Entschuldigung, ya’ll. I’m back.
Tag Archives: downtown
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Coming Along
19 Mar
The extensive renovation of the 103-year-old Imperial Hotel at Peachtree Street and Ivan Allen Boulevard is scheduled to be completed later this year. The building was converted to low-income housing in the mid-90s after sitting vacant for about decade and was purchased by Columbia Residential and National Church Residences in early 2011 when it was in danger of foreclosure.
Poor Calvin’s: Giving Thai a try on Piedmont
10 Dec510 Piedmont Avenue has undergone a dramatic renovation and is now home to Poor Calvin’s, a Thai-American restaurant. The building sat empty for most of this year after O’Terrill’s Irish Pub closed in early January.
510 Piedmont Avenue – Before
A staff member said that Poor Calvin’s expects to receive its liquor license from the city at the beginning of the year, but in the meantime welcomes guests to BYOB with no corkage fee and offers to-go orders. Things were pretty slow at the new restaurant last Sunday night, but there are already reviews up on Yelp and Urban Spoon, so word is slowly getting out.
The location on that five-lane, one-way stretch of Piedmont Highway Avenue might prove to be a challenge, but the site also has the advantage of being on a corner, which will allow people driving there to reach it from two other directions. Better yet, about 1,000 units worth of apartment and condo dwellers can get there by walking anywhere from two to 20 minutes.
Things I’ve Declined to Buy on the Street
29 Sep1. A rubber-banded bundle of MAC lip glosses (Not in the boxes)
2. A reduced-fare Breeze card
3. Several brands of baby formula
4. Newports
5. Mini-bottles of liquor
6. “Socks! DVDs! Socks! DVDs!”
7. A “gold” chain wadded up in a paper napkin
8. A plastic bag of costume jewelry and a “leather” jacket
9. A mix CD: $5, unless you only have $2, in which case he’ll take that
10. A copy of Creative Loafing
Mitchell Street bridge to re-open Thursday
22 Aug
The woman in the photo insisted on being “your helper for the day.” She immediately resigned from the position upon discovering that I had no money.
The Mitchell Street bridge in Castleberry Hill will officially re-open Thursday morning after a two-year reconstruction by the Georgia DOT. The bridge was closed in 2008 after transportation officials found it inadequate for the type and volume of traffic it was carrying, and construction began in 2010.
More than $8 million in federal stimulus funds were used to reconstruct the 88-year-old bridge, which now has bike lanes on both sides and parking along the south side.
Things People Say If You Mention Walking Home from Work
1 Jul- “You do what?”
- “At night?”
- “By yourself?”
- “Aren’t you scared?”
- “In the heat/cold?”
- “Are you crazy/serious/kidding?”
- “All the way home?”
- “How far is that?”
- “It takes how long?”
- “Thirty-five minutes is a long time”
- “Do you have mace/pepper spray/a gun?”
- “Why?”
- “You live down here?”
Wednesday Night: Downtown Streetcar Public Info Open House
17 Apr
Streetcar route map: CAP/ADID
Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District will host a public information open house Wednesday evening focusing on revitalization of the downtown streetcar corridor.
CAP and ADID are seeking public input on redevelopment and land use plans for the Sweet Auburn and Fairlie-Poplar neighborhoods, where the project’s 2.7-mile light rail loop is under construction.
The event will run from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Odd Fellows Building at 236 Auburn Ave., Wednesday, April 18.
The easiest transit access is by the route 16 or route 110 bus.
Forgotten But Not Gone: Old construction webcams
13 AprCurbed Atlanta’s Monday post about the new construction webcam for the Ponce City Market project brought to mind the time, just a few years ago, when there were always at least a couple of construction cams online. While the cameras for these completed projects are no longer active, many of the sites are still up. You can flip through the monthly calendar drop-downs or use the “time lapse” button near the center of the top of the page to watch the buildings go from site work to top-out in just a few minutes.
For example, you can still watch the Twelve Centennial Park hotel and condo project go from this:
To this:
Or the dramatic changes between 10th and 12th on Peachtree that took the area from this:
To this:
MMPT public meeting Wednesday night
12 Mar
The area of downtown known as "the gulch" seen from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, facing north
Central Atlanta Progress is hosting a public information meeting Wednesday to discuss the Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal project planned for (eventual) construction in the downtown “gulch.”
“The project team will introduce the project and provide background on planning efforts surrounding the MMPT, as well as why this process is different,” CAP said in an email. Planned topics of discussion are “the national trend of transit-oriented development (TOD), the role of public/private partnerships, the relationship of the MMPT to the City of Atlanta and the State, and how this project can help build a stronger Downtown.”
The meeting is scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Georgia Pacific building at 133 Peachtree Street. Georgia Pacific is right next door to the Peachtree Center MARTA station and is also served by the route 110 bus.
Did you know…
8 MarThat there’s a produce market downtown and that it’s been there for almost 20 years?
The State of Georgia office building at 2 Peachtree Street, with its gates, revolving doors and empty street-level retail spaces, doesn’t look particularly inviting at ground level. Everything about it seems to say “keep going” rather than “come in.” It certainly doesn’t give the impression that one could walk in with $10 and leave with three apples, three oranges, a pound of strawberries, some freshly roasted cashews, a slice of cheesecake and a couple of dollars change.
There’s no sign for R & R Produce on either the Marietta or Peachtree Street side of the building. The store is about as deep as a large office cubicle and it takes only around 15 steps to walk the length of it. But the sliver of ground floor space is jammed with fruits and vegetables, most of them from the Forest Park Farmers Market.
The owners greet some of the shoppers by name, but even speak to those they’ve just met as if they’re long-separated friends. Office workers, students and people struggling to wrangle small, antsy children stand patiently in the single line to pay (cash or EBT only). As they wait, the shoppers marvel at the variety of foods and remark on the low prices. Usually at least one person says “I had no idea this place was here.”
The Oppidan Omnibus 