Comments of the Week (May 28)

Despite the forthcoming holiday, it’s been an eventful week around Atlanta, and commentary across all Urbanize ATL channels has reflected that. Our weekly Happy Friday roundup features input ranging from snarky to impassioned and educational—from interesting happenings spanning from Decatur to Castleberry Hill and Alpharetta. Thanks again for keeping it civil, more or less. 

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“Main reason I don’t use [the streetcar] now is [because] I can roll just as fast as it. Speed should be doubled to 20—25 mph. Frequency every five minutes,” input via twitter from carden (@CardenOfMilk), who runs a podcast on disability awareness and does “wheelies on ATL sidewalks,” from the article, “As expansion nears, what's your greatest wish for the Atlanta Streetcar?"

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“The pace of intown construction has been astounding, and it seems inevitable that all empty and underutilized lots in Midtown/downtown will be filled before too long. Still … [there] remains so many opportunities for urban development, which can begin to radiate outward from the city center—enough it seems for another half a century, despite the accelerating pace of construction,” commenter midtowner takes the longview, "SoNo tower under construction near former Peachtree-Pine shelter"

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“The Empire State Building took a little over a year to build. The Hoover Dam took five years. How TF does a gas station take more than four years to build? Genuinely perplexed.” — Patrick Davis, via Facebook 

"Another case of radically under-assessed commercial property. Sold for $13 million in 2016, so it's worth at least $16 million, but it's appraised at $6 million. That's a $10 million gap (or $200,000 in annual property tax revenue) just for one property. The city has hundreds of properties like this. Our property taxes are subsidizing commercial real estate speculators like this who are holding back our city from reaching its full potential." — commenter JohnRoseO4W

Readers react to eternal construction, "Downtown gas station's years-long quest to go mixed-use continues"

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“Only thing it’s missing is an onsite Olive Garden,” commenter Cabbagetown pays homage to—or backhands—Italy-inspired home architecture and limitless breadsticks, “Reps: Downtown Alpharetta project meant to look Italian selling like hotcakes”

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“The CODA courtyard/food court is a welcome addition to the area. Their Friday night musical guests are a nice addition too! Unfortunately, all of those old AT&T parking decks still ruin the feeling of West Peachtree [Street],” commenter CitiesAreGreat on the quickly changing street scene just north of Ponce, “Three Midtown Atlanta blocks and 7 new towers in 15 aerial photos"

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“This is a great location. I think it’s overpriced, but it definitely will fetch more than a million. The other Reynoldstown homes that went [for] over $900,000 were in terrible locations comparatively speaking,” commenter LongRun on the virtues of living, almost literally, on the Eastside Trail, “At $1.2M, BeltLine modern guns for Reynoldstown sales record (again)”

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"Good for Decatur to add density without adding kids to their highly desirable school system," says easteggwestegg about TOD plans, "MARTA offloads more property for affordable housing in Decatur"

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“If Fyre Fest was a development...” via twitter Windy City development watchers BuildingUpChi (@BuildingChi) behold the majesty of Atlanta’s RitaWorld Pearl Kingdom, “Is this proposal for a supertall skyscraper downtown total BS?”

Note: The above commentary has been edited in some cases for clarity and length.