While the Georgia Fair Lending Act would have curbed some lending in the highest-risk segments says Professor Dan Immergluck of Georgia Tech's School of City and Regional Planning, he believes the benefits of the Act far outweigh the costs. “There wouldn’t have been nearly as many loans being made (if the original law had stood), and that would have been a good thing," notes Immergluck.

Landon Reed (MCRP/MS-CE '13) and other members of the Georgia Transportation Institute have developed a new app called OneBusAway that seeks to improve the flow of information between transit systems and transit riders. "Doing research here at Tech, not only are we trying to measure whether people wait less time or ride the bus more, but I think we're actually helping people have better days and increasing their satisfaction with transit," said Reed.

As Georgia Tech's College of Architecture enters into the final stages of hiring a new dean, Maria Saporta reflects on changes to the college over the past 60 years and the experience of visiting the latest retrospective exhibit showcasing the alumni work. 

While the impending construction of a new $1 billion retractable roof stadium for the Atlanta Falcons headlines the revitalization plan for the Northside Drive corridor, Professor of Practice Michael Dobbins believes it signals just the start of development in the area. Dobbins contends that the corridor possesses the potential to become a "well-lighted, tree-lined boulevard" that could provide new opportunities for the neglected Westside neighborhood that sits in the shadow of the current Falcons stadium.

Eleven professors and students from Georgia Tech visited Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and engaged in discussions with the mayoral office, the port authority, and an economic development committee about the best approaches to accelerate development around the city’s port. The strategies recommended by Professor Nancey Green Leigh and Associate Professor Perry Yang to transform the bay area into a knowledge-based economy and to preserve a public access to the city’s waterfront will be considered as part of the larger bay area development plan.  

As the Atlanta real estate market continues to monitor the growing role of large-scale institutional investors, Georgia Tech Professor Dan Immergluck comments on their potential to influence the single family rental market

When asked to lead a team from Georgia Tech in speculating what Atlanta would look like in 100 years, Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones insisted on three important concepts. The team envisioned what Atlanta would look like with transit on every corridor, eco-acre transfers, and 1,000 foot-buffers on every stream corridor. "We’re seeing cities like Atlanta have problems with drought and flooding," said Dunham-Jones. "And we’re fighting water wars with our neighbors. We need to get much more serious about protecting our water."

Masters students through Georgia Tech's School of City and Regional Planning and under the direction of Professor of Practice Michael Dobbins are finalizing recommendations that intend to transform Northside Drive into a grand transit boulevard. Tech’s study is to be complete in May and already is beginning to stir up interest among local urban planners.

The line of demarcation between the creative class and the service class in Atlanta has historically divided the city in half. Ellen Dunham-Jones, a professor of architecture and urban design at Georgia Tech, more recently notes, "One of the shifts that's been going on for 20 years now is the conversion of all of the old warehouses and factories where the working class used to work into lofts lived in by the creative class types." As manufacturing in Atlanta pushes more and more toward the periphery, the service class continues to settle in Atlanta's suburbs and not in the city proper.

The idea to more intimately link 45 Atlanta neighborhoods through a common trailway began as a graduate thesis at Georgia Tech. In 1999, a city planning and architecture student named Ryan Gravel proposed an overhaul of an abandoned railroad corridor, a 120-page proposal he expected to gather dust. Instead a city councilwoman heard about the proposal and seized on it, using the Beltline as an economic and community development tool. “It’s not only changing the physical form of the city," Ryan Gravel told The New York Times, "it’s changing the way we think about the city.”

Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center, the largest and oldest campus-based tech incubator in the nation, is currently helping 40 companies develop and market their ideas. "One of the beauties of Atlanta is you have access to so many Fortune 400 companies," says Adam Wexler, a co-founder of InsightPool. "If you can create a solution that satisfies their needs, you'll be in a good spot."

A new case study by Professor Dan Immergluck of distressed Atlanta neighborhoods is one of the first on-the ground reports about the effect investors are having in rental markets. Immergluck’s study examines the mixed levels of success investors have achieved in renting out their properties in the wake of the housing crisis and the resulting impact on property upkeep.

From the recommendations of a study conducted by Georgia Tech City and Regional Planning students under the supervision of Professor Michael Dobbins, the City of Atlanta is looking to designate Northside Drive as a "transit corridor." Without transit, the neighborhood "doesn't work — it ultimately collapses," says Dobbins.

Jennifer Clark, Associate Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy, says policymakers often fail to appreciate the contributions of the lower-end jobs when trying to attract “the creative class.” Clark instead proposes addressing the labor market as a ladder that provides "opportunities for people to pull themselves from the bottom rungs to the top.”

Amidst concerns of Tea Party representatives, Fulton County recently engaged Georgia Tech Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and George Washington University’s business school to conduct a regional study of "walkable communities" and their potential role as an economic development engine. 

The released heat from cities is changing temperatures in areas more than 1,000 miles away reports a new study from National Center for Atmospheric Research on the urban heat island effect. "Cities occupy just a few percent of the global land surface, but the amount of energy released as waste heat is contributing downwind to pretty significant changes in climate," commented Brian Stone, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director of the Urban Climate Lab at Georgia Tech.

As the City of Atlanta defers maintenance on the aging Underground, Civic Center, and Cyclorama, thought leaders in the region urge action. “I would like to see (the city) running as fast as we can," said Professor Catherine Ross of Georgia Tech’s National Center for Transportation Productivity and Management.

As Atlanta gauges interest in redeveloping the 55 acres surrounding Turner Field, a planning studio led by Associate Professor Richard Dagenhart found that similar, successful redevelopment projects gathered stakeholders early in the process to form a common vision.

One of fourteen thought leaders asked to anticipate the coming year's biggest urban issue, Professor Ross wrote, "2013 presents the opportunity for planners to integrate innovation, so often talked about in our profession, into practice." She holds that adapting policies to keep up with new technology provides a significant opportunity to create better places to live.

Georgia Tech alumnus John Portman will receive an honorary doctor of philosophy degree for setting the standard of excellence in the development of mixed use complexes, domestic and international landmarks and major resorts around the world as chairman of Portman Holdings, LLC.

Despite metro Atlanta's car-centric reputation, a new study indicates large-scale bike-sharing could be feasible in Atlanta. Bike-sharing hubs have already started popping up in peer cities such as Charlotte, Chattanooga, Miami Beach, and Washington, D.C., and Georgia Tech's own student developed bike-share program, ViaCycle, could provide a model for the entire city.

Last spring, Students Organizing for Sustainability (SOS) moved their community garden to a new, larger plot off Ferst Drive near 6th Street. Thje primary aim of the garden is to teach the Tech community about the source of food through active participation. Those who take up tools in the SOS garden will be able to take whatever produce they want, and SOS will donate leftovers to a soup kitchen.

Following a panel discussion of community leaders held at Georgia Tech, Professor Stiftel summarized the Atlanta Falcons stadium debate as an opportunity for downtown revitalization versus a poorly timed, low priority expense.