The Atlanta Beltline is a 22-mile transit greenway that is changing both the physical form of the city and the decisions people make about living there. The vision for this city-transforming project came from a master’s thesis project at Georgia Tech in 1999 from a student named Ryan Gravel. Ryan was captivated by how cities could become more human-centered and less car-centric. He has a creative eye to see how we can repurpose existing infrastructure to make neighborhoods places of connection, vibrancy, and social and economic vitality. Do we want the kind of cities we have grown to accept as status quo? What is our vision for the kind of places we want and deserve?
Ryan’s Book: Where We Want to Live
Ryan Gravel, AICP, is an urban designer, author, and speaker – an entrepreneur working on ideas about the future of cities.His master’s thesis in 1999 was the original vision for the Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile transit greenway that with twenty years of progress, is changing both the physical form of his city and the decisions people make about living there. Now a $4 billion public-private investment in the early stages of implementation, the project’s health and economic benefits are already evident through record-breaking use of its first section of mainline trail and over $10 billion of private sector redevelopment since 2005.
Shawn Duncan, is the Director of FCS’s Training and Consulting Division, The Lupton Center. Shawn comes to FCS from the nonprofit leadership sector with research and writing focused on pedagogies for social impact. In his previous careers he has focused on multi-sector coalition building for community impact, content and curriculum design, group facilitation, leadership development, and immigration reform advocacy. As the leader of The Lupton Center team, Shawn brings a visionary voice for innovation, a strategic mind for resource development, and the leadership acumen to support and equip the team for success. He loves being a part of a mission-driven team that finds joy in one another while doing such important work.
Jeff Delp, Director of Economic Development, has been operating small businesses in Historic South Atlanta for more than a decade. He has been a resident of the neighborhood since 2001, and has been with FCS since 2009. Prior to his time with FCS, he started and operated two other local non-profit organizations in Atlanta. He is a graduate of Messiah College with Bachelor degrees in History and Political Science.
Special thanks to our podcast editor, Tim Rhodes, for making this episode possible. If you are interested in working with Tim, you can contact him via email at tim@whistlingblue.com, or through his website, whistlingblue.com. If you have questions, feedback, or wish to contact us, please email Rose Silva at rose@fcsministries.org.
