Launching into Tuesday
March 3 — This week’s Silver Streak brings news of new initiatives, including the debut of MARTA Reach – an on-demand transit service that begins March 7 – and a host of centennial exhibitions to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Atlanta History Center. Scroll down for more on both stories.
Plus, we have details on an anonymous gift to the City of Avondale Estates. Read more below to find out how Waffle House helped make this act of generosity possible.
And now for a few headlines:
🗳️ Sen. Jon Ossoff, Attorney General Chris Carr, and Rep. David Scott were among the candidates who qualified for the upcoming elections yesterday. Qualifying continues until Friday at noon.
🚇 MARTA is continuing upgrades this week to its Breeze fare collection system, starting at Airport Station and continuing through Friday at Buckhead, Brookhaven, Lindbergh, and East Point stations.
🏛️ The DNC said Atlanta is among five cities in the running to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention.
🐶 A beloved Dunwoody salon dog was found 20 miles away after disappearing a month ago.
🎨 Artists and neighbors in downtown Tucker will celebrate the grand opening of Mama Debbie’s Art Emporium – a “community hub” for artists to collaborate, exhibit, and sell their work – with a party and inaugural exhibition on Saturday.
🍽️ Every month, our dining team shares a list of standout dishes, drinks, and restaurants they’ve frequented. Check out the rundown for February here.
🕓 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter.
• Atlanta History Center Centennial
• MARTA Reach launches Saturday
• $1 million gift to Avondale Estates
AND
• Stories of Atlanta | Lance Russell
Atlanta History Center celebrates its 100th anniversary
💯 The Atlanta History Center is anticipating an eventful year in honor of its centennial. From the center’s largest exhibition to date to a sports-themed overhaul of the Goizueta Children’s Experience in partnership with five of the city’s professional teams, residents and visitors will have the opportunity to experience Atlanta’s past, present, and future throughout 2026.
Two of the AHC’s centennial exhibitions will highlight the Civil War, including the center’s largest-ever exhibition, “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era,” opening in July.
The AHC’s senior military historian and curator, Gordon Jones, is a major force behind the large exhibition. Through “More Perfect Union,” Jones is revisiting and improving an exhibition he curated that was deinstalled from the center 30 years ago.
“We have new artifacts, new scholarship, and new technologies to be able to communicate this story in a more fulsome way,” Pola Changnon, chief content officer for the AHC, said. “I think the quote that our historian always uses is, ‘this is not your grandfather’s Civil War.’”
🎖️ Read more about what’s in store for the centennial year here.
Top Orthopedic Care For You, and For Those In Need.
SPONSORED BY PEACHTREE ORTHOPEDICS
🫶 The Peachtree Orthopedics Foundation is a charitable organization with a 75-year history of service.
⚕️ A long history of service in Haiti – In 1953, Dr. James Funk, a founder of Peachtree Orthopedics, made his first trip to Haiti to visit and assist Sister Joan Margaret – a nun who ran St. Vincent’s School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince. That began a 75-year tradition of funding and mission trips to provide free orthopedic services to the nation of Haiti.
⚕️ A new history in Honduras. For the last 9 years, Peachtree has taken similar trips to Honduras. Last week – in fact – we performed 36 total knee replacements there. Quite an accomplishment for a small staff, over a couple of days, in a country that performs only 100 total joint surgeries per year. More trips would mean a much greater impact.
➡ To learn more, or to donate, go to pofoundation.org. Any amount is helpful and every donation matters. Our goal is to help the world Get Better.
MARTA launches on-demand transit service this weekend
🚌 MARTA will officially launch MARTA Reach, an on-demand transit service in 12 zones across Atlanta, beginning March 7.
Part of MARTA’s NextGen Bus Network, MARTA Reach will bring transit service directly to the rider’s location for transport to rail and bus stations.
Residents can request a ride through the MARTA Reach app or reservation line, which provides a pickup window of 30 minutes or less. The service will operate 18 hours a day, seven days a week.
📱 Learn more about MARTA Reach here.
Avondale Estates receives anonymous $1 million gift ‘thanks to Waffle House’
🧇 The DeKalb County city of Avondale Estates received a gift of $1 million last week. The anonymous donors shared that their contribution was made possible “thanks to Waffle House – serving Avondale since 1955.”
City Manager Patrick Bryant said Avondale Estates officials were surprised by the donation.
“Any time somebody offers a donation of this magnitude, it’s incredibly exciting. Not only does the city get the opportunity to determine how to utilize these resources in a very impactful way, [but] it also speaks to the confidence that the donor has in our ability to do so,” Bryant said. “We look forward to utilizing these funds to the best of our ability, both to make the donor proud and the community proud.”
💰 Read more about the donation and the connection between Waffle House and Avondale Estates here.
‘The Price of Standing Still’: Stories of Atlanta by Lance Russell
VIA SAPORTAREPORT
🚃 Henry Ford is often credited with saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” In true Ford fashion, he didn’t ask. Instead, he gave the world the “horseless carriage” and nothing was ever quite the same.
For more than a century, Americans have had a love affair with the automobile. Cars have carried us toward opportunity and away from inconvenience. From the steam-powered Locomobiles of the early 20th century to today’s Wi-Fi-enabled machines, the automobile has long been a symbol of progress.
In Atlanta, the “horseless carriage” arrived in 1904. Its popularity grew so quickly that by 1949, the city’s streetcars, once the backbone of public transportation, ran their final routes. From then on, the car ruled Atlanta’s roadways. Over the years, the growth of the automobile industry has continued to spawn the introduction of other innovations, not all of them welcomed.
🅿️ See which arrivals stirred steep reactions on this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
🖋️ Today’s Silver Streak was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
