GRAVEL > a bigger better loop.
This December marks the 20th anniversary of my Atlanta Beltline thesis (dang!) and, as I’ve said, even with all of its challenges, I’m damn proud of the progress we’ve made. […]
FAQ > “what the hell are you doing?”
Q: What the hell are you doing these days? Seems like you’re spread pretty thin. (faq.) When people ask me what I’m doing, I usually narrow my answer based on context because if I tell them everything, it sounds like too much. NO – I’m not formally involved with […]
Gravel > 20 years later, damn proud.
(ideas.) Twenty years ago, I never imagined we would actually build the Atlanta Beltline. I just wanted to graduate – which I did. I finished my Beltline thesis in December […]
WABE > transit week
(press.) It was transit week and WABE’s Rose Scott was out on the Atlanta Beltline for a special edition of A Closer Look called “From The Northside Trail To The […]
WFAE > “yes in my back yard”
[press.] Charlotte’s NPR Station came searching for YIMBY advocates – Yes In My Back Yard – people fighting FOR density in their community as a critical approach to addressing the escalating costs of housing. David Boraks found some YIMBYs planning the future of Hulsey Yard on the Atlanta Beltline. “Finding […]
Collective Knowledge > “you’re seeing something that I’m not seeing.”
(press.videos. ) I enjoyed sitting down with Gail O’Neill and Felipe Barral for their show Collective Knowledge. Our wide-ranging conversation is captured in this half-hour episode: first up is Paris […]
National Geographic > “not what the future wants.”
[press.] Robert Kunzig’s cover story for National Geographic’s April issue was this hot take on the future of cities: “These five cities are taking bold steps to rein in sprawl.” Ok, so nobody is surprised to hear that Atlanta is the poster child for sprawl, but it’s a big surprise […]
Gravel > time for Generator.
(ideas.) At the end of this post, I’m going to ask you to help Generator get off the ground with a tax-deductible donation. I believe in this concept more than […]
WABE > “where names don’t matter but ideas do.”
[press.] Jim Burress found us hanging around the future Generator and recorded this interview for WABE 90.1 – Atlanta’s NPR Station, titled “Ryan Gravel’s Next Big Idea: Eat, Drink, Save […]
Atlanta Business Chronicle > “Gravel [called] it a sham.”
(press.) It’s a time-tested strategy to make sure community engagement delivers the recommendations you want. MARTA’s project evaluation, handful of meetings, and unscientific online survey were designed to do exactly that, and it worked. Amy Wenk captured my initial reaction in this story for the Atlanta Business Chronicle: “As vote […]
FAQ > “does transit fit?”
Q: It looks too tight – how does transit even fit on the Atlanta Beltline? (faq.) A: Transit has always been central to this concept. In most places, transit is […]
Reporter Newspapers > “Another reason Buckhead Beltline rail matters”
[press.] People talk about the Atlanta Beltline like it’s a single project impacting a single community – but it’s a much larger project than that. The Atlanta Beltline’s northside stands […]
Gravel > Beltline Means Business.
This article was first posted as an op-ed in the Atlanta Business Chronicle: Ryan Gravel Viewpoint: Speak up now if you want transit on all of the Beltline (ideas.) I travel all over the world to talk about the Atlanta Beltline. From Singapore to Sandy Springs, the broad vision that frames […]
Gravel > Connect-The-Dots Transportation Planning Will Not Work.
(ideas.) With advance apologies and love for my hard-working brothers and sisters in transportation planning, the more I look at the More MARTA plan, the madder and sicker I get. […]
Gravel > Two Thirds Not Served.
(ideas.) This was never the plan, but two thirds of the Beltline may forever move forward without transit. That’s because MARTA is only committed to one third of the long-promised […]
FAQ > “how does Beltline transit advance equity?”
Q: How does transit on the Atlanta Beltline advance equity in Atlanta communities? (faq. ideas.) This is the question that frustrates me the most. For the physical project to be […]
Gravel > Our Moral Imperative.
(ideas.) Dear City Hall, Dear MARTA. Dear decision makers, dear agency staffers, dear community organizers, dear ordinary citizens who may not have been around when we got started in 2001. […]
FAQ > “what do you think about the More MARTA plan?”
Q: What do you think about the More MARTA plan? (faq.) A year and a half after the November 2016 referendum, MARTA released its draft plan for how to spend $2.5 billion of City of Atlanta taxpayer money on transit – a plan dubbed “More MARTA.” I guess since I was […]
Gravel > Beltline Call to Action
(ideas.) This call isn’t only about transit. It’s a much wider call-to-action because without transit – soon and urgently – we won’t get the Beltline we’ve been talking about all […]
FAQ > “can you remind me the history of Beltline transit?”
Q: Can you remind me the history of transit on the Atlanta Beltline? (faq.) Our collective memory of the Atlanta Beltline’s story is important – especially regarding its more […]
Gravel > A New Threat to Beltline Transit.
(ideas.) Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that we need to make our case for transit again, but I am. Honestly – we’ve been putting colored dots on maps, hand-writing community […]
FAQ > “why not just put BRT on the Beltline?”
Q: Why not just put BRT on the Atlanta Beltline? Wouldn’t that be cheaper? (faq.) Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a high-capacity mode of transit that employs many train-like features to improve service efficiency and passenger experience. These include traffic signal priority, off-board fare collection, multiple-door boarding, platform-level boarding, […]
WABE > “If you look up on the horizon, the change that is coming is a tsunami.”
(press.) I had another chance to talk to WABE’s Rose Scott and Jim Burress on A Closer Look about Atlanta’s population growth and its role in our affordability crisis. “BeltLine […]
CityLab > “In hindsight, it might be obvious, but…”
(press.) In Atlanta, we talk a lot about the Atlanta Beltline’s role in the economic and cultural forces of gentrification, but it’s helpful to put it in context with projects in other cities across the country. New York City’s High Line emerged at the same time as ours, and in […]
Gravel (live on the TED stage) > We Are the Lives That We’re Talking About.
(ideas.) Here’s the TED talk I did in New York in October 2016. > “When we look today in wonder and disgust at the metropolis sprawled before us, we wonder […]
Gravel > Vote down-ballot for Atlanta transit – literally – all the way down at the end.
UPDATE > GREAT NEWS! Both ballot referenda passed on election day. While there remains a lot of uncertainty about our national politics, at least locally we will have solid resources […]
Landscape Architecture Magazine > “An unprecedented testing ground.”
(press.) To be clear, I’m not walking away from the project itself, and I never framed progress as an “either/or.” But in “A Beltline Champion Walks Away,” writer Zach Mortice well describes for Landscape Architecture Magazine, inherent tensions between the benefits and challenges of change. Excerpt: “Most of all, Gravel […]
The New York Times > “Nobody said progress was easy.”
(press.) New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman pens “In ‘By the People,’ Design for the Underserved and Overlooked” – a review of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s latest […]
FAQ > “why did you leave the ABP board?”
Q: Why did you resign from the Board of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership? (faq.) Yesterday, after weeks of deliberation, Nathaniel Smith and I resigned from the board of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership. He’s the Founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity. While this was not […]
The New York Times > “Full of high hopes.”
(press.) With the tongue-in-cheek headline “A Glorified Sidewalk, and the Path to Transform Atlanta,” New York Times’ Richard Fausset digs into a cultural shift brought on by the Atlanta Beltline, […]
FAQ > “why should we settle for less?”
Q: The Atlanta Beltline’s vision is so amazing. Why should we settle for less when we don’t have to? (faq.) Related to my recent “Our Beltline” post, here’s a specific example. Below is my letter to the Inman Park Neighborhood Association Board regarding the redevelopment of 670-690 DeKalb Avenue […]
Gravel > Our Beltline.
(ideas.) The question of whose Beltline we’re building in Atlanta keeps coming up among my friends and on social media. It’s a fair question – especially when some recent decisions […]
Atlanta Magazine > “History is full of sensible proposals that went nowhere.”
(press.) In anticipation of the release of Where We Want to Live – Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities, Atlanta Magazine published two pieces in their March issue. […]
BOOK LAUNCH SAVE-THE-DATE & LINKS TO BUY MY BOOK.
(work.) We’re counting down the days. After many years, “Where We Want to Live – Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities,” launches March 15! Your first chance to get a signed copy is at the launch event the very next day. On MARCH 16 at 7:00 pm, A […]
New York Times > “American infrastructure is deferred home maintenance on a massive scale.”
(press.) New York Times contributing columnist Allison Arieff, who is also the Editorial Director at SPUR in San Francisco, penned this Op-Ed in early 2015, “What Happened to the Great […]
Gravel > “I learned how to be a pedestrian.”
(ideas.) This text first appeared as a letter in the Terminus issue of Art Papers, (January/February 2016), for which I was a guest co-editor. The original, along with a letter by Art Papers Editor and Artistic Director Victoria Camblin, can be found here. Also check out the entire Terminus issue […]
Blast from the Past.
(videos.) A few weeks ago, as I was digging through a decade and a half of Atlanta Beltline memories, I came across a digital memory of our early movement in […]
Gravel > You Deserve Better Infrastructure.
(ideas.work.videos) The kind of infrastructure we build matters to the way we live our lives. If we build single-purpose transportation infrastructure that only works for some people some of the […]
Urban Milwaukee > “messing with people’s expectations.”
(press.) Leading into Newaukee’s 2015 YP Week, Urban Milwaukee published “How the Beltline Project Is Changing Atlanta” by Andrew McCann. Excerpt: “As a public space, the Beltline is already performing a variety of functions. The first and most significant is its rapidly developing role as a connective structure between Atlanta’s […]
Coca Cola Journey > “messing with people’s expectations.”
(press.) Our story is recounted for Coca-Cola’s internal media, “Inside the Beltline: How a Grad School Thesis Became an Engine for Urban Revitalization and Economic Growth in Atlanta,” by Jay Croft. Excerpt: “Atlanta prides itself on being known as the home of Martin Luther King, Jr., the 1996 Olympic Games […]
USA Today > “on the verge of a renaissance.”
(press.) Nice article by OZY writer Sanjena Sathian – USA Today picked up her story, “The transit makeover of Atlanta” at the close of 2014. Excerpt: “Everyone, from my mother to the mayor to environmentalists to the White House, proclaims that this unlikely city, with its long history of segregation […]
Georgia Trend Magazine > “the small sights stick in your mind.”
(press.) In its December 2014 cover story, “Unbroken Circle” by Susan Percy, the case is made for the Atlanta Beltline as “a unifying force, built on the very railroads that […]
Gravel > “Our 22-Mile Thanksgiving Table.”
(ideas.) With the undeniable success of the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail and this November’s groundbreaking of the long-anticipated Westside Trail, we have much to be thankful for. Of course behind […]
Gravel > “if we learn to see equity as our goal…”
(ideas.) This text first appeared in ideas+buildings. “Equity Through Sports + Art: A Design Dialogue in Atlanta.” Read the whole thing here and watch short video of excerpts from the event. Excerpt: “I think this kind of thoughtful and inclusive transition toward a better decision-making process – beyond just sports […]
FAQ > “why is everybody going in circles?”
Q: Where is everybody going? Where’s the there there? (faq.) A: Some people seem to always be missing the point with the Atlanta Beltline. That’s fine, I guess. It […]
AJC Atlanta Forward > “one of the boldest public health experiments.”
(press.) Nice perspective on the role of the Atlanta Beltline in rethinking the relationship between our health and the world around us. Author Michael Eriksen is the Dean of the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. He wrote this for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Atlanta Forward blog, “Project provides civic […]
Rails to Trails Magazine > “a project explicitly designed to connect us is about as transformative as it gets.”
(press.) This article for Rails to Trails Magazine was written by Rebecca Serna, executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. It goes beyond the Atlanta Beltline to describe a culture that is “Transforming Atlanta.” Excerpt: “The BeltLine, as Woolard puts it, “is the one forum where it all comes together: […]
FAQ > “what about the westside?”
Q: What should we expect with the opening of the Westside Trail? How will its success compare to the eastside? (faq.) A: The communities on Atlanta’s eastside are benefitting directly […]
FAQ > “who benefits?”
Q: What about gentrification? What is being done to protect people from displacement? (faq.) A: In a growing economy like ours, things like roadside clean-ups, better schools, reduced crime, the […]
FAQ > “is transit so important?”
Q: Is transit really necessary? With so many people crowding the trail, why don’t we forget transit and just widen the trail? (faq.) A: This common question has at least […]
