Buckhead Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net
JAN. 23 — FEB. 5, 2015 • VOL. 9 — NO. 2
Inside
Standout Student
Pay up BeltLine owes school system millions COMMUNITY 3
Perimeter Business PAGES 7-11
Walk this way
She fights for women’s rights EDUCATION 18
Condo residents find a feeling of community BY JOE EARLE
joeearle@reporternewspapers.net
From left, Buckhead residents Josiah Ruth, 13, his mom Kathleen, father Cory, and four-month-old Kinsley, take a stroll along PATH400 on Jan. 17. The one-half mile trail officially opened for public use on Jan. 9.
PHIL MOSIER
PATH400 opens and Buckhead hits the trail BY JOE EARLE
When it came time to downsize his home, Joel Lobel didn’t want to live in a condo. “Who wants to live in a condo?” he asked, feigning indignation simply at the suggestion. He’d lived in houses and apartments. He thought living in a condominium somehow sounded too isoWhere lating, too cut off You from the commuLive nity. “We looked at everything,” said the 71-year-old, who retired from the electrical supply business. “We looked at townhouses, smaller houses. I did not want to live in a condo.” Then, five years ago, his wife convinced him to move into the Gallery, a 27-story condominium on Peachtree Road in Buckhead. Now he feels right at home in his ninth-floor condo overlooking Garden Hills and providing views clear to downtown Atlanta. He knows his neighbors. He’s president of the condo homeowners association. He’s more involved with others around him now than he was when he lived in a neighborhood of single-family detached homes. “To me, this feels more like a community than my neighborhood did,” he said. Others who live in Buckhead condos say similar sorts of things. They see their conSEE CONDO, PAGE 4
joeearle@reporternewspapers.net
Michael and Staci Anderson watched the construction ings and other last-minute items on the trail’s punch list. of PATH400 eagerly. They’re runners and like the idea of a Jason Coleman and his family stopped by after checkconvenient trail through their Buckhead neighborhood that ing on construction work on a new home they’re buildthey can use for a bit of exercise or to ing nearby. He and his wife, Theresa, take the dog for a walk. and their 19-year-old daughter, Aman“I’ve been running it since they da, brought along their family dog and Atlanta must become knocked down the trees,” Michael An“thought we’d come by for a walk,” derson said. “It’s great. It’s really excitColeman said. “I think it’s great,” Colemore walkable ing.” man said. “We’ve looking forward to it COMMENTARY p. 6 One recent sunny Saturday, the Anopening. It’s nice to have something like dersons put their 9-month-old daughthis nearby.” ter, Abigail, in her stroller and took Just eight days earlier, on Jan. 9, her and their Labradoodle, Cosmo, to more than 80 business and government check out the first segment of PATH400 formally open for leaders gathered to formally open PATH400. Scores of them public use. donned bright green, hand-made scarves and braved chilly They were part of a steady stream of walkers, joggers winter weather to witness a ribbon cutting for the half-milepushing strollers, and bicyclists who tried out the new trail long segment of the path that begins at the “Buckhead wall” as construction workers continued installing railings, plantSEE PATH400, PAGE 19
PHIL MOSIER
Buckhead Condo Alliance President Ben Howard lives in the Alhambra on Peachtree Road.