into pedestrian plazas, partly to relieve congestion for walkers and to reduce the number of traffic injuries. Today, Times Square is a thriving urban space where tourists congregate when coming to New York. 

Here are some before and after photos of Times Square.

In my travels around New York, I saw multiple examples where lanes had been converted from automobiles to alternative modes of transportation. Sidewalks were expanded, and protected bike lanes were added to bustling city streets. Much of that transformation occurred during the Bloomberg administration under the leadership of the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Kahn.

“There’s absolutely been steady improvement, and they continue to make improvements,” Alvarez said about the shift in transportation modes. “The problem is there’s not as much real will from the top to push the envelope. Bloomberg really seemed to want to change the paradigm of how streets are used in New York.”

Alvarez also pointed to all the dining sheds outside eateries that were created during the pandemic to allow diners to have more options. 

Now, the City of New York has added more regulations for those dining sheds to meet building codes. Also, restaurants will only be able to operate those spaces from April 1 to the end of November. Then those structures will need to be put in storage, an added expense for owners, which is expected to put many of those sheds out of business.

News reports have stated that some New Yorkers would rather have an extra parking space than a dining shed. It just goes to show that converting spaces from automobiles to other uses is not easy, even in New York City.

Still, I hope Atlanta will try even harder to make our city more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly by removing car lanes from signature streets like Peachtree.

Another idea we should import from New York opening up the vistas of our water reservoirs by copying what the Central Park Conservancy did with the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Louie and I rode electric bikes around Central Park, and I walked up to see the reservoir, which was filled with people enjoying the summer day.

In 1994, 10-foot-high chain-link fences around the reservoir were removed. It was replaced by a copy of the original 1864 fence that used to line the reservoir. A 1.58-mile walking and running track makes that space one of the most attractive in New York.

The City of Atlanta can and should follow New York’s lead. When I was younger, we used to have picnics at the Atlanta Water Works off Howell Mill Road. We should reopen the park areas around the reservoirs and permit people to walk and run around them like before. The same is true for Westside Park Reservoir.

After all, if that can happen in New York’s Central Park, it can happen here.

Note to readers: As you can probably tell, I continue to believe the Atlanta Regional Commission’s annual LINK trips contribute value to our region by urging us to look beyond ourselves, to think big and to dream of being the city we want to become.