The best excuse for Atlanta’s $1.9B Gulch giveaway was jobs. NS would only move staff from Norfolk if residents forked over $$$ for CIM to buy NS dirt. What a fiasco! ://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2025/12/19/norfolk-southern-union-pacific-merger-filed.html?

Take a look at the latest draft of the city's new zoning code at atlzoning.com Planner Caleb Raciot reports that the new code prohibits front-facing parking, blank walls, super-blocks, and other auto-oriented patterns.

This video critique of the Atlanta Streetcar is getting a lot of views and comments. What are your thoughts about it? One issue that doesn't get enough exposure in the video is land-use. 1/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OFS...

The Transit Guy has an excellent post about the success of the Plane Train inside Atlanta's airport. This is the train system that takes passengers to and from terminals. By ridership, it's one of the 15 busiest train systems in the nation! 1/ thetransitguy.substack.com/p/the-busies...

Urbanize Atlanta reports that Microsoft is giving 22 acres near Bankhead MARTA Station to the City for development. This is part of the land Microsoft purchased several years ago with hopes of putting a major headquarters on it -- hopes that fizzled. 1/2 atlanta.urbanize.city/post/microso...

It's not open yet, but the bike lane under construction on Juniper Street looks pretty impressive. The wayfinding signage seems like a nice touch.

Thanks to Councilmember Jason Dozier for introducing legislation to eliminate parking minimums citywide in Atlanta at today's City Council meeting!! This is a great proposal.

Maurice Cox, a national leader in city planning, is consulting with Atlanta on how to make Downtown "a thriving neighborhood." "Cox spoke of transforming auto-centric spaces into pedestrian-oriented spaces...the goal is to create 20-minute neighborhoods" saportareport.com/new-partners...

To get around GA's ban on rent control, Atlanta has to offer developers an 'out' for inclusionary zoning (requiring affordable homes): paying in-lieu fees that go into a fund for building affordable homes elsewhere. The fees were recently increased, so that's good news.

19% of Downtown Atlanta is covered in parking according to this analysis. Honestly, that number seems a bit low. Here's the parking-apocalypse near Underground Atlanta & Five Points MARTA. We've got a lot of work to do in order to right this wrong & make better use of land in the city center.

This would be an improvement! Atlanta is using most of its housing trust fund to pay down bond debt & employee salaries instead of creating new homes (which is ridiculous). Councilmember Matt Westmoreland has a plan for ensuring that most of the fund creates affordable housing.

The combo of suburban sprawl and a compromised rail plan has worked to limit the reach of MARTA rail for Atlanta’s regional residents. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a brighter future within the footprint of rail coverage that we do have. www.threadatl.org/blog/marta-r...

A long-promised apartment building for low income seniors is slated to begin construction at the empty Civic Center property "soon" & be completed late 2027. $60 mil in funding is secured. No other construction has been announced yet for the property. www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news...

Congrats to @cardenonwheels.bsky.social for being selected by Atlanta City Council as the interim Council member for District 2 (my district)! Good choice, y'all. And thanks to @atlpresscollective.com for the great coverage.

MARTA's interim CEO says the bus network redesign launch will no longer happen in 2025 The redesign reduces the number of routes while increasing the frequency of bus service: www.martanextgenbusnetwork.com/adopted-fina... New timeline coming "soon"... www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/09/09/a...

Must read from the @atlpresscollective.com atlpresscollective.com/2025/09/05/a...

A transit advocacy group in NYC cleverly uses Atlanta's failure to get rail started on the Beltline as a warning: build the rail first, before the 'trail' component sparks anti-transit outrage from residents who don't want to rock the booming-property-values boat. www.instagram.com/p/DN58BSXEbZB

This is a good writeup about the complexity of providing affordable homes through fees, density bonuses, and requirements for below-market-rate units. It also raises questions: how can we put affordable homes in places with good transit access & safe streets? atlantaciviccircle.org/2025/08/27/m...

Infuriating statement. This follows the recent plan presented by *his own planning staff* for rail along the entire Beltline. It's time for leaders who are serious about treating Atlanta like a real city, where massive growth and rail are common sense companions. www.wabe.org/atlanta-belt...

As if surface-parking spaces weren’t problematic enough, new research finds that parked cars contribute to urban heat islands, exposing pedestrians to even higher levels of heat stress though the “radiative properties” of the materials cars are made of. www.threadatl.org/blog/even-wh...

Important: The Streetcar East Extension is now redesignated as "Crosstown East", and plans are currently being made to drill a tunnel under CSX's Hulsey Yard to connect the NE and SE Quadrants

At a webinar tonight, Atlanta Beltline is sharing their recommendations for the location of transit stations in the Northwest, Southwest, and Southeast parts of the Beltline (and transit alignment in the NW). Tuesday, Aug 12, 2025 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM beltline.org/events/687ff...

When the city cuts costs by deferring much-needed repairs of sidewalks and ADA ramps, it can mean the difference between someone moving freely or being shut out of public life. Public infrastructure needs to afford dignity to everyone. threadatl.tumblr.com/post/7913172...

Supposedly the Stitch is still happening despite the loss of federal funds? How? "While the loss of this funding is disappointing, The Stitch is happening. The project will complete shovel-ready engineering... for phase 1 construction by mid-2026" mailchi.mp/atlantadownt...

Finally! ATL DOT reports that work is underway on the long-promised Jackson Street Bridge redesign, which will feature a parklet and a protected bike lane. See details here: www.atlcitystudio.org/jackson-st-b...

When Trump's big bill passed this week, Atlanta's Stitch project (for capping a piece of downtown freeway with a park) lost its federal funding. The future of the plan is uncertain. www.wabe.org/will-potenti...

The new bike lanes on the Georgia Tech campus are looking nice! Parts are still under construction, but you can already see how impressive the network will be. Check out this bus stop + bike lane combo! It's helpful to have examples of great street design in the city to serve as a template.

Wow! We had to look it up to confirm it's true, and it is. The North Carolina state legislature has passed a bill prohibiting local zoning laws from requiring a minimum number of parking spaces for developments. 💯 www.ncleg.gov/BillLookup/2...

ThreadATL co-founder Lauren Welsh's AJC op-ed rocks www.ajc.com/opinion/2025... Mayor Dickens' proposal to delay Eastside rail until Southside rail gets planned & built is a political tactic: appease Eastside rail opponents + promise a project that can't occur until after he's safely out of office

MARTA buses will be equipped with a button that helps drivers avoid confrontations with fare evaders. The button notifies police, who can then watch a video from the bus & respond. www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/06/18/m... A question: can MARTA ensure that cameras constantly function on all buses?

The streetcar will be shut down for at least four months for unrelated utility work by GA Power & Watershed Mgmt. Preventative maintenance is good, but you have to wonder if these needs could've been detected & addressed during streetcar construction 🤔

Willfully leaving half a billion a year uncollected property tax on commercial trophy towers is the main way this happens. Fulton commissioners are responsible. They need a hefty shove. Andre has known about this revenue shortfall for 8 years. In office, refuses to lift a finger.

A tax bill proposed in D.C. claws back the $157.5 mil in federal funds promised to Phase 1 of Atlanta's Stitch, which caps a section of the Downtown Connector. [Another project to put a cap over I-75/85, at GA Tech, was cancelled last summer due to lack of $] atlanta.urbanize.city/post/stitch-...

How are we not able to leverage Atlanta's booming gentrification & investments to pay debts/salaries without raiding the affordable housing trust fund to this degree? Why are we seeing this level of debt? Great reporting from Sean Keenan & kudos to the Councilmembers who raised red flags.

We don't know the details of the collision that killed this pedestrian, but it's worth recalling: there used to be traffic-calming devices at this intersection as part of the Shared Peachtree project. They were removed (along with the whole project) by Mayor Dickens. www.11alive.com/article/news...

The full vision for Civic Center redevelopment will apparently require a lot of patience. The only component announced for now is a senior housing project, 148 units. Atlanta Housing expects to close financing on it "within the next quarter of 2025." atlanta.urbanize.city/post/atl-hou...

Last chance to comment on MARTA's new bus system, seen here: www.martanextgenbusnetwork.com/draftnetwork Attend a meeting in person: www.itsmarta.com/public-heari... The May 14 7pm meeting will be streamed at itsmarta.com. Comments must be submitted by May 20 to: [email protected]

The House Majority’s Transportation & Infrastructure Committee is moving to repeal funding for projects nationwide, including a connection between Atlanta's Beltline & the Flint River, plus Phase 1 of the Stitch. t4america.org/2025/04/29/r...

Portman essentially says: "Thanks for approving our development with 1,435 parking spaces on the Beltline! We still oppose rail." They're opposing Beltline rail while also adding an amount of parking that undermines transit ridership. Ugh. (Paywalled) www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news...

What an incredible map! In red you can see every county in the U.S. that contains a subway line (meaning a heavy-rail transit system). Do Atlantans appreciate how lucky we are to have this? Let's make sure we take advantage of it with our urban planning and design. Source: x.com/Colin_d_m/st...

Please sign this @AbundantHousATL petition against the current draft of Atlanta Tree Protection Ordinance! It adds too many burdens to new housing construction, and it makes it less likely for parking lots to be developed if there are trees in the lot. actionnetwork.org/letters/dont...

We interview Tony Jordan, founder of the Parking Reform Network, for the new ThreadATL podcast! A key question we talk about: how do we convince folks who are outside the urbanism bubble about the goodness of reducing our dependency on cars & parking in cities? open.spotify.com/episode/2V6k...

"We full? Not even close. New housing development in the city demonstrates that we have the capacity to increase housing density, perhaps in ways that will spur increased use of transit and other forms of mobility besides the automobile." 💯 33n.atlantaregional.com/housing/if-y...

#GApol in case you wondered, Arthur Blank has pocketed $180M of Atlanta's hotel tax in the first 7 yrs of his MB Stadium deal. His heirs will hit $1 Billion in 2023 prices before it's done. Can you think of better public uses for that billion dollars? e.g., 5,000 affordable apts?

Take this survey -- let GDOT & ARC know how important it is for us to have good options for commuting beyond just driving a car! gacommutersurvey.org?fbclid=PAY2x...

Spotted today in Downtown: pedestrians crossing at 225 Peachtree, where there's a huge need for a crosswalk. A man was killed while crossing here several weeks ago. In 2021 this was the site of the Shared Space project, improving pedestrian safety. The project was terminated by Mayor Dickens. 1/2

Thanks to guest poster Varun Kumar for letting us share these thoughts about Atlanta’s urbanism from the perspective of someone who relocated here a few months ago! What do you think, other newcomers? Do these impressions seem familiar to you? www.threadatl.org/blog/atlanta...

Give some help to Partners for Home, the Atlanta organization responsible for deploying federal homelessness funds locally! Sign their petition to HUD to address funding concerns: partnersforhome.org/letter-to-hud/

Passenger rail between Atlanta and Savannah? Yes please! Give GDOT your feedback on this idea here (scroll down to get to survey): atlsavpassrail-gdot.hub.arcgis.com

Correction to previous post: Dickens' new plan for Beltline transit does allow for rail on the Eastside, only in a 2nd phase far in the future when it would be implemented with rail on the Southeast (funding unknown). You can see the full plan here: threadatl.org/dickens-stre... 1/