Urban Connector Newsletter – February 2024

Happy Black History Month! I hope the start of the New Year has treated you right. The Urban Connector monthly newsletter looks back on the best of the previous month as well as ways to get involved in the coming month.
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January Content

Jan 1st – January Newsletter

Jan 7th – Atlanta Beltline Night Ride

Ride along as I cruise the Atlanta Beltline after dark.

Jan 13th – Eastside Atlanta 2023 Drone Compilation

A collection of drone imagery shot through 2023 from Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.

Jan 15th – TBJ Feature: Raleigh Needs to Pass the TOD Rezoning

Opinion piece with Eric Braun of Raleigh Forward on the importance of implementing Transit Oriented Development (TOD) along the forthcoming BRT line.

Jan 20th – Downtown Atlanta 2023 Drone Compilation

A collection of drone imagery shot through 2023 from Downtown Atlanta.

Influential Black Urbanists

In honor of Black History Month, here are 11 influential Black Urbanists we all should know.

Things to Know – Raleigh

Date	Event	Notes
Feb 6th	City Council Meeting	1:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Feb 10th	Western BRT Pop Up – Food Lion – 3926 Western	10:00 AM
Feb 13th	Planning Commission	9:00 AM
Feb 13th	City Council Meeting	4:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Feb 15th	South BRT Open House – 2615 Fitzgerald Dr	4:00 PM
Feb 17th	South BRT Open House – 2305 Lake Wheeler Rd	9:30 AM
Feb 19th	City Council Budget Work Session	4:00 PM
Feb 19th	BPAC Meeting	6:00 PM
Feb 20th	City Council Meeting	1:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Feb 20th	Western BRT Open House – 740 Powell Dr	4:00 PM
Feb 21st	Oaks and Spokes Advocacy Meeting	6:00 PM
Feb 27th	Planning Commission	9:00 AM

Things to Know – Atlanta

Date	Event	Notes
2/5	City Council Meeting	1:00 PM
2/12	Zoning Committee	11:00 AM
2/14	Transportation Committee	10:00 AM
2/19	City Council Meeting	1:00 PM
2/23	Critical Mass Ride	6:00 PM – Woodruff Park
2/26	Zoning Committee	11:00 AM
2/28	Transportation Committee	11:00 AM

Developments that excited me

• Phase Two of the Weld overlooking Dix Park released plans for a 20-story building. The best thing that Raleigh can do is build as much dense housing in the core and around Dix as possible.

• The City of Raleigh held a public hearing for TOD along the New Bern / East BRT corridor and there were nearly as many speakers who spoke in favor of the rezoning as opposed. This is a huge win compared to how things usually go here and is a huge testament to the outreach and education efforts around this issue from Raleigh Forward and WakeUP. The text change was approved but the rezoning will be analyzed further, as expected.
• City of Atlanta is considering banning Right Turn on Red within Downtown. City of Raleigh successfully implemented this in 2022. Hopefully the measure will pass.
• Citing urbanist pushback, a City of Atlanta Councilmember has hit the brakes on a measure that would require ADUs (and other small housing units under 750 sqft) to receive a Special Use Permit in the name of “preserving neighborhood character”. I could write a novel on why this would be a terrible thing in a City facing an affordability crisis.
• Yet another car smashed through the Beltline barriers at the end of the Bill Kennedy Way off-ramp. Thankfully, this time the house was not slammed in to. Unfortunately, the barriers were left smashed and blocking the Beltline for an entire day forcing countless pedestrians and bicyclists to navigate a dangerous situation in the roadway. It is beyond time for some changes at the dangerous interchange. I plan to develop these ideas further at some point but here are some starter ideas beyond simply closing the ramp.

• New section of Beltline near Piedmont Park should open soon!
• The Southside finally sees some Mixed-Use in the middle of suburbia. It’s far from perfect, but a lot better than most of the development we’ve seen down there.
• Summerhill continues to rise.
• Affordable housing to rise in Downtown Atlanta adjacent to the Stitch.
• Unique and affordable infill coming to the Westside.
• I love Atlantic Station more than most. Microsoft is planning the next phase of their portion and it looks great!
• High-rise fire station?!

• The MLK Bike Lane project was named one of the best new bike lanes in America. I had the pleasure of working on this project.

I’m sure this newsletter will evolve as time goes on. Comments or suggestions? Let me know!

Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.  My goal is to create cites that are safe and effective for all people to move about outside of cars. To achieve that we have to focus on creating equitable, dense, and vibrant cities full of walkable neighborhoods with a various mix of housing choices, schools, restaurants, and services. We cannot have safe multimodal infrastructure without the density to support it and we cannot have equitable density without safe multimodal infrastructure. Outside of designing safe streets, my passions are sketching ideas for infill neighborhoods, floor plans, urban photography, and exploring our cities on foot or bike. Please check out the menus above for all of my ideas and also check out my YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.

Opinions and insights are my own and are not representative of my employer or any organization.