It may seem ironic that one of the most sustainable city infrastructure projects underway in the United States is taking shape in a metropolitan region known best for its traffic congestion and expansive urban sprawl. Or perhaps it should be expected here, where, consciously or not, we are beginning to reconcile the physical structure of highways and arterial roads on which we have prospered for the last 60 years with a dramatically changing marketplace that has rendered that structure newly less desirable. In either case, it is remarkable that in a region many view as the poster-child for urban sprawl, we also find the Atlanta BeltLine, a uniquely innovative, sustainable and ambitious idea that has begun to address not only the physical challenges of sprawl, but also to change Atlanta’s cultural expectations for itself and for its future.
- CNN
