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Planned Chamblee Doraville CID to create sense of place, urgency for improvements

October 14, 2018, 7:22 pm/2 Comments
Mike Dobbins

By Guest Columnist DAN REUTER, a longtime advisor on urban planning and community development in metro Atlanta and the founder/CEO of Reuter Strategy

Momentum is building for the creation of a new Community Improvement District in the cities of Chamblee and Doraville. Led by local commercial property owners and encouraged by the leadership of the cities of Chamblee and Doraville, a CID will help the community to leverage the existing assets to provide greater access and amenities.

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Ormewood forest trees Atlanta skyline

A growing chorus: Atlanta must be proactive to preserve its unique tree canopy

July 10, 2017, 6:47 pm/5 Comments
Maria Saporta

This is the third column in a series about Atlanta’s trees

A groundswell of community leaders are doing all they can to make sure Joni Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi” doesn’t become Atlanta’s reality.

The song’s chorus feels all too familiar:

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Atlanta is uniquely positioned as a city in a forest, and there is a movement afoot to make sure it stays that way.

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bellwood quarry

As Atlanta seeks rebirth, city must overcome segregationist past cited in new book

May 15, 2017, 4:42 pm/3 Comments
David Pendered

Atlanta’s history of government-sanctioned segregated neighborhoods dates to 1922, when the city adopted a zoning law that created separate residential districts for black and white folks, according to a new book by noted researcher Richard Rothstein. The old Techwood Homes and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. also have segregationist roots, according to Rothstein.

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Dhiru Thadani John Ahman

Atlanta’s Westside ‘Action Plan’ strives to improve lives of residents

September 12, 2016, 7:20 pm/2 Comments
Maria Saporta

For the past six months, a team headed by prominent planner and urbanist Dhiru Thadani has been working on an action-oriented plan for Atlanta’s Westside communities.

The team recently presented its draft Action Plan at the Transform Westside Summit, and now there will be about two months when community members and stakeholders will be able to respond to the recommendations and ideas.

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