Moving to Atlanta?

If you're moving to Atlanta, recently moved here or are already living here and considering moving to another Atlanta neighborhood, Moving to Atlanta: The Un-Tourist Guide is a book you should read. I had the honor of speaking with author Anne Wainscott-Sargent recently about the book, which she calls her "love letter to Atlanta". 

Moving to Atlanta: The Un-Tourist Guide, by Anne Wainscott-Sargent

Anne's first visit to Atlanta was during the 1996 Olympic Games, a time of great celebration and transformation for our city. She moved to Atlanta in 1998 and fell in love with it as so many of us have.

The guide features 18 of Atlanta’s intown neighborhoods and six of Metro Atlanta’s established suburban communities. A professional storyteller, Anne interviewed real estate experts, elected officials, journalists and business leaders, as well as new and longtime residents. Among the interviewees is Ryan Gravel, the mastermind behind the booming Atlanta Beltline.

Moving to Atlanta: The Un-Tourist Guide is the seventh book in the "Moving To" series by Voyager Media. One of those seven is about my birth town of St. Petersburg, Florida, and the newest is about my beloved Atlanta, their first guide to a city in Georgia.

Anne Wainscott-Sargent

When Anne offered to share an except from Moving to Atlanta: The Un-Tourist Guide, of course I asked for something relative to being a tourist. Enjoy this sample of how well-written and researched this book is...

    Atlanta is a major festival town, with the mild climate and plentiful trees enabling communities to host festivals and events year-round. "What distinguishes Atlanta from other places is its neighborhoods—there's a fierce pride people have intown and outside the Perimeter," said Debbie Michaud, editor-in-chief of Creative Loafing Atlanta, the city's alternative weekly.

    One of the city's most popular events is the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, an arts and crafts gathering held in Piedmont Park each spring, when the native dogwoods are in bloom.

    Atlanta Streets Alive, inspired by the ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia, closes city streets to car traffic to allow people to participate in health and community-oriented activities, such as bicycling, strolling, skating, people-watching, tango, yoga, hula hooping, and break dancing.

    Atlanta is home to one of the nation's largest gay pride festivals, Atlanta Pride, as well as what is billed as the world's largest black gay pride celebration, Atlanta Black Pride.

    Given Georgia's growing prominence in filmmaking, it's no surprise the city has been a major center for film festivals for well over a decade. A few notable ones for new residents who love film include:

• Atlanta Film Festival, an Academy Award qualifying, international film festival held every April that showcases a diverse range of independent films, including genre films such as horror and sci-fi

• The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the largest Jewish film festival in the world, held over twenty-three days in January and February

• The Atlanta Movie Festival, in its 40th year in 2016 and including not just a festival but year-round advance screenings of indie films for members

    Film Tourism

    The impact of Hollywood on Atlanta's entertainment scene is evident by the rise of film tourism (reported in the Hollywood of the South chapter), as well as the announcement of Avatron Park, the first venue to host "Hunger Games"-themed attractions. It is scheduled to open off Red Top Mountain Road, an hour north of Atlanta, in January 2019.

The official book launch is scheduled for Sunday, February 21, 2016, at Atlanta Movie Tours. I've written about Atlanta Movie Tours many, many times, and I've been on their various tours six times, so I was excited to learn that they're hosting the book launch event. And The Smoke Ring, a fantastic BBQ destination, is catering! I encourage you to check out both of them!

Moving to Atlanta: The Un-Tourist Guide is available now in soft cover and Kindle from Amazon and in local Barnes & Noble stores. It also will soon be available on iTunes. The next scheduled author "Meet & Greet" is Saturday, March 12, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co. in Roswell, Georgia, just north of Atlanta.

For those of you who love a good "small world" story, here's one for you...

I learned about Anne's book when my friend Tamela was recently visiting from Portland, Oregon. I first met Tamela when she lived here in Atlanta. Tamela, Anne and I were members of the Atlanta chapter of International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) at the same time. When reminiscing about IABC over dinner at Rosa Mexicano in Atlantic Station Tamela told me about Anne's upcoming book launch. "Thank you, Tamela!"

During an IABC event, Anne and I discovered a satellite industry connection. When I lived in Washington, D.C., I worked in the satellite communications industry as a Corporate Communications Manager. Anne has for the last five years written for satellite publications that I read on a regular basis. 

So many connections, such a small world! 

An accomplished writer, Anne also is a fellow blogger. She authors The Writing Well. Please check that out in addition to Anne's new book, Moving to Atlanta: The Un-Tourist Guide...and "Welcome to Atlanta!"

You can impact your own Design for Healthy Living

Design for Healthy Living, the latest exhibition at Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA), is thought-provoking, interactive, exciting, promising, visual and tactile, and offers opportunities for visitors to provide input for making Atlanta a healthier city—and those suggestions will be shared with our city government!

Design for Healthy Living | Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)

Tristan Al-Haddad of Formations Studio is again at MODA with a spectacular, interactive installation. It's not only fun, it's thought-provoking. And it spans the depth and breadth of Gallery 3! I've seen this exhibition three times now and can't resist the allure of playing with glowing rectangular acrylic boxes inscribed with words relative to the exhibition's message.

Gallery 3 also features a number of case studies—success stories!—showcasing how various projects around the country are creating healthy places to...

WALK   BIKE   RIDE   LEARN   PLAY   WORK   LIVE

Design for Healthy Living | Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)

As many of you know, I've been a member and fan of MODA since they were located in downtown, a number of years ago. Katie Simms, Exhibitions Manager, was one of the first people at MODA who made me feel welcome and excited to experience the museum. I'm grateful for her kind spirit and brilliant intellect.

Katie is also the curator of Design for Healthy Living and graciously answered a couple of questions for wanderlust ATLANTA readers...

wanderlust ATLANTA: What was the catalyst for the creation of Design for Healthy Living and what epiphanies are you hoping to inspire for those who experience the exhibition?

Katie Simms: "At MODA, we're passionate about the capacity for design to make the world a better place and exhibitions are a great way to explore this. Design for Healthy Living looks at how the built environment can be designed to improve health and well-being for all of us." Katie continued, "If we understand how design affects our health, we will be able to advocate designers, government agencies, and developers for designs that make healthy options available, accessible and affordable for everyone."

Design for Healthy Living | Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)

Design for Healthy Living presents a number of case studies, one of my favorite being what's happening in Little Rock, Arkansas. Wanting to turn their ghost-town-after-5pm downtown into a thriving community, they're building a "Creative Corridor", and it's working. Downtown Little Rock is beginning to thrive!

There's a lot happening to poise Atlanta as a healthier city, too. Of course, as with all projects, the effects of current initiatives will be cumulative, and while we have a long way to go, we are making some excellent progress.

For example, look at what the Atlanta Beltline has already accomplished, which has humble beginnings as a college thesis. This is the largest urban redevelopment project in Atlanta's history and the largest in the United States—a 25-year sustainable redevelopment project that will turn 22 miles of historic railroad and industrial sites into a network of parks, multi-use trails, and public transit that connects 45 neighborhoods around the city. It's pure awesomeness!

Serenbe is another magnificent example. Today it's a high-density, environmentally-friendly development—home to more than 400 residents—located 30 miles southwest of Atlanta. Its roots go back more than 15 years, originating with the now-founders taking their children on a weekend outing to introduce them to the Georgia countryside.

Serenbe is also where Les Dames d'Escoffier International-Atlanta Chapter's "Afternoon in the Country" event is held, but more on that fantastic event later.

Design for Healthy Living | Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)

Museum visitors are getting in on the act, including school field trip students. Personally, I believe its paramount that we teach our children the importance of healthy design options. They're the ones who will make the greatest impact for future healthy cities. 

wanderlust ATLANTA: How and to what degree do you hope this exhibition will influence action by Atlanta government and her citizens to design and build a city for healthier living?

Katie Simms: "I hope that the exhibition will help visitors to look closely at the spaces where they spend time and think critically about how the design of those spaces impacts their health. The exhibition provides several opportunities for visitors to share their observations and ideas, from how streets could be made safer for pedestrians and cyclists to how the Turner Field site could be redeveloped. We will share all of the visitor feedback with City of Atlanta in the hope that it will be used to make our city a healthier place to live."

Design for Healthy Living | Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)

Design for Healthy Living is your opportunity to explore and learn how you can impact your own city's design affecting the health and well-being of your local community, no matter where you live. 

Check out Museum of Design Atlanta's (MODA) website and Facebook page for updates on exhibition-related programming and other awesome events, like LEGOs & Local Beer!

Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour

Last Friday, November 8, I'd been planning to take off work a couple of hours early to attend an event that started at 5:00 p.m. When I was also able to schedule an Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour, I asked for the whole day off. What a great day that turned out to be!

Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour

I'd tried to get on this tour a long, long time ago, and had resigned myself that it would be even a lot longer before I could get a tour slot...this is a wonderfully popular tour. I'm thrilled that there's so much interest and that the Beltline folks are teaching citizens what's going on and what to expect.

So, when I just by chance found an open slot on that same Friday, I immediately reserved it and asked for the whole day off. 

Once on the tour, I quickly realized that it was indeed a "bus" tour and that there would be minimal stops. I also realized rather quickly that I would learn more about the Atlanta Beltline on this tour than I had even hoped. 

Our tour guide, Shantā, was brilliant—again, exceeding my expectations, she has extensive knowledgeable of Atlanta, its neighborhoods, and all the wonderful hope that the Atlanta Beltline could bring the 45-48 communities along the 22-mile project.

Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour

One of the few stops on the Bus Tour was at Bellwood Quarry, which will be the future site of Westside Reservoir and Park, destined to become Atlanta's largest park at 320 acres. It's also a site used for filming of The Walking Dead and Hunger Games.

The volume of the Reservoir will required four years to pump it full of water, which tells that it'll be a few years yet before the Park is open to the public. In the meantime, this tour is the only public access to the Reservoir...a super cool opportunity to see a future major destination for Atlantans and tourists alike.

Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour

One of the pauses (bus stops, participants stay on) on the Bus Tour was at the Historic Fourth Ward Park, which I'd visited before, except for the skateboard park, one of the three sections of this park and the one that is most removed. 

We were told that Tony Hawk himself donated $1,000,000 to help build the skateboard park and he himself was present—and skated—for the opening ceremony. How cool is that?!

Even in the middle of the morning on a Friday, the skateboard park was busy. And off in the distance I spied Iron Column, an Art on the Atlanta Beltline installation I'd seen in the news only a few days prior. I came back here after the three-hour bus tour was done.

Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour

One of the great beauties of the Atlanta Beltline project, now it its ninth year of a projected 20-25 years to complete the entirety of  the Beltline's scope, is the plethora of opportunities afforded so many communities and citizens by such a project.

Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour

I can't express just how much you'll learn on this tour. If you have any chance of recanting what you learn, I highly recommend note taking. Unless, of course, you have an eidetic memory...and I do not.

And there are other tours, as well as a self-guided tour of the now-scheduled-in-the-fall Art on the Atlanta Beltline. Of course, if you'd like to explore the entire Beltline, you can walk the 22-mile expanse in a mere 10 hours, during which you'd take in the extensiveness of the art installation.

Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour

My next Beltline exploration will be the Art on the Atlanta Beltline. As you already know, I'm an art lover, and I'd already seen a few pieces of the Beltline installation, but Iron Column is the piece that makes me want to see the entire exhibition.

And check this out, Iron Column (2013) by Phil Proctor is constructed of iron railroad track—how befitting that a sculpture is so telling of the coming of a new rail system. Of all the pieces I've seen on the Beltline thus far, this is my favorite!

Well, I wish I could share with you everything I learned on the Atlanta Beltline Bus Tour, but I don't have a publisher lined up (there's that much to share!), and I'm sure Shantā could have shared much, much more if given the time. Go with questions...she's a Beltline encyclopedia  and she has a great sense of humor.

I will however, leave you with a few tidbits of what I personally found fascinating:

• Inman Park, where the bus tour begins, was Atlanta's first suburb
• The Atlanta Beltline will be a two-way system
• Cars will travel in opposite directions on separate rails
• The Atlanta Beltline originates from Ryan Gravel's Georgia Tech Masters Thesis
• The Atlanta Beltline features its own arboretum
• The Atlanta Beltline will intersect with four MARTA stations

Okay, that's all I'm going to tell you right now, but know that there's so much more to learn and glean, and I especially recommend you go on this tour if you happen to live in one of the more than 40 communities the Atlanta Beltline will directly benefit.

Old Fourth Ward Park

I knew there was a Park behind Ponce City Market, the old Sears Building/City Hall East, but I had no idea there was such a huge Park! Mostly because so much of it is below street level. Old Fourth Ward Park was a wonderful surprise!

Old Fourth Ward Park, Ampitheatre

The only part of the Park that I visited on this particular day was the below street level portion, and the paths surrounding it. There are stone 'sculptures', water features, winding paths, and an ampitheatre, which fellow blogger Terry Kearns, author of Architecture Tourist, told me that he went to a lovely wedding there not too long ago. I can see how the ampitheatre would be a perfect setting for such an occasion.

Old Fourth Ward Park, winding pathway

Since visiting I've seen photos of the Park during the warmer weather—growing season—and it's really quite beautiful. I thought it was rather remarkable even in the winter.

Old Fourth Ward Park

The Park's design affords vistas near and far of the various features. This particular water feature—a waterfall—is impressive from every angle, and there are lots of angles for this feature.

Old Fourth Ward Park

Throughout the park there's lots of boulders and cut stone, placed with purpose.

Old Fourth Ward Park, 100 Year Storm Mark

One of the history-telling features of the Park—some may think that it's merely decorative, like I did—is the 100 Year Storm Line. It runs the entire perimeter of the Park!

Old Fourth Ward Park

I mentioned the cut stone throughout the Park...I should have said "sliced" stone. Note this boulder is missing a slice...making it more than a big rock, it's now a sculpture!

Old Fourth Ward Park

This beautiful fountain prominently features sliced stone.

Old Fourth Ward Park

If you look closely, you'll notice that this collection of monoliths were "sliced" from a single stone (maybe two, one for each side). It's brilliant, I think...that kind of artistic design makes the already interesting fountain worthy of further study beyond noticing its beauty.

Old Fourth Ward Park

On the path above the recessed portion of Old Fourth Ward Park are design elements that please the mind and eyes, like these "stools" where a walker or biker might rest for a moment, contemplating what one does when resting in a beautiful park.

Old Fourth Ward Park

Another seating area features a spiral drain, reached by a spiral and winding dry bed creek that feeds from another section of the Park, across a street.

Old Fourth Ward Park

The entrance we took into the Park was on the Ponce City Market side. The bright blue glass and stone planters immediately caught our attention an was foretelling of some of the surprises we would soon discover.

Our time in the Park met with all kinds of visitors from senior couples out for a stroll, to kids playing hide and seek, to young professionals play croquet! There were a number of parents there with their kids, including one dad who had taken out this twin girls to give their mother a little personal time...great dad and husband! 

With so many friends who are new mothers, I understand the importance of the oh so precious personal time, which is incredibly rare for a while after becoming a new parent.

Old Fourth Ward Park, Ponce City Market

One of the best features of this new Park is its location! It's all about location, right? It's surrounded by a residential area, Ponce City Market, and it'll be a stop on the Atlanta Beltline! I for one am very excited about this Park and its growing popularity. I can hardly wait to go back to see the rest of it!

Head over to the wanderlust ATLANTA Facebook Page for a few more photos of the Park...and be sure to "Like" the Page while you're there, please.

Here's a little more about the Park, video courtesy of the Old Fourth Ward Park Conservancy...please visit their site, too!


Historic Fourth Ward Park from Atlanta Regional Commission on Vimeo.

Historic Forth Ward Park (Preview)

I recently went to the new Historic Fourth Ward Park…I was amazed! A great deal of the Park is below the 100 Year Storm mark (I had to look up exactly what that meant...I've never claimed to be a meteorologist). You would never, ever know that the majority of this Park—a stone water-retention pond—is below street level.

Fountain at Historic Fourth Ward Park

So, if you’re driving by trying to decide whether or not to check out the Atlanta Beltline-adjacent Park, don’t be deceived by what you see from the car…you have to get out and venture “into” the Park to enjoy its full glory—where you'll find lots of beautiful features and places to relax.

Keep an eye out for a full post on the Historic Fourth WardPark, which is immediately behind the currently under renovation/construction Ponce City Market.

In the meantime, enjoy this pre-sized Facebook Cover Photo of one of the water features in the Park. Head over to the wanderlust ATLANTA Facebook Page, and right after clicking that “Like” button, check out the other Facebook Cover Photos…all for you to use as you like!