Thank you to everyone who came out last week for our Sip & Stroll in Marietta!

The weather kept us from stopping at Atherton Square, but we still had a great time visiting Third Door, Contrast, and Two Birds. All of these places had wonderful staff and accommodated our group of over 25 people!

Until recently, I thought Big Yellow Taxi was originally sung by the Counting Crows. Turns out, it was Joni Mitchell who first gave us that iconic lyric: “They pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”

(For the record, “Paved Paradise” is also a great book by Henry Grabar which we recommend to better understand how parking and cars impact us all)

But this time, the story flipped. Instead of paving paradise, a parking lot became a park. The highlight of our Sip & Stroll (a cuter name for our regular walking tours!) was that more than half of our group had never seen the new Church Street Park along the Mountain to River (M2R) Trail.

What was once an alley parking lot is now a pocket park with bike racks, swings, and a patch of green space with turf. It’s not perfect, but it’s a much better use of land than a parking lot. You can grab a beer at Contrast, a smoothie at Eden’s, a Cheesesteak at Woody’s or Ice Cream at Jeni’s and enjoy the benches, swings, and (fake) grassy area!

This is a trend that we’re seeing happen across the country with empty parking lots being converted to much more useful spaces that bring people together.

It makes us wonder: where else in Cobb County could we trade low-value land use for nice things? A few spots come to mind:

  • The abandoned library in downtown Kennesaw — prime land sitting empty.
  • 34 acres in Marietta that were once slated for IKEA, still vacant nearly a decade later.
  • Downtown Austell, where two railroad tracks already run through — but we doubled down with four lanes and a median, creating a harsh, unwelcoming corridor. 
  • Downtown Mableton, where a six-lane road collides with a seven-lane intersection. Talk about uninviting. 

And to be fair, there are also some good land use examples we’d love to see more of:

  • Georgia Trade School in downtown Acworth, tucked right next to the railroad tracks — smart use of land that doesn’t waste space. 
  • Truist Park in Smyrna, located right by I-75 and Cobb Parkway. Not perfect (it’s missing public transit connections), but still good because people are living right where they have places to hang out.
  • The Silver Comet Trail in Smyrna: scenic 12.8-mile multi-use paved trail. The only thing that would make it better is if it connected people to where they need to go, not just for recreation. Imagine if you could commute to work on the Silver Comet! 

Join us next month for another free walking tour and social! Be sure you’re on our mailing list to get updates, event details, and ways you can advocate for smarter land use right here in Cobb County.