How This $4.8 Billion Walkway Is Redefining Atlanta

As a native Atlantan I feel that, while the beltline is great (even with the issues described), the city should really focus more on improving density and decreasing sprawl. The city is just not that walkable, except in midtown and along the beltline. Meanwhile there is a very rich collection of neighborhoods, and it would be great to be able to get to them without a car. But the city is so spread out, with so much wasted space in surface parking, it can be complicated to navigate.

For a city with 6 million ppl the traffic is horrible. We need a mass transit system

I visited Atlanta last week and a European and used to walkable cities. I decided to walk from my hotel in the hotel district to a place called Atlantic station which is 2.5 miles I believe (and back later on). First, except for a couple of vagrants near the hotel, I was basically the only person walking and that was sort of eerie. And secondly, there are no street side businesses: no cafes, no shops. I walked through the Georgia Tech area and some of the streets were nice but again it looks like nobody ever walks them. But the next main issue is that many of these streets just end so you detour and then half a mile later you are again on the same street that sort of ended just before. Midtown is better in terms of street layout but again there are street side businesses. I also rode Marta and it was surprisingly nice but also very few users.... And when I got off in Buckhead, well you could clearly see that is the type of area where some would consider you suspicious for walking around so I guess it may take a while to change that mentality. If you want to entice people to walk there should be shops and cafes.... you have to have mixed use zoning if you want to have people walking around because let's face it, you can probably have most people walk a half or quarter mile radius but not much more than that

Another reason the Beltline is so successful even without the Light-Rail yet is because it's the first "third-place" built in this city since the original city parks. People enjoy the Beltline because unlike most parks which have just housing around them, it's a place to hangout and go somewhere without necessarily paying money. You can meet so many people and go to different neighborhoods without needing a car. That's why it's so successful

The belt roads goal is to create an environment where you can go to work, find a home, shop for groceries, access healthcare and education all without having to use a car. That’s priceless. Car culture is the reason why our municipalities can’t support our underserved communities. We spend billions on high maintenance cost of car infrastructure (parking, roads, accidents etc.) it spreads out our utilities and increases the cost of living to a point that’s unsustainable.

The Beltline was supposed to be a rail loop that was to help ease traffic in Atlanta. If you've ever been to Atlanta - THE TRAFFIC IS INSANE!!!

It’s weird to me that when someone adds something of value, they don’t think that the value of the area will go up and change a lot.

I lived in Atlanta without a car (Buckhead), and heed my words when I say Atlanta is not a place to live without a car. I lived by 2 Marta stations and a single bus line (the 110) and it was still a bit difficult getting around IF where you're going isn't close to Marta or the route is infrequent. The Marta rail is great!! It's really fast and if your point A and B resides on the rail, it's a great alternative to driving, PREFERRED actually!! But it just doesn't go enough places for NIMBY reasons 😌. Thank God I'm in back NYC (my home city) now.

I left Atlanta 2 years ago, primarily because I was spending 1.5 hours each way in commute time. I couldn't afford to live downtown and was out in the suburbs. The city really needs a viable subway and commuter rail network but they won't ever build one. It is really too late to do so and would be economically impossible. I don't consider the MARTA system to be viable because it doesn't have enough lines nor do they go far enough out. I do think the BeltLine is a positive thing but it is going to end up pushing out everyone who isn't rich.

As a current Atlanta resident, I love this city! It wasn’t mentioned in the video, but the walking paths of the Beltline are just phase one. There will be a light rail added to parts of it in the next decade. So excited for my city and its future. As long as it continues to listen to diverse voices and prioritize the special culture it has, it will remain one of America’s greats

After selling a couple homes in 2020, I'm anticipating a housing crisis in order to buy inexpensively. As a backup plan, I've been thinking about purchasing stocks. What recommendations do you have for the best time to buy? On the one hand, I keep reading and seeing trader earnings of over $500k each week. On the other side, I keep hearing that the market is out of control and experiencing a dead cat bounce. Why does this happen?

I live in Atlanta and the Beltline is pretty amazing . You can literally get to any part of the city from it.

The reason the city is in constant deficit is because it just accepted the sprawl model. Roads and infrastructure is expensive and if that infrastructure is serving 10 homes vs 100 homes, the costs are higher for tax payer or the city just makes cuts to other things because their budget is eaten up by the inefficiency infrastructure model. But hey, you get a big piece of land for the kids located next to nothing, reliant on your car and increasing gas prices.

I live in Charlotte but I be in Atlanta all the time. Over the course of my life I've watched this city go from country to a mega city and in just 20 plus years. It's like every time I go down there is doubled in size. It's nothing short of Amazing.

All American cities need to be redesigned for higher density living, walkability, better public transportation, mixed use/mixed income housing, reduce car use.

Atlanta’s traffic is Hell on earth.

Atlanta's lack of mass transit has been holding it back for half a century. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who don't want mass transit for explicitly racist/segregationist reasons.

Low density sprawl will cripple the city’s ability to maintain infrastructure. If the metro is going to keep growing in population, it can’t keep growing in physical size without coming to a breaking point. Eventually it all just becomes unsustainable

I live in Atlanta. The beltline proves the power of a name. It's literally just a sidewalk paved over old railroad tracks. But if you called the sidewalk, no one would go to it. Call it the beltline and everybody goes. How does it cost so much? It's concrete. And, might some light rail been good idea too? You had the railroad tracks. If you really wanted to connect to Marta, you would want commuter rail (I thought that was the idea when I first heard)

I live in a small city in Ontario Canada. We had converted our old rail lines to bike paths over 30 years ago now. Being able to bike everywhere is a given here and we have snow! Our sidewalk snowplows also clear the main bike paths for us. People cross country ski on some of them as they connect our parks.