My name is Jennifer Hirsch and I'm
the director of serve learn sustain and

together with the Ignite summer
session we are very excited to

bring you this special
talk with Ryan Gravelle

who is a Georgia Tech graduate and
whose master's thesis led

to the development of this amazing thing
now called the Atlanta beltline and

and Carrie Watkins from civil
environment here he's going to do

more of the introductions but I wanted to
say a big welcome to everybody on behalf

of S.L.'s if you are in the summer
sustainability track raise your hand.

Excellent we are so glad to have you
here if you are taking summer school and

you're in some some other track or
you're just in classes raise your hand.

All right raise your hand
if you're not a student.

All right keep your hand up
if you're a faculty member.

OK And
raise your hand if you are a partner or

something else that is not
officially Georgia Tech.

Excellent Well we are so excited to have
that diverse audience in the room and

we want to use all of this
time to hear from Ryan and

then hear from our other partners who
are going to be up here in conversation

with him so without any further ado I'm
going to pass it over to Carrie what.

Thank you.

So as Jenny said My name
is Carrie Watkins I'm

the Frederick Law Olmstead professor in
civil and environmental engineering and

so as such a lot of the things that my
team tries to get involved in things

like multi-use infrastructure and
how we make green spaces and

parks actual civic duty carrying

places instead of simply green spaces and
the beltline is a group.

Example of that so that's why my Ph D.

student Dave better and I were really
excited to help us put this whole

series together so fully quite a few
of you were on the tour on Saturday and

got to see that and this is
the continuing part of that so the way

that we've put things together today we're
going to start with Wrangler valid giving

us a keynote talk on the Atlanta
beltline from vision to reality and

then we're going to quickly Shane's ition
from that because we had Georgia Tech

trying not to have lots of boring lectures
not that Rand would ever be born.

But we're going to spin it on its head and
instead of just having Ryan talk to you

we're going to turn this
into a conversation and

that conversation is going to be led by.

I'm using and out as I want to say
the full name may clash way and.

A student of ours here at
Georgia Tech Michael O'Brien and

Odette it Michael are going to bring some
different perspectives engage in dialogue

engage some of you in dialogue and
we're going to have a conversation about

reclaiming the beltline How can
students make a difference so

for Michael's perspective to all of you
sort of thinking as you continue it George

attack and linking that back to the fact
that all of the things that we're talking

about with the beltline started when Brian
himself was a student here at Tech doing

his master's thesis so my first job is to
give a quick introduction of these three

amazing folks who we're going to hear
from today first Rangar Val is known for

his master's thesis and his early work
that launched the beltline he's an urban

planner designer and author he works on
infrastructure concept of element and

policy he is the founder of six pitch

he recently completed the lay
in the city design a strategy.

For design for changes coming
to Atlanta to support it's as

he says growth into a better
version of itself and love that.

He is the recent author of where we want
to live a book published in two thousand

and sixteen which you should definitely
all check out as follow up to this talk

which says an investigation of the
cultural side of infrastructure then we're

going to hear some about that today
Rance list of awards is pretty long and

one of one hundred most influential
Georgians by Georgia Trend magazine

top twenty five news makers
from Engineering News record

forty five Linton's we love by
Atlanta Magazine and a whole bunch more.

Including swords from.

A and many others both is B.S.
and in architecture you are from

here at Georgia Tech and he even recently
came back to teach a studio course and

we're hoping that he will
do that again and again.

And he lives with his wife and

two children in a loft just
south of the beltline and

if you want to see pictures of that
loft on my knee you can do so.

Just trying to embarrass him a little
bit set things off that they're a tone

Dad I'm not class wait is the managing
director of transfer me and

the alliance it's a partnership of
nonprofits government agencies and

businesses that work to ensure our
opportunities and benefits from transit

investments are equitable and prior to
that she was a senior program director

with enterprise community partners where
she supported community stabilization

efforts focusing on equitable transit
oriented development projects so

she's very focused on equity in the in
the transit space ensuring that as we

build projects like the battle line
that they are equitable for the.

Folks that are benefiting from them she
has also served as a community development

specialist that the Federal Reserve Bank
of Atlanta staff director for

Florida's fordable housing Study
Commission she has a long list of places

that she has done terrific work before
she came to the transformation alliance

she earned her juris doctorate and L.L.

and international law from
Duke University's School of Law and

she has a bachelor's degree in English
American literature from Harvard grad.

So a pretty impressive resume now
Michael is just getting started on that

impressive resume but he's done pretty
well and isn't right already he

is a Georgia Tech student in international
affairs he is an internist for

our campus sustainability office and
he also actively participates

in the student center expansion committee
me Atlanta sustainable student council and

the U.N. I was C.E.
grader at Lee and then network and

I believe you are also currently doing
something with transformation alliance so

you can add that to the resume already as
well so as you can see we have the enemy

team up here to talk about all angles
of the beltline for you guys today and

so with no further to do it I'm going to
turn things over to Ryan to get started.

Thank you.

Thank you I think you hear
me that's working OK.

Now.

Yes OK thanks.

It's great to be here thank you Kerry for

the introduction to all the team here
at server to sustain for having.

So I like the format here we're going to
talk about to be more of a discussion but

I want to do I think it's helpful to start
out with a little bit of background on

the beltline it's important to understand
where the idea came from and how it was

brought to life if we want to think
about head about how we can give back.

Track and make sure that it is implemented
in the most equitable way possible and

lives up to the dream that we all
talked about way back when so.

I'm not going to do my whole
normal talk but I'm going to

give you a little background on it in
case because I realize most of you were

maybe in like diapers at the time that we
started got the beltline off the ground.

We've been working on this for a long time
it's got a long history and it's important

for young people especially to understand
how it works and why it's here and

how you can make a difference and making
it better and I really say that meaning it

if the project really relies on people
to do that and so I hope that you will.

I occasionally make mistakes and

I didn't bring my slide show that
I was supposed to bring in so

I might the next slide might surprise me
I'm not sure exactly what I have but.

This is the this is me in college I spent
the ninety's at Georgia Tech I did my

undergrad in architecture and my senior
year I did a year abroad in Paris and

if you have a chance to do your
abroad you absolutely have to take it

this is my picture on my
metro card my subway card and

my friend says I look like
a French an archivist But

this is what I see when I look in
the mirror and still in the morning.

And it is important you know
that year abroad really change

the way that I understood cities and made
me fall in love with cities and get really

interested in the role of infrastructure
in particular in shaping our way of life

after a month of being there I lost
fifteen pounds I was in the best shape

of my life because I was eating fresh food
and I was walking wherever I went and

the physical built environment the role of
the built environment and shaping my own

personal health and wellbeing became clear
to me in a way just hadn't ever been

I grew up in Chamblee here in the suburbs
of Atlanta driving on the highway going to

the mall in places like living in a real
city that had real access to transit a and

sidewalks and public spaces and all that
became really fascinating to me and.

Changed the way I saw the world and
it gave me ideas about what I wanted to do

with my life in the Fast forward a little
bit well there you know there's Paris so

though you know that that is not just
a famous painting it's a painting of

infrastructure about the Ground ball
of arms of Paris opened up the city and

they put improved public health and
military access that's one story but

they also brought wheeled surfaces for
wheeled carts and wagons a expanded

economy that brought public space
fountains squares street trees.

Public sewer and water eventually
electric street lighting and

subways and they made Paris possible
they had they made Paris so

sort of City of Light that literally the
impressionist painters started painting

and I became really interested in
the role how Atlanta was created and

cities here in the United States
what started to shape them I started

realizing that my grandmother was
a revolutionary she didn't realize it or

intend to be but when my grandparents got
married in one nine hundred forty one

they bought a house out
on the edge of town.

They bought they probably got
one of those fancy F.H.A.

loans that federal home loans that was
only available to white people they rented

rooms to servicemen during World War two
and they participated in American story

suburbanization that was inherently and
I quotable but laid the foundation for

the way that we think about cities today
specifically laid the foundation for

sprawl what today we call sprawl but at
that time they just called the future and

it was and they expanded physically
you can't separate the construction of

the physical world of highways and
roadways and cars and air conditioning

from other things happening at time and
science and the sexual revolution

the civil rights movement all wrapped up
in a real cultural momentum that radically

change the way that we live in the way
that we build the cities around us.

To the point where my parents moved us
from metro Atlanta to metro Atlanta

in the early seventy's to take advantage
of that growth My dad grew up or.

But those highways built an economy that
got him a job at an engineering firm

designing pump stations a wastewater
treatment plants to support the sprawling

growth of the region that lifted our
family and millions others to prosperity

again it wasn't equitable it
wasn't available to everybody but

it played a role in the way that
we shape the world to put dinner

on our table sent me to college.

You know it shaped it shaped our world
radically not all for the better of course

and the bell I was doing the same thing to
a new generation specifically my family

and others I was too I was about
a year ago taking my kids to

the grocery store and they didn't want to
go there complaining about it because they

didn't want to get in a car basically and
they're like Didn't you know we have to go

can't we at least ride our bikes and
I was like Of course we're going right or

bikes that look that's what people in
Atlanta do you know there we ride our

bikes to the grocery store you know
they don't know how ridiculous that is.

But I do and I also know how powerful
it is that that's their expectation for

Atlanta and for their lives that it's
that kind of a place and so when you look

ahead at the sort of crazy inequities that
we're facing with the click challenges

with urbanization gentrification and
climate and technology and

all the intersections of those things it
gives you hope that we're actually going

to be able to address them and literally
it relies on that to be cheesy but

it relies on people young people like
you believing your future and getting

active and making a difference and that's
certainly where the beltline came from so

just a brief overview us how many of you
know what the beltline is already and

you've been out there on A and most of
you it's twenty two miles long it's two

to four miles outside of downtown in
every direction so it's fairly close in.

It's built of all railroads that
were built after the Civil War so

it doesn't railroad town that's why it
exists but those railroads converge in

the heart of downtown these railroads
were built after the Civil War to expand

the industrial base of the city they were
built out in the country at the time

the city was growing industry
moved out to the industrial belts.

Surrounding the city eventually
the city grew up to that and

then jumped across it and
beyond the neighborhoods on one side or

the other work there was
a barrier between places.

Of different socioeconomic backgrounds and
other things and then of course with

suburbanization and white flight the city
transition completely left all the most of

this territory behind and the City if
you're not if you don't know the city

of Atlanta lost about a fifth of
its population in the seventy's and

eighty's by the ninety's late ninety's
when I was graduating finishing school

the city was starting to grow
again nothing like you see today

in fact I was just joking every time of
The Great to be back on campus but every

time it's pretty much an recognizable the
city and the campus are changing so fast.

That change was starting
to happen at that time.

So there's your twenty two miles forty
five neighborhoods all the yellow

land there is because it's not just the
railroad but it's all the industrial and

it follows four thousand acres of old
industrial land mostly now not industrial

but laying fallow or being redeveloped
you can see how close it is into town but

even though you're that close sometimes
it feels like you're out in the country.

The story of course I never imagined we
would actually build it I just wanted to

graduate I carried my little thesis
project up the hill to the library dropped

it off and thought I was done went
to work for an architecture firm

we were doing mixed use urban infill
projects a lot of them happened to be on

the corner taking advantage of the growth
flipping these old industrial tracks and

converting it to a new office and
retail housing and stuff like that.

I was you know we're trying to do this
one side twenty acre site going to

significantly increase the population
of that in one part neighborhood and

are trying to side you take
the parking garage and

jam it up against the old railroad or

do you oriented toward the railroad hoping
it would become something better one day

and I started I was telling my coworkers
about this idea how to school and they

thought it was cool because we were doing
work in those in that core and they live.

Lived in neighborhoods along the way so

we started talking to other people about
it and the more people we talked to

the more people wanted to hear about it
this is summer of two thousand and one.

And.

We and we sent a letter we
eventually we got another

of a response we sent out a letter
to everybody who could think of

the governor the mayor all the regional
transportation agencies the state D.O.T.

I got a lot of nice letters back
saying great idea Good luck with.

I got a great response from Kathy will her
choose on city council She is chair of

the Transportation Committee
which is only reason she got a.

Letter usually that committee deals with
the airport because Atlanta is our airport

but she was interested in public
transit and she had just had Martin and

all the other transit agencies
come into into her office and

say ask answer the question
what are you doing for

the city of Atlanta which is only
a tenth of the regional population.

And they all had ideas about
moving people downtown and

back home at the new
the day not really for

people who live in the city are more
likely to want to more likely to pay for

it more likely to ride it had been paying
for it for thirty years with Marta at that

time and a large proportion of people who
are dependent on transit to get around

because they can't afford a car or there
was really nothing in a those plans for

them she was frustrated by that literally
that day she went back to her office and

this letter was on her desk and
she thought wow this is for

people in the city so she called us and
we told her more about the idea and

she said let's see what happens so we had
she hosted a town hall meeting in a church

basement Virginia Highland and
all that Martin all the other agencies

came through and they did their fancy
you know share their fancy plans and

then the end we came in with our my
clunky slideshow that I had developed for

my thesis project and
the neighborhood fell in love with this

idea we did it we did a few more
meetings with her district about a fall

she was elected city council president
we took that conversation citywide

I was doing three and
four meetings a week for two and

a half years and so was she and her staff
and a handful of volunteers and we built.

This amazing grassroots movement of people
who believed in this idea about their

future certainly before any of
the elected leadership at city hall or

Margaret any of this or
the city planners or

anybody like that and
it really created a really amazing.

And made this whole thing possible that
movement was made up of three primary

groups of people one were community
activists met most of which were used to

fighting against things and found
the beltline as something that they could

fight for developers of course who saw
the opportunity of great new growth in

the city and the opportunity make a buck
and then the third group is a loose

group of organizations nonprofit
organizations mostly who are advocates for

certain certain kind different kinds of
issues whether they were fighting for

better parks or pedestrians or
transit or housing or

jobs or whatever trees or whatever
people saw and these nonprofit partners

saw each other saw this as part meeting
part of their vision or their mission but

as part of a larger kind of shared vision
and those organizations played an enormous

role in our grassroots movement to
sort of lift the project to life and

make it possible in the process
the project itself expanded way

beyond what we ever thought it was to
begin with so it started with us idea for

to transform that twenty two mile loop
into a transit system like a street car

light rail and a multi-use trail for the
full loop economic development not only

the neighborhoods that
were already seeing it but

also in two thirds of the neighborhoods
which hadn't seen any new investment

thirty or forty years at that time and
then connecting existing parks and

other at cultural historic assets the
botanical gardens on the route the zoo and

those kinds of things what was crazy
is that as all these other partners and

other people start to get
involved in the project and

help lift it to life it it became
even more than we imagined.

So in two thousand and four for
example the Trust for Public Land said

that's cute that you guys want to connect
seven hundred acres of existing parks but

how about we car fourteen hundred acres
of new parks out of that old industrial

Bell Mayor Franklin said that time better
for a place for for a while housing

been on the transit line where people can
afford to ditch the cost of the car and so

now it's one of the largest affordable
housing initiatives the city has been

undertaken and we can talk about details
about how and the conversation about our

lack of performance on these things but
I'm just saying that the vision that we've

built around that movement that lifted
this project was a life was sort certainly

built around all of these
concepts not only new housing but

also community stabilization efforts
to help make sure that people who

live in these neighborhoods today get to
stay and enjoy its benefits public art and

preservation big parts of
a trees Atlanta got inboard and

said What about building a twenty two
mile linear arboretum around the loop and

the idea just continue to span

through public public health and
Brownfield remediation all kinds

of other things and Georgia Tech at this
time actually played a role the students

in the College of Architecture did urban
design master planning projects for

every industrial tract around the entire
loop and created what was called

The Street framework plan which was later
embedded into zoning to require developers

where they'd build these things to build
new street kind of to be not only so

that people who live in the neighborhood
could get to the beltline across these

industrial trucks but
also so that you're creating

the walkable kind of districts
that we had in fish and

so students could continue to play a role
in that in that part of it that was

back in like two thousand and
six and seven probably.

Are bored to death of organizations
that have to be a part of this so

I play a little role a little
thread of continuity through a much

larger effort that involves thousands of
people and dozens of organizations at

every level of government and
nonprofit public and private sector and.

We can talk about that if you want
the cool thing is that it's not just

it has turned into.

Just a bunch of pretty pictures but we're
actually doing it this seaside trail which

you're probably most familiar with if
you've been out on the court or Open

in two thousand and twelve historic fourth
were park if you don't know it's more than

a park of storm water retention facility
by building a park the city saved thirteen

million dollars instead of building an
underground storage tank for storm water

so not only are we it doesn't provide
a great public benefit to stop downstream

flooding but also provides a great amenity
for the community and for the city.

There is an implementation
plan you can find online and

see how all those different parks will be
built out over time we are not on track to

deliver this especially transit we can
talk about the map on the left shows you

the dark lines or the trail that are built
the east side opened in two thousand and.

Twelve the west side just last September
and seventeen East Side extension in

twenty seventeen Also we just announced
the purchase of the southeast line so

that line is now available to go
in talk about all the economics

are pretty significant and we spent
about five hundred million dollars so

far mostly on land acquisition for new
parks and trails in the same time period

we've seen over four billion dollars of
private investment as a direct result so

the economics are a no brainer eighty
one return on the city's investment

is pretty great but obviously
the ballot is more than economics and

that's certainly what we
have to tell talk about.

It's changing our way of life it's
making way of life possible that wasn't

possible before and crew improving health
and environmental conditions and all kinds

of other things and also creating
challenges which we'll talk about.

This is what the East Side child looked
like just a few years ago this what it

basically looks like today I was taking
my kids for another bike ride and

trying to take in the back trying to not
have a rock while take pictures of it and

I got home I was flipping through my
pictures this is like maybe twenty

thirteen twenty fourteen I'm as decided
that this is my favorite picture I've ever

taken of the beltline and
it's not because it's like a pretty good.

It's not because it's a good picture it's
not because it's a beautiful spring day

and the Lisa just popped out it's not
because people are walking by literally

talking about how in love they
are with Atlanta it's because of

this woman on the right with the red
hair she was carrying her groceries and

she was validating everything
we always said the bell and

we do that it's making way of life
possible that wasn't possible before and

you all were young enough to not maybe
understand how far the present the city

has come in the last ten to twenty years
but also you can see that with that

economic impact with the changes that you
see already with the struggles that we're

going to come to discussing today you can
also see that not only the tremendous

amount of change that we are experiencing
now but how much more change will come

as we continue to implement the project
because she was walking on a trail that's

not even finished the road the running
shoulder is not done the transit has and

all the stairs and ramps aren't there yet
all the developments not there when

she was walking that day poncy
market wasn't even open yet

it was just a big empty building so the
changes that are coming are dramatic and

we can certainly talk about.

It's important you know
again not to be cheesy but

it's about the future
kids these are my kids.

Creating of the came up with a way
of life that they want you know and

changing their expectations for Atlantis
that we might address something much

bigger I love it that when the New York
Times comes to town you know they talk

about the story you know twenty two miles
Georgia Tech kid blah blah blah but

then what they're really talking about
is how this thing is changing changing

this city and I don't usually you know
walk down the trail playing my violin and

taking my dog on the back of a cooler but
this lady's out there all the time she's

living the life that she wants she's
making the rest of our lives more

richer in the process and that's the kind
that's the idea with the project and

so it is personal for me too I live on and
I work on it my sweet dogs last will walk

from my daughter's Girl Scout troop bike
ride my morning commute and every seat.

And every time a day the think changes and

people live their lives organize their
whole lives around it I was eavesdropping

on some people at a coffee shop the other
day and these two young women are their

whole lives revolve around
this like that's where they

live it's where they work it's who they
date it's what they do on the weekend.

It's pretty amazing to see people what
they're doing with that's my daughter on

the ride that's her worldview that's her
expectation for Atlanta my expectation for

Atlanta when I was her age was a traffic
jam one to five so it's pretty crazy

this is a woman I met a couple years ago
she's a new business owner she's a fashion

designer you can see her photographer in
the background taking pictures of her

model in the tunnel that now has the west
side trail going through a she was excited

about the beltline you know transit trails
parks blah blah blah but what she was

really excited about was an economy that
was going to bring turn neighborhood

that it's going to do for her business and
her family what those highways did for

my parents and their and their business
and that's really exciting to see that

the beltline has opportunity
to create something.

Better for our lives and for
for families and people and

the last thing you have any job and not to
see the lantern crude it kind of gets to

the point of what I mean when I talk about
infrastructure sort of the cultural side

of it and how you can own it and
make it make it whatever you want

if you haven't been you should go this
year she had to leave the Saturday after

Labor Day This woman had this idea for
it to do a lantern prayed and

that people would make homemade lanterns
and walk down the trail in the dark and

the first year they did it was like two
hundred people and the second year there

are four hundred people and the next
year there are eight hundred people and

then there are twelve hundred people the
next year there are twelve thousand people

the next year there are twenty thousand
people next year sixty thousand people

last September there are over eighty
thousand people out there walking down

the I mean it's basically
a slab of concrete you know and

there's it's active at this animating
it's showing a pent up demand for

a cultural life in the city
that wasn't really visible so

it gives you an indication of.

Not that this infrastructure isn't
really just the thing the thing it's.

But it's and parking lot from the kinds of
things that opens up and makes possible

for people is just as important so we're
sort of I guess the intent of doing so

with all that so you know there's lots to
talk about the important thing is that

we do talk about it but
then we also do things that we are.

Going to do.

Last little plug for my book if your
interest on it tells the whole balance

story and puts it on a national context
because of the success of the I get to

travel all over the world and talk about
it and every other city I go to doing

something somewhere or struggling
with part of the summer kinds of

things that we're struggling with here
in terms of there's a lot to learn and

look forward to the conversation
Thanks for having me thank you.

And a debt is like a rock star so you
know it's kind of I Want Some of it at.

Least that you're writing
a little bit you guys OK.

Well everybody.

Sounds like this is.

Plenty.

Microphone doing.

How's that still good OK great.

Dead in the cliche white
then a dream director for

the transformation alliance
I'm always excited to.

Actually get to talk with right about
now why it can't because between

the bell we're in in that vision and the
recent work he's done with city design and

beloved community he's actually given
me two amazing frameworks that a lot of

what transformational lines tries to do
really hangs it's had on so thank you so

much for the language and the frames and
Michael has been our interned for

five weeks which is it's possible
it's flying along way too fast so

Georgia Tech thank you you've given me for

your survey work you've given me a way to
get my work done and just really excited

to be here today we've got about thirty
minutes to talk about a lot of stuff so

we try to come up with some questions
that we hope will be interesting and

get yours your sort of juices flowing for
question and answer time and

when we were setting up this this panel
kind of wanted to explore you given given

given background in case you didn't
know a lot about the beltline itself and

is Ryan is very honest about some
things didn't go the way we had

sort of hoped they would and we want to
talk about what those were we might have

some amazing ideas sitting in the room
right now waiting to come out and so let's

learn from how Ryan might do something
differently what might he have done and

how you know a fellow student who is
really found his way into engagement and

volunteering and

networking What were some of the ways
that he did that so is your plan.

In your great idea you're
thinking of these things now and

hopefully you'll be ahead of the game at
that point so I'm most afraid to sit down

because I feel like this thing's going
to scream if I get any closer but

what we're going to do is start by
asking Ryan knowing what you know now.

Are there any elements of the vision for
the belt line that you would have changed

things you might have put in earlier to
kind of inoculate it from the politics

the market forces so much of it was
we didn't know I think we tried right

there is actually an equitable development
plan on line with the beltline partnership

the TAD the tax allocation district was
created in an effort to create money to do

affordable housing and then we had a
recession and foreclosure and at the same

time the beltline market it catalyzed
the market in ways we didn't expect so

what you put done differently knowing what
you know now I think you're right I think

it is important to understand that it
would have been it's retrospective is one

thing it would have been hard to predict
the economic forces at play in Atlanta and

all of the world right now so
it's hard to say what

that we even could have done
a perfectly and I'm generally not a.

You know look looking back is good for
lessons but

I don't second guess necessarily a lot of
the decisions that we made one thing that

we did do that I wish that we hadn't
done that was not really a very

good choice it wasn't really a choice that
we had but we had we had created that

grassroots movement around a nonprofit
led we created a nonprofit to lead

that effort it was called Friends of the
bell on and we modeled it after Friends of

the High Line in New York and back when
they were just a pipe dream too and

we had it was our way of sort
of communicating with people and

advocating for the project on and sort of
being the conscience of the project and

making sure that the communities were
aware of all the issues that they

needed to be to make sure that
the project delivered what they want to.

You can't build a four billion
dollar infrastructure project with

a grassroots movement you
have to have the agencies and

organizations with professional expertise
and all that to actually do that but

we needed somebody to hold
those entities accountable to

the vision that we had built in
The Commitments and decisions we had made.

By the time we got the tax allocation
to surpass in two thousand and five.

A lot of us and this is my group really
sort of said A great now we're going to do

it and kind of we can rest for America
we've been working a long time very

hard for a long time and we were tired and

it looked like we were going to be
over the hill to deliver it just to

air some of their dirty laundry or other
looks like we might be being filmed but.

We doesn't matter because it's true we
friends of the bell and was basically put

out of business by the bell and
partnership at that time we were basically

the professionals Kamen the important
people who make all the decisions and and

we it was right when the tax
allocation district was underway and

we knew that without that money that
the project was that the whole thing

was going to fall apart and we wouldn't be
doing we would be doing it today and so

we agreed to merge with the Dell and
merge with the bill and

partnership and that's a point
where we really lost a lot of the.

Oversight of the project and
I think we lost a community advocate and

voice for the project.

And certainly today when you look ahead
both the struggle with affordability but

also the struggle with
transit implementation

which is also a huge equity issue for
the project.

I don't think we would have been farther
along in both of those fronts if we had.

If we had that sort of community at us but
that's my major probably regret.

I think the highlight sense of first
of all the transformation Alliance

strengthening communities through
transit is our tagline each of those

four little words encompass.

Is merely universes within them but
certainly for transit we thought of Marta

and we thought of the belt line as it's
meant to be a transit amenity in feature.

As well as all the other things that
it brings to the table I think one of

the institutional and structural
realities that what you just described

really highlights is that Atlanta tends to
has tended to be a city we're not unique

in this in the south where
great rhetoric exists and

then implementation of it not so much so

City too busy to hate you know the ways
in which you you know you referenced it

certain policies were implemented
to help some folks and not others

showed right up as soon as sort of that
oversight accountability those hands were

taken off the thing the institutions did
what they do what they were structured to

do which is to favor certain types
of catalyst approaches certain

Boyce's certain power structures so that
really does speak to why it's critical for

everyone and I think a big role that
student voices could play is sort

of like the constant drumbeat of
expectation so that the larger context

of that a great idea like beltline in
sports into it is prepared right and

sort of there's a great space for
it and not just sort of you know you

have to keep beating back the forces
against it which is exhausting for

sure for example I mean you know a lot
of people who aren't familiar with

the story don't understand that but it
isn't even it's a transit project you know

the transit was central to making
the project work and make it possible or

something that makes it equitable or
something that makes a for

everybody right now it's a great
recreational trail if you're able bodied

and you don't and it's OK to be
sweaty if you go to work for it and

we're out of a mile and a half from my
work on the barn and if it's raining

it's it's useless and so
whether you're whether it's raining or

at night or can your current of
the world who are not able bodied or

whatever you know that the transit
is a thing that makes a.

For everybody to create access to regional
jobs and all kinds of other things

the transit is really a central
part of making an equitable but

if you don't know that then you don't
even know what to advocate for right and

you also lose the opportunity to case
make to folks who see that kind of

activity not always in a positive
light if you are a parent of color and

you're concerned about sending your
son out to do whatever you know

you stay in your neighborhood because you
know they're safe they're conic to be in

connecting to neighborhoods where you're
not sure how your child will be received

you know you're going to want to be hands
off so we need to keep messaging and

really expressing the need for
the community in the beloved community to

be built out so that you don't you put
your kid on the belt line and say go ride

your bike it's OK if you end up in another
neighborhood you'll be safe there and

then you come on home as well so
it's really triggering a lot of deep

conversations in Atlanta about race and
equity and connectivity.

And those are great spaces for students
right to sort of really speak up your

energy your perspective you know
the future that you have the time that

you have left you know to really sort of
tackle those things are important so I'm

going to turn to Michael for a minute but
you know just thinking about ways to that

you know what students sort of come in and
kids and it would be great so Michael.

How did you find your way into positions
like co-chairing the city and getting

involved you know by now the beltline
feels like an institutional thing that

might be difficult to access but there
are lots of ways we love to hear sort of

how how you you know your first steps
to getting connected and networking and

any recommendations you'd have for
your fellow students OK first to raise

a handful of students are you guys are
College of Engineering are expected OK.

OK OK Well.

Actually started in college of
engineering as you can hear now on

international affairs so you probably
want to know how did that happen and

it really came along with a journey
as I did like to say at work.

And that journey that I took was different
from everybody else's journey but

it kind of led me to the spot now
where I can help other people and

so with my journey I realize going through
my classes and being on campus and

interacting with people I hate engine here

I mean straight up the math the science
they hate all of it I took statics and

that's when I was really like no I can't
do this anymore but I learn from that and

I realize that in those times that I was
struggling to the math classes trying to

do the science classes that I was really
great with interacting with people and

really great with networking really
great with just organizing things and

making things happen and so when I
realized that that's my kind of stepped

away from engineering and I knew hey
if I'm going to be able to do this in

life I need some space where I can operate
and so engineering here is going to

skim the bog you down with
tons of work all the time and

I just can operate within that perimeter
and so suddenly from engineering going

to international fairs It was easy for
me but

it's because I can can understand that
work but allow me to operate in a greater

space were not I have opportunities to do
events like this and go to dissipate and

opportunities that may not be available
to normal people and so one of the major

lessons that I learned in switching my
major so that I had these opportunities

was that you really can't be afraid to
ask about something I started interning

with the office to sustainability my
freshman year simply because I asked or

not even asked I met my boss and
Rogers who is assistant director

at an event and I was I saw hey what's
Georgia Tech let me go speak and

I went and spoke and said hey you
know I'm from Georgia Tech and

this nation was like hey I've got three
graduating students do you want to jobs.

It was like Of course the job
freshman year was not and so with

that open opportunity they just simply
enter dust dressing myself to somebody

they created this network where do
the office I was meeting new people every

day just because we had similar interests
you know we both like sustainability or

you know you had interests that tied
in with sustainability in some way or

some fashion and so making sure that
when you're going along your past and

doing what you do whether you stay in
internee and whether you switch out or

you know live or it's go guys.

Don't be afraid to be a lover I said Judge
second up people make it scary it's not

about whether you stay in their power for
use which you have to remember that

one the doors that you open through those
passer still going to be open for you so

don't be afraid to go back to find
somebody who can really help mentor you.

Various crisper center right there can you
waiting Chris I met Chris before I even

got on campus before I even knew I
was going to go to Georgia Tech and

when I made that connection I thought this
is great you know he's a nice guy but

I didn't know where would go and so when
I got in and kept up with them you know

the I'm so we always sat down for
lunch and we talked and

so just in that opportunity within
itself Chris became a great resource and

a mentor for me and that even though I've
been studying these different things and

doing these different things I have
somebody on campus that I can talk to one

who sees the work on doing it
who recognizes my potential so

far to me he's come to his door for
free knows way or knows places that can

take opportunities that I'm interested in
he can send that information to me and

then to it's just an outlet where OK I've
talked to my teachers I've talked to my

friends I've talked to counsel I've talked
to all these people and you know I'm

kind of like I want somebody who can
help me to kind of grow professionally

somebody that can help me
develop myself in my work and

so finding that great mentor on campus or
you can just that sit down and

we talk about all kinds of things
to talk about projects or.

Champus projects going on the city just
normal life I mean he's been pretty much

kind of on top of me since I got here so
finding that outlet where you can talk to

a professional mentor on campus making
sure that whatever connections you

make you're always utilising those or even
keeping those doors open even if you know

you're not going to be an engineer because
you decide you know I can't do the same or

don't be afraid to have those resources
still available to you because you

never know when somebody don't want
them say hey I really wish I could find

a computer sites and
you're like Well I wasn't bitter size and

I know these great people that I can get
you in contact with so just make sure to

take advantage of any opportunities
that come your way especially if you're

interested in them and don't be afraid
to find your path doing what you do even

if that leads you away from something you
thought you were going to do even if it

leads you towards something that you
just never even imagined possible so.

For sure I probably fell on
the spectrum of comfort with networking

in putting myself out there like that
on the way introverted side I was

an absolute grown adult by the time
when I had to learn how to network and

Unfortunately it turns out that sometimes
you know there's there's some value to

sending lots of letters but as it turns
out oftentimes it's just that one person

that really kind of blows the door open
for you so so if your go getter and

you feel cool just like talking a lot of
ways that's great Some folks need to just

sort of sit back and
watch a little Ray I think folks are so

intrigued Ryan that you were a student
when you came up with this idea did other

students come around you to help you flesh
out their year and just all along the way

students can engage and I think it's
important to remember I'm as you've been

saying we're not even close we're sort of
in the middle of the beginning of the bell

right as a as an amenity and I think the
city how you know sort of whichever one

you want to grab onto
first of How can students.

T.
new to be involved in say the destiny of

the bell and you know what might
be your recommendations for

networking in recognizing that there
are all sorts of personalities when it

comes to you now here
in weeping of networks.

I would prefer just based on my.

I don't know Michael that well I
don't care for very long nobody but

from what he said I think that I probably
and they do the opposite personality I

don't talk to people well I don't
enjoy it particularly I've learned to

do it because the success of this project
but it wasn't because I was going around

pushing my idea on anybody it's because I
had an idea that I shared with people that

other people liked and it was really them
liking and wanting to be a part of it and

wanting to see it happen in their
community that sort of dragged it forward

and at some point you said after you say
it's going to do all these things and

you feel a sense of obligation to be
a part of it to make sure that it does so

my way that I would have gotten
involved in a very different body

in any you know I think it's just
a different way of doing it.

I did of course along the way
to figure out how to network and

how important it is to know people and how
that happens I've never really had what

I would call a mentor I kind of live in
my head and I've got lots of ideas about.

What I want to do in the world and.

And but obviously you can operated
the scale on your own and

you know like I said I played
along actually a story

this is not people ask knowledge
time what how do you feel about your

project of like this is a mock project
you know like I have a role to play but

there was a early on in like
two thousand and three we had.

Gotten we had we were getting we're
trying to get the boat one on the list

of transportation projects for the region
just to be on the list not even at the top

of the list and we had sent out an e-mail
to try to get everybody to show up at this

meeting to advocate for the project in
this meeting that mostly very usually

there's nobody from the public comes to
them and we flooded the room with people

and I was standing behind these two women
and they were talking about our project

our project is this twenty two mile
in our project does this for about.

And they were talking about our project
and I didn't know who they were who they

were you know and it dawned on me
the role that the public ownership and

claim to this vision would play in
implementation that they would empower and

ultimately obligate their elected
officials to do the hard work to Minutes

expensive complex politically complex
physically kind of project as you

know hard to do but sort of motivated
by the public being in love with it and

the power of ideas and
the power of the people.

I just for a fell in love with and
so that's where a howitzer navigate

my world now for
you of course you've got different ways of

living your life you're going about your
work and I just encourage you to do it

I don't know what it is pacifically I
mean I think you should definitely feel.

Less a clane to the beltline but also
more broadly to your city wherever that

is that you have a role and
in playing at it and in act and

actually your academic life
here is a really an amazing.

Time in your life to think about big
ideas you know when you think about

the future that we're facing
whether it's urbanization and

gentrification whether it's climate in
ecology whether it's technology and

automation or are there health for
all of those things or

the intersection of all those things which
is enormously complex and daunting for

our future that's the cut we
need their ideas to address and

we need you all to do it and the benefit
of being an academic environment

is that you don't have
to worry too much about

all the baggage that we bring with
us like politics and budgets and.

Physics and stuff like that you know
doesn't matter we just we need the ideas

and we've we put all that stuff in service
to the idea I mean with a bell and we were

proposing a radical transformational
project on land we didn't own.

With money we didn't have in a political
environment that was hostile to everything

that we were talking about and and we
pulled it off anyway and so you don't have

to worry about all this drama that you
see playing out on both the national and

local level but
you know bring your idea to the table and

if you get enough people who believe and
share that vision you know there's a lot

of power in them in bringing people
together and talking to people.

Michael you grew up here.

Grew up here but Georgia Tech's
an international school right.

And listening to Ryan and thinking about
this concept of citizenship rights so

where ever you end you want to at some
point you might feel like OK this is it

this is where I'm planting a stake and

I would like to be a citizen of this place
and that can express itself a lot of ways.

Just I would love to you know talk
a little bit with your colleagues about.

How to Become a citizen and

sort of what does it feel like through
link into a place and sort of what

are some of the ways they could do
that even if they're not from here.

And you know maybe some practical ideas
you know go check out the beltline

office of information about it would
be great to know practical tips for

how they can you know to express that
you're you're a citizen of Atlanta for

as long as you're here for
your education and if you stay as well so

how many of you are from the city or
how many are from the city let's do that.

From the city of Atlanta Georgia and

then the Metro Link then you know that if
you're reading this a lot homebodies like

a map that is an international I'm curious
and interesting or or I'm out of state.

OK Interesting OK well.

Welcome to Georgia Tech welcome to let.

One of those biggest things I say as far
as becoming a citizen of a place and

really kind of becoming a part of that
city one thing I like to say to Bill's.

If you've been a letter for
ten years that's where you're from but.

You guys probably won't be here for
ten years hopefully not but definitely.

I mean I ga take for ten years please
don't please I'm here for twenty years.

But.

This I think one of the biggest
things that Georgia Tech does is

through all the e-mail lists and through
all of the events that they do there's so

many opportunities to see kind of
the smaller unknown sides of the cities

through the beautification projects and
do the I'm OK projects and so

I think from that perspective if you start
with service projects you can kind of

start to explore the city and lens of OK
you know these are where people live these

were people need help and then further out
from that just block off where we can.

Get a MARTA pass or get a real a biker now
bird scooters or the new mover scooters

and just explore the city just I mean
you don't have to turn on your maps

you know if you are afraid of getting lost
turning a massive otherwise is walk around

I mean you walk twenty twenty
minutes down the road and

you're at the aquarium you've got
the World of Coca-Cola Centineo park.

Scene incentive if somebody things
are right down the street from here that

it doesn't take but five minutes to really
point in the direction say you know I'm

going to walk this way today what can I
file what can I see what can I sure and

you know just start to build a database of
those things and I keep in mind you know

I win here and how large this is really
great I'm going to keep coming back

here every once in while we're friends or
we had a bad time over here so

we're not going to do that anymore
just kind of keep those in mind and

then just continue to explore and
continue to build.

If you are lucky enough to get a car
something then you know go in further

explore some of the smaller
parts in the metro area I'm from

Stone Mountain So if you.

Never been the star mountain that's always
like a great tourist attraction thing

people you're from so not then but

I mean I just see it's like yeah it's
big rock in my backyard but me so

just take me to Venice those
opportunities exploring the city.

A good place that you can really take Trip
Advisor just kind of look at the things

that they list where it's like yeah
you can do this in the city and

there's a kind of like things that some
people won't even realize that are here

because they're so small hidden and once
you've really like understood the city and

kind of explored it I think that's once
you've reached that point where it's like

yeah I know the city I know everything
that's going on I've served

in these communities I've seen lunch over
here so I think that's the best way to go.

And take two hours of the balance All
right so let's also when we get out.

About when you're going to go
through a lot not all that but

a lot every Friday and Saturday there
are free bus tours of them I'm tired of

them walking trees a lot of
us walking tours remarkable.

I would just add to what you said about
this city I think it's important.

That I mentioned that when
a city design that I worked on.

It was done by the city because of

the change in the city
that's coming is really.

Dramatic their region is five and
a half million people today it'll be

eight million in twenty years grow by two
and a half million people in twenty years

that's like moving metropolitan Charlotte
to Atlanta in twenty years the change that

comes with that will be dramatic because
we're not doing anything about regional

transportation really to speak of
the impact on of that growth will

be much higher in the city than it has
historically because people are looking

for places that are closer to transit more
walkable have alternatives and the urban

core of the region is where that exists
because people who are here invested in

their likelihood that they will be
displaced during that time is pretty.

Likely and so did the change that's
coming on nearly triple the population

of the city of Atlanta.

So in one way we need you because
we have all these challenges and

we need ideas and
we need people who care or

to sort of participate with a doubt on
the transformation of everybody else.

But the other thing it's
a huge opportunity and

what other city can say that they're
going to change that much and

if you no matter what your interest
in design or engineering or

science or computer you know whatever it
is the change that comes with that is also

opportunities to do things that are really
interesting so much as encourage

you to explore the city like you did like
you're saying but also see it not only as

it is but see it in the future and
how you might play a part in shaping.

Please join me in thanking rain
in the making for me thank

you thank you thank you and
I guess we I see a mike that

can sort of roll with people would
like to ask a question you have about.

Yourself.

I.

Mean might.

We say introduce your name and.

We're writing.

To someone yeah all right
a name is players Joyner

on the assistant city manager for
the city of Stonecrest out and

I have county and keenly interested
in this and actually my question for

Ryan is is the Atlanta beltline just for
Atlanta or

is that something that can be transferable
to other regions of this state other

regions of the county that kind of thing
Sure well the Atlanta balance self is

limited in its geography you can't I don't
think we would be able to move it but

I say a lot of it's it's less about
the thing itself and it's more about a way

of looking infrastructure and
asking infrastructure to do more than just

one thing and you know we're terrible in
Metro and I'm really in the States about.

Doing looking at especially roadways and
highways it's just only doing one thing

but what happens if we start to ask them
to do other things not only other forms of

mobility although that's part of the
asking them to also answer questions about

their impact on communities and economic
activity and help another condo thing so

one of the nice things for me in my life
and in the success of this project is that

I get to go all over the world and
talk about it people want to hear about it

people are watching it and seeing what you
know it's taken on so I get to travel and

see other cities and everywhere I go
they're also doing similar projects they

might not be as big an ambitious but
they're they're struggling and

taking on similar kinds of things
rethinking old infrastructure systems and

adding Sora new layers of purpose to
them not just old railroads but also.

Degraded urban waterways is a big one and
some cities are beginning to tackle

obsolete roadways where the roadways
either way overbuilt and there's not

enough cars to fill it out and they're
just climbing some of that space for

other things or the roadways so jammed
with cars that it's basically useless and

they're trying to rethink how
it's going to be years so

that you know there's lots of ways
to integrate trails and transit and

all those other kinds of things to use
create the kind of future that we want.

So yeah I mean I don't know exactly I'm
not super familiar with stone cross but

there's a long opportune I'd
love to piggyback saying one

whatever it looks like you know.

Think about things like land
management and ownership.

If you don't have a land bank get one
you know explore things like land trusts

because a big part of what
the beltline catalyzed was a land

ownership question rights and now we have
speculative ownership or out of state not

a country ownership and it's very
difficult for folks that would hold land

on behalf of the community to actually
acquire it and buy themselves the time.

To make up a good redevelopment plan and
implement it so

now would be the time to inventory
a property that either the city owns or

community development own or that you
want them to own and find a way to get

ownership and can cite control now on
something the transformation Alliance is

exploring is and if you maybe don't have
that you know idea of abandoned rail or

existing road infrastructure we're
looking at how to turn places

like fire stations into resilience
hubs and so maybe after a while you

have enough of those places and then use
to find ways to link them because you're

turning them into destinations in and
of themselves or the station soccer so

that is a reimagining of a public
transit infrastructure putting

soccer pitches there at the transit or
close to the transit and

then you've created these destinations
that people use MARTA to get to but

it's it's to go do the do the sport do the
community activity that would be there so

if your city doesn't have abandoned
rail there are still maybe ways

to start creating you know through
the points along the way that you can.

And then you.

Sister professor in history and sociology
here at Tech So my question is could

you all talk a lot about affordability
Could you provide some definitions to

the students your own definition of
affordability how the city defines that

and then maybe a little bit about how that
doesn't match and housing in particular

you have talked mostly about transit maybe
switch gears to housing sure Michael and

I love it here yeah go ahead go
how to go it's never there so

you're literally just talking about
this earlier in the day affordability

the best way that the five think
we look at what sixty percent.

How much else spending of your income and
so the way that the city you see measures

this is called The average meaning
in the area median income scale or

am I And so the city will look
at percentages of this and.

The most one that they use for affordable
housing developers use is sixty percent

and so that means you have people living
around this area should be able to afford

up to about fifty percent of units in the
area for it to be considered an equitable

would say you don't want folks to be
spending more than thirty percent

of say their disposable income on housing
and then you can add transit and so which

is where things like access to transit
can help the overall affordability.

But you act I'm sorry go
ahead you know the world.

You have to I'm sorry can you give
me a little bit more background

it's a question.

That's.

In metropolitan.

Yeah typically there's
the Metropolitan Statistical Area

which tends to include still really really
expensive and high earning places and

very under invested in low income
places and so you get this median

income which is a base number that
then if you're extremely low income

you're making like thirty percent of that
area median income or less if you are.

Low income you're making fifty percent or
less of that area median income to be

more sort of granular and specific we're
getting better at having this like a city

area median income because then you're
sort of not including the folks that

are earning money up in Cobb County with
folks that are in no less dollars and

place for example so you have your base
number that you need to start with

your base area that will give you an area
of median income and then from there you

begin to have different levels and earning
amounts and generally the rule of thumb is

not to spend more than thirty percent of
your income on your housing costs and

then we can have the academic discussion
about well what does that mean

if it also if you're if you drive far away
to afford something in terms of mortgage

just on that base number but then you have
to own a car and gas it and have insurance

on your housing affordability is actually
linked to your transportation costs so

living near transit would take that
all off of your books right and

then it becomes a very

very powerful amenity to be near
transit and that's why transit oriented

development tends to catalyze rents
whether it's for residential commercial

business folks who want to take that
expense off the books and have access.

To the point to when looking at.

Sandy Springs.

And so you kind of thing about like
Sandy Springs that's where you know

people people live out there were kind
of big houses and so one of the kind of

greater things that people are starting to
push for is how can we reduce the same as.

Says' or look at the AM eyes in
the area that are needing to

be viewed in this region so now we're just
looking at Lana saying stranger Razzo But

how can we look into deeper into a land so
how can we take this one quarter and

look at the AM I versus
another quarter in the area so

that we see that these people aren't
just low income in Atlanta but

compared to that region same either even
lower and so trying to look at this and

make sure that when we're doing this
transitory and development an equitable

transit oriented development that is
really focused on producing greater.

Recovery for people who are now only
experiencing low income compared to

everybody else in the M.S.A.
area but spirits even lower ones in their

own area that's why it's important and
in the urban neighborhoods in

Atlanta it's important to understand
the area but that area is really defined

by much smaller geography because you can
be under or you can be a sixty percent.

And still be making a lot of money you
know compared to the local population and

so if you're trying to make sure that the
people in that community are displaced you

might have to go down to thirty percent
less to make sure they get there and so

there's a lot of nuanced and often the
resources available to build affordable

housing are targeted for say sixty percent
of that and this area median income and

so the rents that you charge to match
that income are still too high for

the people living in the area that
you're building and you know it's so

the mismatches the greater the detail
you can get the closer you can get

in specificity the more equitable you're
out I would just add to that that's

one way of like measuring them when you
look at the other side the proper tools

that you need to create to address those
things that's important to understand and

one of the complexities
with affordability is that

it's not one thing that we have
to do there's not one answer.

You know there's like dozens of answers
and more than that it's more of

a way of looking at it or a process or
a culture of caring about people

because there's you know there's big
families and they're small families and

they're single parent households and
there's young students and people on their

own seniors are just that you know there's
renters and homeowners or people who need

a lot of help is needed people who need a
little bit of how there's all come in and

the geography about it all changing too so
we need lots of kinds of tools and there's

certain kinds of things that require the
public sector but there's a lot of things.

We can do through
a regulatory environment and

the private to unleash the private sector
to start to solve some of those problems

too so that the city of Atlanta
through the city design and and

the planning commissioner Tim pinas is
starting to address some of those things

for example loosening zoning regulations
to allow people to rent out their basement

apartment or the garage apartment on their
home that if you have one already because

from because your house is old
then you're grandfathered in but

you can't build a new one so but
it but that provides a small typically

cheaper unit in a community which
improves density and other things too and

also provides a revenue stream for
the homeowner who's facing rising taxes so

it's a great easy win for
the city zero cost and

somewhat controversy on some communities
but they're going to have to get over it.

Yes.

But my name is Richard I'm a fourth year
civil engineering student here it's AK.

And you.

And I we just define affordability and
I know from your book and your present and

what your limits in your presentation
you sort of shown frustration and

how the beltline hasn't been achieving
its targets with affordability and

I kind of wanted to know how
important it is that the by.

Line projects sort of puts affordability
back in the center of the project

how do you think it's best that the city
or the beltline itself go about doing that

and if once everything is said and done
and all twenty two miles have been built

is a project still considered a success
if it's not quote unquote affordable.

Yeah I mean then to
the last one is no remorse.

You know the jury's out on
whether it's success today or

not I mean I think we're facing real
challenges on I'm a fairly realistic about

the challenges that we are facing
I mean there daunting and

not many people have the answers and
even if you have the answer you also

have to get it through the political
environment to make it possible so.

I'm terrible with multiple question I'm so
I'm trying to remember the middle one.

How did you get affordability surfactant
Yeah well you know actually gets a guest

students can do you know a great example
it was like a year ago and some students

from Georgia State in the journalism
school started writing started doing

some investigative research on the bow on
to the livery of affordable housing and

it was just they were associated with the
A.J.C. So the A.J.C. gets the credit but

it's really the students who are doing the
work and if you well you are too young but

if you follow the media for
the last twenty years and

change radically used to be that
there was a lot of investigative

journalism in the now there's essentially
no certainly not on a local level and

so the balance just been churning on doing
their Dio and not really delivering and

the person who was in charge of it of
the time was saying all the right words in

this sounded like they were doing it and
if you weren't really paying attention

to the now well these students dug
through the numbers they added

up the number they did the real work and
they expose the beltline for

not delivering on the tax
allocation just heard requires

the beltline to deliver
fifty six hundred units.

By twenty thirty they've built maybe
seven hundred and at least half of

those have already expired so
they're not delivering right but

nobody I mean housing people come to know
that but most people don't know that and

then they put it out in a way where
everybody know at the barest a few folks

and then there's a new and better though
you know market because of it and so

real impact meaningful and meaningful for
affordability meaningful for

lots of other things because he was making
a lot of bad decisions in my opinion but

really really made a difference and

so another way that you can make
a difference is doing stuff well and

it made a difference because now the
person that came in is forced to grapple

he said he was a buyer when he was
hired in the context of not delivering

right now he's got extra pressure to
deliver so I would say that maybe this has

at least from the bell funds internal team
it has recent heard back to the center

maybe to her Actually I don't know because
you do have to deliver the project.

But.

That's interesting the challenge of
course still for the beltline is that

they operate in a larger political context
than for transit delivery for example or

for housing it's also in the context
of city hall and all the other things

of City Hall doing development can't
solve all the city's problems and

Marte of course is another whole issue so
and

there's a billing It's a partnership
right so we tend to think of A.B.I. and

billing Inc is the one that's responsible
they are a developer developing entity and

so we've put a lot of pressure
on them to do this but

the partnership does have to be held
accountable as well for fund raising for

holding the actual development play and
for

you know they really should also be up
there next to the NOT BE idea the nice

thing is that the nice thing is that with
that change that came as a result of

the students you know previously they
were really locking down there trying

to control everything about when you were
going to build all the housing we're

going below transit we're going
to all the parks and trails and

all this stuff we're
going to do it all and

of course that's not realistic
that's not the spirit.

Project.

So.

Kind of opening back up and

saying maybe maybe we have
resources to bring to the table.

Implementation housing but
maybe we need housing for you.

And other housing partners housing and
transit we need Martin

has trained so I think from now on.

We'll see if you're a.

Real quick I know because I
know we're out of time before

to get your first question asking
about why is affordability important.

If you go on the bottom line you look
at everybody that's there now and

you see everybody you see a nice kind
of the first but if you actually look

at who lives on the beltline you
see is predominately white and

so that just right in itself it's a matter
of saying like because these other people

can't afford it we're already turning
this area that was supposed to be for

everybody into an area for an exclusive.

And exclusive it's going to return
you into an exclusive area for

a specific race and so by implementing
these and my process isn't.

Actually has what's called it we use
an equity evaluator when looking at Martha

stations and developing on their
projects we're trying to expand that but

using those kind of tools and equipment to
look at areas that are going into project

development saying hey how can
we make sure that we're actually

getting a diverse crowd because they can
live here not just bringing them in and

selling them in so
that they can use and then go home

at the end of the day to their little
shack off the side of the road somewhere.

I mean that's you know not sexy but
you know what I mean and

so the affordability is always
going to important just because

it brings diversity and that diversity
brings all types of ideas an increase in

inclusionary area where people feel
welcome then people feel able to go and

not afraid to be in that
space Thanks everybody.

For the sound Thank you.

Well I want to close this out by saying
a couple things The first is Ryan and

Odetta and Michael thank you so
much for helping us to

launch what is actually the first
ignite summer session and

therefore the first sustainability track
that we've ever had at tech with a lot of

freshmen who are joining us early
because they want to be here and

I can't imagine more exciting way to
launch this than to think about this huge

project that has put Atlanta
on the map globally and

to have the beltline to her that we had
the other day and then to have this

this fantastic talking conversation so
let's give them another round of applause.

And then a couple of quick comments

one is raise your hand if you've heard
of surveillance sustained before.

Excellent we one of the really big ways to
get involved in these kinds of things is

to get involved in serve learn sustain
which is a campus wide initiative

to provide curricular and
out of classroom opportunities for

students in every single major at
Tech to help create sustainable

communities and the beltline work is an
example of a huge project that is trying

to create sustainable communities that
serve all sorts of diverse people and

that serve and enhance the nature and
the natural systems that

we depend on in Atlanta and
around the world so we have over.

We have over one hundred affiliated
courses every year those courses you can

find when you're looking to sign up for
your next classes you can find them on our

website if you just search S.L.'s got tech
it'll come up we also have a sustainable

cities a minor we have we are going to be
launching this year a social innovation

program we have a youth network that's
affiliated with United Nations and

includes all of the eight major
universities and colleges.

In the Elana area including all
of the starkly black colleges and

universities that Michael is also
very involved in and we have

an internship program where S.L.'s pays
our students to work with partners like

the transformation alliance and that is
what what Michael is participating in so

you can have a strong go I can't
have that Odetta might take more.

Some of those things are on our website
some of those will be on the website in

another month or two but you can
always email and ask us about them so

I hope that you will stay involved and
we have a whole event series that has

great talks kind of like this with people
from Tech going on all year so you should

subscribe to our newsletter and you'll
find a link to that on our home page.