What We’re Reading: Monday, June 9th
Welcome to What We’re Reading, a weekly rundown of the articles that caught our eye related to investing in our community or the things that make Athens great.
Flagpole provides this review of all of the winners from the Athens Clarke Heritage Foundation Preservation Awards last week. The awards are presented to outstanding achievements in historical preservation in our community, and the awards show highlights those achievements and raises awareness about the historic resources available in Athens. You can also check out the fine work of each of the winners in this slide show.
Flagpole also gave us this write up of the downtown renaissance of Greenville, South Carolina this week. Kristen Morales was a part of the Athens Clarke Heritage Foundation group that went to Greenville two weeks ago to see what that city did to revitalize its downtown. She describes the farmers markets, public art, free parking, and waterfall park that have changed the perception of their downtown from a polluted neighbor of textile mills to a vibrant, green gem in downtown planning. If you want to learn even more about Greenville (and what Athens might learn as we build our own downtown plans), you can check out Reimagining Greenville: Building The Best Downtown in America.
ABH reported that Cedar Shoals’ JROTC unit was selected to make the trip to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. The young cadets marched in a D-Day parade in a small French town and laid a wreath to honor former U.S. Army Ranger and Athens attorney John Edward “Buck” Griffin, who died in 2002. ABH also has some pictures from the D-Day parade here.
Vox reprots on a study which shows that the construction of separated bike lanes increases bicycle traffic. Researchers from Portland State University and Atla Planning studied bike lanes in Austin, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, and Washington DC and found that bike lanes physically separated by a curb or barrier made bikers feel more comfortable on the road and made drivers feel that bikers were more predictable and safe. You can see the full study here.
Finally, last Monday, the Obama bshinholseristration released a policy proposal which aims to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from existing power plants in an effort to begin to address climate change. You can see a full rundown on the proposed EPA rule from Vox here and the actual text of the proposed rule here (I can’t be the only one interested in the full text, right?). The White House also recently released an assessment of the impact of Climate Change on Georgia (and the rest of the Southeast) and the EPA provides this map describing how Georgia can meet the new EPA standards. As this issue develops, we will continue to bring you updates here at Capitol Corner.
Got anything else we should be reading? Reach out to us here: