February 12, 2022

    This Week's Tour...

...met at 9:00AM Saturday on the Beltline Eastside Trail near Parish (R.I.P...soon to reopen as "Painted Park"!). We walked for 1 1/2 hours, covering 1 mile of the Beltline, ending at Ponce City Market.

"The Tourists"...
...shouting out to this week's tourists, another good-sized group braved the cold, including brand new Atlantans as well as Morningside neighbors!

Thanks for a great tour!

Map of the week...
...1960's era I-485 route proposed to connect downtown with (what is now) SR 400 to the north and Stone Mountain to the east. The project was officially shutdown in 1975 by then Governor Busbee, but not before hundreds of homes were acquired and demolished thru the eminent domain process. 

To many, freeway projects can have many negative impacts (displaced locals, divided communities, increased traffic/pollution), but I feel that this story has a silver lining. The end result of the cancelled project included: The formation of neighborhood civic groups that continue to provide feedback and guidance to the Atlanta City Council and the creation of several new parks: 

4) Freedom Park
3) John Howell Park

2) Sidney Marcus Park

1) Morningside Nature Preserve*

* Starting in 1999, land that had been acquired from GDOT by a developer, through "hard work of the neighborhood, and support from the City of Atlanta, the Wildwood Urban Forest was saved from development." Today, it continues to educate and delight as the Morningside Nature Preserve!

Thanks, Wikipedia!!

Tree of the week...
...singling out one of the hundreds of specimens from the dozens of collections along the arboretum.

In this case, the entire genus "Magnolia"! Many of us are familiar with the grand, native, evergreen Magnolia grandiflora or "Southern Magnolia", but planted in a gorgeous, flowering alley running north along the Beltline from Ponce City market to about Greenwood St are several showy, non-native but non-invasive, species. Definitely check them out now thru March! 

Magnolia virginiana ... M. stellata  ... M. liliiflora  

"Stump" of the week...
...featuring a question raised during the tour that Jeff couldn't answer.

Q: What is an acre?

A: When we talked about the part of the Beltline Corridor adjacent to the Eastside Trail that is planted with native grasses and flowers, I mentioned that Trees Atlanta had planted 8 1/2 acres with more than 100,000 plants! The next question...what is an acre? Well, I tried to explain in relatable terms: "I'm from Virginia Highland...my house is on an intown lot that is about 1/5 of an acre. So 5 of those is an acre...and 42 1/2 of my houses would be 8 1/2 acres! 

Now, according to Wikipedia, the official definition of one acre is: " ...the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, 1⁄640 of a square mile, 4,840 square yards, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m2, or about 40% of a hectare."

I left my furlong at home, so imma stick with 8 1/2 acres = "42 1/2 houses!"

180 ft x 50 ft = 1/5 acre!

Thanks, Fulton County