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JULY 2019 • VOL. 13 — NO. 7
Buckhead Reporter ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
PBS to air local singer’s documentary P5
DUNWOODY SALUTES AMERICA WITH ANNUAL FOURTH OF JULY PARADE See pull-out section pages 15-18
New Garden Hills field takes shape
MARTA plans to bring improvements to Buckhead by 2025
COMMENTARY
GDOT chief: ‘Benefits of express lanes are proven’
BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
P10 COMMENTARY
Reporter wins Honored as a newspaper 15 Georgia of General Excellence Press awards 2018 P10
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PHOTO BY JOHN RUCH
A new amphitheater takes shape on the hillside in front of Garden Hills Elementary School as part of a $750,000, community-supported field renovation project. For more about the project and the fundraising effort, see the story and photos on p. 30 ►
Highway-capping park may be renamed ‘Hub 404’ BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Buckhead’s highway-capping green space plan, long known as the “park over Ga. 400,” may be dubbed “Hub 404” as part of a rebranding as a major fundraising effort begins in September. The new name, referring to the center of
metro Atlanta’s 404 phone area code, is intended to reflect the larger ambition of the park, says Jay Gould, the new board chair at a nonprofit group that aims to raise the estimated $175 million to $200 million needed for the project’s private funding. Currently known as POG 400, the nonprofit would take on the new name as well if its
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Buckhead will have significant MARTA bus service improvements in place, and rail connections to the Atlanta BeltLine and Emory University in design stages, by 2025 under a tentative “sequencing” plan approved by the transit agency’s board June 13. The roughly five-and-a-half-year timeline is general and subject to change, but shows that MARTA wants to get a relatively fast start on its long-awaited “More MARTA” expansion plan. Focused on transit projects within the city of Atlanta, “More MARTA” is funded by a half-penny sales tax approved by voters in 2016 and expected to raise $2.5 billion over the next 40 years. The sales tax will not pay for all of the desired projects, leading to controversy about how to prioritize them. MARTA has said it will seek other public and private funding sources as well. One Buckhead-area project that was approved as part of “More MARTA” does not appear on the sequencing list: a bus rapid transit line on Northside Drive. MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher said that project was not selected for the first five-year expansion plan but remains on the list for later. The proposed sequencing of other Buckhead-area projects includes:
Operational by 2025
Arterial rapid transit bus service on Route 110 on Peachtree Street/Road between See MARTA on page 19
G old
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