If You Build It...

...they may come and tear it down (or worse).

So, I attended the Ponce Park (City Hall East redevelopment) event last Wednesday and I must admit that I walked away with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth over the whole thing. Though our hosts were cordial and did offer insights into the planned changes (construction officially begins October of 2008 and will take some 30 months to complete), it seems as though they were pitching TomorrowLand or something. I smell trouble with a capital T.

I heard mention so many times of how great being on the Beltline was going to be that I made up a new drinking game. And don't get me started on the implication that "people could live here without owning a car" which contradicted the other "great news" that there would be 2,000 parking spaces on-site. Say what?

Then during the Q&A, Emory Mosberger (who owns the Lawrenceville-based firm that leads the redevelopment effort) seemed first to not have heard, and then was baffled by, a reality-based question from the audience regarding the impact on the street people of Ponce. And an equally important question is what is the impact of the street people on Ponce Park--I don't see these two very different worlds colliding too quietly.

Don't get me wrong, the proposed greenspace and the repurposing of the nearly empty City Hall East building itself would be great (see what Boston, Minneapolis and Dallas have done with their former Sears distribution centers), but I'm afraid an Atlantic Station-esque mixed use mentality is in place (and that is all kinds of wrong--especially on Ponce!)

Then ATLmalcontent brought this to my attention last week and I've stewed all weekend at the thought of another historic Ponce building being compromised in the name of "progress." (note: I.M. Pei gave us both The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Pyramide du Louvre.)

And then I saw that these other folks are telling us that local property values are in jeapordy because of Historical Regulations. Stop the insanity folks! Can't we all just get along and retain the integrity of our past while accommodating our present and future?

I think that Atlanta tries so hard to be a big city sometimes that it loses sight of what truly makes it a great city (and we end up acting too big for our britches). Walt Disney didn't tear down FrontierLand to build TomorrowLand, now did he?