Atlanta's Plans for Parks Over Highways Get National Attention
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1/4/2019 Atlanta's Plans For Parks Over Highways Get National Attention Atlanta's Plans For Parks Over Highways Get National Attention January 2, 2019 Jarred Schenke, Bisnow Atlanta Atlanta's efforts to create new swaths of green space over its major interstate has taken the national spotlight. The Wall Street Journal reported this week about a push by some city leaders to create decked parks over the Interstate 75/85 interchange through Atlanta, as the region's efforts to woo and retain millennial talent becomes a priority. That chase for millennial talent became a driving topic in Atlanta and other major metro areas as municipalities chased Amazon's second headquarters project. The emphasis on a pool of tech talent became the key factor in what the online retail giant ultimately decided: splitting HQ2 between Long Island City, New York, and Crystal City, Virginia. The WSJ focused on three major plans in Atlanta: The $300M-plus Stitch plan in Downtown Atlanta, the 14th Street Midtown park project being pushed by Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy and a third $250M proposed park covering portions of Georgia 400 in Buckhead. “We decided we needed to reconnect what the interstate disconnected,” Central Atlanta Progress President A.J. Robinson told the Journal. CAP is pushing the Stitch plan and is expected to release a feasibility study later this year. These parks are known to add more green than just from grass and trees, as proven by the greenway over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway in Dallas. Opened in 2012, the $112M, 5.2-acre park sparked both commercial and residential development around it, according to the WSJ. “Open space drives real estate values through the roof,” the president of San Diego-based landscape architecture firm OJB, James Burnett, told the WSJ. Related Topics: Chick-fil-A, Wall Street Journal, Central Atlanta Progress, Woodall Rodgers Freeway, James Burnett, AJ Robinson, Dan Cathy, OJB Landscape Architecture, Amazon HQ2 Shortlist, Amazon HQ2 bids, The Stitch, Park Over 400 https://www.bisnow.com/atlanta/news/economic-development/atlantas-plans-for-parks-over-highways-gets-national-attention-96315 2/3 the times | Thursday January 3 2019 1G M 35 World Bolsonaro Americans plot garden highways takes aim at to entice people out of their cars indigenous GETTY IMAGES; CENTRAL ATLANTA PROGRESS land rights United States Will Pavia New York Brazil The 14-lane highway that sweeps through Atlanta is called the Stephen Gibbs Downtown Connector, though it is also President Bolsonaro of Brazil has referred to, less charitably, as “the car stripped a government body of the sewer”. power to establish indigenous reserves Built in an age when many American and awarded it to the agriculture minis- cities were bulldozing neighbourhoods try in his first executive order. to make room for cars, it is no longer The decree, which will expire in regarded locally as a gorgeous testa- about four months unless ratified by ment to social progress. Now Atlanta congress, has alarmed environment- and dozens of other American cities are alists who fear that downgrading the pondering a solution to the motorways Funai agency is a prelude to the that divide them. They would like to destruction of indigenous lands. build parks on top of them. Mr Bolsonaro, a right-wing retired Proof that such a thing is possible is to military officer who was sworn in on be found in Dallas, Texas, where the Tuesday, has expressed extreme scepti- city authorities have constructed one cism that indigenous people would such “deck park” and are already work- choose to remain in protected areas of ing on a second. the Amazon rainforest and other un- Jim Burnett, a landscape architect spoilt regions of Brazil, saying they are who may be the most prolific highway- being kept in “zoos”. He said in 2017 that park builder in the country, they wanted “electricity, television, said the park that now lies over blonde girlfriends and internet”. part of the Woodall Rodgers He defended his executive order in a Freeway in Dallas has less than tweet that said: “Fewer than one mil- a foot of topsoil on the deck that lion people live in these isolated places spans the road. But the struc- . exploited and manipulated by tural engineers who made the NGOs. We will together integrate these deck strong enough to hold citizens and value all Brazilians.” large trees also built “pockets Sonia Guajajara, the leader of one of which trees could drop into”, Mr Brazil’s foremost indigenous rights Burnett said. “It feels like you are groups, tweeted: “You see? The disman- walking through a park with big tlement has already started.” trees everywhere.” Brazil’s new agriculture minister, Concerts are staged above the Tereza Cristina Dias, supported the de- roaring freeway, there is a child- The High Line development has breathed new life into a once run-down part of cision, saying Brazil was more than cap- ren’s playground and an area for Manhattan and planners now envisage a motorway deck park for Atlanta, left able of preserving its native forests. The quiet reading, not many feet president of the country’s main grain above the speeding cars. The 5.2 acre through the west side of the city. It was one in Cleveland and we have a few will come from public and private growers’ association, Bartolomeu Braz, park cost $112 million, which was sup- marked for demolition but two local others that are confidential,” he said. sources. also backed the move, saying the “Indi- plied by the city, the Texas department residents, noting that a carpet of wild- He has also been working with a Francesca Ammon, a historian at the ans want to be productive too”. of transportation and some private flowers had grown over the tracks, pro- group called Central Atlanta Progress, University of Philadelphia, said high- Mr Bolsonaro spent much of his first sponsors. posed that it be turned into a park. The which is seeking to create 14 acres of ways were laid through American cities day stressing his intention to form close Cities like Atlanta have looked to High Line, which opened in 2009 and parkland above the highway that after the 1956 Interstate Highway Act ties with Mr Trump’s administration, deck parks as they seek to draw a grew by four blocks in 2014, is now one weaves through the city. gave federal funding to city councils. and met Mike Pompeo, the secretary of younger workforce: tech professionals of the most popular parks in New York Jennifer Ball, vice-president of the “Today cities are more popular in the state. He said the tendency for Brazil to and millennials who wish to live in the and has spurred the transformation of a non-profit group that is funded by local US and we can see the short- elect enemies of the US as presidents heart of the city, rather than in a suburb, once semi-derelict tract of the city. businesses, said a plan for the project sightedness of these developments,” was over and he wanted to make up for and who would like to walk or cycle to Mr Burnett’s company is working on had been finalised. It would cost up to she said. The displacement of commu- the distance that his country had kept work. A similar trick was pulled off in the second highway deck in Dallas. “We $450 million “for the infrastructure nities was a series of grave injustices, between the two. Mr Pompeo respond- Manhattan with the aid of a disused el- also have one in Kansas City in plan- itself, for the concrete and steel and to she added. “This is a step towards right- ed that Mr Trump was very pleased evated railway line that snaked up ning, we’re in the preliminary stages for create the park”. She hopes the money ing those wrongs.” with the burgeoning relationship. Sharp-eared dogs a flop at airports Mexican mayor shot dead Tom Knowles San Francisco said that it trained seven breeds of dogs. anxious or uncomfortable around the The two with pointy ears are German animals. To help calm nervous travel- hours after taking office Passengers travelling through shepherds and Belgian malinois. The lers, however, the first British therapy American airports who feel unnerved others are labradors, golden retrievers, dog was recently introduced at Mexico Yeidckol Polevnsky, the party’s at the sight of patrolling German shep- German shorthaired pointers, wire- Aberdeen airport. Passengers can president, lamented the murder and herds can breathe easy. Soon they are haired pointers and vizslas. stroke Harley, an Alaskan malamute, Stephen Gibbs said that “hatred and violence” would likely to be greeted by a friendly labra- Only the Department of Defence and play with him as he walks around A mayor in Mexico has been murdered not stop the transformation promised dor or retriever instead. uses more dogs than the TSA in the terminal with his owner. moments after leaving his inauguration by the new administration. Security forces are to start using America. Over the past 12 Fraser Bain, the airport ceremony. In his last tweet, posted on December more floppy-eared dogs at airports in- months, 80 per cent of manager, said that Har- Alejandro Aparicio was shot by at 27, Mr Aparicio had invited his stead of breeds with pointy ears in an those purchased by the ley was an instant hit least two men as he walked to the town supporters to attend his inauguration effort to put travellers at ease. TSA were floppy- after being recruited hall in Tlaxiaco, in the southern state of and promised to deliver “work and The Transportation Security Admin- eared breeds.