ah, regionalism.
we southerners tend to get pretty touchy whenever someone from up north presents an inaccurate or degrading stereotype of the south.
that’s why i found this quote in an ajc article about a potential development project in dekalb county a bit ironic:
“Mr. Garvin is a very smooth New York talker,” said Paul Jennings, a former state legislator. “Think what it’ll be like 10 years from now if Sembler builds what it wants to build. It’ll be like the Bronx.”
hmmmmm. interesting.
I’ll take the architecture of the Bronx anyday over that fake “urban” crap that Sembler is peddling.
Amen to that BTI.
I don’t know the details of the new project, but neighbors have a right to be suspicious.
The Sembler project at Edgewood, while providing much needed retail to the area, is in ways worse than a strip mall. It’s less pedestrian friendly than old-fashioned suburban strip malls.
Try walking from Barnes & Noble to Kroger. Or Kroger to Target. Or Caribou to Ross. You always have to cross traffic that doesn’t want to stop for you.
At least with old suburban strip malls, the strip-ness provided a single walk connecting the stores.
Agree with Andisheh. Why couldn’t they have put two levels of parking underground instead of one, and used the space above for a park and smallish retail & restaurants (cafes, patio restaurants, whatever)? It would be a much more enjoyable place to shop.
Although nothing can make that Kroger enjoyable. That’s the worst grocery store in Atlanta.
the funny thing is NO ONE ever uses the underground parking deck.
one day while frustrated driving around looking for parking, my gf told me to go underground. sure enough, parked right next to the stairs to go up to target.
I agree with Andisheh that walking between stores is really not practical.
But I will give Sembler credit for the fact that their design doesn’t front major streets with an expanse of asphalt blight. And of course I use the hell outta that Lowe’s.
Big box is what it is, but more underground parking could have put more retail on the surface.
Don’t give Sembler credit for that — it goes squarely to the Organized Neighbors of Edgewood — I agree the project is not perfect — but it’s about 300% better than it would have been without the fight we put up.
And I agree the pedestrian situation could be better (i walk to and from the stores all the time) but I think the layout is such that it could be addressed somehow.
“Try walking from Barnes & Noble to Kroger. Or Kroger to Target. Or Caribou to Ross.”
Or from the Kroger Starbucks to the Target Starbucks to the bookstore Starbucks that doesn’t take Starbucks giftcards.
my usual path goes something like, house to lowes, lowes to bestbuy (where I get mad at the lack of stock and ignorant employees ) cut through the parking deck (it’s shady and there are strangely fewer cars) to the b&n or office depot — and either target, ross, krgr depending on which i’m hitting, and then back home.
They could definitely go back and move some of the cross walks around — it could definitely be better, even though it spans nearly 40 acres.
Why not just build on the Edgewood parking lot and force everyone to use the underground spaces?
And another thing, how is the City of Atlanta still finding itself with its pants down in regards to big box/suburban strip mall development in the intown neighborhoods? I thought that after the debacle that is the Sembler midtown/Ponce, the city was supposed to devise some sort of zoning to handle these types of situations so that the neighborhoods aren’t on their own in trying to secure concessions from the developers.
This type of development is only going to grow in the city – the ponce/edgewood and briarcliff projects are only the beginning….