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FON Forum Highlights
Neighborhood Street
and Traffic Concerns
Changing local streets to better accommo
date pedestrians and bicyclists is an ongoing
project, ACC traffic engineer Steve Decker said
at a Federation of Neighborhoods forum last
week. "We've made great strides," he said.
"But there's a pot of money, and to do things
we'd like to do, we need a bigger pot."
A new crosswalk signal—just installed near
The Grit on Prince Avenue—flashes highly vis
ible strobe lights that drivers are very likely to
see, Decker said. "If it was a perfect world,"
that portion of Prince would be three lanes
with bike lanes, he said. BikeAthens' Amy
Johnson, who also participated in the forum,
said there aren't enough cars on that section
to require four lanes. A move to three-lane
Prince from downtown to Milledge Avenue
"generated a lot of opposition" several years
ago, she added, but "we've got a very differ
ent mayor and commission now."
Road designs have a lot to do with safety,
said Katie Goodrum of BikeAthens, who just
authored an illustrated "traffic calming" man
ual (available at www.bikeathens.com) show
ing how features like traffic circles, curves
and medians can slow traffic and encourage
drivers to make eye contact with pedestrians.
The manual also explains how neighborhoods
can request traffic-calming changes to their
streets. Solar-powered radar speed signs
have been a big success in ACC's neighbor
hood traffic-calming program, Decker said. In
Homewood Hills, the signs have reduced typi
cal miles-per-hour speeds from the 40s to the
20s. One thing that doesn't work to calm traf
fic, he said, is adding four-way stops. "People
will run them," he said; and that's even more
dangerous.
In the future, said Decker, "you'll be see
ing major changes on Prince," because traffic
lights there are being synchronized. Data col
lection and adjustments will take time, but
"in the next five years, you'll see major differ
ences" in traffic flow, he said.
Despite losing his accident analyst to bud
get cuts, Decker has been analyzing accident
reports to make county streets safer. The red-
light camera on Lexington Road has success
fully reduced dangerous "T-bone" collisions
at Cherokee Road, he said: "those crashes are
almost gone," and the camera will soon be
removed. Not many intersections justify red-
light cameras, he said, because most don't
have a lot of collisions—but Atlanta Highway
at Huntington Road could be a candidate.
John Huie
M&C Will Consider
Bridge to Connect
Sandy Creek Trails
A new pedestrian bridge planned for Sandy
Creek Park would complete the hiking trail all
the way around Lake Chapman. Crossing Sandy
Creek at the take's relatively remote inlet (or
crossing a portion of the lake itself near the
inlet, depending on which design is chosen)
the bridge would connect two existing traits
into one long-planned loop trail around the
lake, over five miles long.
The bridge, if commissioners opt to fund
it, will not be cheap. Extending the connect
ing trails and building a bridge and boardwalk
across the wetlands will cost $250,000, ACC
commissioners were told at last week's work
session, but that version of the bridge would
be supported by an anonymous donor who
has offered to help pay for the project to the
tune of as much as $160,000. A second design
(recommended by county staffers because it
would be less remote and easier to monitor)
would cross the lake itself at a narrow point.
Such a bridge, extending for 450 feet across
the water, could also be used by fishermen,
Leisure Services Director Pam Reidy noted.
"People love to be on the water," she said.
"They love to have a destination to hike to."
But bridging the lake would cost
$350,000—and the anonymous donor doesn't
like that plan and won't support it, ACC
Manager Alan Reddish told commissioners.
The donor wants to create "a more educational
opportunity rather than a recreational oppor
tunity" for park visitors, Reddish said, through
public access to the wetlands. But "there is
not a real uniqueness to these wetlands,"
Reddish said; county parks have others. Reidy
added that a 2001 environmental report by
UGA's College of Agriculture also suggested
building the bridge over the lake instead.
Longtime local trail activist Walt Cook told
Flagpole he isn't the anonymous donor—but
he, too, prefers the wetlands path. "It'd be a
longer loop," he said, and a mere interesting
landscape. "The beaver have taken over that
country out there, and they've pretty well
managed it, so to speak."
Commissioners made no decision last week
on where (or whether) to build the bridge,
but a couple of commissioners noted that
$160,000 is a "significant" donation to lose.
The bridge could be finished by 2014.
Also moving forward (but slowly): plans
for multi-use greenway trails along the Middle
Oconee River (which currently has no public
trails). That river runs from near Bear Creek
Reservoir, roughly paralleling Tallassee Road
pas Ben Burton Park and the State Botanical
Garden before merging with the North Oconee.
At present, the county does not own much
land along that river—nor does it have money
to buy any. But planning comes first, then
funding, then negotiations with landowners
(commissioners have never used imminent
domain to acquire land for trails, although
legally they could). The type and location of
future trails depends on all those factors, plus
topography, trail planner Mel Cochran told
Flagpole.
Will there be a "blue trail" for river pad-
dlers? "That's something we're definitely look
ing at," she said.
John Huie
Downtown Panhandlers
Not a Reflection of
Homeless Situation
Services for the homeless in Athens
are set to get a major boost as part of the
University of Georgia's takeover of the former
Navy Supply Corps School on Prince Avenue.
To satisfy federal law requiring that the
homeless benefit from land or money yielded
from decommissioned military bases, UGA
will pay $7.9 million to the Athens Resource
Center for the Homeless (ARCH), a coalition
of local nonprofits. Their new facilities on
North Avenue, which open in 2013, should
greatly improve services for those who have
experienced homelessness, although symptoms
of homelessness most readily perceived by
the public—like panhandlers downtown—are
likely to be difficult to change.
The new homeless resource center will
address a major service gap by co-locating
programs, says Meredith Williams, executive
director of the Athens Area Homeless Shelter.
Shelter clients now often spend much of their
time traveling between
far-flung locations that
separately offer food,
shelter, job training,
childcare, or health
care. The North Avenue
development will include
transitional homes for 25
families, a daycare, and
a home for young adults coming from foster
care. A resource center will offer laundry and
showers, health care, counseling, job train
ing, case management, and other services.
Existing nearby resources include the county
Department of Family and Child Services, the
state Department of Labor, the Boys and Girls
Club, Howard B. Stroud Elementary School, and
bus stops.
For many, the most visible symptom of
homelessness in Athens is downtown panhan
dling. Will the new facilities have any effect
on this? More importantly, do panhandlers
truly represent the reality of homelessness
in Athens? Williams explains that a large
proportion of cases she sees involve family
homelessness, and that this is ofte.i hidden:
families are more likely to be living in cars
or doubled with other families than to be
visible on city streets. Many ARCH programs
are also targeted towards individuals who are
seeking stable housing and employment—
those who will be more likely to transition to
self-sufficiency after receiving support, for a
more lasting effect—not to panhandlers. The
existing JobTREC education and employment
program, for example, focuses on supporting
clients who are actively seeking work. The
new transitional housing will serve families
who have successfully completed a short-term
program at a local homeless shelter and are on
track to reach independence after a period of
additional support.
Kathryn Lookofsky, director of the Athens
Downtown Development Authority, sees pan
handling as a serious problem for the local
shopping environment, given customer and
shop owner complaints—but she perceives
that many panhandlers downtown are in fact
not homeless. Many appear to have been there
for years and are looking for "a fix," rather
than help in overcoming larger issues. The .
ADDA tries to encourage
shoppers to give to ser
vice organizations, not
to panhandlers.
Williams says she
can't be sure about any
impact on downtown
begging from the new
ARCH facilities. It seems
likely that a "one-stop shop" to meet basic
needs will attract some panhandlers away from
downtown at times, but resources to encour
age lasting independence will be concentrated
on those who are less visible and more moti
vated to change their circumstances.
Either way, the presence of panhandlers
or visibly indigent people downtown is a
complex issue. They are attracted to down
town for the same reasons everyone is—to
be around people and activity, to use ameni
ties like banks and shops, and to interact
with people. Compared to many other cities,
Athens' panhandler "situation" is mild. Yet,
it serves to inform the public's perception, or
misconception, of homelessness. Urban public
spaces play an essential educational role in
exposing people from different walks of life
to each other, but they do not always provide
a complete picture. Although it may be less
immediately obvious on the streets, the new
funding should help more homeless individu
als and families become stable, self-sufficient
members of the community.
Katie Goodrum
The presence of
panhandlers or visibly
indigent people downtown
is a complex issue.
JULY 20, 2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 5
