The Booming Edge City

"GTRA officials announced that they are planning a $93 million bus transit station over I-75, just south of the perimeter, next to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. The station will sit 25 feet above the interstate, it will span two football fields in length and have room for 18 bus bays, 9 on each side of the interstate.

This will be the southernmost station connecting the Cumberland Mall / Galleria area with the Town Center Mall in Kennesaw. Two more stations will be built along side I-75 and two other will be elevated to sit above I-75, similar to the Cumberland Mall Transit Station.

The structure will be approximately 75,000 square feet and will be connected to a parking garage on the westside of the highway by a pedestrian bridge. Also, near the parking garage, negotiations are running currently for a developer to purchase the 5 acre tract of land and build a 15 story office building an 18 story hotel / condominium tower, and ground level restaurants and shops underneath one or both structures.

The terminals would service this rail like service that uses buses, instead of train cars, that will travel via HOV lanes. Construction could begin as early as 2009 as officials are still searching for $300 million in funding to match the $300 million already promised by the state of Georgia to complete the whole stretch from Kennesaw to Vinings. Also, in the planning stages is another bus transit line to connect this one to some other point across the top end of the perimeter. Whether that point is Ga 400 or I-85 near spaghetti junction is unknown at this time."
-cobbrealestateblog.com

The edge city of Smyra has developed since the time of the Garreau article and many locations are now being redeveloped into mixed use communities. The secondtwo pictures show proposed mixed use developments designed by HOK around an existing John Portman building near the Perimeter and the lower picture illustrates the expanded Jonquil Village in Smyrna that is currently under construction. Jonquil Village to include: 300-355 condos,
185,000 square feet of office & retail, parking for over 1300 cars (1000 of which will be underground).

When reading the article by Garreau, I thought that my post from last week about the ritzy ethno-burb of Le Jardin. Though, I wonder if the residents of Le Jardin would really be considered middle class. Surely many would be considered at leas upper-middle class. I think it would be interesting too, if the same author had written the article today rather than in 1991. Would people have different attitudes toward each other? Would African Americans say they feel that separations are more along lines of race or class? Would Caucasians or people of other races agree? I wonder if there isn't a greater separation between the areas in which Hispanics live that that between whites and blacks now?

I looked too for vestiges of the neighborhoods and places discussed in the article, the club Dominique's and the Peter Calabro development on Camp Creek Parkway. I could not find evidence of either. Certainly, the club was swallowed up by the rapid development of the Cumberland Mall area, and the neighborhood development may never have gotten off the ground.

The G Word and the African American Community

Founded in 1930, Lynwood Park was the first black suburb of Atlanta and located in the predominantly white north side of the Atlanta metro area at the end of the trolley line. The neighborhood developed to accommodate blacks who served as personal servants for people living in nearby Brookhaven and Buckhead. The community is currently being threatened by aggressive land development and appears to be losing the gentrification battle. The modest homes that once made up the community are being razed to accommodate large 3500 square foot homes that start in the $5oos. There has been a large increase in the amount of white residents in the community as well as Asian and Hispanic; however, the black population is decreasing as many of the homes have been condemned or are deemed uninhabitable.



This image was more of the norm rather than the exception. I was blown away by the number of homes like this that had been boarded up and/or for sale.



The streets were very narrow and the homes were very close together which made it difficult to take the type of picture I wanted without a wide angle lens, however, I am attempting to show how the new homes are slowly overtaking the neighborhood leaving very little of its original character. This is a portion of Mae Street, but indicative of most of the community with modest homes in the midst of the larger, more expensive homes. A close up of the above picture will show all of the for sale signs in nearly every yard on the street.



The pink and white boarded up house is located on Mae Street in between the large homes pictured above. The other picture belongs up top and was supposed to be next to the other boarded up home, but does not appear to want to move from that position and therefore will be allowed to remain there to keep the peace.



More Mae Street

These homes are next door to one another.






Source: "Ethnography, Demography and Service-Learning: Situating Lynwood Park" by Monica Gaughan Critical Sociology 2002

For this entry about edge cities, I chose to focus on the area around North DeKalb Mall. This area has a large Indian population. This is demonstrated by the strips malls that pop up along the major roads. This particular mall is on DeKalb industrial. Along with the shops there is also a large temple. There are often events at the temple. On those days there are cars parked all long the street and DeKalb police officers directing traffic. This population extends down DeKalb industrial and down Lawrencville Hwy. In the mall, many of the kiosks are owned by members of this population and cater to the audience.



Side note

I went to Montreal over spring break, and we attempted to visit Chinatown. Here are some pictures. Unfortunately it was getting dark and cold so they are a bit blurry.

Plaza Fiesta

A 2006 article in Creative Loafing describes the Plaza Fiesta, which is a 350,000-square-foot mall located on Buford Highway just north of Clairmont Road. For Atlanta's immigrant population, Plaza Fiesta has become a key shopping center and distinct enclave with its open-air, small booth market layout. Considering the shopping center's significance for Atlanta immigrants, it is not surprising to find that when I searched for "Plaza Fiesta" the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials frequently uses the location as a meeting spot. However, the shopping center has also brought the hispanic culture to "native" southerners seeking to experience cultural diversity.

Since 1990 Atlanta and the surrounding metro counties have been experiencing a tremendous demographic shift. While I was certainly aware of the growing community from my experience co-teaching with DeKalb County's International School and volunteer work with the International Women's House, after reading Fong's "The First Suburban Chinatown" I could not help but wonder how the significance of Plaza Fiesta is changing. Are immigrants to Atlanta repeating the suburbanization pattern described for Monterey Park? Is Plaza Fiesta a way station? Merely walking around the shopping center, while rich in its experience, does not answer these questions.

Sources:

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/plaza_fiesta_/Content?oid=87934

http://hispanicretail.blogspot.com/2007/12/history-of-plaza-fiesta-atlanta.html

www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/realestate/commercial/20sqft.html

http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jlesser/Mexican2Mission.html

Smyrna

I chose to write my blog this week on some of the areas in Smyrna that have become primarily Hispanic areas in the city. The pictures I've included were taken on South Cobb Drive between Concord Road and Windy Hill Road. This area of town is probably 10 min. or so to the heart of Vinings which is quickly becoming a very affluent area because of its proximity to the highways. When you drive down South Cobb, there are a lot of businesses and churches catered to the Hispanic community with exclusively Spanish signage. Other businesses have English words on their signs, but have smaller signs that say "Se Habla Espanol" or are translated versions of the English signs. In 2000, Smyrna had a population of 5, 659 Hispanic or Latino people of any race, which was about 12.5% of the population according to the census information on-line. Since I'm familiar with the area, I would say that there has been a significant increase in the Hispanic population in Smyrna in the past 10-15 years, or at least in the presence of Hispanic businesses. The picture of the map (courtesy of the census website), shows the highest concentration of Hispanic people in the area of South Cobb drive where these pictures were taken (the dark green area).

ethnoburbs and edge cities

The North Dekalb Mall area that I focused on for my mall blog entry is also home to three Indian shopping centers. This area has much in common with the Monterrey Park community featured in Fong's article. The shopping centers have grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores, beauty shops and other stores catering to the Indian community.




One of the "Edge Cities" that Garreau discusses is the Perimeter Center area. This area has developed considerably in the twenty years since Garreau published his work. There are many high-rise and mid-rise buildings in the immediate area. Reading Garreau's work twenty years after its publication provides food for thought, as several of the emerging edge cities that he listed, such as those at Spagetti Junction and the Gwinnett Mall area haven't developed to the extent that the Perimeter Center area, and even communities much farther outside I 285 have.

Edge City - Perimeter Center

I was able to take some pictures of the Atlanta Edge City of Perimeter Center mentioned in the Garreau reading. I focused more on the Perimeter Mall Area along Ashford Dunwoody Road as opposed to where I-285 and GA 400 meet.


This picture really sums up the edge city. You can view the mall for shopping, Maggiano's restaurant for eating, and then office complexes in the background for work. Just out of the picture on the right is a hotel.


This next picture is directly across Ashford Dunwoody Road from Perimeter Mall and shows the Ravinia Hotel on the far right as well as more office complexes. I'm standing in the same spot I took the previous picture, but just turned around.


The King and Queen towers are a well known buildings in the area. This picture was taken from the Perimeter Mall parking lot.


There are also plenty of places to live in the area. These apartments are located just south of the mall.


Location near an interstate is important to the Edge City. GA 400 is located a few miles east along I-285. A MARTA station can also be found adjacent to the mall area.

Roswell Étnico Barrio Residencial

While attempting to wrap my mind around the blog topic for this week, the “ethnoburb,” I was left perplexed. I struggled with the term ethnoburb. I first attempted to define the term ethnoburb without dissecting it. I found the following definition online:

"A suburban ethnic cluster of residential areas and business districts in large metropolitan areas”
According to this website, the term was coined by Wei Li in a 1998 article about Los Angeles. Li states that while the community remains multiethnic, the ethnoburb has a high concentration (although not necessarily a majority) of one particular ethnic group.
(http://design.walkerart.org/worldsaway/Terms/Ethnoburb)

The tricky part of this definition, and others like it, is an understanding the word ethnicity. What is ethnicity? Is it race? Language? Religion? Culture? The broadest explanation of the word ethnicity establishes that it is not based on one quality, but many, which separate a group of people and make them different. But, different and seperate from what? The mainstream? The norm? If white, middle class Americans become the norm, then does this imply that they lack ethnic qualities? Does white America become the invisible, unspeakable ethnicity? Ethnicity is confusing and wrought with difficult connotations.

I have chosen to showcase the Spanish speaking community, who are typically from Mexico and have polarized in the Roswell area for this week's entry. I have selected two indicators that provide evidence of ethnic groupings, school demographics and retail shopping areas.

The local school I have selected to showcase is Mimosa Elementary School. This school’s district incorporates the two shopping centers that I have taken pictures of below. (http://www.fultonschools.org/dept/studentplacement/maps/index.htm)

As you can see, Mimosa Elementary School’s percentage of Hispanic students is far above the system and state average. The orange bars represents the demographics at Mimosa Elementary School, the blue represents Fulton County's demographics, and the green represents Georgia's average. (http://reportcard2005.gaosa.org/k12/Schools.asp?Action=ShowSchools&ID=ALL:ALL)

The circles on the satellite image at the top of this blog entry show the two shopping centers I have pictured. Between these two shopping centers are countless other examples of businesses which are oriented toward the Spanish speaking community in Roswell.

Merry Hills Neighorhood

One of Atlanta's "Ethnoburbs" can be found in Toco Hills, Dekalb County. It was voted "best Jewish neighborhood" in the city . This area features the orthodox congregation of Beth Jacob. Because orthodox Judaism prohibits driving on the sabbath the parishioners of the synagogue walk to service. This religious requirement necessitates residing within walking distance of the place of worship. Therefore, neighborhoods in this area, like "Merry Hills", are primarily populated by Jews. Merry Hills was constructed in the mid-1950s based on the architecture and features oddly Christian street names.

"The Pendleton," on Euclid Avenue, was constructed in 1930. This apartment building represents the decline of Hurt's vision of the garden suburb of Inman Park. By the first decade of the 20th century zoning restrictions, in place since the planning of the residential district, expired allowing the construction of apartment buildings, smaller homes, and businesses. Gradually, most of homes in Inman Park became the property of absentee landlords, who divided many of them into small apartments, and large lots were subdivided to provide higher density housing. (Sorry for the poor image)