Some Good Sites to Read about Cities (and the Atlanta BeltLine)

A couple months back, Salon.com‘s William Doig  interviewed Ryan Gravel, the visionary behind the Atlanta BeltLine, for a new series about cities called “Dream City.” The purpose of the series is to “explore the way we’re designing our cities of the future, cities in which we want to live, right now.” Doig followed up his initial piece with another on December 31, called “The bold urban future starts now.” Here is what he says about the Atlanta BetlLine in that piece:

“We’ve mentioned the Atlanta BeltLine before, but it bears repeating, if only because we can’t think of another urban project more inspiring and forward-thinking. It will take years to complete, but when it’s done, a 22-mile “emerald necklace” of parks, transit and new neighborhoods will encircle the city, built along abandoned railroad corridors. In 2012, the  first segment on this corridor will open: the Eastside Trail, a 2.5-mile section that will connect Piedmont Park and the Martin Luther King Jr. district. The BeltLine will give Atlanta some much-needed green space and reconnect neighborhoods long separated by unused dead space.”

Pretty cool stuff. Salon.com is one of several national media outlets now taking a close look at cities and urban issues. The Atlantic is another publication that has launched a microsite, TheAtlanticCities.com, that examines cities and has also written about the Atlanta BeltLine, going so far as to assert that it is perhaps “the best sustainabilty project in America.”

There are obviously many other local and national publications that are studying cities in depth, but these new ventures are worth checking out (and not just because they’ve written about the Atlanta BeltLine).

 

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