The Good, The Bad, The Ugly & The Beautiful

With respects to Clint Eastwood and Co I have some good, bad, ugly and beautiful news to share with you...

THE GOOD

• This week's major announcement about the Southside Trail acquisition is GOOD!
• This 4-mile segment of the Beltline corridor represents the missing link between east and west Atlanta. 
• We can expect an interim hiking trail to open within a year. No telling what kind of modern-day hobo camps and other things might "pop-up" along the old Sand Line.
• If you want to get a jump on the action, check out our Southside Trail Bike Tour on 4/07 and Southside Trail Driving Tour on 4/15
• If you want to see what we were up to three years ago, check out these photos of our early hikes on the SST.

THE BAD

• BAD is exemplified by some recent rumblings about Beltline transit being pushed back by the Powers That Be. Not exactly sure who the powers be but, best I can tell, it has to do with some decisions that are being made in the MARTA board room as we speak.
• This blog post by Ryan Gravel explains everything.
• Delaying Beltline transit is potentially catastrophic on many levels and Ryan articulates this in a very clear and eloquent way as he always does.
• If you would like to learn more and get involved, today's meeting of Beltline Transit Now at Monday Night Garage would be a good meeting to attend.

THE UGLY

• The Battle of Atlanta was UGLY! 9,200 causalities in about nine hours occurred on a sprawling battlefield that is now Inman Park, East Atlanta, Edgewood, Kirkwood and Reynoldstown. 
• Many of our club's activities have taken place on top of this battlefield over the past four years.
• If you live in any of these neighborhoods you probably lay your head down where at least one soldier fell or died every night. That's ugly!
• For better or for worse, the only reminder we have of this pivotal battle is a collection of historical markers that are scattered throughout this area. As Daniel Pollock illuminates in his brilliant essay... "The absence of a historically preserved battlefield means that visitors seeking firsthand knowledge about the places and events that figured prominently in the Battle of Atlanta must go beyond the almost effortless engagement with history available at well-preserved Civil War sites, such as Kennesaw Mountain, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. Visits to the Atlanta battlefield, even via virtual tour, require greater self-reliance and a more active process of combining historical accounts, maps, and images with present-day visual evidence to ferret out what happened, where, and why. The rewards are great. By juxtaposing information from then and now, visitors traveling through contemporary Atlanta gain a new and powerful perspective on the city, its neighborhoods, and their place in history. Exploring seemingly ordinary sites is a way to gain a new awareness of history, even if the sites are often encountered during our everyday routines. Landscape historian John R. Stilgoe encourages us to scrutinize those places, put them in spatial context, and arrange them in time. "Enjoy the best kept secret around," Stilgoe writes, "the ordinary everyday landscape that rewards any explorer, that touches any explorer with magic.""
• THAT is precisely what we will be doing with our upcoming Battle of ATL Walking Tour, WEST + Battle of ATL Walking Tour, EAST + Battle of ATL Bike Tour, WEST + Battle of ATL Bike Tour, EAST. 

 
THE BEAUTIFUL

• This weather is BEAUTIFUL, which is why we have so many events coming up in Inman Park, one of ATL's most beautiful of neighborhoods over the next several weeks. See "Upcoming Events" below...
• The new Cyclorama exhibit is beautiful! Our third tour is coming up this Saturday, Mar 24. Please don't miss this.
• The irony of it all is that Inman Park (The Beautiful) is where some of the fiercest fighting in the Battle of Atlanta, The Ugly) took place at around 4:00 on the afternoon of July 22, 1864. It is that exact scene that is depicted in the Cyclorama painting.

UPCOMING EVENTS (PARTIAL LIST)

• Mar 23 Historic Inman Park Walking Tour
• Mar 24 Historic Inman Park Walking Tour
• Mar 24 Cyclorama, Behind-the-Scenes Tour
• Mar 25 Battle of ATL Walking Tour, WEST
• Mar 31 Battle of ATL Walking Tour, EAST
• Mar 31 Mercedes Benz Stadium Tour
• Apr 01 Reynoldstown + Edgewood + Kirkwood Walking Tour
• Apr 07 Southside Trail Bike Tour
• Apr 08 Atlanta Streets Alive: Eastside 2018
• Apr 13 Historic Inman Park Walking Tour
• Apr 14 Comedy Night in O4W
• Apr 15 Southside Trail Driving Tour
• Apr 21 Westside Meet & Greet @ The Garage
• Apr 27 Inman Park Home Tour
• Apr 28 Inman Park Festival
• Apr 29 Cafe 458 + MLK Historic Tour

Have a great week!
Steve

---