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City Council's Amir Farokhi: Atlanta Needs To Be Designed For People
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With tens of thousands of people moving into Atlanta in the last several years, expanding the city’s infrastructure and making it livable has been a longstanding priority.
Some changes are in the works: the city is spending $250 million in bonds to improve roads, bridges and traffic signals, and MARTA is seeking feedback on its own expansion.
Walkability and transit alternatives have been central to the work of Amir Farokhi, who was elected in January to represent parts of Midtown and Downtown Atlanta as the Atlanta City Council member for District 2.
He stopped by the GPB studios to talk about his vision for the city.
ON THE HIGH NUMBER OF BROKEN, BLOCKED OR NON-EXISTENT SIDEWALKS IN THE CITY
One of the biggest reasons why this happens is the city technically does not maintain, repair and update sidewalks. The obligation is put on property owners.
So what you have is kind of hodgepodge repair and maintenance of sidewalks. And quite often it's a bit too much to ask homeowners to spend $3,000 to $5,000 to pave the sidewalk in front of their house, or a company to do the same.
I've introduced legislation earlier in the year to shift that burden. Just like you would expect the city to fix the streets, you would expect the city to fix the sidewalks that are public right-of-way.
This goes to a bigger issue, I think, on how we think about the role of city government and what it should be focused on. My view is that our lives are made up of hundreds of small interactions with the space around us, and it’s the city's obligation to make sure that people can exist in a city and want to be in a city.
That means there are trash cans where trash cans should be, sidewalks are fixed, the crosswalk signal works, that services are working at a high level and we can tackle big projects. But it's the small stuff that really makes an experience in a city. Something that's respectful of the human experience, but also it makes it a place where people want to be.
ON MAKING THE CITY’S SIDEWALKS AND STREETS ACCESSIBLE TO DISABLED RESIDENTS
I talked to a gentleman who lives in Midtown who is wheelchair bound, and because there's no crosswalk where crosswalks should be and because there's no sidewalk where sidewalks should be, he has to get off at a MARTA stop that's farther from his doctor's office. Because from the farther MARTA stop, he can actually traverse a sidewalk that gets into the doctor's office.
To you and I, we can step out in the street or, you know, jump over something. But this is someone's livelihood and ability to function in our society, and if we're not respecting that human condition then we're failing as a city.
ON THE CURRENT PROCESSES TO REPORT AND FIX INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES IN THE CITY.
There are many issues at play. One, we need to do a better job investing in our infrastructure. Yes, the T-SPLOST or Renew Atlanta money is doing that. Probably not with the scope and urgency that I'd like to see, but we are investing in that infrastructure.
The second issue is when it comes to those steel plates [covering potholes], some of them are the city’s. And if you see one has been there too long or it's loose, it's rattling or it's a nuisance, you should call 311 and report it or email your council member. We can help tackle it.
311 is the city's non-emergency service request number, so you can call about anything: a missing stop sign, a flooded street, whatever may be amiss… and then that service redirects the request to the appropriate department to hopefully get something fixed.
ON THE COUNCIL AS A CHECK TO CITY HALL FOLLOWING THE FEDERAL BRIBERY PROBE
I think we've seen a lot of political will on the part of my colleagues and myself to propose alternatives, whether it's stronger ethics provisions or new approaches for the procurement process.
We've introduced a round legislation that touches on a number of things, and to be fair to the mayor – I think she also cares very much about this. She's she said as much, and she's acted as much and introduced some legislation this week that started to tackle it.
But I think there's a lot of good ideas that council has thought of and will likely take the form of legislation. This is a collective exercise in good governance.
ON THE ‘PEER CITIES’ OF ATLANTA
I tend to look at it as less regionally, more globally. Are we doing things as well as Singapore when it comes to integrating parks into our city? Are we thinking about mobility and access to jobs like you may be thinking about it in Stockholm or Copenhagen? Seoul, South Korea has done amazing work kind of repurposing the city for walkability and livability, including taking down a major highway and putting through a really strong linear park.
I actually think we're at a really special moment in the city's evolution, because I think for the first time in probably the last five to 10 years, I feel like the city is very comfortable in its own skin.
They're very proud of who we are: our idiosyncrasies, the type of culture that we create. I think about the future and I get really excited, because there's just so much we can do to go from “kind of great” to “remarkable!”
And it's the little things like the sidewalks you talked about. This is a place where big ideas can take flight, and we should be embracing that and cultivating that in every aspect of our lives.
ON THE BELTLINE’S ROLE IN SHAPING ATLANTA
I think the Beltline is a visionary project and is transformative in so many ways. I think the most exciting thing about the Beltline to me is… You know, for years this has been a diverse city, but you wouldn't know it because everyone's stuck in their car.
All of a sudden, people are out on this – as The New York Times likes to call it – “glorified sidewalk” with others, and it's just a beautiful thing to witness and something we should be promoting not just along the BeltLine, but across the city. I'm really excited to see what we look like 30 years from now.
A quick aside: There's a bridge in Paris that goes over the island where Notre Dame sits – Pont Neuf. Before that bridge was built, Paris was like many other big European cities that had pigs in the street.
But once that bridge was built, it was built in a way that was wide enough so that people could stop their carriages, where people could sit, and all of a sudden this bridge across the Seine became this place where people came and hung out and started to get out of their carriages.
So the wealthy mixed with the poor, street vendors popped up, and it's actually – you could trace Paris as a fashion capital to this moment, as people started changing their attire to show off on the bridge.
And I kind of view the BeltLine like our “Pont Neuf” bridge moment. Right in Atlanta, people are out of their cars. They're not just exercising and walking. They're interacting with each other, the spaces along the BeltLine that are getting built are meant to draw people in and to entertain people and feed people and house people… And it's so much more of a public lifestyle that really transforms how we identify with the city, who we think of ourselves as a city, as individuals.
And you know, it brings smiles to a lot of people's faces.
ON THE INFLUX OF HIGH DENSITY DEVELOPMENT IN MIDTOWN ATLANTA
This is what we want for the city center – enormous density, jobs, residents, retail… people living in a truly urban lifestyle in which you don't have to get your car and go anywhere.
Now, the challenge that creates for the city is “Can you provide services for all the residents and workers who spend time in that space? Does our infrastructure keep up with us?” Whether it's roads, MARTA, whatever it may be.
And is it a pleasant experience for people? I'll tell you right now, one of the challenges with the [CODA] construction site [in Midtown] is that it has taken the sidewalk. So if you're walking up West Peachtree Street you're on the west side of the street, you come to a point where you have to cross the street. And sometimes the signage is in the middle of the block, so you're either forced to cross in the middle of the block, or there's no crosswalk and you have to go back. And that's a frustration of mine.
So that's that lack of attention to the human experience, even as all these things go up.
And it's not a problem that other cities haven't solved. This is an easily solvable problem, by trying to behave in a way that says as we get more people in the city, will it be an experience and a place where people want to spend their time?
ON RECENT SHOOTINGS IN MIDTOWN
I think in many respects, Downtown and Midtown are actually incredibly safe. But you have incidents like this that I think shake people's confidence. Our police department may be – and there’s room for debate at council and at the city – may be a bit undersized as far as number of officers. So we need to work on attracting and retaining officers, usually in the younger years, and maybe even think about how we police.
But it doesn't matter where you are in the city, whether you're Midtown, Downtown, Chastain Park or Campbellton Road. You set the expectation that you can walk on the street and not get shot or mugged or any of these things.
And there's no epidemic of crime sweeping the city.
But it doesn't matter. If you don't feel safe, then you're not safe. And this is not just a pure police issue. This is how we design streets, how we develop blocks, so there's eyes on the street. In Copenhagen, they have a great term – maybe it's a global term, but this notion of “soft edges” on buildings.
Soft edges being patios where people are sitting outside, or tables and balconies so that a building actually has humans draped around it in a way that creates kind of a “soft edge” for the building, which creates a safer space.
And I think as much as we need to be investing in our public safety departments, this is also about how we grow the city and that the street lights are fixed.
A more macro view: what is our obligation in the social contract to say, “Well, why is this even happening to begin with?” And as a city, what are we doing to give people a pathway to education and to work?
You mitigate and minimize the number of folks who fall into a criminal lifestyle. When we have a public safety conversation in a vacuum, it tends to be reactive, [like] when you put cameras and more cops on the street. But it's a much more holistic community conversation and design conversation that we should be having.
ON MARTA’S PROPOSALS TO EXPAND SERVICES IN THE CITY OF ATLANTA
Council President Felicia Moore is right. There's $11 billion in suggested projects and $2.5 billion in actual money that will be generated by the MARTA half-penny sales tax. So inevitably we can't do everything we need. This is a tough issue, because no matter what projects make the list every part of the city is not going to be touched. Some folks are going to be happy.
From a district perspective, District 2 is slated to have an extension of the light rail out from the Downtown streetcar up the BeltLine trail towards Ponce City Market as well as a bus rapid transit line that runs across North Avenue into Midtown and over to the west side.
Transit does not necessarily say “Hey, you can't drive your car.” This is complimentary. This is a network of transit options that works for everyone, and should be working for people who may not have access to a car as well. Because the cost of living, the jobs, homelessness… is all tied together.
And investing in transit, whatever the mode or vehicle is, needs to be a top priority for our region, because it is arguably our biggest Achilles heel, aside from the education and economic mobility of our residents.
ON THE LARGE CONCENTRATION OF HOMELESS ATLANTANS IN HIS DISTRICT
I get calls and emails about challenges with homeless individuals quite frequently.
I will note our persistent homeless population has dropped year after year for a number of years now, thanks to a pretty broad collective effort, with a number of agencies – both government and philanthropic and nonprofit. So the city and the region deserves credit for that. But particularly my district, with the closure of Peachtree-Pine shelter, there has been a spike in homeless encampments and homeless presence in surrounding neighborhoods.
The city has the HOPE [Homeless Outreach Proactive Enforcement] team that goes out and works with folks to try and get them housing. But it's voluntary. You can't force someone into a van, right?
This is a voluntary option we give to folks and this is something I think we need to double down on. The region has moved rightly to a housing-first approach, so you don't have to be off drugs or have a job or have any sort of commitment to get a roof over your head.
And that's the right approach ... it has proven effective around the country and the world. This requires constant attention and care. And I think if we do right it will reflect our legacy that puts social justice and human beings first.
It's not merely a resource issue.
In my district for example, I had someone emailed me the other day about a homeless encampment along Freedom Parkway that backs up to a neighborhood. And they were frustrated, because for a few weeks they've been calling the various departments to get it fixed and we turned around to try and help get it fixed as well.
And three or four times the HOPE team got out and talked to the person, but [the person] had refused assistance. So now the trick is, can we get the police and the support services to find a way to transition this person there in the most appropriate way.
But the police said “Look, we're tied up for this week. We can't deal with it, but there's not an emergency.” The person that deals with these community crimes is not available and the HOPE team says “We'll get to it as soon as we can, we have such a backlog of places to hit.”
So this is oftentimes as much as a resource question as it is I think any question of political will to say “We need to be paying attention to this” as well.
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