community engagement
atlanta streets alive: southwest
Atlanta Streets Alive: Southwest Background
Atlanta Streets Alive: Southwest Background On April 20, 2014, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition debuted the first Atlanta Streets Alive program in southwest Atlanta with a 2.7-mile route in the Historic West End through support from southwest Atlanta residents advocating for a more livable Lee Street. At the time, people who walked and biked Lee Street viewed the road as a hazard as well as a barrier to public transportation and active living due to cars regularly speeding down the street. The inaugural Atlanta Streets Alive: West End route along Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., Murphy Ave.,and White St. provided residents an opportunity to experience their neighborhood in a safer and more liveable way.
In April 2015, lead by insights garnered from a February 2015 People for a Liveable Lee Street listening session, the Atlanta Streets Alive: West End program expanded. The route included Lee St., along with Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. and White Street, further demonstrating what a safer street looked like for all road users. With the impact of the 2014 and 2015 Atlanta Streets Alive: West End programs, residents in Summerhill appealed to organizers to host the program in their neighborhood. In 2016 and 2017, Atlanta Streets Alive: West End was expanded to also include Westview, Adair Park, Pittsburgh, Mechanicsville, Summerhill, and Grant Park along Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. and Georgia Ave.
Atlanta Streets Alive: Southwest 2019
In 2018, due to the cadence of selecting new routes to reach more parts of the city, we did not activate Atlanta Streets Alive in southwest Atlanta. Consequently, a 2018 report by a researcher at Georgia Tech revealed that 6 out of the ten most dangerous streets in Atlanta, known as the High-Injury Network, are located west of Northside Drive and South of I-20. The High-Injury Network is made up of the streets where the most severe and fatal traffic collision occurred in Atlanta.
Atlanta Streets Alive is strategically aligned with our Atlanta Bicycle Coalition advocacy and programming. In 2019 this focus has been raising awareness about the disproportionate distribution of streets that are accountable for most severe and fatal traffic collisions, also known as the High-Injury Network, and rallying city officials to address the deadly conditions to ensure safe streets for all.
Due to the high number of streets in the High-Injury Networking being in southwest Atlanta, in winter 2018 we embarked on a multi-phase outreach effort to determine the community's interest in the return of the Atlanta Streets Alive program to Southwest Atlanta and if interested, receiving feedback from the community on route options for the activation. The process included forming a steering committee, surveying the Southwest Atlanta residents, and rallying community support to push back against Renew Atlanta/TSPLOST funding cuts. The timeline of our engagement and outreach is outlined below in reverse chronological order.
Advocacy and Engagement
In 2015, voters in the city of Atlanta approved the Renew Atlanta Bond which was projected to address deadly conditions on several High-Injury Network streets by implementing Complete Streets, including Cascade Phase 2. After three years of public meetings, funding for the Cascade Phase 2 Complete Street project was cut, leaving only resurfacing and design for a future Complete Street in the budget. It's not clear where funding would come from to actually build it, and Atlanta Streets Alive organizers rallied alongside community members to urge the city to identify alternatives to make the road safer, despite funding to build out the Complete Street.
July 2019
- In a letter to City Council, residents from Neighborhood Planning Units S and T, in coordination with Beecher-Donnelly, Westview, West End, Cascade Avenue, and Venetian Hills neighborhood organizations, with support from the Atlanta Streets Alive organizers, came together to advocate much-needed and long-overdue safety improvements for Cascade.
May 2019
- Community members, including parents and students from Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy Elementary School, participated in “Walk a Mile in Cascade’s Shoes,” demonstration to raise awareness about the road’s conditions and urge city officials to #RespectCascade.
February 2019-March 2019
- Atlanta Streets Alive organizers hired and trained eight community members from Southeast and Southwest Atlanta to inform and garner community support to prioritize Cascade Phase 2 Complete Street funding. They also worked to encourage community members, of every generation, to learn to ride a bike and view biking as a viable mode of transportation.
- Atlanta Streets Alive program organizers rallied support for community attendance at each of the four Renew Atlanta Round 2 Public Meetings in late February and early March.
- Atlanta Bike Champions joined community members and parents from Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy Elementary School to conduct a safety audit of Cascade Phase 2. They shared the findings with Councilmember Winslow and Councilmember Boone, in addition to Senior Transportation Policy Advisor Jacob Tzegaegbe.
- On March 28, 2019, after three years of public meetings and surveys, the Renew Atlanta/TSPLOST team decided not to fund Cascade Phase 2 Complete Street.
Survey II: Distribution and Outreach
March 2019
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Distributed Survey II via
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City of Atlanta officials via email
Name District Councilmember Boone 10 Councilmember Overstreet 11 Councilmember Sheperd 12 Councilmember Winslow 4
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- Closed Survey II
Survey II: Results
- 296 out of the 317 respondents to Survey II entered southwest Atlanta zip codes
- Of the 296 respondents segmented to reflect the southwest Atlanta community, 306 respondents ranked their preferred routes.
- Respondents voted Wren’s Nest to Cascade Springs Nature Reserve as the preferred route.
February 2019
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Distributed Survey II via
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Atlanta Streets Alive: Southwest Steering Committee members via email
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Neighborhood and NPU Facebook groups
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Nextdoor platform
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Atlanta Streets Alive website, Facebook, Twitter
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Survey I: Distribution and Outreach
February 2019
- Closed Survey I
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Shared Survey I results with:
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City of Atlanta officials
Name District Councilmember Bond Post 1 At Large Councilmember Boone 10
Councilmember Dickens Post 3 At Large
Councilmember Overstreet 11 Councilmember Sheperd 12 Councilmember Westmoreland Post 2 At Large Councilmember Winslow 4
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City of Atlanta officials
Survey I: Results
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258 out of the 322 respondents to Survey I entered Southwest Atlanta zip codes
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253 respondents from those Southwest Atlanta zip codes -- 98% -- answered “yes” to the question, “Do you want a Southwest Atlanta route for Atlanta Streets Alive in 2019?”.
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99 respondents from Southwest Atlanta zip codes -- 61% -- specifically suggested Cascade as a route in response to the open-ended question, “Where would you like to see a southwest route?”
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Of the 258 respondents who entered Southwest Atlanta zip codes, the breakdown of the zip codes they entered are as follows:
30303 2 30310 144 30311 76 30312 8 30313 4 30314 5 30315 5
December 2018
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Distributed Survey I to officials via email with a request to share the survey with their constituents
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Fulton County official
- Commissioner Marvin Arrington
- City of Atlanta officials
Name District Councilmember Boone 10 Councilmember Overstreet 11 Councilmember Sheperd 12 Councilmember Winslow 4
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Fulton County official
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Distributed Survey I to Neighborhood Planning Units:
- NPU-H
- NPU-I
- NPU-P
- NPU-R
- NPU-S
- NPU-T
- NPU-V
- NPU-X
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Distributed Survey I via
- Atlanta Streets Alive website, Facebook, Twitter
- Email to community stakeholders to share with networks
- Via neighborhood Facebook group pages
- Curbed publication
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TransFormation Alliance
- Distributed Survey I to Neighborhood Associations and Community Organizations
November 2018
- Generated a community survey to gauge support for activating the route in southwest Atlanta
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Distributed Survey I via
- Atlanta Streets Alive website, Facebook, Twitter
- Email to community stakeholders to share with networks
- Neighborhood and NPU Facebook groups
- Nextdoor platform
- Curbed publication
Steering Committee
January 2019
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Confirmed Atlanta Streets Alive: Southwest Steering Committee members
Name Role/Organization Neighborhood Brent Brewer
Publisher of Our West End Newsletter
West End/Oakland City/Lee St
David Burt
Senior Director of Real Estate, Fort McPherson LRA
Fort Mac/Oakland City/Regional
Kara Cooper
ABI Economic Development Manager
Southwest Atlanta/Regional
David Lloyd Daivs
Project Manager, Office of Council Member Overstreet
City of Atlanta - District 11
Jason Dozier
Director, Programs Operations at Hire Heroes USA
Mechanicsville/NPU-V
Kris Dunbar
A/C Clutch Bicycle Shop
Westview business owner
Michelle Dunbar
A/C Clutch Bicycle Shop
Westview business owner
Darryl Haddock
Education Director, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance @ the Outdoor Activity Center
Bush Mountain/Oakland City
Dr. Erica Holloman
Program Manager, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance @ the Outdoor Activity Center
Bush Mountain/Oakland City
Saba Long
Communications and Public Affairs Specialist
Downtown/Regional
Brionte McCorkle-added May 2019
Executive Director, Georgia Conservation Voters
Beecher Hills/Southwest Atlanta/Regional
Donte Miller
Co-Founder, Village Micro Fund
Southwest Atlanta
Erika Smith
Invest Atlanta, Southside Community and Economic Development Mgr
Southwest Atlanta/Regional
Kerry Stewart
Executive Director, Atlanta and Fulton County Recreation Authority
South Atlanta/Regional
Averil Taylor
Atlanta Music Project
Capitol View/Southwest Atlanta
Jimmy Tyler
Community Advocate/Retired Teacher
Cascade Heights/Beecher Hills
December 2018
- Invited southwest Atlanta leaders, residents, and active stakeholders to the Atlanta Streets Alive: Southwest Steering Committee to aid with comprehensive community engagement during the route selection process, the business outreach stage, and the course of neighborhood outreach.