As regular readers know, Curbed has been unabashed in its enthusiasm-for and support-of The BeltLine. But that doesn't mean we're not open to listening to other points of view. Our friends over at A is for Atlanta tipped us to this excellent piece from Tropics of Meta, a blog run by, among others, a Georgia State professor that offers "a historical and theoretical perspective on current events." The article considers- in long, exquisitely-contextual form, some of the human costs of building the BeltLine, and whether the project is necessarily the all-positive force of good its supporters want it to be. In confronting Atlanta's semi-taboo, usual suspect issues of race and class head-on, the article presents a convincing case that there could be some folks negatively impacted by, among other things, a rise in values on properties adjacent to the BeltLine. (Yes, you read that correctly...it is pointed out that higher property taxes or rent would alienate some lower-income homeowners along the BeltLine path). But ultimately, the author comes to the same conclusion that we'd guess the majority of BeltLine supporters have- that the positive far outweighs the negative. Amen.
· Is the Beltline Bad for Atlanta? [Tropics of Meta]