clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Bestselling Author Joins Fight for Beltline Lights

New, 17 comments

What do Ponce City Market, booze, music, books, and motion-activated lighting systems have in common?

If an illustration on the "Light the Line" campaign's website is any indication, the quest to fund a high-tech lighting system on the Beltline's Eastside Trail has less than 10 percent of the crowd-funded cash it needs, almost three months after launch.

But financial help could be on the way.

Last month, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition leaders voiced support of efforts to raise $1.1 million for lighting on the popular multi-use trail that links Inman Park to Piedmont Park.

Now, as the AJC reports, New York Times bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews — the non-de-plume of Kathy Trocheck, an Avondale Estates resident — is staging a launch party for her 24th novel, "The Weekenders," at Ponce City Market.

It costs $35 to get in (which includes food, cocktails, and music), and a portion of all proceeds and raffle ticket sales will go toward — you guessed it — the "Light the Line" campaign.

The lights in question are hardly standard-issue street lamps. They would be low-energy, LED units placed on 14-foot poles that point downward to reduce light pollution. They'd be equipped with automatic dimmers that reduce brightness down to 40 percent late at night. And they'd have motion sensors that raise the brightness level back up to 100 percent when a person walking or biking is detected.