Author Archive
The bastard children of the art community, often revered, but usually reviled– graffiti artists face scrutiny with every masterpiece they create or urban canvas they deface. Their craft toes a fine line of outrageous colors usually depicted as black and white by the public, but typically observed as a grey area.
The masses usually fall in two camps regarding their feelings about graffiti– love or hate, appeal or appall. There is rarely a middle ground. Though the city of Atlanta has recently resurrected what appears to be a one man Anti-Graffiti Task Force, you still can’t avoid the increasing presence and popularity of graffiti.
Do these masterfully spray-painted letters and images symbolize something much deeper than just tags left on a forgotten building? Are we witnessing art manifested through rebellion or just some punk kids doling out some good old fashioned anarchy after a NOFX show?
The choice is yours.
Graffiti writer come fine artist, Hense, is not only critically acclaimed for his contribution to the underground movement of graffiti, but also being sued for his involvement in the misunderstood art form.
Similar to a recovering alcoholic who still remembers the taste of his last drink, Hense is obviously torn about his past as he embarks in to new endeavors. His current style flows through the same vein of his former life, but he no longer has to worry about his work being buffed out.
Being solicited like a hooker on Ponce, the City of Atlanta is now on his side. For the second straight year, Hense has been commissioned to add to the cities urban landscape. Notably, his pieces adorn the path of the BeltLine, which is considered to be a defining moment of our great city.
Purge: How long have you been making art?
Hense: Pretty much my entire life. When I was in middle school and high school I was taking art classes in school and outside of that. I’ve always been in to drawing and I got in to graffiti when I was in 8th or 9th grade, something like that. That concept took over.
I grew up in Atlanta. There was a pretty big scene here in the early 90’s. I put everything in to graffiti. Then I started realizing that there are other things out there and I eventually started getting more attracted to traditional painting.
Purge: When did you stop doing graffiti?
Hense: I’ve been on and off for the past ten years, but probably in the last five years. It wasn’t a cold turkey thing it was just progressively less and less.
Purge: What influenced you to move in to doing graffiti when you were younger?
Hense: I think it was because I was in to the subculture of skateboarding, music and discovering an art form that was underground. It was creative and really secretive and not mainstream. I was really in to not being mainstream.
Purge: What were some of your musical influences at that time?
Hense: Bad Brains and all that shit. Do you remember Body Count? (Laughter) The Chronic, just like any rebellious stuff. Any kid at that age is probably in to that stuff.
Purge: What caused the progression that made you walk away from graffiti and move in to other forms of art? Was it just getting older and becoming an adult?
Hense: I think just being in my 30’s. I have a group of peers who are all graffiti writers who are a apart of the worldwide movement that is going on and you want to stay relevant within that movement. I’m still relevant because I’m moving in to doing public art installations and murals that are based off of graffiti. It’s like taking graffiti and making something out of it. It’s not just straight up letters.
Purge: What murals and installations are you currently working on?
Hense: I just did one for AOL in Orlando that was a commission for their office. I do a lot of corporate installations. I got a grant from the City of Atlanta to do a big exterior mural on Arizona Avenue. We’re dealing with red tape because it’s on Marta property and the city has to get in agreement with Marta. Hopefully, it should get started next month.
I’ve been doing stuff like that and work for the BeltLine. I did two pieces for them last year and I’ve talked to Ryan (Gravel) about doing some permanent work.
Purge: How did you get involved with the Art on the BeltLine Project?
Hense: I’ve always been drawn to the BeltLine. I used to walk the corridor before they had done any work on it. So I found two locations that would be great for murals or a sculpture and put together a proposal and got a good response.
Purge: Where are the two pieces that you did last year?
Hense: One is on Ralph McGill right by the Telephone Factory Lofts. It’s right under the BeltLine on the embankment of the underpass. The other one is underneath Virginia Avenue by Woody’s. You can’t access it by the road you have to walk under it.
Purge: Where do you want to do your piece this year?
Hense: We’re looking at Park Drive right on Piedmont Park. It’s going to be a collaborative piece. It’s on BeltLine property, but it’s a historic structure, so we’ll see.
Purge: With your peers in mind, working on commission pieces for AOL and the City of Atlanta, do you ever feel like a sell out?
Hense: I don’t really think that there’s such a thing as being a sell out. Shephard Fairey is sort of a hypocrite in a way, but he’s just a real driven guy. It’s really just about however you can make a living as an artist, sometimes you have to do corporate work. That’s the way I view it.
Purge: Hugh MacLeod who runs gapingvoid.com has a chapter in one of his books called the “Sex and Cash Theory” where he says most people need a job(cash) so you can have sex(art).
Hense: Absolutely. On the side, for fun I’ll produce commercial fine art for hotels and I do that because it’s bread and butter. It’s kind of like Tyson (McAdoo) with Turner. Its given me the freedom to have the lifestyle of an artist and go out of town if I need to for a project. At the end of the day, I take that money and apply it to my passion, my art.
Purge: So what would you say is your true passion and the vision for where you want to go with your art?
Hense: I want to keep doing the public murals and installations that I’ve been doing. Basically, do more of those in other cities, which I have done. I did one for Art Basel in Miami last year.
Purge: Was it a big mural of LeBron James?
Hense: Yeah it was… with a big Nike Logo.
(Laughter)
I want to do more of that type of work that’s exterior and commissioned and on a really big scale and properly funded. I also want to continue showing my work with galleries.
Purge: Do you enjoy doing the bigger pieces more than the gallery work?
Hense: I enjoy doing both. It’s just a different beast. Doing stuff on wood and canvas and showing it in a gallery and having a gallery curate a show versus producing a public piece of work that’s in the public domain where everybody can see it. It’s just totally different. I think it just goes back to graffiti. A lot of artists don’t have the knowledge of working on a large scale because they weren’t involved with something that let them use tools to go really big.
Purge: That’s interesting because graffiti gave you the experience to work on these big pieces.
Hense: Yeah and that’s the positive. I really want people to understand that. There is a negative connotation with the word “graffiti”. People see it as crap, but there’s so much good. There’s so many amazing artists out there who have come from a graffiti background that are doing things that are really highly recognized in the world.
This guy JR who won a TED award, he does these huge black and white photographs and goes to third-world countries and creates huge installations on the sides of buildings. It’s all sanctioned. He started out doing illegal graffiti, but at this point he’s viewed as a public figure who’s giving back. He’s not just some punk.
Purge: You’re from Atlanta, but do you feel like you’re ever going to move on?
Hense: I love Atlanta. I really like what’s happening. It’s getting better. People from New York are moving here because it’s so competitive there. I refuse to believe that as an artist you have to be in New York. I think that because of the Internet you can pretty much be anywhere.
I’ve got some issues right now with some of the things going on in the city. I feel like the city is going in the right direction with things like the BeltLine, but on the other hand there’s some conservative backward thinking going on. I don’t know man. I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon, but it’s always an option.
Photo Credit: Jason Travis
“Print Not Dead!” At least not to some of us. With e-book readers on the rise and bookstores going out of style like guilty verdicts, it makes you wonder if a hardback will soon be a thing of the past. Thankfully, with the gaining popularity of chap book and small literary presses with the focus being on quality over quantity– we have a “New Hope”.
Like a good friend who constantly recommends their favorite books to you, Vouched ATL is at the forefront of promoting the small press movement, not just by promoting the titles, but by actually reading every book that they sell.
Conceived in the Midwest, specifically the Hoosier state, Vouched has recently expanded their paperback empire to Atlanta, Georgia. Laura Straub has taken it up on herself to verse us with what’s going on in the literary community by setting up a Vouched table at Atlanta-based events, interviewing authors and even hosting readings. To get things started Young Blood Gallery & Boutique is hosting Vouched ATL’s Official Launch Reading this Sunday, July 24th at 6:30pm.
Known for the off-beat “Awful Interviews” that Vouched subjects authors and their readership to, Purge ATL decided to welcome Laura to Atlanta by giving her a dose of her own medicine.
Purge: Who is your daddy and what does he do? You can tell us about yourself too if you want.
Laura: Wait, what? Are you trying to intimidate me? This isn’t Kindergarten Cop. In any case, my Dad is named Owen, he is cooler than anyone and looks a lot like Stone Cold Steve Austin. A lot like him. So watch out.
Purge: They should have cast Stone Cold as the bad guy in Kindergarten Cop. I kind of look like Steve Austin’s brother, but in the same way that Danny Devito looks likes Schwarzenegger’s brother in Twins.
Laura: I saw a guy who kind of looked like Danny Devito this weekend. It was pretty stupendous.
Purge: Did he look like Danny Devito from Twins or Batman Returns?
Laura: Twins, thank goodness. Although he had a Batman Returns-esque waddle.
Purge: The idea of Vouched is that you sell books that you’ve read and vouch for. Have you thought about starting a sister company that would promote burning books that you wouldn’t vouch for to keep the homeless warm in the winter months?
Laura: That sounds like a nightmare I had once. I’m not sure burning books would be a solution to anything. I would have no problem with giving the homeless people all of the yellow pages ever created to burn and keep warm with. Who uses the yellow pages anymore?
Purge: The only two groups that I’ve ever known to burn books were Nazis and Christians. I don’t think they were doing it to warm up the homeless though. Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?
Laura: It’s hard to say. He only calls on holidays.
Purge: Speaking of Jesus, Vouched was started in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jimmy Chitwood was the star player in the 1986 basketball drama Hoosiers that was about Indiana basketball. Jimmy has been called the “Basketball Jesus”, especially with the initials JC. Have you ever had a crush on the basketball Jesus, Jimmy Chitwood? Of lesser importance, why was Atlanta chosen as the first expansion to the Vouched empire?
Laura: I think Jimmy Chitwood might be a little tall for me, personally. Plus, I’ve never seen Hoosiers. First and foremost, I’d like to get really great literature into the hands of Atlantans. Vouched Books is launching its first colony in Atlanta simply because I love small press books and happen to live in Atlanta. Also, Vouched Books’ founder, Christopher Newgent, happens to be my best friend. Also, also, it gives me a really great excuse to become more involved with Atlanta’s literary scene.
Purge: You’re from Indiana and you’ve never seen Hoosiers? That’s like saying you’re from East Atlanta and haven’t been mugged. Next you’re going to tell me that you’ve never read Slaughterhouse-Five.
Laura: On the contrary, I’ve done my Vonnegut homework, “but you’re not going to write it that way, are you?” I saw Vonnegut’s archives once, at the Indiana University Library. He wrote all of his books on scrolls of typewriter paper, which they had rolled up into a neat little pyramid in a glass case. They also had a lot of his sketches, which I liked. ‘They’=IU Hoosiers who work at the library. See how nicely that all came together? Like an episode of Seinfeld.
Purge: It’s funny that you mention Seinfeld. George Costanza once said “If it wasn’t for the toilet, there would be no books.” Do you feel like this statement is more true to men or can women also relate?
Laura: I agree with a lot of things that George Costanza says, but that may not be one of them. So maybe it’s a man thing. It might also be a woman thing, maybe I’m just the odd woman out.
Purge: Vouched is doing their first Atlanta reading at Young Blood on July 24th. Can you give me three reasons why I should go that don’t involve shoplifting?
Laura: Absolutely. I can give you six: Heather Christle, Bruce Covey, Amy McDaniel, Ben Spivey, James Tadd Adcox, and plenty of peer pressure.
Purge: Beer?
Laura: Yes, that too. And wine.
Purge: Bad decisions?
Laura: The initial decision of attending the reading is probably a good one. I’m not responsible for any decisions made beyond that point aside from my own.
Join us for the Vouched ATL Launch Reading Sunday, July 24th at 6:30pm at Young Blood Gallery and Boutique for beer, wine and books.
Photo Credit: Tim Song
It wasn’t until last summer that I was introduced to the food truck revolution that’s trying to take place in Atlanta. I became acquainted with the movement when my friend and fellow Purge contributor Brittany decided to start a food truck called Grace’s Goodness. Up until that point, I was pretty clueless on the subject, but the idea of a truck potentially pulling up outside the bar at 3am and satisfying my cravings (and helping me avoid IHOP) sounded pretty amazing.
A short while later, I attended what was to be Grace’s Goodness introduction to the city of Atlanta at the Sweet Auburn Market. Upon arrival, Brittany greeted me with homemade pimento cheese and a blueberry beverage that I later found out to be agua fresca. All of it was delicious and left me wanting more.
Fortunately, I got the chance. My next experience with Grace’s Goodness was at a wedding she catered for some close friends. To say that the couple that tied the knot were a bit southern would be an understatement. (It wouldn’t surprise me if they got engaged at the laser show). Naturally, the wedding celebration concluded with a Grace’s Goodness catered dinner that consisted of BBQ chicken, pimento cheese and the best macaroni & cheese that I’ve ever tasted. Currently, the mac & cheese hasn’t made an appearance on the Grace’s Goodness menu, but I would sell a small portion of my soul to make it happen.
Within the first year of operating Grace’s Goodness, Brittany has already taken the plunge and made it her full-time job. Like every new business venture, obstacles are always going to stand in your way and sometimes you have to get creative with your solutions. The next big step for Grace’s Goodness is expansion. No longer satisfied with just setting up at farmer’s markets and catering weddings. Brittany is now ready to fulfill the original vision of Grace’s Goodness–taking her organic cuisine to the streets of Atlanta.
Purge: For those who didn’t read the intro– what is Grace’s Goodness?
Brittany: It’s good food accessible to everyone. It’s slow food stored in jars and containers that you can take with you anywhere.
Purge: If I wanted to buy pimento cheese or any thing else from Grace’s Goodness where can I buy it?
Brittany: There are four farmer’s markets a week. There are two in Decatur(Wednesday and Saturday). East Atlanta’s farmer’s market is on Thursday and it’s across from the Midway Pub. Grant Park’s farmer’s market is held on Sunday mornings.
Purge: If I wanted to give Grace’s Goodness all of my money for all of your food where else can I buy it?
Brittany: I do events, catering, door-step delivery (on special request) and I’ll eventually sell street food in the truck.
Purge: Where did you come up with the idea for Grace’s Goodness?
Brittany: I was working 13 hour days and going to grad school in between and I got really tired of having to go to Kroger to buy blueberries and watermelon when I really wanted something delicious and I didn’t want Chik-fil-A. So then I started going to the farmer’s market and making stuff myself and realized that it was a pain in the ass to do it yourself when you’re working and going to school. So I decided to do it for everyone else!
Purge: Would you say that Grace’s Goodness is healthier than Chik-fil-A?
Brittany: Yes. Undoubtedly.
Purge: What do you order when you go to Chik-fil-A, since there is one across the street?
(The Decatur farmer’s market sits across from the Chik-fil-A and diagonal to Eddie’s Attic in Downtown Decatur)
Brittany: I don’t go there. I do like their diet lemonade. It’s delicious. I believe it might be Crystal Light.
Purge: Do you eat fast food at all?
Brittany: Not anymore. I use to. If it’s a local place that’s fast food, but not a chain and I believe that they’re really awesome and I love the way that they’re talking to me– I’ll eat it!
Purge: What’s your favorite restaurant like that?
Brittany: There was this roadside restaurant in Arkansas that we stopped at that had a big billboard that said that Billy Bob Thornton liked it. They had really good ribs and coleslaw. It was a truck stop.
(Brittany asked her boyfriend what the name of the place was. Their guesses were Uncle Ned’s or Jimmy’s Fried Catfish .)
Purge: What’s the most popular Grace’s Goodness dish?
Brittany: Hands down– Mom’s Pimento Cheese. Which is a recipe that I got from my mother. I hand grate all of the cheese. I grate 10 pounds of it every couple of days.
(While saying this she raised her right arm in a Rosie the Riveter pose, flexed and pointed to her guns. Children hid behind parents, a singer/song writer performing at the market started playing Peter Frampton and Arnold Schwarzenegger discovered that he had yet another “love child“.)
Brittany: I never imagined in my entire life that I would be making pimento cheese for a living, but people really love it.
Purge: You gave me a tasty beverage earlier, what was that?
Brittany: Watermelon agua fresca. It’s made from local watermelon, mineral water, salt and that’s it. I actually do different agua frescas every week depending on what kind of melon I get. They’re delicious and there’s no sugar in it. It’s probably the other top seller.
Purge: What other flavors do you offer?
Brittany: Cantaloupe, honey dew, blackberry and blueberry.
Purge: You’ve recently teamed up with kickstarter.com (a funding platform set up for people to pledge money to creative projects). Can you explain what it’s all about in lay men’s terms?
Brittany: Yes. It’s a really rad website for people who are aspiring entrepreneurs who want to achieve a very specific business project. You have to have a finite project to approach Kick Starter with and tell them what you want to do, why you want to do it, why it’s important and why it matters.
If you’re approved you have to figure out how much money you need for your project and then explain to everyone who would want to pledge money what they’re going to get in return for giving something to you. It’s not a loan, but for every increment of money that someone will pledge, Grace’s Goodness will give something back to them.
It’s supposed to be a very amicable thing, it’s not just “give me money.“
Purge: Is there a timeline for raising the money that you need?
Brittany: Yeah. It started this month(July) and the deadline is August 4th. The pledge is almost at 40%. I need to raise $7,000 total and I‘ve raised $2600. I need to raise about $4000 more.
With Kick Starter if you don’t meet your goal, no money changes hands and I get nothing. So if someone donates $100 and I don’t meet the goal the money won’t come out of their account.
Purge: What’s the smallest amount of money that can be donated?
Brittany: A dollar!
Purge: What’s the most money that can be donated?
Brittany: $200,000!
Purge: After you meet your goal where do you go from there?
Brittany: The reason I need it is because I bought a box truck in February and it stopped working immediately. I had to get it towed to a mechanic in Decatur and they said it would be a lot of money to get it fixed and I said “Oh no!”
So it’s been squatting in the parking lot of this mechanic’s shop since March. When I get it fixed I want to run it on vegetable oil since it’s diesel, pimp it out, get it really pretty and have “Get fresh with yourself on the side”. Then I’ll be able to take Grace’s Goodness to schools, office buildings, parking lots and parties. That’s the idea.
Purge: What does “Get fresh with your self” mean?
Brittany: It means have a good time with yourself!
Purge: With vegetables?
Brittany: Yes it does. You can get fresh with yourself and my vegetables at the same time.
Purge: I know lots of people who get fresh with themselves. It may or may not involve vegetables though.
Brittany: I genuinely love getting fresh with myself and I thought everyone else probably does too.
Purge: So with cucumbers and zucchini?
Brittany: With whatever your heart desires. You can get fresh with anything and Grace’s Goodness items change weekly.
To pledge money to get the Grace’s Goodness food truck on the streets of Atlanta go to www.kickstarter.com.
In 1999, while everyone was making post-apocalyptic survival plans in anticipation of Y2K destroying the technological universe, Ryan Gravel was busy making plans to save a city. Writing his master’s thesis at Georgia Tech on the Atlanta BeltLine, the idea of reconstruction obviously didn’t phase him as he was laying the the ground work for the project that would revitalize Atlanta.
Now the Design Manager at Perkins + Will for the Atlanta BeltLine Project, Gravel isn’t just watching his idea for the BeltLine come to life, he’s actually implementing it as the project is now in its fifth year of construction. After traveling to the far reaches of the Atlanta BeltLine I not only realized how big his vision was, but also the complexity of seeing the project to fruition. I still had more questions. Who better to ask than the man himself.
Getting in touch with Ryan Gravel proved to be a lot easier than I had imagined. Atlanta showed it’s small town colors when I discovered that my Dad worked down the hall from him. An e-mail, a phone call and a few days later– we were given the opportunity to sit down with the “author and creator” of our faith…in the Atlanta BeltLine.
Purge: You wrote your master’s thesis paper on the BeltLine back in 1999. How did you know that the railroad was even there?
Ryan Gravel: I like railroads. I grew up in Chamblee, but I moved downtown to go to Georgia Tech for undergrad. I was fascinated with the industrial sort of gritty side of the city. As a suburban kid I had never really seen that part of the world before. Because I like railroads and following where they go and looking on maps, I spent a lot of time driving around the city looking around at things. So I knew that there was this loop of railroads.
Purge: Did you ever go out and hike the entire BeltLine?
Ryan Gravel: I didn’t hike it until years later when I had decided that this is what I wanted to do my [thesis] project on in Grad school.
Purge: Where did you get the idea for re-purposing the BeltLine?
Ryan Gravel: I spent a year abroad in Paris and when you live in such a civilized place you want to come back and make this place like that. After that, I started studying in graduate school how the design of infrastructure systems influences urban development. So the same way that the streetcars came out of downtown and neighborhoods like Virginia-Highlands, West End and Grant Park were built–the same way the interstate highway system created a fundamentally different kind of growth pattern.
How do you design an infrastructure system that creates a private market reaction to create the kind of places we might want to live? You know, more compact urban districts with street level retail, parks, transit, all that stuff. So that was the idea for the infrastructure– and applying it to the BeltLine space became the next step.
Purge: I first discovered the BeltLine for myself right at Ponce and North Avenue. Since then they’ve laid gravel and turned it into a walking trail. How rough and overgrown was the BeltLine in general prior to the different areas being cleaned up?
Ryan Gravel: Yeah. It was really rough. In the late summer you could barely even move because there was so much kudzu. There were places down by Inman Park where it was shoulder deep and you had to crawl over it to get through. It was crazy. People did use it. There was a narrow little foot path. It was a much more raw condition and of course the tracks were still there. All of that came up in the Fall of ‘09 after the city had acquired it. It was at that point that it became much more use-able for the general public.
Purge: I was really surprised at how fast we could get to certain parts of the city so quickly. I walked from Ponce to the Starbucks on Monroe in less than 5 minutes. I don’t think the general public realizes the convenience that the BeltLine will bring.
Ryan Gravel: Unless you get out there and walk it and see the connections it makes, it’s still abstract. On the east side you can even bike from Piedmont Park to Dekalb Avenue in 10 minutes. It’s nothing. I do think it’s going to change a lot of people’s behaviour. Once we get the first piece of the trail built there’s going to be a lot more momentum to finish the rest of the trail and get the transit going too.
Purge: I saw one of the installations for the Art on The BeltLine event last year. How effective was that in terms of getting people out there to see what’s going on?
Ryan Gravel: That was huge. The idea was to get people out there so they knew that they could start using it. They’re going to do it again this year. The challenge this year on the east side is that it’s about to undergo construction for the permanent concrete trail. So parts of it may it be closed during that time.
Purge: Before I discovered the BeltLine it sounded like a mystical place that only a chosen few had been to, now I feel like everywhere I go people are talking about it. It seems like its momentum is really gaining.
Ryan Gravel: It’s crazy. It started out as a grassroots movement and we’ve had this unbelievable amount of people excited about it and making it happen. It’s grown since then–more people, more publicity, more, more, more. But you still find people who have never heard of it even though they live near it. It may be that they’re just not paying attention. If you know about it and are following it, it’s generally pretty easy to know what’s going on.
Purge: As the Design Manager for the Atlanta BeltLine Corridor Design Project at Perkins + Will, what direction are you going in terms of how the BeltLine is going to look when completed?
Ryan Gravel: In the design we’re trying to retain the sense of adventure and sort of the grittiness of it. We don’t want it to feel like everywhere else. We don’t want it to feel like a corporate plaza. It needs to be a little rough around the edges, but it needs to be safe too.
We know a lot about the BeltLine already so there’s not a lot of learning curve. Even as much as we know about it, what we found in the design process is that it’s really complex.It looks kind of easy at first because it’s flat, but by the time you start layering in the topography and adjacencies and other variables it gets really complex really fast.
Purge: Did you ever think that when you wrote your thesis on the BeltLine that you would actually be working on the project one day?
Ryan Gravel: Early on it was just a great conversation. I didn’t even think that we would be doing it. We were going around and talking to neighborhoods about it. It was just cool as a planner and a designer to be talking about quality of life and the kinds of places we want to live and how we could change where we live into those kinds of places. It was interesting.
Purge: Why do you think the BeltLine project has been successful so far?
Ryan Gravel: The public fell in love with the project and took ownership of it. It was really crazy to see because it takes a lot of people to pull off something big like this. The fact that it’s so complex, it’s so hard and political; the idea that it’s still more-or-less true to what everyone bought into in the beginning; I think that’s a testament to how much the public is involved with it day-to-day. that’s not only cool for the BeltLine, but I think there’s some lessons there. We should build places that people get excited about.
Purge: Your Keynote at The TEDx Conference really resonated with me, because I want to see Atlanta make the jump to the next level. It seems like if the BeltLine Project goes as planned that Atlanta could truly be one of the greatest cities in America.
Ryan Gravel: Atlanta is at a really interesting point right now. We’re growing up. We’re making some decisions right now that are either going to make Atlanta a really wonderful place to live or not. In terms of Urban Planning, Atlanta is an exciting place to be because it is changing dramatically right before our eyes.
Chicago is pretty much always going to be Chicago. Boston, San Francisco–those cities are so established in their cultural identity. They can do big projects like the BeltLine, but they’re not game changing in terms of their overall identity.
Atlanta is wide open. People are moving back into the city and we have the opportunity to leverage that growth to change things. It’s such a cool opportunity, that you certainly want to be here. Whether we make the right decisions or not– this is where the 21st century is being defined. I think it’s an exciting place to be.
Purge: If everything goes as planned, when do you think the BeltLine will be finished and you can die in peace?
Ryan Gravel: To be honest with you and I really believe this answer: I don’t think it’s ever done. When is Atlanta done? When is New York City or Paris done? It’s never done. What’s so exciting about the BeltLine is that it’s so embedded in all of the kinds of things that it takes to make a city that it’s not like a simple project with a definable area that simply needs design and construction.
The BeltLine is like a living, breathing part of the city that will change over time. Part of the answer is that it’s never done. It’s always going to change and evolve as the city grows, evolves and changes. Atlanta will be a fundamentally different place in 20 or 30 years.
The other answer is that it’s sort of done now. I mean, it’s not done, but you can go out there and enjoy it now. You can hike or you can bike and there’s public art. It’s being programmed into use now in a way that I think is already changing behaviour and already getting people excited.
Purge: When do you think that transit and other main components of the BeltLine will be available?
Ryan Gravel: The primary funding source is a tax allocation district that has a 25 year life that started in 2006. So we’ve got 20 more years. As that money rolls in over time then we will be able to build it up. With that said, I think the project has the ability to move faster than that.
Certainly, nobody really wants to wait that long. It’s just that in Georgia, transit money is scarce for projects like this. I do think that because it combines community development, with public health, with mobility and all the other aspects, that it really is a model project across the country. There’s nothing like the BeltLine anywhere. I think if we can start getting some attention in Washington, I have a hope that we can get it rolling faster.
Purge ATL Atlanta BeltLine Series
Part 3 of 3
My original idea was to bike the 22-mile loop that makes up the BeltLine. The only problem was that I haven’t owned a bike since I was thirteen, having been too busy lending my talents to the late 90s aggressive in-line movement heightened in popularity by the X Games. Unable to find someone willing to let me ride their fixed-gear over the gravel covered terrain, I chose the old-fashion way of traveling: one foot in front of the other.
After printing off some nominal maps from the Atlanta BeltLine website, Purge founder and photographer Tim Song and I chose to start our journey at the northeast corridor (at Ponce De Leon) where I had initially discovered the BeltLine for myself; little did we know that this would be the easiest part of our two day trip. Since I had already been out on this stretch of the BeltLine, I spent duration of our time there showing Tim around the trail.
No longer just a path for taking a stroll, you can now see all of the progress that’s been made, like the recently completed Historic Old Fourth Ward Park and the Tony Hawk-funded Historic Old Fourth Ward Skate Park that is currently under construction. There’s also been some lovely make-shift condos built by the local homeless community below the bridge at Freedom Parkway. Cozy!
None of the residents were available for comment.
Our next stop was the northside corridor which runs from I-85 at Monroe up to W. Marietta Street. Our first mistake was not reading the fine print that stated:
“Freight rails remain very active, so much of the trail will run separately from the transit route and flow directly through residential neighborhoods.”
We followed the map to Armour Dr. near where the Sweet Water Brewery is located. While driving around in the industrial park we decided to ask local employees if they could point us in the right direction. Neither the mail man or the lunch-break-power-walker had any idea of what we were talking about, pointing us in random directions much like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.
With only a map and a dream, we parked the car and headed towards the tree line that surrounded the area. Peachtree Creek twisted through the woods below us as you could see where the BeltLine Corridor could potentially be according to the map. Unfortunately, at this point, nothing resembling the trail can be seen.
Eager to pick up the trail on this section of the BeltLine we headed west to Huff Rd. to try and locate forgotten tracks. We were greeted with newly constructed apartment buildings and office parks! The rejuvenation of the westside could be considered bittersweet as some areas are starting to resemble the cookie-cutter look of the suburbs. Hopefully, they’ll put in a Zaxby’s to make up for it.
After driving in circles and even discovering an abandoned warehouse that was probably used in the filming of Nightmare on Elm Street, we were forced to park again and venture into the woods. A little bit of detective work and dumb luck led us to some railroad tracks that ran along the backside of some buildings and into a creek. At the time we thought we had struck gold, but we later found out there are numerous abandoned railroad tracks around the city. Our northside excursion was a failure in terms of finding the BeltLine, but resulted in a beautiful creekside picnic behind a warehouse. The world was ours.
Spending the better part of the day trying to find a mythical railroad was pretty tiring, especially coming up empty handed. Thankfully, that was the end of our failure. Our day concluded by hitting two well-known areas of the BeltLine at MLK and over on Sampson St. behind Mint Gallery. We even managed to find an Evereman piece and an old railroad spike!
The second leg of the journey was prosperous as we headed back to the southern corridors of the BeltLine. On the southeast side we followed the route off the street at Boulevard and walked the tracks through a heavily wooded area searching for rail road spikes — we found over 50! Not only did residential property back up to the active railroad tracks, but remnants of the old BeltLine railroad ties were hastily stacked and scattered about. After walking over a mile we realized that we were not going to discover any new developments or the body of Ray Brower.
We pressed on.
If you’ve ever driven down Metropolitan Parkway on the southwest side you probably made sure that your doors were locked. Fortunately, Tim was familiar with the area due to frequent visits to Goldrush and we quickly picked up on the BeltLine’s location just south of University Avenue. We apparently looked so out of place that a cop watched us in his rear view mirror as he slowly crept by as we innocently made our way down the sidewalk.
Probably the creepiest stretch of the trail, we walked through lonely fields bordered with kudzu encased derelict structures, damp and littered tunnels, graffiti-covered underpasses and over blunt-burned bridges (We actually had to put out a fire we found consuming a wooden bridge from a roach that had been thrown out of a passing car). It felt like we were either in a Johnny Cash song or the next victims in a Karin Slaughter novel.
As stated on the BeltLine website, the abandoned Exide Battery Plant and Georgia State Farmer’s Market would be tremendous sites for re-purposing. Shadiness aside, the potential for redevelopment is exciting.
After investigating the southwest side of the BeltLine, our 2-day fact finding mission finally came to an end. There were plenty of developed areas that we didn’t venture into, but our main goal was to experience the BeltLine in its archaic and raw state. The question posed for these vacant areas of the BeltLine now is how long will it take to rejuvenate these properties that look like something out of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road?
Purge ATL Atlanta BeltLine Series
Part 2 of 3
Photo Credit: Tim Song