Georgia lost nearly 17 percent of its construction jobs between January 2009 and last January, according to a data published yesterday by the Associated General Contractors of America. That translates to more than 30,000 people who’ve lost their jobs. At the risk of an out-of-work carpenter going after me with a nail gun, here’s my question: [...]

Fresh off the last year’s raves its work on Manhattan’s High Line linear park on an abandoned elevated railroad, New York’s James Corner Field Operations has been hired to design Atlanta’s Beltline. Beltline officials announced today that James Corner will join with the Atlanta office of Perkins + Will, which happens to employ Beltline visionary Ryan [...]

Gov. Perdue’s proposed $300 million bond plan for transportation would do little to help metro commuters and even less to give Atlantans alternatives to the automobile. According to this morning’s Atlanta Business Chronicle article breaking down, the plan’s mainly about moving freight through Georgia: … the most expensive project on the governor’s list would spend $121 million [...]

Here’s a provocative argument that draws a link between the issue of climate change and sprawling metro areas like Atlanta. In an interview with Grist, prominent environmental editor Alex Steffen argues that environmental groups are largely ignoring a key battle line in the debate over climate change. Cities sit on one side of that divide and [...]

In a larger piece on taxes, the AJC’s Jay Bookman, offers convincing real-world evidence that Portland’s approach to transit and growth is working better than Atlanta’s: Wendell Cox, a highway advocate and a favorite transportation consultant for Georgia conservatives, argued in the Atlanta Constitution back in 1999 that the Georgia model would prevail. In fact, [...]

ellen dunham-jones Organizers of today’s TEDxAtlanta mini-conference at Unboundary in Midtown posed a timely theme for their speakers: “Re-purpose.” It was especially appropriate for the three visionary architects who kicked off the conference. Yeah, I know. “Visionary” is an overused descriptor for architects. But in this case, it’s appropriate. As in how can shipping containers be re-purposed for [...]

Here’s a nice a checklist for Atlantans to check out, courtesy of a blog I’d never heard of: Parks, transit, public space, bike lanes, green buildings, recycling, mixed-use/infill development, green leaders, smart energy and “good green fun.” How would you grade Atlanta on these criteria? I wonder how my friend, the incomparable Mandy Schmitt, at the city’s [...]

Dr. Howard Frumkin One of my favorite scientists — Atlanta’s Dr. Howard Frumkin — will serve as “honorary chair” of the upcoming Congress for New Urbanism in Atlanta. Frumkin’s title is more than a mouthful: He’s director of the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the U.S. Centers [...]

The Atlanta Development Authority sold $78 million in Beltline bonds Tuesday, according to an ADA press release, and city officials are particularly pleased that they were able to sell them so quickly. The bonds’ underwriter boasted that the bonds were “oversubscribed” — finance world parlance for having to turn potential buyers away. The sale allowed the authority [...]

My Media Mayhem column, just posted at the Mother Nature Network: Smooth. Clean. Comfortable. Finally, a ride that says, “I am one with the planet.” The Studebaker EcoSurfer. The green dream of automobiles. It’s got everything you asked for: power, size and a smooth ride. Best of all, the EcoSurfer will stop global warming. By combining [...]