In fact, our neighborhood just received a new mural courtesy of artist Malaika Favorite.  Take a gander:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Familiar faces in the video include (1) many of our awesome West End neighbors who volunteered to paint and (2) Uncle Remus, who appears mid-yarn-spin on the right side of the mural (with a few (brer?) rabbits thrown in for good measure).

The groundbreaking for the 2nd mile of the BeltLine here in southwest Atlanta is tomorrow.  Pretty exciting.  There’s a 5K, a holiday lunch, and a party at Hammonds House to mark the occasion.  Oh, and a groundbreaking.

Thanks for the heads-up, Creative Loafing.

Related: The Asian Cajuns, Lain, and Amelia Hike the BeltLine, The BeltLine Begins!

The mural is slated to be the very first of what will hopefully be many public art projects incorporated into the Beltline.

As you may recall, the Beltline broke ground first in the West End.  A lovely bike path has been installed, complete with a new park and the beginnings of an arboretum.  Right now, the trees are a little weenie.  It’s not their fault.

As projects like the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Porgram have long proven, murals can be a great way to give folks ownership of public space and connect individuals with their communities .  Plus, they’re pretty.

When Lain and I went on the Beltline tour a few weeks ago, there was a lot of talk of art being incorporated into the project.  And now it’s starting!  So close to us, no less.

Good work, Beltline.  I still like you so much.

But that doesn’t mean Amelia and I enjoy working on both Saturdays and Sundays.  No sir.

So, this Saturday we took a little staff field trip with our friends Lauren, Catherine, and Matt.  We walked 7 miles of the Beltline, one of the largest urban renewal projects in the country.

The Beltline will ultimately be a 22 mile ring of transit, parks, and trails around Atlanta.  Right now, however, it’s mostly an abandoned rail corridor.  Lauren and Catherine have pictures on their blog, as does Urban Hiking Atlanta, so I’ll leave most of the explanation to them.

The Beltline is significant to the Wren’s Nest for two main reasons:

1. It runs just a few blocks from here, and is one of the few places to have already broke ground.
2. It is and will continue to encourage historic preservation in Atlanta.

I’m also excited that the staff of the Wren’s Nest will be a bike or one-seat train ride away from the Carter Center, the MLK birth home, or Piedmont Park.  Imagine the new lunch options!

If you’re interested in walking the Beltline, subscribe to Urban Hiking Atlanta or sign up for the Wonderroot e-newsletter.

(h/t, weirdly enough, to Decatur Metro who covered our story faster than I could)

Here’s Mayor Shirley Franklin giving the opening address, with Atlanta City Councilwoman Cleta Winslow to her right. And an important man wearing the t-shirt I also own to her left. Booyah!

There was a pretty good turnout, complete with camera crews, politicians, many of local folks, the man (Ryan Gravel) who came up with the idea for the Beltline as his thesis project (!), and an assortment of schlubs like ourselves. Plus one man confused about where to look.

For the real go-getters there were shovels to get in on the action. With a camera in one hand and a brownie bite in the other, I was not considered a go-getter, so much as a go-observer.

For people like ourselves who are Beltline supporters through and through, this was a pretty darn good way to start our day. Plus, did I mention there were brownie bites?

Literally. This is what it looked like on my way to work this morning.

Funding for the Beltline, Atlanta’s proposed loop of transit, trails, and parks, has fallen through.

One man legal show John Woodham contested the funding mechanism for the Beltline, and the Georgia Supreme Court was like, “Dude, he’s kinda right.”

Problem is, the funding mechanism–the TAD–has become an important revitalization tool for the city of Atlanta. Things like Atlantic Station wouldn’t exist without it.

Either way, it’s by no means clear how this will affect the stretch of the Beltline (supposedly) already under construction near the Wren’s Nest. Look to Fresh Loaf for answers throughout the day.

Next up–Ben Carter, the Streets of Buckhead developer, wants to demolish the Buckhead library.

The Streets of Buckhead is this huge mixed use project going up across town. The developers tore down a few city blocks to create Atlanta’s answer to Rodeo Drive.

The library in question is right in the middle of their development. According to a few folks who know more than I do, it also happens to be one of the most important buildings in Atlanta built during my lifetime.

I can’t say I’m surprised, but you’d figure that we’d have learned from our mistakes by now. I wonder how many more buildings we’ll lose before we realize that historic structures are important culturally and economically.

Update: Some save the library! people have created a blog. Go team!

Related: Place in Peril 2008, Beltline Cleanup, Atlanta Preservation Center, Atlanta Time Machine

Which is exactly why Lain skipped town last weekend.

Luckily, Matt and I have been hired to be far more noble, which is why we nobly participated in a Beltline cleanup this past Saturday, just a few blocks from the Wren’s Nest.

(Ahoy, volunteers!)

Yes yes, I know, you thought the life of a Wren’s Nest employee was one of fans, reclining, and grapes. And occasionally it is, though with fewer grapes and fans. Last weekend, however, Matt and I got down and dirty- literally.

First was the dirty. As part of a trash removal crew, we were given bins and, thank the heavens above, work gloves. These hands shan’t callous! The directions were pretty clear: trash in bins.

(The lengths Asian Cajuns will go to for trash. Bravery at its finest!)

We got down sans-dancing when it became clear that though there was some trash near the street, the real work to be done was down in the ravine, where the Beltline track is/will be.

(Here are Matt and Lauren considering escape options from the floor of the ravine. There were few.)

While I will let Lain wax poetic about the Beltline in a future post, as he is far more of a public transportation nerd than I (the best term for me would be something around “foaming at the mouth lunatic” thanks to my privileged upbringing), it was great to be a (very, very small) part of something that, in about 10 years, will drastically change the way Atlanta functions for the better.

(Trash! And check out the guy top left who was going for it, big time. He may or may not have had a safety line. His mouth said yes but absolutely everything else said no.)

So yes, while we did encounter some rather stinky, puzzling (a bag full of videotapes), and overwhelmingly wet trash, we also got to pat ourselves on the back… plus a free t-shirt and lunch! And you know how the Wren’s Nest feels about free food.

(Behold! The site of the future! My, how clean it looks!)

Oh and then we drank beer all afternoon. Did I mention we’re noble?