ATL Urbanist

Mapping the mortgage deductions that subsidize sprawl

There have been a string of articles in the last year or two that expose the ways that we subsidize sprawl, giving that development form an unfair advantage over compact, walkable growth.

But an interactive page published recently by Pew Charitable Trust really nails the issue with the help of maps: The Geographic Distribution of the Mortgage Interest Deduction

Look at the image above of north Georgia, taken from the Pew map. That dark blue doughnut shape is the suburbs of Atlanta, all relying on mortgage interest deductions at a rate that is far higher than the national or state average.

I was pointed to the map by a good post on Streetsblog. Here’s a quote from that post:

About 85 percent of federal subsidies for housing flow to single family homes…though only about 65 percent of Americans are homeowners and the majority of renters live in multi-family housing. The ultimate sprawl subsidy just might be the mortgage interest deduction….the vast majority of subsidies flow to households with incomes greater than $200,000…this money tends to flow to areas where everyone is dependent on a car.

What a far cry this is from the narrative often pushed by apologists for suburban sprawl and car-dependency. They claim that this development style allows for personal freedom and independence in a way that can’t be achieved when people are “living on top of each other” in a more compact form.

But the statistics don’t lie: when it comes to economics, there’s nothing independent about car-oriented sprawl. It’s the most economically inefficient, unsustainable, dependent development form we have and the studies that prove this to be true just keep on coming. But will we listen?

With the Metro Atlanta housing market booming once again, it becomes increasingly important to face the facts.

Woodruff Park is a pretty place for a service commemorating National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and honoring Atlanta officers who serve and have fallen in the line of duty.

See the rest of the photos here.

Imagining the new downtown, post-streetcar

This is a nice photo of streetcar construction on Peachtree Street from a downtown neighbor of mine, wdarling.

My family walks past construction for the line daily and its got me wondering what what these streets are going to be like with a streetcar running. I’m particularly interesting in finding out how it will effect the feel of Peachtree Street, where the line will be routed for about four brief but important blocks.

Honestly, my imagination is failing me — I can’t get a clear picture in my head of how this streetscape will look.. I have to refer to old photos of previous streetcars to get any perspective, but even that doesn’t work because downtown is so much different now than it was 70 or 80 years ago during the streetcar heyday, and modern train cars are much different tan the old ones.

Here’s an old photo of a streetcar (bottom, left) on Peachtree Street in the exact spot where the new streetcar will run.

I suspect a better point of reference is the streetcars of Portland. They share lanes with modern car traffic the same way Atlanta’s will. And serve mixed-use areas that are different from the downtown Atlanta of the 1910s-40s, where commercial districts and residential ones were fairly divided, but are similar to modern-day downtown’s mix of offices, visitors, residents and college students.

Here’s a photo of Portland:

Portland photo from Flickr user empirestatefuture

Poverty rises in Metro Atlanta suburbs along with transportation needs

An article in Atlantic Cities points out the incredible growth in suburban poverty in metropolitan Atlanta (along with other US metros). Here’s a quote:

…over the last decade, suburbs have increasingly become home to America’s poor. Between 2000 and 2011, the population living in American cities below the poverty line increased by 29 percent. During that same time, across the country in the suburbs of metropolitan areas as diverse as Atlanta and Detroit and Salt Lake City, the ranks of the poor grew by 64 percent.

The chart above, from confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org, gives some stats on the problem.

- The share of jobs accessible via transit, within 90 minutes, in low-income suburbs in Metro Atlanta is 18.1%.

- From 2000 to 2011, the number of poor people living in Metro Atlanta suburbs rose 159% (compared to 11% in the city).

There’s an obvious need for improving access to jobs in metro suburbs for poor people. Will metro counties face the challenge and find a way to provide improved transit options? In a region where the transportation TSPLOST proved unpopular, and where suburban counties are struggling with tight budgets, the prospects are not bright.

While the region works on a plan for funding an expansion of transit, it may be worthwhile to think about suburban zoning laws that create car-dependent places — ones that make jobs difficult to access for poor people. As these places continue to diversify economically (among other ways), the unsustainable nature of car dependency becomes clearer.

For a brighter rail-transit future, Atlanta needs the streetcar to succeed

One thing became clear about the Atlanta Streetcar route from the moment the project was announced: a lot of people, even among public-transit supporters, don’t like it.

The criticism often boils down to people opposing the very idea of using  a streetcar as a tool for developing a blighted area — particularly when there is potential use for new rail in existing areas of density and economic vibrancy.

No matter what you’re opinion of this route, or of the whole streetcar-as-development-tool concept, one thing is certain: Atlanta needs this to work. If the streetcar fails, we’ll likely face an even more uncertain future for rail expansion than we do now.

Just listen to Ryan Gravel, the visionary behind the Atlanta BeltLine, as quoted in this Atlanta Magazine piece:

The next big test, he says, actually rests on another project, the Atlanta Streetcar, which is scheduled to begin service next year through the Auburn Avenue corridor and downtown.

“The success of the streetcar is important to regional transit in general and the BeltLine in particular,” Gravel says.

Very true. It will be much harder to qualify both local political initiative and federal monetary support for additional rail — such as an extension to and eventually on the BeltLine — if the downtown streetcar fails to attract significant development and riders. The future of Atlanta rail-transit expansion could, in large part, rest on a success here.

The need for investment on this route is well-stated in this excerpt from the streetcar project proposal:

“From a national perspective, the streetcar links the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site on the east side of Downtown Atlanta to Centennial Olympic Park on the west, via historic Auburn Avenue, the birthplace of our nation’s civil rights movement…It will also reconnect the eastern and western sections of Downtown Atlanta, which were effectively separated by the construction of Interstate 75/85 in the mid 1950s. The barrier of the I-75/85 overpass has left a negative, lasting adverse impact that destroyed the vibrant local economy previously existing in the Auburn Avenue corridor.”

When I walk from Woodruff Park east to the King center, I see clearly the way decades of neglect have taken their toll on this corridor. I experience the particularly unpleasant passage under the 75/85 overpass.

I think we owe a debt as a city to the rich history of this district to provide this catalyst. We’re not just building a transit line — we’re rebuilding a significant part of the city that should never have been allowed to get where it is now.

Streetcar construction photo by Flickr user ssinharoy

Restoration of Atlanta’s Proctor Creek includes building a trail from the Beltline to the Chattahoochee

This sounds like a great project: at a press conference today, the Environmental Protection Agency and Mayor Reed announce a plan to clean up heavily-polluted Proctor Creek in northwest Atlanta.

According to this news article:

Government leaders and land conservationists are working to develop a seven-mile trail along a polluted Atlanta creek that would link the city’s BeltLine trail system to the Chattahoochee River.

The cleanup effort will involve clearing the area around the creek of trash and improving its banks to help prevent flooding and further pollution

The effort will be part of the national Urban Waters Federal Partnership that is organizing several similar projects across the US. Creative Loafing covered this in-depth in a blog post a few days ago.

The environmental good of cleaning up Proctor Creek is significant. Part of the watershed for the creek is the notorious downtown Gulch, which is no doubt contributing greatly to the pollution. The creek is a tributary that feeds into the Chattahoochee River, so there’s a great need for lessening the pollution for the sake of plant and animal life (including people) who rely on it.

Also significant is the chance for an economic boost to NW Atlanta. A path that connects the Beltline to the river sounds, to my ears at least, like a promising tool for attracting all kinds of investment to the area.

Proctor Creek photo from Flickr user Alan Cressler