Tour De Sprawl

Where There Is No Vision The People Perish

originally published October 10, 2001

tourdesprawl.jpg Photo by Brad Aaron

Most of us just don't think about it.

We get in our cars to get to work, to school, to go to a movie, to get a loaf of bread. On the way we pass acres of parking for a new strip mall, where there once was farmland and a stand of trees. The lot is mostly empty, as usual, since it was designed to meet demand for Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping. But they sell good burritos there.

Half a mile up the road there's another empty blacktop, and a vacated strip mall to go with it. The burrito joint used to be there, but it moved to the new strip, along with most of the other businesses.

There's half a church, where some of Athens' first residents gathered to talk and worship every week. The rest of the building was cleared for asphalt a few years ago - parking for condominiums. A couple of blocks away, more apartments are going up, after they bulldoze the rest of those run-down houses.

Suddenly, traffic comes to a grinding halt. Stop and roll. We turn up the AC, take a sip of Aquafina, and sigh heavily. Finally seeing his chance, a guy walking in the tall grass along the shoulder of the road darts by, across the lanes of idling cars. Then we see the obstruction: some jerk on a bicycle. No, there's more than one - must be, like, over a hundred of them. We nearly drop our sticky bun reaching for the horn, screaming "Get the *!@# off the road!"

Yep, it's Tour de Sprawl time. A three-day event culminating in a 15-mile bike and bus loop around Athens, the Second Annual TdS aims to get us thinking about how the city can be a safe, inviting and accessible place for all of its residents, and how it can grow up without growing out.

"The whole purpose of the Tour is to raise awareness that seemingly separate issues are inextricably bound," says Jason Henderson, president of BikeAthens, the local multi-model transportation advocacy group that helped organized the event. To that end, the Tour itself will feature speakers on community identity, alternative transportation, affordable housing, water quality, traffic congestion and University growth. All of these topics are currently and constantly making news in Athens, and one doesn't have to think too hard to realize the fight against gentrification in the Garden Springs neighborhood lately goes hand in hand with the seemingly unending struggle for more bike lanes and sidewalks.

"It's all interrelated," says Henderson. "I don't think many of our Commissioners understand that."

For example, Henderson cites the recently approved Barnett Shoals widening project, a $4.5 million plan with no definite provisions for bike lanes, and few for pedestrians. As approved by the Commission on October 2, Barnett Shoals will be converted to a five lane highway, where drivers will be able to make left-hand turns wherever they want, but nearby residents still won't be able to safely walk to stores and restaurants just yards from their homes. The Tour includes a stop in that area, near the Eastside Kroger shopping center.

The Barnett Shoals project will be financed completely with local dollars - the state Department of Transportation bowed out after Athens-Clarke refused to draw in a center median. But just weeks before the Commission agreed to pay millions to five-lane that stretch of road, cyclists were told it will take 25 years to implement the county's Bicycle Master Plan due to a lack of available funds.

On the plus side, at least Athens has a Bicycle Master Plan, and by all accounts, is at least somewhat ahead of the game on the bike lane front when compared to most urban areas its size. And earlier this year, Athens-Clarke County convened a committee of Commissioners and alternative transportation advocates to explore converting the abandoned Eastside CSX rail line into a bike-pedestrian trail. Ultimately, BikeAthens hopes to see the corridor transformed into an alt-trans link from downtown Athens to Winterville.

It can be done. Just over an hour from Athens, the Silver Comet Trail stretches 38 miles along an old rail line from Smyrna to Rockmart, and attracts scores of cyclists, in-line skaters and pedestrians every day. Last month, the rail-trail committee led an excursion to the Silver Comet.

The Dudley Park trestle, along the CSX line, is another stop on this year's TdS. In addition to its historical significance, the trestle is also a tourist draw, having been featured on the jacket of R.E.M.'s debut album, Murmur. Such landmarks help give Athens its sense of place, says Henderson, which local leaders are often quick to sell short.

"Athens is a gem in the Southeast," he says. "It is a unique place because it still has a quality of life - although it's threatened - that a lot of people desire, and it's got a huge potential. And it's just giving it away."

Instead of zoning for more sprawl and heavy industry, says Henderson, "We should be saying 'We're going to pick and choose what we get.'"

An Athens industry often overlooked in suit-and-tie circles will kick off the TdS weekend on Thursday when the 40 Watt Club hosts the Tour's Music Fund-raiser. The following evening, New Urbanist giant Andres Duany will speak on "The Decline of the American Community" at UGA's Fine Arts Theatre, followed by a book-signing at Founders Garden.

Then comes the Tour itself. Registration begins Saturday at 8 a.m.. The ride starts at 9 a.m. sharp. Starting and ending on College Square downtown, this year's Tour will take cyclists and shuttle bus passengers to Lyndon House, Dudley Park, the Triangle Park Shopping Center in East Athens, the Bailey Street water treatment plant, the Barnett Shoals shopping district, and UGA's Ramsey Student Center. The Tour should wrap up around 1 p.m.

Co-presented this year by BikeAthens, the Athens Grow Green Coalition and the Upper Oconee Watershed Network (UOWN), the TdS promises a mix of recreation and politics - which is, unfortunately, what alternative transportation has to be about these days. But Henderson asks critics not to pigeonhole groups like BikeAthens, UOWN and Grow Green.

"We're not anti-growth," he says. "We're about how we grow. We can add 50,000 people to this county without paving another inch of it. And that's the kind of vision that we need."
Tour de Sprawl Schedule

Thursday, Oct. 11
Athens Music Fundraiser
40 Watt Club, 8 p.m.
Admission: $7, $10 suggested donation
Featuring Circulatory System (see story on p. 22), Art Rosenbaum, The Squalls, Jack Logan, David Barbe

Friday, Oct. 12
Andres Duany, "The Decline of the American Community."
UGA Fine Arts Theatre, 7 p.m.
Admission: $2 suggested donation
Lecture, followed by a reception and book-signing at the Founders Garden at 9 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 13

Tour de Sprawl 2001
All Over Athens, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Cost: $15, $25 (with T-shirt)
Registration and sign-in is at College Square (College Ave and Broad St.) at 8 a.m. Ride begins and buses leave promptly at 9 a.m.
o Stop 1: Lyndon House Arts Center. Marianne Craemer, UGA School of Environmental Design: "Community Identity."
o Stop 2: Dudley Park. Carl Jordan, ACC Commissioner: "East Side Rail Trail."
o Stop 3: Triangle Park Shopping Center. Toni Antrum, UGA Small Business Development Center: "Affordable Housing."
o Stop 4: Waste Water Treatment Facility. Doug Haines, State Senator and Executive Director of Georgia Legal Watch: "Effects of Sprawl on Water Quality."
o Stop 5: Barnett Shoals Shopping Center. Jack Crowley, UGA School of Environmental Design: "Sprawl in Athens."
o Stop 6: UGA Ramsey Student Center. Danny Sniff, UGA Architects Director: "Alleviating Campus Sprawl."