May is underway! I’m a bit late with this month’s newsletter, but hey – better late than never. It’s bike month. Whether it’s your first time riding a bike or you’re a daily rider, you’re sure to see the freedom that biking unlocks!

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. Please make sure you sign up below to have these delivered straight to your inbox and follow on YouTube, Twitter,  BlueSky Social, and Instagram.

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April Content

Happy 404 Day Atlanta: A collection of my favorite photos from the past year

Happy 404 Day, Atlanta!

2025 Q1 Drone Tour: First edition of drone imagery from 2025.

YouTube – Atlanta 2025 Q1 Drone Tour

Urban Thoughts: Too small for an article, too big to miss

I finally made it out to Chicago for the first time a few weeks ago. What a City! I’ll have a full article of takeaways and photo album soon but here are some rapid fire thoughts:

• How is this City not growing?! Maybe it’s the winters, but my goodness from the lakefront, riverwalk, skyline, neighborhoods and more; what a place!

• For such a transit friendly, walkable city, the streets Downtown are MASSIVE. Right turning drivers are pretty aggressive with people in the crosswalks too. Related, what is up with some of the “Lower” streets?
• The mix of architecture is beautiful. There seems to be a lot of recent builds. However, it seems there was only one building under construction.
• ORD makes me appreciate ATL even more.

My Threads algorithm SUCKS! I can’t scroll at all without seeing someone complain blindly about parking, new builds or have car-brained takes about Atlanta. There’s just so much misinformation and bad takes out there when it comes to how cities operate.

If you missed Propel ATL’s Blinkie Awards last night, you missed a great time. Please consider making a donation to support the fight for safe streets in Atlanta.

Developments that Excited Me

Amsterdam Walk Passes: Yes it’s entirely too many parking spots. However, it’s over 1000 homes. It has an affordability component where nothing under $1,000,000 exists today. That is a win any day of the week. Then when you factor in it’s near perfect location and walkability it’s a no-brainer to me. While there were some good faith arguments against it, most were rooted in racism, classism, and flat out ignorance. I’m more than pleased that over 1000 families will get to call a place home that would not have otherwise had the opportunity. Also, as I always say – would you prefer 1000 people to drive 5 miles a day? Or would it be better for them to drive 30 miles a day if these 1000+ families had to move to the suburbs? They’re moving here regardless.

Southside Mega Development: As I’ll be exploring in my inPhil sketches, we could easily fit 25,000+ units along the Southside Beltline. (Which should be the plan by the way if we’re
“starting” rail down there.) This would be a great start.

Get Involved, Atlanta!

Date	Event	Notes
5/12	Housing Commission	10:00 AM
5/12	Zoning Committee	11:00 AM
5/14	Transportation Committee	10:00 AM
5/18	Atlanta Street’s Alive – West End to Grant Park	2:00 PM-6:00 PM
5/19	City Council	1:00 PM
5/28	Zoning Committee	11:00 AM
5/30	Transportation Committee	10:00 AM
6/5	City Council	1:00 PM

Raleigh folks, I miss y’all! Make sure you’re keeping up to date with the great people at Raleigh Forward, WakeUP, Oaks and Spokes and The Downtown Raleigh Community.

What I’m working on this month (and probably later)

• South side BeltLine infill concepts
• Updates to earlier drawings of the Reconnecting Communities sketches
• More suburban spotlights
• InPhil Designs ideas
• UrbanConnector First Thoughts: Chicago

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

Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU-Accredited Professional member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

A look at construction progress on the highly anticipated Westside Trail. Head to YouTube to watch!

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Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU accredited member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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, transit, 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

A look at construction progress on the highly anticipated Southeast Trail. Looks like some sections near Boulevard are getting close! Meanwhile, north of Ormewood, things seem much further off. Head to YouTube to watch!

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Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU accredited member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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, transit, 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

A look at the progress at 1072 West Peachtree – Atlanta’s tallest building in decades. Head to YouTube to watch!

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Subscribe to receive email notifications for new articles.

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Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU accredited member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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, transit, 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

Collection of drone imagery from the 1st quarter of 2025. Head to YouTube to watch!

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Subscribe to receive email notifications for new articles.

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Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU accredited member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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, transit, 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

Atlanta’s own holiday is here! To celebrate check out some of my favorite shots of the City through the past year.

For even more videos, drone tours, and more from the past year head to my YouTube!

All of my Atlanta content can be found here. Feel free to any pics if you’d like but please cite Phil Veasley | @Urban_Connector. Happy 404 day, y’all!

Subscribe to receive email notifications for new articles

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Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU-Accredited Professional member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

April is here! Spring has sprung and so has record pollen counts. Despite the green layer, hopefully everyone has been able to get out and enjoy our beautiful weather lately.

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. Please make sure you sign up below to have these delivered straight to your inbox and follow on YouTube, Twitter,  BlueSky Social, and Instagram.

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March Content

The Spur Trail Ride Along: Ride along one of the newest segments of trail in the Upper Westside linking the Westside BeltLine Connector Trail to Marietta Street.

YouTube – The Spur Trail

Georgia Tech Bike Infrastructure Tour: Georgia Tech deserves an award for the amount and quality of bike infrastructure they’ve installed lately. Ride around some of the best in my latest video.

YouTube – Georgia Tech Bike Infrastructure Tour

Urban Thoughts: Too small for an article, too big to miss

• BeltLine Rail walked back (?), canceled (?), delayed (?), pivoted (?) who knows what’s the right word at this point! I’ll have more thoughts in the coming weeks but for now, here’s some smart folks thoughts on it: Saporta Report, Urbanize, ThreadATL.
• I respect everyone’s hustle but the Substack era among urbanists in particular is getting out of control! We’re still a mildly up and coming subset of people and I believe that there’s strength in numbers. We need to be getting as much quality content to as many people as possible – especially those that may not be in tune with with the future of cities. Hiding content behind paywalls not only limits who sees it to diehard supporters who in all likelihood don’t need any convincing, but also adds up quickly subscription cost wise.

Developments that Excited Me

Pittsburg Yards Movement

It seems like things have been very slow moving around here. However, a recent presentation hinted at several blocks of the massive site becoming home to a mix of apartments, retail, and light industrial. These will have affordability components and offer direct access to the adjacent Southside BeltLine Trail.

Southside Mega Development

Continuing with the theme of false starts along the Southside Trail, movement on a much larger scale may be coming to a largely vacant site just South of Murphy Crossing. 3000 units and a massive amount of retail is planned according to a recent DRI (Development of Regional Impact) submittal. These are the types of investments we need to be making now in our mobility rich areas – especially along the Southside BeltLine where plentiful relatively blank-slate land opportunities exist. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be taking a high level look at the Southside Trail and sketching out areas of opportunities.

South Downtown, Centennial Yards, The Center, Entertainment District

What a month for this part of Downtown! From leasing and tenant announcements, new bike lanes I helped work on, rapid progress on Centennial Yards, new visions and renderings for the Center, to a new Entertainment District proposal on an underutilized green space, things are looking up! Like I always say, a region is only as good as it’s core.

Jackson Street Bridge, FINALLY! In another project I helped work on many moons ago, the Jackson Street Bridge upgrades have finally been advertised for construction bidding.

Get Involved, Atlanta!

Date	Event	Notes
4/1	GDOT Stitch Open House	4:00 – 7:00 PM
4/4	404 Day	All Day
4/14	Housing Commission	10:00 AM
4/21	City Council	1:00 PM
4/28	Zoning Committee	11:00 AM
4/30	Transportation Committee	10:00 AM
5/5	City Council	1:00 PM
5/9	Propel ATL Blinkie Awards	7:00 PM

Raleigh folks, I miss y’all! Make sure you’re keeping up to date with the great people at Raleigh Forward, WakeUP, Oaks and Spokes and The Downtown Raleigh Community.

What I’m working on this month (and probably later)

• South side BeltLine infill concepts
• Updates to earlier drawings of the Reconnecting Communities sketches
• More suburban spotlights
• InPhil Designs ideas

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

Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU-Accredited Professional member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

Georgia Tech has some impressive new bike infrastructure! Ride along as I check out some of the new bike lanes around campus. I’ll definitely need to take another trip by soon as there’s some work in progress still. Head to YouTube to watch!

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Subscribe to receive email notifications for new articles.

✓ Subscribed

Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU accredited member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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, transit, 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

A new trail connecting the Westside Beltline Connector to future multimodal improvements along Marietta St is open! Ride along the new section of The Spur in Upper Westside. Head to YouTube to watch!

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Subscribe to receive email notifications for new articles.

✓ Subscribed

Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU accredited member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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, transit, 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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

March is here! With longer evenings on deck, take some time to get outside and enjoy some new tails and bike lanes.

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. Please make sure you sign up below to have these delivered straight to your inbox and follow on YouTube, Twitter,  BlueSky Social, and Instagram.

✓ Subscribed

Feb Content

Woodall Rail Trail Tour: Ride along one of the newest trails in the Upper Westside that will help link the Atlanta BeltLine to the Silver Comet Trail.

YouTube – Woodall Rail Trail

Atlanta BeltLine Ride Along: Atlanta loves to get out on a nice day. This was one of the busiest times I’d ever seen on the corridor.

YouTube – Atlanta BeltLine Ride Along

Westside BeltLine Construction Progress: Drone tour previewing the highly anticipated segment that will open this year!

YouTube – Westside BeltLine Construction Progress Drone Tour

Northwest BeltLine Construction Progress: Drone tour previewing this segment of NW Beltline that will connect Blandtown to the Westside Trail.

YouTube: Atlanta Beltline Northwest Trail Extension Construction Progress

Urban Thoughts: Too small for an article, too big to miss

• My ultimate Atlanta pet-peeve is people (INCORRECTLY, IGNORANTLY, BLINDLY) saying “we full”. It makes absolutely no sense in what is one of the most spread out, sprawled regions in the world. There’s literally 1000s of parcels directly on the BeltLine and other mobility rich areas that are basically sitting empty. While our roads may be “full” of suburban drivers, the City of Atlanta is far from full.
• I went to the Kroger on South Moreland instead of my normal Glenwood one last week. Besides the glaring lack of bike racks (had to lock to a cart-corral), it’s really stunning just how huge the gap in quality of the various in-town Krogers is.

Developments that Excited Me

Heart of South Downtown: A new non-profit has launched that will help guide the neighborhood into the next stage. The rise of Downtown is coming!

South Boulevard complete street coming soon?! ATLDOT recently put up a sign at the corner of Englewood and Boulevard about the project. Maybe that means it’s starting soon!

Making Piedmont Park even better: Piedmont Park has unveiled two concepts for the future of the park. The Central Park of the South looks to aim even higher. While both concepts are great, I lean slightly toward option A. I’ve also long felt that we need to make better use of the lake in Piedmont, with some pedal boating, swan boats, etc – that would really elevate the feel!

Get Involved, Atlanta!

Date	Event	Notes
3/3	City Council	1:00 PM
3/10	Housing Commission	10:00 AM
3/10	Zoning Committee	11:00 AM
3/12	Transportation Committee	10:00 AM
3/12	Let’s Talk Transit Happy Hour	6:30 PM
3/17	City Council	1:00 PM
3/24	Housing Commission	10:00 AM
3/24	Zoning Committee	11:00 AM
3/26	Transportation Committee	10:00 AM
4/3	City Council	1:00 PM

Raleigh folks, make sure you’re keeping up to date with the great people at Raleigh Forward, WakeUP, Oaks and Spokes and The Downtown Raleigh Community.

What I’m working on this month (and probably later)

• Updates to earlier drawings of the Reconnecting Communities sketches
• More suburban spotlights
• InPhil Designs ideas
• “ChoseLINE” development idea

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

Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU-Accredited Professional member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities 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,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

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