Letter to the Editor: Why is Atlanta Streets Alive a city event?

Like all the most successful community events, Atlanta Streets Alive was a big success in its original incarnation as a community inspired, community-based, and community-implemented initiative.

I know that first-hand because, as a minivan driver, I was the one in charge of getting ice for the beer coolers back then. Yes, Streets Alive and the likes of the Lantern Parade and Porchfest-type gatherings are celebrations of the neighborhoods that birth them while being robustly open and inclusive, year after year.

When legislation was proposed for Streets Alive every Sunday, year round, on Peachtree Street the very nature and culture of the event deteriorated. That legislation faced such desperate opposition from stakeholders that it did not progress.

Modified to once per month, still on Peachtree, it stalled before suddenly becoming a line item in the city budget with Streets Alive as an Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT) event. Hmmmm. Really? Maybe suited to the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, but ATLDOT? And a new staffer was hired to manage it. And they partnered with Propel ATL who would do marketing and media.

At a time when Peachtree Street has serious and urgent needs for ATLDOT attention – sidewalk repairs and ADA access – public money is being spent and resources of ATLDOT, the Atlanta Department of Public Works, and the Atlanta Police Department are all stretched. For what?

Streets Alive has devolved into nothing more than a city-sanctioned guerrilla take-over of the public right of way in effort to cement the entitlement of those with an abhorrence of people who drive cars and for the street level stakeholders who suffer when access to their businesses is impeded by an event. And now, speeding bikes, e-bikes and scooters are just too hazardous for pedestrians. 

ATLDOT does not need to be in the event management business, all those best and brightest minds need to focus on getting their real jobs done. Instead of budgeting for Streets Alive, let’s establish a grant fund for community-based initiatives that have a proven record of success and that are sprinkled around the city. 

Let’s ask some questions and spark collaborative conversations about public rights of way, their uses, and how city resources are deployed.