Newspaper Page Text
21 st
CENTURY
stems:
Academy
21stcenturystem.academy
404*618*3599
Enrolling
K-10 students
for the
2018 school
year now!
OPEN HOUSE DATES
Grades
Date
Time
K-3
Thurs, Mar 1
l-3pm
4-10
Mon, Mar 5 (STEM)
9-llam
K-10
Thurs, Mar 8 (STEM)
6-8pm
21 st Century STEM
Academy is a globally-
engaged, accredited,
human-scale
K-12 school in an
inspirational
environment led by
accomplished teachers.
Students thrive through
individualized and
personalized education,
featuring UC Davis math
and coding, recognizing
the inter-dependency of
STEM and liberal arts.
Small classes and
project-enhanced
mastery-based learning
with one-to-one
tutoring motivate every
child to achieve their
highest potential.
Buckhead Coalition touts
apartment growth
By Evelyn Andrews
Buckhead Coalition president Sam
Massell is drawing attention to the growth
of apartments in the neighborhood, saying
they are a “two-edged” sword that can bring
nearly as many problems as they do benefits.
The coalition is touting the apartments in
the neighborhood on the cover of this year’s
Buckhead Guidebook, an annual publication
by the coalition that gives a comprehensive
look at the neighborhood. The cover of the
book, which was distributed at the Buckhead
Coalition’s annual meeting on Jan. 31, is
a sprawling spreadsheet of 55 names of
apartment buildings that have been proposed
or constructed since 2012.
“The multi-use buildings under
construction in this region — enough to
create a new skyline and surprise residents
and visitors alike — has the economy all
aglitter,” the coalition wrote in the book’s
introduction.
“Although we acknowledge impressive
growth in Midtown, as well as real value-
added improvements in Downtown,
Buckhead doesn’t take a back seat to any of
our neighborhoods,” it continued.
There were 12,000 apartment units when
the Buckhead Coalition started keeping track
in 2012, Buckhead Coalition President Sam
Massell said. Since then, 17,114 apartment
units have been built or proposed, with
1,741 of those units later taken off the
drawing board.
“Too much of a good thing may have to
have some control, but we see it as a major
part of Buckhead,” Massell said. “It needs to
be included in the community as a part of
the formula for what makes it great.”
Massell predicted the continued
growth of apartments in his 2016 “State of
Buckhead” speech, in which he encouraged
audience members to embrace the changes
they bring, including an influx of millennials.
The cover of the annual guidebook
highlights a different trend in the community
each year. Last year, it highlighted Buckhead’s
entrepreneur community and “idea
incubators” like Atlanta Tech Village. The
2016 cover highlighted millennials.
Massell said that some people are critical
of apartments because of their potential
effects on the community, but said the
apartments are already in Buckhead, so they
must be accepted.
“It’s not a question of if we can have
them or if we should have them. They are
already here. They are us,” said Massell, who
spent 20 years in the real estate business
before entering public office.
But Massell acknowledged possible
downsides to density.
“They are correct that density does
generate problems in any community. It
generates more crime. It generates more
traffic. It generates more pollution,” he said.
City Councilmember Howard Shook
introduced legislation last year to deal with
worsening traffic issues caused in part by the
apartment developments in the Peachtree
Road corridor. The legislation would create
an overlay district with new limits on parking
spaces.
But lack of density can be even worse,
Massell said. It can generate poverty,
deterioration of buildings and lack of
business expansion, he said. That eventually
can trickle down to not having enough
people living there to generate enough
property revenue to provide amenities.
“It’s a two-edged sword, definitely. I’m
not trying to deny that,” he said.
Apartments also provide more
opportunities to create more affordable
housing in Buckhead, which currently does
not have many affordable options, Massell
said.
Apartments also draw millennials who
are more likely to ride bikes or transit and
could help push for more transit expansion
and other forms of alternative commuting,
he said.
“We’re looking at it from the view of,
‘Here’s what we have. How do we make the
best of it?’ ” he said.
Another change noted in the guidebook
is that the estimated Buckhead population
has surpassed the 90,000 mark. The
guidebook, which includes data for the
previous year, has data that estimates
2017’s population was 90,390. The 2016
population estimated in last year’s guidebook
was 87,314.
Meanwhile, Massell is working on the
next major event that follows the annual
meeting — his “State of Buckhead” address.
The speech will continue the same theme
of the annual meeting, which was uniting
Atlanta politically, he said. H
1549 Clairmont Rd, Decatur, GA 30033
IN ATLANTA
JEVI5HATLANTA.ORG/PJUBMRr
A JEWISH THEMED
BOOK FOR YOUR
CHILO EVERY MONTH!
Powered by Jewish Federation
of Greater Atlanta
28 March 2018 | H3
AtlantalNtownPaper.com