Planning Atlanta

More than any other major U.S. city, Atlanta regularly reinvents itself. From the Civil War’s devastation to the 1996 Olympic boom to the current housing crisis, the city’s history is a cycle of rise and fall, ruin and resurgence. In Planning Atlanta, two dozen planning practitioners and thought leaders bring the story to life. Together they trace the development of projects like Freedom Parkway and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. They examine the impacts of race relations on planning and policy. They explore Atlanta’s role as a 19th-century rail hub—and as the home of the world’s busiest airport. They probe the city’s economic and environmental growing pains. And they look toward new plans that will shape Atlanta’s next incarnation. Read Planning Atlanta and discover a city where change is always in the wind.

Introduction Harley F. Etienne and Barbara Faga Part 1 History 1. Learning from Atlanta Douglas Allen 2. Changing Demographics and Unprecedented Growth John Heath and Ellen Heath 3. Downtown Atlanta After Bedford Pines: Creating Urban Reinvention Paul Kehlman 4. The Historic District Development Corporation and the Challenge of Urban Revitalization Mtamanika Youngblood 5. Crazy Like the Fox: Atlanta’s Preservation Schizophrenia Leslie Sharp 6. Public-Private Partnerships, Atlanta Style Joseph Martin 7. Downtown Atlanta: Central Business District, Meeting Place and Sportsman’s Paradise A. J. Robinson 8. Building Atlanta’s Freedom Parkway Barbara Faga Part 2 Diversity and Development Downtown and in the Neighborhoods 9. The History and Evolution of the Neighborhood Planning Units Leon Eplan 10. HOPE VI and the Evolution of Public Housing in Atlanta Thomas D. Boston 11. How Business Leaders Have Built Atlanta Maria Saporta12. Finding Gay Atlanta in the History of the City’s Growth Harley Etienne and Zachary Adriaenssens 13. Neighborhood Quality of Life and Health in Atlanta Nisha Botchwey, Susannah Lee, Audrey Leous, and Suhhrajit Guhathakurta Part 3 Travel, Traffic and Transit Define a City 14. Regional Growth, Transportation and Congestion: The Atlanta Problem Catherine L. Ross, Georgia Institute of Technology 15. Building Public Transit in Atlanta: From Streetcars to MARTA Harry West 16. From Transit as a Social Service to Transit as Congestion Relief: The Failure of Transit Planning in Atlanta Laurel Paget-Seekins 17. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport: A City of Its Own Ben DeCosta18. Modern Streetcars Return to Atlanta Jennifer Ball19. Planning to Get Stuck? Transforming Atlanta with the Beltline Project Doug Noonan Part 4 Boom and Bust in the Resurgent City 20. The Legacy of the Centennial Olympic Games on the City of Atlanta Randy Roark 21. Rethinking Atlanta’s Regional Resilience in an Age of Uncertainty: Still the Economic Engine of the South? Jennifer Clark 22. After the Crash: Foreclosures, Neighborhood Stability and Change Mike Carnathan 23. Building Atlanta’s Land Bank Frank Alexander Part 5 Planning Innovations and Challenges Shaping Atlanta’s Future 24. Atlantic Station and Glenwood Park: New Urbanism Comes to Atlanta Brian Leary 25. Troubled Waters: Contextualizing the Failed Privatization of Atlanta’s Water Supply System Eric M. Hardy 26. Planning for the Forest and Trees Jason Vargo 27. Atlanta’s Academic Urbanism: University-Driven Real Estate Development Harley Etienne 28. Atlanta’s Role in the State of Georgia David PenderedEpilogue Shirley Franklin

Harley F. Etienne is an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Barbara Faga is a PhD candidate at Georgia Tech and was a 2011 Fellow at AECOM.