“ It’s so successful that they’re now planning to add rail transit to it (which I think is a bad idea, but that’s another story).”
Love your work, a bit surprised by this aside. The corridor has *always* been visioned, planned, legislated(the Beltline overlay is the first region in Atlanta to to have no parking minimums), and designed (the ~30’ ROW was proactively purchased and now sits vacant, adjacent to the Beltline) as a greenway transit corridor. Further, in 2016 Atlantans voted for a specialized sales tax for transit expansion (MoreMARTA, includes close to a dozen projects including the nearly completed Atlanta’s first BRT which connects Downtown to the Beltline) and separately, years later, adjacent neighborhoods overwhelmingly reaffirmed their support for the Beltline transit. I’d love to understand your stance here.
Separate from the public and project support, it represents some of the highest pedestrian activity in the city - offices along the corridor boast 33% of employees take alternative modes to work, which is astounding when you note the lack of true transit in the area.
“ it is the presence of heavy pedestrian activity that tindicates a potential for streetcar success” -Jeff Speck, Walkable City
yep, heard. For me, it's more about the spatiality. Most of the east side belt line is not very wide, and it is VERY vibrant with pedestrians. 50' (min) of rail will take a lot of that away. I have very little faith that engineers can (or will) design tight corridor rail in a way that does not destroy the pedestrian environment, and that pedestrian environment right now is probably the best example of new development in the south in 50 years. I have many friends who disagree, but I think the Belt Line rail is a mistake.
Politely, I'd really disagree with this rhetoric. I totally agree that the Beltline is one of the South’s most impressive feats of planning and urban development, but the entire Beltline (including the dense parts of the eastside) was already designed to accomodate light rail from the very beginning and that space is largely left empty right now to be reserved for rail. There is plenty of space for it without encroaching on the current pedestrian space at all. Even with the rail lines and pedestrian path, there’s still space for landscaping/trees/art/etc between the two almost all of the eastside. In parts of the Beltline where there truly isn't room for both, the plan is for the rail to veer off the Beltline and back on.
Second, a quiet light rail running over grassy tracks would (which is what's planned) would only improve the pedestrian experience and benefit the small businesses on the beltline. In busy parts of the beltline like the Eastside, there can be a lot of congestion between people using the trail for leisure/exercise and people using it to commute/travel. This would offload that second group to alleviate congestion on the pedestrian path. I would look up Kaohsiung’s Circular Light Rail or the Utrecht trams running over grass to get an idea of what this will look like. It also massively increases the number of people within a 10-15min trip to the small businesses on the beltline, and well-implemented light rail has been well documented to improve economic development like this.
Third, Beltline light rail is literally the only currently planned light rail expansion by ATLDOT and by far the most important public transit project in the city's near future. The city is in dire need of more rail transit and this is the only one that has any chance of getting built in the next 20 years. It’s also a complete no-brainer from a cost perspective. The city already has almost all the right-of-way, it requires little-to-no imminent domain, and will be one of the lowest cost-per-mile implementations of light rail in the US. You truly couldn't ask for a more perfect light rail opportunity to be handed to you on a silver platter anywhere in the US.
It seems like there’s a fear of light rail ‘ruining’ a good thing on the Beltline, which I don’t think we need to worry about at all.
Solid critique of how Durham's missing teh greenway-oriented development opportunity. The bit about discourse getting stuck on common nouns like gentrification instead of actually solving for housing along the corridor is spot on. I've seen similar patterns where the fear of change ends up accelerating the exact outcomes people want to avoid.
Great post! (aside from the strange note on Beltline light rail, which will be incredible and necessary for ATL)
I lived in Atlanta for a decade and live in Durham now, and am extremely fond of both cities. I really appreciate that Durham has been ambitious about the rail trail from the very beginning in wanting it to be more than just a greenway. It's extremely well positioned to connect the transportation center, Amtrak, multiple parks, and areas like Brightleaf better to downtown, and provide a corridor that connects southern downtown up to the thriving Geer St area.
I totally agree that the city would have majorly benefited from just paving it immediately, or even just laying gravel down like parts of the Beltline have done. Durham really struggles to get projects done in a timely manner. Once projects get to construction they tend to happen pretty efficiently, but the process of planning/fundraising/design/etc seems to take forever and it's common for projects to endlessly slip further back with no accountability. Another good example is the southern boundaries greenway extension, which was supposed otherwise start construction two years ago and is now delayed to at least 2027. When it was brought up to the city council at a recent meeting, they had no idea.
I'm a bit less worried about the rail trail feeling disconnected from the city and too 'planned'. Looking through the actual designs, it's still largely just building out two parks on either end of downtown with art/seating/etc along the way. There are so many great and under-utilized buildings directly adjacent to the trail that I think will have a chance of growing organically. The reality is the initial section of the Eastside Beltline that skyrocketed it into popularity was also VERY planned (Ponce City Market, old fourth ward, etc) though you're right that many sections have grown organically all the way from gravel trail up to thriving small business or arts districts. I do think that having a small slice that demonstrated the vision for the rest of the trail helped those other sections grow organically.
Thanks also for linking to incrementaldevelopment.org. I hadn't heard of it and will be digging into their stuff!
“ It’s so successful that they’re now planning to add rail transit to it (which I think is a bad idea, but that’s another story).”
Love your work, a bit surprised by this aside. The corridor has *always* been visioned, planned, legislated(the Beltline overlay is the first region in Atlanta to to have no parking minimums), and designed (the ~30’ ROW was proactively purchased and now sits vacant, adjacent to the Beltline) as a greenway transit corridor. Further, in 2016 Atlantans voted for a specialized sales tax for transit expansion (MoreMARTA, includes close to a dozen projects including the nearly completed Atlanta’s first BRT which connects Downtown to the Beltline) and separately, years later, adjacent neighborhoods overwhelmingly reaffirmed their support for the Beltline transit. I’d love to understand your stance here.
Separate from the public and project support, it represents some of the highest pedestrian activity in the city - offices along the corridor boast 33% of employees take alternative modes to work, which is astounding when you note the lack of true transit in the area.
“ it is the presence of heavy pedestrian activity that tindicates a potential for streetcar success” -Jeff Speck, Walkable City
yep, heard. For me, it's more about the spatiality. Most of the east side belt line is not very wide, and it is VERY vibrant with pedestrians. 50' (min) of rail will take a lot of that away. I have very little faith that engineers can (or will) design tight corridor rail in a way that does not destroy the pedestrian environment, and that pedestrian environment right now is probably the best example of new development in the south in 50 years. I have many friends who disagree, but I think the Belt Line rail is a mistake.
Politely, I'd really disagree with this rhetoric. I totally agree that the Beltline is one of the South’s most impressive feats of planning and urban development, but the entire Beltline (including the dense parts of the eastside) was already designed to accomodate light rail from the very beginning and that space is largely left empty right now to be reserved for rail. There is plenty of space for it without encroaching on the current pedestrian space at all. Even with the rail lines and pedestrian path, there’s still space for landscaping/trees/art/etc between the two almost all of the eastside. In parts of the Beltline where there truly isn't room for both, the plan is for the rail to veer off the Beltline and back on.
Second, a quiet light rail running over grassy tracks would (which is what's planned) would only improve the pedestrian experience and benefit the small businesses on the beltline. In busy parts of the beltline like the Eastside, there can be a lot of congestion between people using the trail for leisure/exercise and people using it to commute/travel. This would offload that second group to alleviate congestion on the pedestrian path. I would look up Kaohsiung’s Circular Light Rail or the Utrecht trams running over grass to get an idea of what this will look like. It also massively increases the number of people within a 10-15min trip to the small businesses on the beltline, and well-implemented light rail has been well documented to improve economic development like this.
Third, Beltline light rail is literally the only currently planned light rail expansion by ATLDOT and by far the most important public transit project in the city's near future. The city is in dire need of more rail transit and this is the only one that has any chance of getting built in the next 20 years. It’s also a complete no-brainer from a cost perspective. The city already has almost all the right-of-way, it requires little-to-no imminent domain, and will be one of the lowest cost-per-mile implementations of light rail in the US. You truly couldn't ask for a more perfect light rail opportunity to be handed to you on a silver platter anywhere in the US.
It seems like there’s a fear of light rail ‘ruining’ a good thing on the Beltline, which I don’t think we need to worry about at all.
Solid critique of how Durham's missing teh greenway-oriented development opportunity. The bit about discourse getting stuck on common nouns like gentrification instead of actually solving for housing along the corridor is spot on. I've seen similar patterns where the fear of change ends up accelerating the exact outcomes people want to avoid.
It's very common now across advocacy and bureaucracy.
affordable housing policy makes affordable housing worse
ADA elevator policy makes buildings less accessible
Emergency response codes make streets less safe, etc.
Great post! (aside from the strange note on Beltline light rail, which will be incredible and necessary for ATL)
I lived in Atlanta for a decade and live in Durham now, and am extremely fond of both cities. I really appreciate that Durham has been ambitious about the rail trail from the very beginning in wanting it to be more than just a greenway. It's extremely well positioned to connect the transportation center, Amtrak, multiple parks, and areas like Brightleaf better to downtown, and provide a corridor that connects southern downtown up to the thriving Geer St area.
I totally agree that the city would have majorly benefited from just paving it immediately, or even just laying gravel down like parts of the Beltline have done. Durham really struggles to get projects done in a timely manner. Once projects get to construction they tend to happen pretty efficiently, but the process of planning/fundraising/design/etc seems to take forever and it's common for projects to endlessly slip further back with no accountability. Another good example is the southern boundaries greenway extension, which was supposed otherwise start construction two years ago and is now delayed to at least 2027. When it was brought up to the city council at a recent meeting, they had no idea.
I'm a bit less worried about the rail trail feeling disconnected from the city and too 'planned'. Looking through the actual designs, it's still largely just building out two parks on either end of downtown with art/seating/etc along the way. There are so many great and under-utilized buildings directly adjacent to the trail that I think will have a chance of growing organically. The reality is the initial section of the Eastside Beltline that skyrocketed it into popularity was also VERY planned (Ponce City Market, old fourth ward, etc) though you're right that many sections have grown organically all the way from gravel trail up to thriving small business or arts districts. I do think that having a small slice that demonstrated the vision for the rest of the trail helped those other sections grow organically.
Thanks also for linking to incrementaldevelopment.org. I hadn't heard of it and will be digging into their stuff!