A new year has arrived and with it countless resolutions.
More than 45 percent of Americans make a resolution every year, according to statisticbrain.com. Some people vow to live a healthier lifestyle, others promise to spend more time with family and many say they will try to save money.
As millions of Americans make resolutions to improve their lives, what could we do right here in Midtown or the westside of Atlanta to make them even better places to live?
What's on your wish list?
Would you like to see a major reduction in crime? From Howell Mill Road to Georgia Tech to Piedmont Park to Ponce de Leon Avenue and all surrounding areas in our Midtown Patch, the headlines in 2012 were filled with crime stories, including numerous armed pedestrian robberies. Just last week, some civic-minded citizens helped apprehend a thief in Midtown as the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance details here.
Would you like to see Midtown's prostitution problem eliminated? How about a 2013 satisfactory resolution to the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter issue?
Does your wish list include for the Midtown Mile to begin making steps towards being akin to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and New York’s Madison Avenue? Maybe your wish list is for smart development at some of Midtown's most visible locations, such as across the street from the High Museum, or at the corner of 10th and Peachtree streets where the boutique grocery store failed this past fall?
Maybe your wish list includes education, and you'd like see the overcrowding issue resolved at the schools within the Grady Cluster? Is the completion of Piedmont Park's expansion on your wish list? Are you ready for Midtown's traffic lights to be synced or for the traffic to improve along Howell Mill Road and Northside Drive?
What is one thing you would improve in 2013 for Midtown and/or the westside of Atlanta?
Tell us in the comment section below. Tell us what you love about living here, and what could make the community even better!
Get the Eastside trail adjacent to Piedmont Park paved up to Ansley. Do something with the vacant lot on 10th street near Juniper. Stop putting in restaurants that are unaffordable (thankfully we still have Joe's on Juniper and Jason's Deli)
Line up the streets. Remove old elevated power lines. Broaden the sidewalk.
Doggie Depots on the Beltline (or trashbins). Improve safety, traffic, parking, cleanup, and festival access planning for all festivals and large events/races in Midtown. Add tons of bike racks and bike lanes. More collaboration/respect for NPU recommendations.
Unless W. Peachtree became a 2-way street. Hmm...
Great idea above about taxing empty lots. Streetcar where is always should have been, Westside to 10th/Monroe. More green space. Piedmont Park obscures the fact that Midtown has almost no green space outside of the park.
I'd love to see rowboats (a la Central Park) on Clara Meer.
Bury the power lines...worth it even if it costs $1 million per mile. They are a huge eyesore. (Yeah, yeah...that means spray paint, tearing up streets and steel plates, but they're doing that anyway). I also agree with the comments regarding intersections of Monroe at 8th and 10th, but one minor thing really irritates me...those stupid trees planted in the sidewalk on the Grady High School side of 10th Street near Monroe. The sidewalk is way too narrow as it is without eating up half the width with poorly pruned crepe myrtles. I love trees. I want more of them, but think before you plant.
It seems Atlanta hates the past.
Strengthening transit connections and options east-west would go a long way in helping bring some pedestrian-oriented developments as well. West Peachtree and Spring street should be converted to 2-way streets and finally making those into complete streets as well the entire route. As of now they are mere highway/interstate ramps with speeding cars and little pedestrian-oriented development can survive along these routes. And there still IS quite a need for some centralized green space in the Westside. I know that with the potential removal of Tech Parkway could free up some real estate for a right-sized park for the West Midtown neighborhood.
http://midtown.patch.com/articles/new-midtown-sidewalk-and-bicycle-project-planned-on-juniper