City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America’s Urban Future

425 Pages·2017·21.88 MB·English

by  Mark Pendergrast

Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Mark Pendergrast Published by Basic Books, an imprint of
Perseus Books, LLC., a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
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Designed by Jack Lenzo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pendergrast, Mark,
author.
Title: City on the verge : Atlanta and the fight for America’s urban future / Mark
Pendergrast.
Description: New York : Basic Books, [2017] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016039907| ISBN 9780465054732 (hardcover) | ISBN
9780465094981 (electronic) Subjects: LCSH: Urban renewal—Georgia—
Atlanta. | Community development—Georgia—Atlanta. | City planning—
Georgia—Atlanta. |Urban policy—Georgia—Atlanta. | Social stratification—
Georgia—Atlanta.
Classification: LCC HT177.A77 P46 2017 | DDC 307.3/41609758231—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016039907
E3-20170406-JV-NF
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
INTRODUCTION Atlanta’s Livable Future
PART I: BUILDING THE BELTLINE
PROLOGUE Walking the BeltLine
CHAPTER 1 Ryan Gravel’s Epiphany
CHAPTER 2 City on the Move
CHAPTER 3 First Bumps Along the BeltLine
CHAPTER 4 Two Atlantas: The Racial Divide
CHAPTER 5 Learning to Fly While Building an Airplane
CHAPTER 6 Mansions and Cat Holes
CHAPTER 7 A Stake in the Ground
CHAPTER 8 The Public’s Health
CHAPTER 9 Impossible but Inevitable
PART II: NEIGHBORS
CHAPTER 10 East BeltLine: Chic, Walkable Neighborhoods
CHAPTER 11 South BeltLine: A Slow Dance to Better Communities
CHAPTER 12 West BeltLine: Trouble and Promise
CHAPTER 13 North BeltLine: Easy Streets
CHAPTER 14 Outside and Inside the BeltLine
CHAPTER 15 The Future of Atlanta
Epilogue: Georgia on My Mind
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Mark Pendergrast
More Advance Praise for City on the Verge
Glossary
Photo Credits
Note on Sources
Index
To the memory of:
Willie Mae Pughsley (c. 1908–
1975), otherwise known as Nee
by the Pendergrast family
and
John Brittain (Britt) Pendergrast
Jr. (1917–2016), my remarkable
father, the epitome of a Southern
gentleman—kind, wise, smart,
principled, humble, loving, and
funny
This book is also dedicated to
my equally remarkable mother,
Nan Schwab Pendergrast
(1920–), compassionate, ever-
curious nature-lover and
environmentalist, human rights
activist, and still my writing
mentor and biggest supporter

These two photos—of traffic on I-75/85 and bikers on the BeltLine—represent two sides of
Atlanta.
The Atlanta BeltLine. The black line is the twenty-two-mile planned streetcar corridor. The dotted