Share Your Ideas for Improving Festivals in Piedmont Park!

Dear Neighbors of Piedmont Park (Midtown, Ansley, VaHi, Morningside-Lenox Park Neighbors, Piedmont Park Conservancy, APD, NPUs, City of Atlanta, etc.):

I am writing to you today to invite you to provide direct feedback (via Midtown Patch) on how to improve the festival planning and execution process. 

With the Atlanta Jazz Festival now behind us, we have learned a lot of great ways to improve the planning and execution of such a large festival.  Please feel free to comment below, or upload photos and/or videos with captions to help the neighbors and the city understand where we can find areas for improvement to cohabitate peacefully and happily.   

Please provide detailed facts and potential solutions. 

Some areas of improvement might include these.  Please feel free to comment, add to, or comment on (veto) any of these ideas.  Constructive criticism is welcomed. 

1.       Keep all festivals completely in the park.

2.       Do NOT close 10th St.  (If you absolutely must close 10th St, consider closing it from Piedmont (or Argonne) to Monroe, and close Myrtle).

3.       Respect the NPU and APD input process for all festivals.

4.       Festival Ordinance 02-O-1777 suggested revisions:

• Revise ordinance to ensure city is required to follow their own ordinance.
• Revise ordinance to require that the detailed traffic plan (maps, street closings, officers posted where, signs posted where, etc.) be made public at least 1 week before the event and posted online on the atlantaga.gov website.  Any changes to it (made during the event) must be posted online immediately. 
• Sanitation services need to cover beyond 1500 feet, and not just a "top job," especially each night.

5.       Provide equal traffic/parking protection for all adjacent neighborhoods.  Some streets/neighborhoods deserve the same protection/treatment as the Park Drive, Elmwood Circle, and Cresthill streets.

6.       Residential permit parking enforcement and general parking enforcement cannot and should not relax during festivals on weekends and holidays.

7.       Traffic planning must include BOTH ParkAtlanta and APD.  And BOTH entities need to understand how and what they will enforce.

8.       Specific to Atlanta Jazz Festival: 

• Encourage a green event by discouraging/forbidding patrons to bring tents, grills, and their entire kitchen.  No other festival encourages this, and the food vendors will appreciate it. 
• On the festival website, provide more details on traffic patterns and how cars will get to all of the parking decks.

 -- Loretta Jurewicz, Midtown resident on Myrtle Street