Exploring Atlanta: a new adventure guide…

Exploring Atlanta is an interactive adventure guide from ATLsherpa.
This new podcast & newsletter will live right here on the ATLsherpa Substack channel.
It will be separate from my original podcast & newsletter.
I will be focusing my energy on this new project.
The content will also be published in the form of a hard copy field guide in 2024.
The FOCUS will be on exploring Atlanta in person; both its built and natural environments.
My MISSION remains the same: To help residents and visitors connect with Atlanta’s past, present and future.
Current subscribers to ATLsherpa were added automatically to the new podcast and newsletter.
Free subscribers will receive a short preview of each episode.
Paid subscribers will receive full access to each episode, as well as the entire archive of both newsletters & podcasts.
You can manage your subscription options at any time.

Stephen Harriman Long

Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most prolific explorers of the early 1800s, although his career as an explorer was relatively short-lived. He covered over 26,000 miles in five expeditions, including a scientific expedition in the Great Plains area, which he famously confirmed as a "Great Desert" (leading to the term "the Great American Desert").

Following his official military expeditions, Major Long spent several years on detached duty as a consulting engineer with various railroads. Initially, he helped to survey and build the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1826, he received his first patent for his work on railroad steam locomotives. Long received many more patents for locomotive design and worked with other Army engineers in planning and building the railroad. Long also received patents in 1830 and 1839 for pre-stressing the trusses used in wooden covered bridges.

In 1832, along with William Norris and several other business partners, he formed the American Steam Carriage Company. The business was dissolved in 1834 due to the difficulties in placing Long's locomotive designs into production. From June to November 1836, Long led two parties of about fifteen each to conduct a survey of a route inland from the shores of the Penobscot Bay at Belfast, Maine to Quebec for the proposed Belfast & Quebec Railroad which had been chartered by the State of Maine on March 6, 1836. In his report to Governor Robert P. Dunlap of Maine, Col. Long recommended a route into Quebec of 227 miles from "Belfast to the Forks of the Kennebec, and by a line of levels thence to the Canadian line." However, a then provision in the Maine Constitution which prohibited public loans for purposes such as building railroads as well as the financial panic of 1837 intervened to kill the project.

Colonel Long received a leave of absence to work on the newly incorporated Western & Atlantic Railroad in Georgia. His yearly salary was established at $5,000, the contract was signed May 12, 1837, and he served as the chief engineer for the W&A until November 3, 1840. He arrived in north Georgia in late May and his surveying began in July and by November he had submitted an initial report which the construction followed almost exactly.

Source: Wikipedia

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Herculean Effort

RESILIENCE is a word you hear a lot these days. It's right up there with EXPERIENCE when it comes to buzzwords. I suppose one could argue that resilience is the ultimate experience.

In any event, I wonder how many folks are familiar with the Resilient Atlanta Plan that was developed in 2017. This 78-page document was the result of a Herculean effort led by Stephanie Stuckey, who was Atlanta's Chief Resilience Officer at the time.

Having spent several decades doing this type of work, I can honestly say that this project was (is) a paragon of strategic planning.

In case you are new to ATL or just missed it back in 2017, Atlanta was the part of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative, which was led by The Rockefeller Foundation. In fact, ATL was the 100th city to be included in the list. That may not impress those who have become accustomed to winning national or world championships, but if you look at the other 99 cities, you can't help but appreciate the significance of this achievement. It was (is) a big deal.

Connecting Atlanta’s Past, Present & Future

Resilient Atlanta is a report about the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE of Atlanta, with particular emphasis on the future. It is a strategic plan in the literal sense of the word, and one that everyone (especially public and private sector decision-makers) should read at least once. In the comments below, you will find several images from the report.

The planning framework, which is brilliant and can serve as a model for organizations of all types and sizes, was developed by the Rockefeller Foundation (see image below and pages 30-31 of the report).

Stuckey and her team defined the specific initiatives under the twelve dimensions of the framework. I got to see some of their work first-hand while it was being performed, which is why I call it a Herculean effort.

One of the sections that jumped out for me appears on Pages 16-19 of the report. Here, you will find a list of eighteen (18) strategic plans dating back to 2007 that have been developed by various organizations, including the ARC, the CoA and others (see image in comments below). I have heard people say that government agencies are especially adept at planning. They also spend a ton of money on planning. There is a thriving consulting industry that produces these types of documents.

One cannot help but wonder what's become of all this planning work. That is, how many of the recommendations have been implemented? How do the proposed implementation timeframes compare with actual ones?

I am posing these questions in hopes that some intrepid reporters will take this on as a project; as a public service initiative, of sorts.

It would be fascinating to see this type of analysis. It might also be incredibly valuable for those who are responsible for making long-range and capital-intensive decisions. This might also be indispensable to those who are creating new strategic plans as we speak.

About the 100 Resilient Cities Project

(100RC) helps cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social, and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century. 100RC provides this assistance through: funding for a Chief Resilience Officer in each member city who will lead the resilience efforts; resources for drafting a resilience strategy; access to private sector, public sector, academic, and non-governmental (NGO) resilience tools; and membership in a global network of peer cities to share best practices and challenges.

Atlanta joined the 100RC network as part of the third wave of cities selected in 2016, and through its participation, is committed to demonstrating global leadership in resilience and taking advantage of membership resources and opportunities.

Explore More

Resilient Atlanta Strategic Plan (2017)
100 Resilient Cities — Rockefeller Foundation
Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience — City of Atlanta

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Pete Wheeler Georgia War Veterans Memorial Plaza

Just north of Liberty Plaza, in front of Twin Towers at the State Capitol Complex (Sloppy Floyd Buildings) is the Pete Wheeler Georgia War Veterans Memorial Plaza. The memorial plaza was dedicated on November 11, 1988. Here, you will find…

Vietnam Statues (dedicated 11/11/88)
Persian Gulf War Memorial (dedicated 3/10/93)
Korean War Memorial (dedicated 11/11/93)
World War II Memorial (dedicated 12/7/95)
Vietnam Wall (dedicated 10/30/97)
World War I Memorial (to be dedicated 4/6/98)

The plaza, the only complex of its kind in America, also displays the names of over 11,000 Georgians who have died serving America's military and defending freedom worldwide in the 20th Century.

Fallen Soldier Battlefield Cross, Soldier's Cross, or just Battle Cross, is a symbolic replacement of a cross, or memorial marker appropriate to an individual service-member's religion, on the battlefield or at the base camp for a soldier who has been killed. It is made up of the soldier's rifle stuck into the ground or into the soldier's boots, with helmet on top. Dog tags are sometimes placed on the rifle, and the boots of the dead soldier can be placed next to the rifle. The purpose is to show honor and respect for the dead at the battle site. The practice started during World War I, as a sign of respect for those that gave their lives in combat during wartime. Today, it is a means of showing respect for the dead amongst the still-living members of the troop. It is commonly seen in the field or base camp after a battle, especially among American troops in Afghanistan or Iraq. While it is used less today as a means of identification, it still serves as a method of mourning among the living, as attending the funeral is not always possible for soldiers still in combat.

Commissioner Pete Wheeler, 1922-2015

OBITUARY: APRIL 21, 2015

Commissioner Pete Wheeler, leader of the Georgia Department of Veterans Service since 1954, died peacefully surrounded by family in the early morning, Tuesday, April 21, 2015.

Wheeler joined the GDVS in 1949 as director of the education division. In 1951 he was named assistant director of the department and served in that capacity until his appointment as the department’s director (title later changed to Georgia Commissioner of Veterans Service) on June 26, 1954.

Fifteen reappointments later, Commissioner Wheeler was still in charge.

A decline in his health forced him to take a prolonged medical leave beginning in late 2014, but Commissioner Wheeler remained active. While delegating some day-to-day responsibilities, he nonetheless stayed on top of department business through daily phone calls with his assistants. He was adamant he would return to the office as soon as his physicians allowed.

For 66 years, he was a steadfast public servant and unswerving advocate for all veterans. Throughout his career, Commissioner Wheeler was a respected leader in the veterans’ community, whose experience and expertise was recognized and called upon at the national level.

Shortly after his appointment to lead the GDVS in 1954, Commissioner Wheeler joined the effort to recognize the new federal holiday, Veterans Day. He was named Georgia Chairman of the National Veterans Day Committee and in that capacity, together with Governor Herman Talmadge, he arranged a formal proclamation signing ceremony declaring the new holiday in Georgia. This proclamation signing became a tradition in the state, unbroken to this day; 2014 marked the first year Commissioner Wheeler was unable to attend.

In 1966, responding to the needs of the first veterans returning from the Vietnam War, as well as their families and survivors, Commissioner Wheeler created the Supermarket of Veterans Benefits, a one-day informational event designed to bring together every local, state, and federal agency providing service to veterans. The hugely successful program became an annual signature event of the GDVS, and the concept has been copied throughout the nation.

He was appointed chairman of the National World War II Memorial Advisory Board by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and served until the memorial’s dedication with President George W. Bush in 2004. He was a past president of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs and remained active in that group throughout his career. He was a life member of the American Legion, DAV, and AMVETS, and a lifetime honorary member of the Atlanta World War II Roundtable.

Commissioner Wheeler was a proud graduate of the University of Georgia. He was a member of Kappa Sigma and was awarded that fraternity’s lifetime achievement award. He was an attorney, admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1949 and admitted to practice before all state and federal courts.

A World War II veteran of the United States Army, Commissioner Wheeler joined the Georgia National Guard in 1950 and retired in 1978 at the rank of brigadier general.

In 1998, the General Assembly issued a resolution renaming the state’s war veterans memorial complex as the “Pete Wheeler Georgia War Veterans Memorial Complex.” Overseen by the GDVS and the Georgia Building Authority, the complex includes memorials to Georgia veterans from the Spanish-American War through Desert Storm/Desert Shield. Earlier this year, Commissioner Wheeler approved the design for the next addition, a memorial honoring those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; it will be dedicated May 20.

Commissioner Wheeler was honored so frequently that a comprehensive list of his awards is difficult to compile. A few of the highlights include:

Inducted into the inaugural class (2013) of the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame, for Dedicated Service
Recipient of the Silver Helmet Award, presented by AMVETS
Recipient of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge George Washington Honor Medal
Recipient of the American Legion Gold Honor Medal
Recipient of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Silver and Gold Medals of Merit
Recipient of the Patrick Henry Award, presented by the National Guard Association of the United States
Recipient of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs Lifetime Achievement Award
Recipient of the Atlanta USO’s Patriot of the Year Award for 2011
Honored with “Play it Again Pete,” an annual golf tournament sponsored by the Military Order of the Purple Heart National Service Foundation to raise money for the Atlanta VA Medical Center’s Homeless Veterans Program.

Pete Wheeler was born in Albany on Oct 19, 1922. He grew up in Crawford and lived most of his life in Atlanta.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 59 years, Geraldine; and a daughter, Jane Watkins. Survivors include a daughter and son-in-law, Frances and Mark Jones of Atlanta; son and daughter-in-law, Peter B. “Chip” and Debbie Wheeler of Lawrenceville; son-in-law, John Watkins of Snellville; and six grandchildren, Matthew Wheeler, Joshua Watkins, Joanna Watkins, Alex Jones, Charles Jones, and Jonathan Jones.

A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 26, at Decatur First United Methodist Church, 300 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur, GA 30030, where he was a member, with the Rev. Dr. David Bevel Jones officiating. The committal service will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, April 27, at Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 2617 Vinson Highway, Milledgeville, GA 31061. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Georgia War Veterans Home, 2249 Vinson Highway, Milledgeville, GA 31061. The family will receive friends from 2-6 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at A. S. Turner & Sons, 2773 N. Decatur Road, Decatur, GA 30033.

For more information on the content of this news release, please contact the GDVS Public Information Division at 404-656-5933 or gavetsvc@vs.state.ga.us.

Source: State of Georgia Department of Veterans Services

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The world is having a Copernicus Moment (podcast embedded below)
Nvidia's stock is up 30% in pre-market trading after crushing earnings estimates last night
NVDA market cap now at $983 billion
AAPL, $2.7 trillion
MSFT, $2.3 trillion
IBM, $114 billion
HD, $295 billion
KO, $263 billion
NVDA now worth 1.4X (DL+HD+KO+UPS)
NVDA Corporate Overview
NVDA Body of Work

NVIDIA Corporation accelerates computing to help solve the computational problems. The Company has two segments. The Compute & Networking segment includes its data center accelerated computing platform; networking; automotive artificial intelligence (AI) cockpit, autonomous driving development agreements and autonomous vehicle solutions; electric vehicle computing platforms; Jetson for robotics and other embedded platforms; NVIDIA AI Enterprise and other software; and cryptocurrency mining processors (CMP). The Graphics segment includes GeForce GPUs for gaming and personal computers (PCs), the GeForce NOW game streaming service and related infrastructure, and solutions for gaming platforms; Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics; virtual GPU (vGPU), software for cloud-based visual and virtual computing; automotive platforms for infotainment systems; and omniverse enterprise software for building and operating metaverse and three-dimensional Internet applications.

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Welcome! This is the first in a series of educational podcasts by ATLsherpa that focus on the Atlanta Campaign. Free subscribers can access about 30% of each podcast. Paid subscribers can access each podcast in its entirety. They can also participate in (contribute to) the discussions, which appears at the end of each podcast.

Exploring Atlanta is a podcast & newsletter for those interested in getting to know Atlanta on a deeper level. My mission is to help you connect with Atlanta’s past, present, and future. In addition to the Substack app, this podcast is available on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Stay curious and keep exploring!

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The Atlanta Campaign

Overview

The Atlanta Campaign was a major military operation during the American Civil War that took place from May to September 1864. The operation involved dozens of battles and other military activity that occurred between Chattanooga and Atlanta. This podcast series will focus on the major battles, which are listed chronologically below.

"So Atlanta is ours and fairly won."

— General William T. Sherman, September 3, 1864 —

The campaign aimed to capture the city of Atlanta, which was a crucial transportation hub for the Confederacy. The Union forces, led by General William T. Sherman, engaged in a series of battles and maneuvers against the Confederate Army of Tennessee, led by General Joseph E. Johnston. Ultimately, the campaign was a significant Union victory, as they were able to capture Atlanta and deal a significant blow to the Confederacy's war effort.

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"Retracing the Atlanta Campaign," an educational podcast series from ATLsherpa, launches tomorrow, May 7, 2023. Please subscribe to my podcast if you would like to participate. Free subscribers will have access to about 30% of each podcast. Paid subscribers will have full access and will be able to participate in and contribute to the concurrent discussion. Stay curious and keep exploring!

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More Educational Resources from ATLsherpa

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Tour Overview

Join us for a fun and informative walking tour of the proposed route for the Atlanta Streetcar East Extension. This one-way tour begins in Downtown Atlanta and ends in Old Fourth Ward. This experience includes:

Brief overview of Atlanta's Ring of Fire
Quick tour of Centennial Olympic Park
Ride on the Atlanta Streetcar
Brief tour of the Historic Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park
Walk along the proposed route for the Atlanta Streetcar East Extension (see video below)
Discuss and envision the timeline to complete the light rail transit system along the preferred alignment (see map below)
Quick tour of the Krog District
Marvel at the transformative development along the Eastside Trail
Optional lunch at New Realm Brewing**

Separate ticket required. If possible, please purchase your Atlanta Streetcar ticket in advance, This will save time during the tour. * Lunch not included.

Tour Details

$10/person
The minimum age is 21
You should be in excellent physical condition to participate. We will be walking 4 to 5 miles at a moderate pace on uneven pavement and along busy city streets.
No pets on this tour, sorry.
Tour participants will receive a separate email after registering with additional details including exact meeting location, etc.
In the event of severe weather, the tour will be rescheduled to May 6, 2023. If you cannot make the new date, you can request a full refund. Weather updates will be sent before the tour if (as) necessary.

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On April 8, 2023, I had a nice little chat with ChatGPT about Atlanta. I recorded the entire session in the video below…

Microsoft + ChatGPT: $13B and counting…

No private company is hotter than OpenAI. In November, the San Francisco-based startup introduced ChatGPT, a chatbot that went viral thanks to its ability to craft human-like replies to users’ queries about nearly any topic.

Microsoft’s once under-the-radar investment is now a major topic of discussion, both in venture circles and among public shareholders, who are trying to figure out what it means to the potential value of their stock. Microsoft’s cumulative investment in OpenAI has reportedly swelled to $13 billion, and the startup’s valuation has hit roughly $29 billion.

That’s because Microsoft isn’t just opening up its fat wallet for OpenAI. It’s also the arms dealer, as the exclusive provider of computing power for OpenAI’s research, products and programming interfaces for developers. Startups and multinational companies, including Microsoft, are rushing to integrate their products with OpenAI, which means massive workloads running on Microsoft’s cloud servers.

Microsoft is integrating the technology into its Bing search engine, sales and marketing software, GitHub coding tools, Microsoft 365 productivity bundle and Azure cloud. Michael Turrin, an analyst at Wells Fargo, says it could all add up to over $30 billion in new annual revenue for Microsoft, with roughly half coming from Azure.

Source: CNBC, April 2023

Let’s be real (about AI)

Here's the blunt reality…

There's a simple law of business and technology: If it can be built, it will be built. The idea that countries, companies or individuals will simply pause their work seems silly. They won't.
There's a simple rule of modern governance: Technology always outruns regulation. The idea of a divided government locking arms to smartly regulate this AI seems silly. No chance.

So be a realist.

This technology is coming at a velocity almost no one outside AI companies fully realizes. We're talking months — not years — before impact. And it will rock your world. At first, gradually. Then, suddenly.

First jobs to get hit…

Basically any job that involves writing or coding; creativity; information synthesis; or sifting through large sets of data or info (lawyers, researchers, etc.).

Soon, the AI machines will do a lot of this better than 99% of humans — because they ate the totality of human information on the internet to predict your next thought, word or move.

Source: Finish Line: Be an AI realist by Jim VandeHei, Axios

Get Smart

Artificial Intelligence
What is Artificial Intelligence? — IBM
What Is AI? Learn About Artificial Intelligence — Oracle
Artificial Intelligence: What it is and why it matters — SAS Institute
ChatGPT
Introducing ChatGPT — Open AI
All you need to know about ChatGPT, the A.I. chatbot that’s got the world talking and tech giants clashing — CNBC, Feb 2023
ChatGPT ignited a new A.I. craze. What it means for tech companies and who’s best positioned to benefit — CNBC, Feb 2023
What Is ChatGPT? What to Know About the AI Chatbot — WSJ, Apr 2023
The Jobs Most Exposed to ChatGPT — WSJ, Mar 2023
Microsoft Adds ChatGPT AI Technology to Bing Search Engine — WSJ, Feb 2023
Disruptive Innovation
Big Ideas 2023 Research Report — ARK Invest
Big Ideas 2023 Video Playlist — ARK Invest

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This segment originally appeared in the July 2022 episode of Exploring Atlanta entitled, Taking Stock of Innovation…

Take A Glimpse Into the Vast Unknown

Undoubtedly, you have heard the old adage, "We don't know that we don't know."

Well, here's your chance to get a glimpse into that unknown world of ours…

If you're like me, you won't understand everything in this 15-min video but, if you stick with it, you will gain some insight into a field (quantum computing) that very few people know anything about. I mean, just ask the next ten people you see today to explain what it is. Heck, just ask them if they have ever heard of it.

The larger, and far more important, point here is that the body of knowledge that we (the average human) are unaware of is vast. In other words, there is way more that we don't know that we can possibly imagine.

JPMorgan Chase has hired a Singapore-based quantum-computing expert to be the bank’s global head for quantum communications and cryptography, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.

Charles Lim, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, will be focused on exploring next generation computing technology in secure communications, according to the memo from Marco Pistoia, who runs the bank’s global technology applied research group.

Lim is a “recognized worldwide leader” in the area of quantum-powered communications networks, according to Pistoia.

[CNBC, 7.28.22]

Major Implications

On a practical level, this has profound (possibly devastating) implications for decision-makers who are responsible for making long-range, investment-intensive decisions. Take transit planning, for example. If today's transit planners are unaware (or skeptical) of the disruptive technologies that are on the cusp of becoming a reality — such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, machine learning, battery technology, and more — one can easily see how these very smart and well-intentioned people could make some very poor decisions when it comes to long-range transit investments. That's just one example. Every field — including education and healthcare — and virtually every business in the world, is in the same boat.

Disruptive Technologies Research

Key Takeaways

We all need to understand and acknowledge that there is a lot more that we don't know (than we can imagine, or are willing to accept)
This lack of awareness or knowledge can (will) have huge implications in our personal and business lives
The pace of innovation, especially in the way of disruptive technologies, is accelerating at warp speeds right now
If one is responsible for making long-range (investment-intensive) decisions, this lack of insight can lead to catastrophic decisions (for future generations)
Public and private organizations need to collaborate with subject-matter experts who understand disruptive technologies and their potential impacts. Consulting firms like Accenture, BCG, McKinsey and PwC can all help with this.
Decision-makers need to develop a sense of urgency about this. Disruptive technologies are advancing at warp speeds right now, and they are converging! This is multidimensional and multidisciplinary in nature.
All of this makes the probability of making bad decisions much higher than most of us realize.

This post is intended to be a conversation starter. Please share it with your friends and colleagues and discuss the points above. Challenge yourself, expand your learning areas and, most of all, question your assumptions.

I'll sum it up with one of my all-time favorite quotes:

"It's not what you don't know that can hurt you, it's what you know that just ain't so." ~ Satchel Paige (attributed)

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This segment first appeared in the November 2022 episode of Exploring Atlanta…

Rod Serling & The Twilight Zone

Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series, The Twilight Zone. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, supernatural drama, black comedy, and psychological thriller, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist, and usually with a moral. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to common science fiction and fantasy tropes. The first series, shot entirely in black and white, ran on CBS for five seasons from 1959 to 1964.

In the latest episode of the Atlanta Real Estate Report podcast, I share some charts and thoughts about the extraordinary nature of the times we are living in right now…

“Let every man, every corporation, and especially every village, town, and city, every country and state, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.” — Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th POTUS (July 13, 1879)

“My colleagues and I are strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2-percent goal. We have both the tools that we need and the resolve it will take to restore price stability on behalf of American families and businesses. Price stability is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve and serves as the bedrock of our economy. Without price stability, the economy does not work for anyone. In particular, without price stability we will not achieve a sustained period of strong labor market conditions that benefit all.”

Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve, 11.02.22

‘The Fed is breaking things’ – Here’s what has Wall Street on edge as risks rise around the world (CBNC)
Fed Funds Rate History: Its Highs, Lows, and Charts (The Balance)

Financial Resources

Newsletters & Subscriptions

Barron’s & Wall Street Journal

Bloomberg
CNBC Pro
Fortune
Lance Lambert (real estate)
Follow Lance Lambert
Mortgage News Daily
Seeking Alpha Premium
Hoya Capital Channel (REIT focus)

YouTube Channels (blogs and vlogs)

Bloomberg
Nouriel Roubini interview on Odd Lots
Charles Schwab
2023 Market Outlook
Follow Liz Ann Sonders
Compound & Friends
Tom Lee interview (FundStrat)
Julia La Roche Show
Wharton School
Jeremey Siegel interview
Yahoo Finance
Liz Young interview (business cycle)
Liz Young’s 2023 market outlook (business cycle)
Follow Liz Young

Podcasts

Odd Lots, Bloobmerg
Planet Money, NPR
Risk Reversal, Adami + Moses + Nathan
Real Estate Today, NAR
REconomy Podcast™, First American

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“I’ve always been fascinated by maps and cartography. A map tells you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going — in a sense it’s three tenses in one.”

— Peter Greenaway (Welsh filmmaker)

Greenaway boasts what is arguably the most playful c.v. of any major living director, overflowing with visual puns, mathematical puzzles and imaginary languages. He’s obsessed with lists, maps and all manner of taxonomic tools that humans have designed to make sense of a chaotic world (that’s his structuralist impulse in action), even as he so clearly takes pleasure in subverting those very same systems (for which he’s been labeled a “post-structuralist” by those who share his affinity for classification). — Variety, May 2022

The Past

Map Collection — Atlanta History Center
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Collection — Digital Library of Georgia
Historic Map Collection — Emory
Hargrett Rare Map Collection: Frontier to New South — UGA
Historic Maps Vault — University System of Georgia
Dynamic Map of History — Running Reality

The Present

Informational

City of Atlanta Maps & GIS
Midtown Development Tour Map
MARTA Interactive System Map
Georgia DOT Maps
Georgia Geologic Survey Maps
Georgia Highway & Transportation Maps — GDOT
Georgia Data Center Map — Georgia Department of Economic Development
CSX Route Map — CSX

Recreational

Interactive Maps by ATLsherpa (tools for explorers)
Appalachian Trail in Georgia Maps — Georgia Appalachian Trail Club
Full Appalachian Trail Interactive Map — Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Atlanta Beltline Interactive Map
PATH Foundation Maps
Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests by Jonah McDonald (see video above)
Best Trails in Georgia — AllTrails
Interactive Trail Map — Discover Georgia Outdoors

The Future

Atlanta’s Ring of Fire Map by ATLsherpa
Atlanta Regional Commission, Data & Maps
Atlanta Beltline Subarea Master Plans
The Future of Atlanta is Downtown — Central Atlanta Progress (Feb 2023)
Midtown Development Tour Map (window to the future)

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You may not recognize all of their names, but you will be inspired by their epic stories. The one thing they all have in common is that you can "connect" with them if you know where to go and what to look for. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to make those connections by visiting the various buildings, monuments and historical sites that bear their names. You will have to get off the beaten path to connect with some of these ladies, but it will be worth it!

Experiential Learning System

Website — the whole enchilada
Quiz — how well do you know these ladies?
Passport — track your progress
Map — locate and navigate your way around ATL

More Educational Projects by ATLsherpa

Atlanta Craft Beer Map
Atlanta Foodie Map
Atlanta Freedom Trail
Atlanta’s Farmers Markets
Atlanta History Map
Battle of Atlanta
Black Leaders of Atlanta
Exploring ATL's "Ring of Fire" Projects
James McPherson: Forgotten Hero
Peachtree Street History & Architecture Tour
Sweet Auburn Photo Tour
Ten Must-See Treasures of MLK Nat'l Historical Park

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Speak out, you got to speak out against the madnessYou got to speak your mind if you dare — May 29, 1969 —

In this episode…

PAST is prologue
Black History Month
Atlanta Freedom Trail
Black Leaders of Atlanta
Women of Distinction
Sweet Auburn Photo Tour
No time like the PRESENT
2023 Subscription Options
Spring Equinox Mountain Adventure
Back to the FUTURE
Atlanta Streetcar East Extension Update
Microsoft Campus Update

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If we get a good turnout for this event (10+ guests) I will schedule more weekend adventures like this. I would love to turn this into a monthly series that allows us to explore other mountain towns such as Blairsville, Blue Ridge, Clayton, Cleveland, Cornelia, Dalton, Elijay, Helen, Hiawassee, Jasper and Toccoa. At some point, we might even end up in Murphy, Franklin and Highlands, NC.

Each adventure would share a similar “plot”

Explore a different mountain town, learn about the local lore, etc.
Connect with nature by doing some hiking and other outdoor activities (something for everyone; all fitness levels)
Experience the local food & beverage (restaurants, wineries, breweries, etc.)
Enjoy the company of kindred spirits (make new friends)

Spring Equinox Mountain Adventure

Three of the best experiences to be had in North Georgia are hiking the awesome trails, exploring the historic mountain towns and visiting the beautiful wineries. This event combines all three, with some local lore sprinkled in. You can expect to have FUN, enjoy the great OUTDOORS, and make some new FRIENDS. The flexible registration options allow you to participate in some or all of the activities described below. Come for the day or spend the weekend, whatever works for you.

If you plan to stay overnight, make your lodging arrangements NOW (see suggestions below). This event is limited to 15 people.

Weekend Plan

Saturday, March 18

1000, Outdoor Adventure @ Amicalola Falls State Park
1300, Winery #1 Tour & Lunch
1600, Winery #2 Tour & Tasting
1800, Walking tour of Historic Dahlonega*
1900, Casual dinner on the Square in Dahlonega*

Sunday, March 19

0900, Outdoor Adventure on the Appalachian Trail
1200, Lunch @ a local roadhouse
1400, Winery #3 Tour & Tasting
1630, Winery #4 Tour & Tasting*
1900, Casual dinner on the Square in Dahlonega*

These activities are contingent on the number of guests staying over Saturday and Sunday nights (minimum = 6)*

Mountain Town: Dahlonega

Dahlonega, the seat of Lumpkin County, lies about sixty-five miles north of Atlanta in the Blue Ridge province. The town is closely associated with Georgia’s gold history; its name derives from a Cherokee word referring to the yellow color of gold.

The Dahlonega area was part of the Cherokee Nation when European settlers first arrived. After the 1828-29 discovery of gold, thousands of miners—known as “Twenty-Niners” — poured into the area, and the Georgia gold rush began. Beginning in 1832, Cherokee territory in Lumpkin County, as well as in several other counties in north Georgia, was sold by the state to Georgia residents through a land lottery. A separate lottery was held in 1832 to distribute forty-acre “gold districts” for $10 each in the same Cherokee area. The discovery of gold was one of the major reasons behind Cherokee Removal, in which the state of Georgia expelled Cherokees from their ancestral lands in 1838.

Source: New Georgia Encyclopedia

Outdoor Adventures

The activities and locations will vary, but the outcome will be the same — get outside, enjoy nature, get some exercise, share a fun experience with kindred spirits.

On Saturday, we will be exploring Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge. The name was derived from a Cherokee word meaning "tumbling waters," which is fitting since the park features a breathtaking 729-foot waterfall; the highest in Georgia. The park also has miles of wonderful hiking trails, ranging from easy-peasy nature walks to some pretty serious hikes, including the Appalachian Approach Trail. The park also had a 57-room lodge at the top of the mountain (above the falls) that offers stunning views of the valley below.

On Sunday, we will be exploring Vogel State Park. Established in 1931, VSP is the second-oldest state park in Georgia. Located at 2500 feet above sea level, Vogel sits at the base of Blood Mountain, the highest summit on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, and is surrounded by Chattahoochee National Forest. The North Georgia Mountains around Vogel were linked to Native American people for generations before European settlement.

In terms of outdoor activities, there will be something for everyone; all fitness levels.

Winery Visits

Affectionately called “Napa of the South,” the Dahlonega Plateau AVA offers wine lovers a dose of Southern comfort. Tucked away about an hour north of Atlanta, the Dahlonega Plateau is one of two American viticultural areas in the state of Georgia—the other being the Upper Hiwassee Highlands AVA shared with North Carolina.

— Wine Enthusiast —

After the outdoor adventure on Saturday, we will be visiting two beautiful wineries, both of which are in the Dahlonega Plateau AVA. We will be having lunch at the first one. After our outdoor adventure on Sunday, we will be visiting two additional wineries.

The names and locations of the wineries, along with other logistical details, will be provided to guests after they register.

Flexible Registration Options

During registration, you can pick and choose which activities you would like to participate in (outdoor adventures, wineries, lunches, dinners, etc.)
You can come up for the day or stay for the weekend (1 — 2 nights)
See lodging suggestions below

Ticket Prices*

One-Day Pass, $20 (Sat or Sun)
Weekend Pass, $30 (both days)
Lodging, food and beverages are separate

() Sherpa Club members get one free ticket. Paid annual subscribers to ExploringATL podcast get 50%. Please email steve@exploreatl.com to get your passcode*

Lodging Suggestions

If you plan to stay overnight, make your lodging arrangements NOW. Pay close attention to the locations of these facilities. Those listed under the “Surrounding Area” are 15-20 minutes from Dahlonega Historic District. This is something to consider since you will be driving on pitch black and very curvy mountain roads in the evening. If you stay in the historic district, you will be able to walk home.

Dahlonega Historic District

One Off Main B&B
The Hall House
Yellow Daisy B&B
Old Storehouse Inn
Dahlonega Square Hotel & Villas
27 On Park
Smith House
Holiday Inn Express & Suites

() Listed by Google Reviews ratings*

Surrounding Area

Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge*
Barefoot Hills
Limelight Inn
Mtn Laurel Creek Inn & Spa
Mountain Top Lodge
Check AirBnB for more options

(*) The Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge might be a good option if you want to come up Friday afternoon. That way, you could enjoy the afternoon and evening (on your own) in this stunning state park and right there for our outdoor adventure on Saturday morning. The downside is that the park is 25-30 minutes from the historic district. So, that evening drive would be challenging. Another option is to stay in the park on Friday night and then move to one of the facilities in the historic district for Saturday and/or Sunday night.

Your Adventure Guide

Steve is your adventure guide. This Miami native moved to Atlanta in 1985. After a 30-year career in the financial services industry, Steve launched ExploreATL Tours. Since 2014, he has designed and led hundreds of tours throughout Atlanta. He is an avid hiker and prolific content developer at ATLsherpa.com

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This story originally appeared in the June 2021 episode of Exploring Atlanta.

Backstory

The Streetcar East Extension project is the first extension of the existing downtown Streetcar, originally opened in late 2014. This project runs along Edgewood Avenue to the BeltLine at Irwin Street and up to the Poncey-Highland neighborhood.

In 2018, MARTA formally took on ownership of the existing downtown Streetcar and future expansions of the streetcar system. The Streetcar East Extension project is advancing based on a detailed review of the planning and design work prepared by Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI) on behalf of the City of Atlanta (COA). Preliminary engineering of this corridor continues to advance considering possible effects to adjacent properties, existing utilities, vehicle and operational needs, neighborhood accessibility, and proposed stop locations. This project has advanced with continued coordination with CoA and ABI. Source: MARTA

“We are talking about a 90-ton vehicle* travelling 2 to 25 miles per hour inside the Beltline corridor” — Beltline Official

Mass transit, also called mass transportation, or public transportation, the movement of people within urban areas using group travel technologies such as buses and trains. The essential feature of mass transportation is that many people are carried in the same vehicle (e.g., buses) or collection of attached vehicles (trains). This makes it possible to move people in the same travel corridor with greater efficiency, which can lead to lower costs to carry each person or—because the costs are shared by many people—the opportunity to spend more money to provide better service, or both. — Encyclopedia Britannica

The Siemens S70 Streetcar actually weighs about 48 tons (96,500 lbs)

The video above is the recording of the March 27, 2021, public update. If you watch this video first, my comments below will make more sense…

My thoughts…

Beltline = Mass transit
Solution looking for a problem?
Throwing good money after bad?
Low (mass transit) priority vs other areas
Construction disruption
EV, AV and AI technologies are advancing faster than many realize
These disruptive technologies will alter mobility needs and habits
A LOT has changed since 1999
Are we better off employing more flexible, scalable options such as BRT?
MARTA is seeking public input now

Today's era is one of unprecedented disruptive innovation in mobility. Many transportation agencies’ processes and procedures are rooted in the mid-20th century and could be ill-suited to today’s rapidly evolving landscape. In the last decade alone, the transportation ecosystem has expanded to include transportation network companies, ride-hailing, car-sharing, bike-sharing, micromobility, and micro-transit, as well as digital trip planning, ticketing, and payment. At the same time, changes in commuting habits and demographic shifts are altering the economics of mass transit.

Traditional transportation agencies aren’t built for rapid innovation. Their typical decades-long planning cycles and procurement processes and workforce systems tend to be incompatible with many new approaches—and could hinder their ability to thrive in the future of mobility.

— Deloitte, from Transportation Agency of the Future: Managing mobility amid disruption and digitization (Aug 2020)

Archive

Upcoming Events

Fall Equinox Sunset Walking Tour, Sept 22 (Thr)

Battle of Atlanta: Hood vs McPherson, Oct 8 (Sat)

McPherson’s Last Ride, Nov 18 (Sat)

ATL Craft Beer Map (ATLhops.com)

Interactive touring map

85+ breweries & brew pubs

40+ “beer-savvy” restaurants

Four beer touring districts

ATL Beer Scene

“Barrel Room”

Sherpa Cafe is back!

Premium subscribers only

2X per month

Focus on the present + future

Still have access to past episodes

Atlanta Beltline Update

Northwest Trail Update

Interactive Map

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.atlsherpa.com/subscribe

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New Websites (see video walk-throughs below)

Please share this email with your friends. Thank you.

ExploreATLmaps.com

ATLhistorymap.com

BOA1864.com

ATLfoodiemap.com

ATLfarm.com

Upcoming Events

Autumn Equinox Sunset Walk — Sept 22

Battle of Atlanta: Hood vs. McPherson — Oct 8

McPherson’s Last Ride — Nov 19

Website Walk-throughs

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.atlsherpa.com/subscribe

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New Tours

Battle of Atlanta: Hood vs. McPherson, Oct 8

McPherson’s Last Ride, Nov 19

New Websites

ATL Foodie Map — ATLfoodiemap.com

ATL History Map — ATLhistorymap.com

Battle of Atlanta — BOA1864.com

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In This Episode

New Battle of Atlanta Tours coming soon

Quantum Computing video

Disruptive Technologies Research

Update: Battle of Atlanta Photos & Tours

Saturday, Aug 6 — Battle of Utoy Creek Recon Mission + Lunch

Saturday, Sept 3 — Surrender of Atlanta Recon Mission + Lunch

Saturday, Oct 8 — Hardee’s Night March Walking Tour (Hardee born on Oct 12)

Saturday, Nov 19 — McPherson’s Last Ride Walking Tour (McPherson born on Nov 14)

Take A Glimpse Into the Vast Unknown

Undoubtedly, you have heard the old adage, "We don't know that we don't know."

Well, here's your chance to get a glimpse into that unknown world of ours…

JPMorgan Chase has hired a Singapore-based quantum-computing expert to be the bank’s global head for quantum communications and cryptography, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.

Lim is a “recognized worldwide leader” in the area of quantum-powered communications networks, according to Pistoia.

[CNBC, 7.28.22]

Massive Implications

On a practical level, this has profound (possibly devastating) implications for decision-makers who are responsible for making long-range, investment-intensive decisions. Take transit planning, for example. If today's transit planners are unaware (or skeptical) of the disruptive technologies that are (literally) on the cusp of becoming a reality -- such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, machine learning, battery technology, and more -- one can easily see how these very smart and well-intentioned people could make some very poor decisions when it comes to long-range transit investments. That's just one example. Every field -- including education and healthcare -- and virtually every business in the world, is in the same boat.

Disruptive Technologies Research

Key Takeaways

We all need to understand and acknowledge that there is a lot more that we don't know (than we can imagine, or are willing to accept)

This lack of awareness or knowledge can (will) have huge implications in our personal and business lives

The pace of innovation, especially in the way of disruptive technologies, is accelerating at warp speeds right now

If one is responsible for making long-range (investment-intensive) decisions, this lack of insight can lead to catastrophic decisions (for future generations)

Public and private organizations need to collaborate with subject-matter experts who understand disruptive technologies and their potential impacts. Consulting firms like Accenture, BCG, McKinsey and PwC can all help with this.

Decision-makers need to develop a sense of urgency about this. Disruptive technologies are advancing at warp speeds right now, and they are converging! This is multidimensional and multidisciplinary in nature.

All of this makes the probability of making bad decisions much higher than most of us realize.

I'll sum it up with one of my all-time favorite quotes:

"It's not what you don't know that can hurt you, it's what you know that just ain't so." ~ Satchel Paige (attributed)

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In this Issue

New Battle of Atlanta website [00:30]

Tipping Point in the American Civil War [05:20]

Hardee’s Night March [09:30]

Railroad Cut + Manigault’s Brigade [29:20]

Key Take-away: The Profound Human Dimension of this Story [50:25]

McPherson’s Last Ride [55:00]

Tipping Point in the American Civil War

It can reasonably be argued that the Battle of Atlanta represented the proverbial “nail in the coffin” for the Confederacy. Rationale: The fall of Atlanta as a strategic military hub virtually ensured that the Confederate States Army would be unable to prevail over the Union Army in a war that had persisted for over four years already and would result in over one million casualties (3% of the U.S. population) and over 600,000 soldier deaths.

The Union victory in Atlanta also changed public sentiment in the “North,” which led to the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln in November 1864. Had Lincoln lost that election, the United States of America may have taken a very different path than it did.

Hardee’s Night March: July 21-22, 1884

Beginning late on July 21, 1864, and throughout the close early morning darkness of July 22, Lt. General William Hardee marched out his entire Confederate corps. The march began with three of Hardee’s four divisions filing out of Atlanta’s outer defenses north of town, consolidating their columns around the modern intersection of Peachtree and Spring Streets and then proceeding south through the then compact downtown of Atlanta (roughly contained within an area of the modern-city bordered by Fulton Street to the south, Northside Drive to the west, Ponce De Leon Avenue to the north and the I-75 / 85 Connector to the east). Just south of the rail terminals downtown, a fourth division—that of Maj. General Patrick Cleburne—joined the tail of the march, completing the corps. Several miles long, and including a full compliment of artillery and a cavalry detachment, this large force would march south beyond the southern perimeter of their outer defenses and out into a then rural countryside. Once beyond the eyes of possible Union scouts, the entire corps would turn back to the north and get into position beyond the left flank of the U.S. Army of the Tennessee.

One of three Union armies then closing in on the city, this one had fought its way into a threatening position and astride a vital rail link due east of the city only the previous day. From a point beyond the left of that Union line, Hardee’s force would launch a surprise—dawn—attack. As they “rolled up” the Union left and drove them back in confusion on the center of their line, C.S. Maj. General Benjamin Franklin Cheatham’s Corps would march straight out of the Atlanta defenses and smash into a then—as hoped and planned—’wavering’ Union center. Such ferocious pressure would unhinge the entire Union position and clear the vital railroad-lifeline. This was the plan of the newly installed, overtly aggressive chief of the C.S. Army of Tennessee, Lt. General John Bell Hood. The fate of Atlanta and to a large degree the Confederacy itself would rely on the outcome of this day.

Source: Inheritage Almanack

The Railroad Cut + Manigault’s Brigade

McPherson’s Last Ride

James Birdseye McPherson (November 14, 1828 – July 22, 1864) was a career United States Army officer who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. McPherson was on the General's staff of Henry Halleck and later, of Ulysses S. Grant and was with Grant at the Battle of Shiloh. He was one of two major generals that lost their lives during the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864. The other being Confederate Major General William Henry Talbot Walker.

McPherson was born in Clyde, Ohio. He attended Norwalk Academy in Norwalk, Ohio, and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1853, first in his class, which included Philip H. Sheridan, John M. Schofield, and John Bell Hood; Hood would oppose him later in the Western Theater. McPherson was directly appointed to the Corps of Engineers with the rank of brevet second lieutenant. For a year after his graduation he was assistant instructor of practical engineering at the Military Academy, a position never before given to so young an officer.

From 1854 to 1857, McPherson was the assistant engineer upon the defenses of the harbor of New York and the improvement of Hudson River. In 1857 he superintended the building of Fort Delaware, and in 1857–61 was superintending engineer of the construction of the defenses of Alcatraz Island, at San Francisco, California.

In 1859, while in San Francisco, he met Emily Hoffman, a woman from a prominent merchant family in Baltimore who had come to California to help care for her sister's children. They soon became engaged, and a wedding was planned, but ultimately put off by the onset of the Civil War.

At the start of the American Civil War, McPherson was stationed in San Francisco, California, but requested a transfer to the Corps of Engineers, rightly thinking that a transfer to the East would further his career. He departed California on August 1, 1861, and arrived soon after in New York. He requested a position on the staff of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, one of the senior Western commanders. He received this while a captain in the Corps of Engineers, and was sent to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1861, he was made captain, serving under Maj.-Gen. Henry Halleck. Halleck appointed him to the command of the Department of the West in November, where he was chosen aide-de-camp to Halleck while also being promoted to lieutenant-colonel.

During the days that led up to the Battle of Shiloh, McPherson accompanied Sherman questioning people in the area and learned that the confederates were bringing large numbers of troops from every direction by train to Corinth, Mississippi, which was itself an important railroad junction.

Following the Battle of Shiloh, which lasted from April 6–7, he was promoted to brigadier general. On October 8 he was promoted to major general, and was soon after given command of the XVII Corps in Grant's Army of the Tennessee.

In September 1862, McPherson assumed a position on the staff of General Grant. He was promoted to major-general on October 8, rising to that position primarily due to the influence of Halleck and Grant. Immediately after the siege of Vicksburg in which McPherson commanded the center, on Grant's recommendation McPherson was confirmed a brigadier general in the regular army on August 1, 1863. Soon after this promotion, McPherson led a column of infantry into Mississippi and repulsed the enemy at Canton.

On March 12, 1864, he was given command of the Army of the Tennessee, after its former commander, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, was promoted to command of all armies in the West. He then requested leave to go home and marry his fiancé Emily Hoffman in Baltimore, Maryland. His leave was initially granted, but quickly revoked by Sherman, who explained McPherson was needed for his upcoming Atlanta Campaign. McPherson's army was the Right Wing of Sherman's army, alongside the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of the Ohio.

Sherman planned to have the bulk of his forces feint toward Dalton, Georgia, while McPherson would bear the brunt of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's attack, and attempt to trap them. However, the Confederate forces eventually escaped. McPherson's troops followed the Confederates "vigorously", and were resupplied at Kingston, Georgia. The troops drew near Pumpkinvine Creek, where they attacked and drove the Confederates from Dallas, Georgia, even before Sherman's order to do so. Johnston and Sherman maneuvered against each other, until the Union tactical defeat at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. McPherson then tried a flanking maneuver at the Battle of Marietta, but that failed as well.Route taken by the Commander of the Army of the Tennessee, when he kept his rendezvous with death on July 22, 1864. Map by Wilbur Kurtz, 1930 (click on image to access full article)

Confederate President Jefferson Davis became frustrated with Johnston's strategy of maneuver and retreat, and on July 17 replaced him with Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. With the Union armies closing in on Atlanta, Hood first attacked George Henry Thomas's Army of the Cumberland north of the city on July 20, at Peachtree Creek, hoping to drive Thomas back before other forces could come to his aid. The attack failed. Then Hood's cavalry reported that the left flank of McPherson's Army of the Tennessee, east of Atlanta, was unprotected. Hood visualized a glorious replay of Jackson's famous flank attack at Chancellorsville and ordered a new attack. McPherson had advanced his troops into Decatur, and from there, they moved onto high ground on Bald Hill overlooking Atlanta. Sherman believed that the Confederates had been defeated and were evacuating; however, McPherson rightly believed that they were moving to attack the Union left and rear. On July 22, while they were discussing this new development, however, four Confederate divisions under Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee flanked Union Maj. Gen. Grenville Dodge's XVI Corps. While McPherson was riding his horse toward his old XVII Corps, a line of Confederate skirmishers appeared, yelling "Halt!". McPherson raised his hand to his head as if to remove his hat, but suddenly wheeled his horse, attempting to escape. The Confederates opened fire and mortally wounded McPherson in the back.

McPherson was the second-highest-ranking Union officer to be killed in action during the war (the highest ranking was John Sedgwick). Emily Hoffman never recovered from his death, living a quiet and lonely life until her death in 1891.

McPherson’s adversary and former classmate, John Bell Hood, wrote,

I will record the death of my classmate and boyhood friend, General James B. McPherson, the announcement of which caused me sincere sorrow. Since we had graduated in 1853, and had each been ordered off on duty in different directions, it has not been our fortune to meet. Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed, the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His considerate and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many Federal officers.

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Battle of Atlanta Walking Tour

Battle took place on July 22, 1864

This special tour will take place on July 23, 2022

10:00AM - 2:00PM (Carter Center to Historic Oakland Cemetery) — West Battlefield

4-miles in three hours; optional lunch and drinks after the tour

Registration Link (Eventbrite)

Tour Route Map

Tour will be announced on FB tomorrow (July 11) at 10:00AM

Background

On July 22, 1864, a massive battle raged in the modern-day neighborhoods of Inman Park, Reynoldstown, Edgewood, Candler Park, Kirkwood, East Atlanta and Grant Park. The battle's front line ran along what is now Moreland Avenue and stretched from East Atlanta Village to the Inman Park MARTA station.

During the fateful encounter, 75,000 troops (wool uniforms in 94-degree heat) engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat. By the time the sun set that day, eyewitnesses reported seeing a "river of blood" flowing down Bald Hill, which stood where the eastbound exit ramp for Moreland Ave comes off of I-20 today. The nine-hour battle, which resulted in 9,200 casualties, would claim the lives of two major generals: James Birdseye McPherson (USA, 35 years old) and William Henry Talbot Walker (CSA, 47 years old).

Commanding (USA) General William Tucumseh Sherman watched the battle unfold from his vantage point where the Carter Center stands today. Commanding (CSA) General John Bell Hood did the same from his vantage point, which was located on the highest point of what is now Historic Oakland Cemetery. These are the starting and ending points of this 3-hour walking tour.

Some of the most intense fighting took place late that afternoon in an area known as the "Railroad Cut." That was located where the Inman Park MARTA station stands today. That specific scene was immortalized in the historic painting known as the Atlanta Cyclorama, which now lives at the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead.

The purpose of this educational tour is to help participants understand what happened that day and place it into context with our modern-day city. It is not to celebrate or honor anyone or anything in any way.

Logistics

$25/person; tickets are non-refundable, but they are transferrable

Tour is limited to 20 people

Minimum age is 21 (no exceptions)

You must be in excellent physical condition to participate due to the heat and distance

The tour, itself, is about three hours long. There will be an optional lunch after the tour (location TBD). Food and beverages are not included in the ticket price.

Tour participants will receive at least one email update after registering.

We will be following the "Battlefield West" tour route on this interactive educational map.

Dogs are permitted if leashed and well-behaved at all times. That said, please keep in mind that we will be walking on hot and uneven asphalt and concrete for 3+ hours.

Please arrive at meeting location by 09:45. You will NOT need a printed ticket. All check in is done digitally. We will meet at the picnic tables shown in the first video below.

In the event of heavy rain, the tour will be rescheduled to July 30. If you cannot make that new date, you can request a full refund. Weather updates will be sent 24 hours before the tour if necessary.

Resources

Interactive Map by ATLsherpa

Atlanta Cyclorama (Atlanta History Center)

Battle of Atlanta Overview (American Battlefield Trust)

Battle of Atlanta: History & Remembrance (Southern Spaces)

War in Our Backyards (AJC)

Blood Mountain Hike

Blood Mountain is the highest peak on Georgia's portion of the Appalachian Trail. Some believe the name came from a bloody battle between the Cherokee and Creek long before white men arrived in the area. Other theories derive the name from red lichen or Catawba rhododendron growing on the rocky summit. At 4,458, it overlooks an area rich in streams, hiking trails and scenic recreation spots, one of which — Sosebee Cove — is probably Georgia's only north-facing cove traversed by a paved road at such high elevation. It has an accessible boulder field, northern hardwoods, large buckeyes and tulip poplars.

Rest of videos in this playlist

Blood Mountain Hiking Trail Map

“Bullish on ATL” Stock Portfolio

The following companies are either based in Atlanta or have (will have) a major presence in the Atlanta area. Several brokerage firms, including Charles Schwab and Robinhood, offer “fractional share” investing. This allows you to purchase dollar amounts of stocks, rather than full shares. So, for example, if you wanted to invest a total of $10,000 in twenty different stocks, you could purchase $500 worth of each stock.

NOTE: This list of stocks is being provided for informational purposes only. It is not an investment recommendation. You should do your own research and consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Acuity Brands — AYI

AGCO — AGCO

Blackstone — BX (New York, NY)

Carter’s — CRI

Coca Cola — KO

CSX — CSX (Jacksonville, FL)

Delta — DAL

Equifax — EFX

Genuine Parts — GPC

Global Payments — GPN

Home Depot — HD

The Intercontinental Exchange — ICE

Invesco — IVZ

Liberty Media: Braves Group — BATRA (Englewood, CO)

Microsoft — MSFT (Redmond, WA)

NCR — NCR

Newell Brands — NWL

NextPoint Residential Trust — NXRT (Dallas, TX) [Investor Prez]

Norfolk Southern — NSC

Pulte Group — PHM

Rivian — RIVN (Irvine, CA)

Simon Properties — SPG (Indianapolis, IN)

Southern Company — SO

UPS — UPS

WestRock — WRK

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Tour Details

Battle took place on July 22, 1864

This special tour will take place on July 23, 2022 (my 67th birthday)

Very likely my last BoA tour; maybe even my last “final tour”

Virtual tour possible (you can attend one or both)

SherpaVIP promo code should work

Registration Link (Eventbrite)

Background

Logistics

$25/person; tickets are non-refundable, but they are transferrable

Tour is limited to 20 people

Minimum age is 21 (no exceptions)

You must be in excellent physical condition to participate due to the heat and distance

The tour, itself, is about three hours long. There will be an optional lunch after the tour (location TBD). Food and beverages are not included in the ticket price.

Tour participants will receive at least one email update after registering.

We will be following the "Battlefield West" tour route on this interactive educational map.

Dogs are permitted if leashed and well-behaved at all times. That said, please keep in mind that we will be walking on hot and uneven asphalt and concrete for 3+ hours.

Please arrive at meeting location by 09:45. You will NOT need a printed ticket. All check in is done digitally. We will meet at the picnic tables shown in the first video below.

Resources

Interactive Map by ATLsherpa

Battle of Atlanta Overview (American Battlefield Trust)

Battle of Atlanta: History & Remembrance (Southern Spaces)

War in Our Backyards (AJC)

Blood Mountain Hike

Blood Mountain Hiking Trail Map

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Peachtree Street Tour

This 3-mile tour was designed to help residents and visitors connect with Atlanta's past, present and future. The tour begins at Underground Atlanta and ends at the High Museum. Along the way, you will learn about Atlanta's history, its architecture and its plans for the future. Through this website, you have access to several tools that work together to create a unique and interesting experience for you:

Multimedia virtual tour (website) that provides historical context;

Interactive route map that guides you and provides detailed information about the buildings and other sites you will see along the way.

Special Tours & Websites

Atlanta Freedom Trail

Black Leaders of Atlanta

EnvisionATL (Game-Changers)

Exploration Maps (best)

Interactive Maps (all)

KnowATL: Educational Tools

MLK Nat’l Park: 10 Must-See Treasures

Peachtree Street Tour

Women of Distinction

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Women's History Month

Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” These proclamations celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields.

Resources

National Endowment for the Humanities

National Archives

National Park Service

Smithsonian Education

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Rosie the Riveter

Since the 1940s Rosie the Riveter has stood as a symbol for women in the workforce and for women’s independence. Beginning in 1942, as an increasing number of American men were recruited for the war effort, women were needed to fill their positions in factories. Initially, women workers were recruited from among the working class, but, as the war production needs increased, it became necessary to recruit workers from among middle-class women. Since many of these women had not previously worked outside the home and had small children, the government not only had to convince them to enter the workforce, but it also had to provide ways for the women to care for their households and children. To accomplish this end, the U.S. Office of the War produced a variety of materials designed to convince these women to enter into war production jobs as part of their patriotic duty. Rosie the Riveter was part of this propaganda campaign and became the symbol of women in the workforce during World War II.

The first image now considered to be Rosie the Riveter was created by the American artist J. Howard Miller in 1942, but it was titled “We Can Do It!” and had no association with anyone named Rosie. It is believed that this initial drawing was part of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s wartime production campaign to recruit female workers. Miller’s drawing portrayed a woman in a red bandana with her bent arm flexed, rolling up her shirtsleeve.

In 1943 the song “Rosie the Riveter,” by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, was released. This song touts the patriotic qualities of the mythical female war employee who defends America by working on the home front. Following the release of this song, Norman Rockwell’s drawing of his version of the female defense worker appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, on May 29, 1943. This version of Rosie was a much more muscular depiction of a woman in a blue jumpsuit, with a red bandana in her hair, eating a sandwich. Rockwell placed the name “Rosie” on the lunch box of the worker, and thus Rosie the Riveter was further solidified in the American collective memory.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

Microsoft Plays Role in Ukraine War

Last Wednesday, a few hours before Russian tanks began rolling into Ukraine, alarms went off inside Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center, warning of a never-before-seen piece of “wiper” malware that appeared aimed at the country’s government ministries and financial institutions.

Within three hours, Microsoft threw itself into the middle of a ground war in Europe — from 5,500 miles away. The threat center, north of Seattle, had been on high alert, and it quickly picked apart the malware, named it “FoxBlade” and notified Ukraine’s top cyberdefense authority. Within three hours, Microsoft’s virus detection systems had been updated to block the code, which erases — “wipes” — data on computers in a network.

Then Tom Burt, the senior Microsoft executive who oversees the company’s effort to counter major cyberattacks, contacted Anne Neuberger, the White House’s deputy national security adviser for cyber- and emerging technologies. Ms. Neuberger asked if Microsoft would consider sharing details of the code with the Baltics, Poland and other European nations, out of fear that the malware would spread beyond Ukraine’s borders, crippling the military alliance or hitting West European banks.

Before midnight in Washington, Ms. Neuberger had made introductions — and Microsoft had begun playing the role that Ford Motor Company did in World War II, when the company converted automobile production lines to make Sherman tanks.

Source: New York Times, 02.28.22

To understand the potential impact Microsoft can have on Atlanta, you have to make time to understand this company. Microsoft is an extraordinary organization on many levels. — ATLsherpa

Atlanta’s Women of Distinction

Adventure-Driven Learning System

Multimedia Website — ATLWOD.com

Interactive Map — Google My Maps

Quiz — Establish a baseline

Passport — Explorer’s Log to track your activities

Celebrating Women’s History Month

Daily post on ATLsherpa Facebook page

Website orientation video

Virtual tours

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Overview

New website honoring 21 exemplars who left a legacy to ATL

Extension of my BLA Project, which was published on ATLsherpa in February 2021

Watch video below for quick tour of the new website

BLA Walking Tour this Saturday (3 tickets left)

Stay curious and keep exploring!

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Experience ATL! Food & History Tour

New tour I designed for residents and visitors who would like to KnowATL, Connect w/ ATL and ExperienceATL more fully

Will debut as an “AirBnB Experience” in March 2022

Feb. 13 tour will be a “trial run”

Your feedback will help me fine tune the final AirBnB experience

Feb 5 Black Leaders of Atlanta tour is almost full

Last day to get premium subscription is this Monday, Jan 31

Custom Tours

Overview

Celebrate Atlanta's past, present and future with this adventure-driven walking tour. You will have fun, learn some new things and eat well!

The adventure begins in Downtown ATL, where the city began. During the first hour, you will learn about the city's origins as a bustling railroad town. You will also see some of its most historic buildings and streets.

Next, we board the MARTA train, which runs alongside the historic Georgia Railroad. During our short train ride, you will get to see and learn about the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Parkand Historic Oakland Cemetery.Our destination isInman Park, Atlanta's first 'suburb' and site of the Battle of Atlanta, which took place in 1864. Here, you learn about this pivotal battlethat would prove to be the tipping point of the American Civil War.

After visiting key battlefield sites, we will explore Inman Park on foot. This is one of ATL's most beautiful neighborhoods so you can expect to see magnificent homes including 'Callan Castle' home of Asa Candler, founder of the Coca-Cola Co.

Our third and final destination is the Atlanta Beltline Eastside Trail, where you will get to experience some of ATL's best bars, breweries and restaurants. Our stops include Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall, New Realm Brewing and Ponce City Market, where the tour ends. The total walking distance is approximately four miles.

Details

Tickets: $15/person (tickets are non-refundable but they are transferrable)

Your ticket includes one beer or appetizer during the "food & beverage" portion of the tour

The regular price, as an AirBnB experience, will be higher.

Does NOT include MARTA pass (see below)

Complimentary tickets available to ATLsherpa subscribers

Maximum # of participants: 15

Minimum age: 21

Distance covered: 3-4 miles at a moderate pace (hills, stairs, uneven pavement)

Tour duration: Four hours

Exact meeting location and tour route will be sent to registered participants 48 hours before the tour (including tips on how to get there by MARTA, etc.)

Great way to get to KnowATL, Connect w/ ATL and ExperienceATL

You will have FUN, make new FRIENDS and get some EXERCISE.

If you want to take some cool PHOTOS you will love this tour.

NO PETS please (for their safety)

Logistics*

Tour registrants will receive a final email with the exact meeting location and other details about 24 hours before the tour

Tour begins at 10:00AM and ends about 2:00PM

This tour involves a one-way ride on the MARTA train. If you don't have a Breeze Card, you can purchase one during the tour.

As always, wear sturdy walking / hiking shoes, bring water, hat, etc.

Masks are optional for now (will advise if that changes)

Weather: Tour will go on as planned if dry and temps are above 40 at start time. If not, registrants will have the option of receiving a full refund or going on the new date, if rescheduled.

Tour designed and led by Steve Saenz (aka,ATLsherpa)

Times, distances and all other details subject to change based on various group size, number of stops, weather, etc.

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Martin Luther King Jr. from his Drum Major Instinct Speech delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA on February 4, 1968 [this excerpt comes at 29:23 in video below]

Listen…

On February 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., preached “The Drum Major Instinct” from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Ironically, two months before his assassination on April 4, 1968, he told his congregation what he would like said at his funeral: “I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody” (King, “The Drum Major,” 185). Excerpts were played at King’s nationally televised funeral service, held at Ebenezer on 9 April 1968.

King’s sermon was an adaptation of the 1952 homily “Drum-Major Instincts” by J. Wallace Hamilton, a well-known, liberal, white Methodist preacher. Both men tell the biblical story of James and John, who ask Jesus for the most prominent seats in heaven. At the core of their desire was a “drum major instinct—a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade” (King, “The Drum Major,” 170–171). King warns his congregation that this desire for importance can lead to “snobbish exclusivism” and “tragic race prejudice”: “Do you know that a lot of the race problem grows out of the drum major instinct? A need that some people have to feel superior … and to feel that their white skin ordained them to be first” (King, “The Drum Major,” 176; 178). Conversely, King preached that when Jesus responded to the request by James and John, he did not rebuke them for their ambition, but taught that greatness comes from humble servitude. As King put it, Jesus “reordered priorities,” and told his disciples to “Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love” (King, “The Drum Major,” 181; 182).

King used Jesus’ own life as an example of how the priority of love could provide greatness. In his biographical sketch of Jesus, King preached that Jesus owned nothing, and when public opinion turned against him he was called a “rabblerouser” and a “troublemaker” for “[practicing] civil disobedience” (King, “The Drum Major,” 183). King notes that, although by worldly standards Jesus was a failure, no one else has “affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life” (King, “The Drum Major,” 184).

King concluded the February 1968 sermon by imagining his own funeral. Urging the congregation not to dwell on his life’s achievements, including his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, King asked to be remembered as one who “tried to give his life serving others” (King, “The Drum Major,” 185). He implored his congregation to remember his attempts to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort prisoners. “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice,” King intoned. “Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.” (King, “The Drum Major,” 185–186).

Source: Stanford University: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

Serve…

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is a defining moment each year when Americans across the country step up to make our communities more equitable and take action to create the Beloved Community of Dr. King’s dream. While Dr. King believed the Beloved Community was possible, he acknowledged and fought for systemic change. His example is our call to action.

Observed each year on the third Monday in January, MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. AmeriCorps has been charged with leading this effort for the past quarter century.

Making time to volunteer for MLK Day of Service is a great way to engage with your community while honoring the legacy of Dr. King. Whether you plan on cleaning up a public space, mentoring a young person, or assisting those who are food insecure, what you do makes a world of difference. Source: Americorp

Explore / Discover…

To honor Dr. King last year, I published a podcast / newsletter entitled 10 Must-See Treasures of MLK Nat'l Historical Park.

While hundreds of landmarks around the world are named in honor of Dr. King, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park is unique in that it preserves the actual places where Dr. King was born, lived, worked, and is buried. More than 700,000 local, national, and international visitors come to the park each year captivated by the man, his ideals and his courage.

The park consists of dozens of historic buildings — most of them built between 1890 and 1920 — spread over 38 acres. Many of these were part of Dr. King’s early and adult years. Source: NPS

See also:

10 Must-See Treasures of MLK Nat'l Historical Park by ATLsherpa

Atlanta Freedom Trail by ATLsherpa

Connect…

In honor of the Black History Month 2021, I created a tour that encourages people to learn about twenty-one exemplary individuals who made a lasting impression on ATL. This interactive tour was modeled after a similar one I created last year called, Women of Distinction: 20 Women Who Made a Lasting Impression on Atlanta. Both are self-guided tours that you can take online or in person. The full experience consists of four elements:

A simple Matching Quiz that will establish a baseline for you. Please take this before and after you have experienced the tour. Share with your friends and family to see how well they know these leaders!

A two-part podcast & newsletter that provides biographical information about each leader as well as tips on how and where to connect with them. In some cases, the connecting point is a street named in their honor that you can walk, bike or drive on. In others, it’s a building or statue that you can visit.

An interactive map that identifies the locations of the various streets and monuments that were named to recognize their contributions to the City.

A Tour Log that you can use to keep track of the places you visit.

See also:

Black Leaders of Atlanta, Part I

Black Leaders of Atlanta, Part II

Black Leaders of Atlanta Walking Tour, Feb 5

Black Leaders of Atlanta Virtual Tour, Feb 19

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Take the 2022 KnowATL Challenge…

Happy New Year!

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to be more succinct. Toward that end, I would like to challenge you to raise your ATL “IQ” with the 2022 KnowATL Challenge. Linked below are a collection of interactive quizzes and virtual tours that will help you accomplish this goal.

Wishing you a healthy and prosperous 2022!

Steve Saenz, your ATLsherpa

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Just a quick note to let you know that I will be leading a New Year’s Day Walking Tour on 1/1/22. Please click on the blue button below for details…

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ATLsherpa is an educational podcast & newsletter for people who would like to know Atlanta on a deeper, more meaningful level. My mission is to help you connect with ATL’s past, present, and future.Steve Saenz, ATLsherpa

This first video provides an overview of a special webpage I created for my last public tour, which occurred on August 15, 2021. Here you will find dozens of historical maps, images and videos that pertain the southern end of the Eastside Trail, which was the focus area of the tour.

The second video provides tips and tricks how to get the most out of an interactive map I created for my last public tour. Spend some time with this…

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You will be hearing a lot about Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry, which officially opens this Friday. I have created this special edition of my podcast and newsletter to give my subscribers a head start. I have also included links to dozens of photos, videos and maps that I have taken / recorded / created over the years. Feel free to share this with your friends. Thanks. — Steve Saenz, ATLsherpa

Westside Park At-A-Glance

280 acres (Piedmont Park ~190 acres) making it ATL’s largest public park.

Located in NW ATL, just west of Marietta Blvd, just north of Bankhead MARTA station and just SW of Huff Road.

Located north and east of Grove Park, just west of Knight Park-Howell Station.

Accessible to Atlanta Beltline, Proctor Creek Greenway, Bankhead MARTA station and Quarry Yards (new Microsoft campus).

Former site of Bellwood granite quarry last mined by Vulcan Materials.

City of Atlanta purchased the property from Fulton County and Vulcan in 2006 for ~$40 million.

The property was identified by Alexander Garvin as a “jewel” in his Emerald Necklace Study in 2004 (feasibility study for Atlanta Beltline project). See pages 116-119 for relevant discussion.

The former quarry now serves as a water reservoir for the City of Atlanta, holding some 2.4-billion-gallons of H2O.

This increased the City’s emergency drinking water supply from its former three days to more than 30 days.

To fill the quarry with water, a five-mile underground tunnel was drilled to connect the new reservoir with the Chattahoochee River and the Hemphill Water Treatment Plant.

A special tunnel boring machine (TBM), dubbed “Driller Mike” was constructed to create the tunnel.

Groundbreaking ceremony was held on 09.06.18.

Grand opening will be held on 08.20.21.

VIDEO: Excellent overview of the water supply project by Dept of Watershed Management

Photos & Videos by ATLsherpa

VIDEO: Entering the tunnel on our Bellwood Quarry Tunnel Tour (1 of 10 videos)

VIDEO: Westside Park Groundbreaking Ceremony (09.06.18)

VIDEO: Microsoft: Generational Game-changer (recorded presentation)

Maps + Photos + Videos

Maps & Virtual Tours

Proctor Creek / Westside Park Exploration Map (Interactive, multi-media map)

Microsoft: Generational Game-changer (Google Earth Virtual Tour)

Photos

Bellwood Quarry Interpretive Tour

Bellwood Quarry Tunnel Tour

Proctor Creek / Westside Park Recon Mission

Proctor Creek Greenway Walk w/ Stephanie Stuckey

Proctor Creek Greenway Groundbreaking

Proctor Creek / Westside Reservoir Park Recon Mission

Videos

Bellwood Quarry Tunnel Tour (10 videos) very rare videos from deep inside the tunnel

CSX Tilford Yard: Going, Going, Going...

Proctor Creek Greenway Groundbreaking Ceremony

Microsoft: Generational Game-changer for ATL (recorded presentation)

Proctor Creek / Westside Park Recon Mission (15 videos) recorded on my bike

Westside Park Groundbreaking Ceremony (3 videos)

Westside Reservoir Park (2015 Beltline Bus Tour)

Westside Train Yards (8 videos) cool videos of the train lines / yards near Westside Park

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Oh Atlanta, oh Atlanta!
I said yeah! yeah! yeah! Atlanta, got to get back to you

“Oh Atlanta” from Feats Don't Fail Me Now by Little Feat (1974)

My Last Public Tour

Today is the 7th anniversary of my first public walking tour in Atlanta. Just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has biked, walked and/or riden with me throughout the city during this time. I have had the pleasure of meeting thousands of people from all over the world on my tours. It has been privilege and an honor to meet all of you.

I created a special webpagefor those who are interested in knowing more about Atlanta, rich and interesting history and, especially, this very interesting part of Atlanta. I will be recording a video soon that will go into a lot more details about the maps and photos on that page.

What's Next?

In case you are interested, my next and final project will be to create an ecosystem of interactive maps to help people explore ATL on their own in the future. These will be based on what I have learned about the city during the past seven years. This webpage will give you an idea of what to expect.

Why we explore...

The absence of a historically preserved battlefield means that visitors seeking firsthand knowledge about the places and events that figured prominently in the Battle of Atlanta must go beyond the almost effortless engagement with history available at well-preserved Civil War sites, such as Kennesaw Mountain, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. Visits to the Atlanta battlefield, even via virtual tour, require greater self-reliance and a more active process of combining historical accounts, maps, and images with present-day visual evidence to ferret out what happened, where, and why. The rewards are great. By juxtaposing information from then and now, visitors traveling through contemporary Atlanta gain a new and powerful perspective on the city, its neighborhoods, and their place in history. Exploring seemingly ordinary sites is a way to gain a new awareness of history, even if the sites are often encountered during our everyday routines. Landscape historian John R. Stilgoe encourages us to scrutinize those places, put them in spatial context, and arrange them in time. "Enjoy the best kept secret around," Stilgoe writes, "the ordinary everyday landscape that rewards any explorer, that touches any explorer with magic."

— Daniel A. Pollock, The Battle of Atlanta: History and Remembrance (2014)

Production vs. Consumption

As the Industrial Age gave way to the Information Age (and later the Knowledge Age) the economic engine of the "Beltline neighborhoods" experienced a massive transformation. When the trains were running, these buildings housed manufacturing plants and employed blue collar workers who made things. Those things were shipped out on the trains that ran along the tracks that used to be here.

Today, these same buildings house food halls, technology companies, consulting firms and investment management organizations. These service businesses employ knowledge workers and creators; everything from chefs to web developers. Their goods and services are consumed on premises (food and beverage) or remotely by their clients (solutions).

Today's Beltline is a gathering place. It is a destination where people come to eat, drink, exercise and meet one another. It is also a lifestyle that people want to live and work near. Today's employers choose to open offices here because having access to this lifestyle is viewed as a strategic asset, a recruiting tool.

It's worth noting that the neighborhoods and properties along the Beltline experienced a long period (30-40 years) of dormancy after the production-driven economy ended and before the consumption-driven economy really took hold.

What will the Beltline and its coveted neighborhoods be like 5-10 years from now? 25-50 years from now? We do know one thing: The world we live in is very different than the one our parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived in. The world that our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren live in will be very different than the one we live in now.

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The city that keeps changing America

Richard Quest and Joe Minihane — Updated 14th July 2021
Source: CNN

(CNN) — Atlanta is a city that has been forged on the anvil of strife, that's risen from the embers of the Civil War.

It is a city with traditions both genteel and gritty, a place that is rising up out of its past to bring out the best of human endeavor. It is the quintessential Southern American city.

Some might even call it the capital of the South, although plenty of Southerners from elsewhere would argue that point. There's no denying, however, its place at the heart of the American story.

Diverse and determined, Atlanta demands to be explored and understood on its own terms.

To get a sense of its historic importance, it pays to start at the Atlanta History Center, home to one of America's most fascinating artworks: the Atlanta cyclorama.

This epic painting, created by 17 German artists in Milwaukee in 1886, depicts the Battle of Atlanta, a pivotal moment in the war between the North and South. Forty-nine feet tall, weighing in at 10,000 pounds and longer than a football field, it's the 19th-century equivalent of an IMAX cinema and no less dramatic.

The cyclorama was created by 17 German artists in 1886. Painted to create the illusion of being never ending, it's an immersive experience, putting the viewer right in the middle of the battlefield.

"The artists did a good job of simulating scale and fooling the eye, making you think that there's more going on than there actually is," says Gordon Jones, a Civil War expert who has spent his life studying the cyclorama. He points towards the realistic rendering of General Sherman, his likeness copied from a photograph of him on his horse, Duke.

Jones explains that when it was first painted in Milwaukee, the Atlanta cyclorama was designed to depict the Union's victory over the Confederacy. However, when it came to Atlanta, it was recast as showcasing "the only Southern victory ever painted." That despite the North winning the bloody battle when it took place in July 1864.

The cyclorama offers visitors to Atlanta the chance to understand how the Civil War figures into the city's history, more than 150 years on.

"The Civil War is really part of the DNA of not only Atlanta, but all of the South," says Jones. "It happened here on our soil, in the backyards of everybody who's living here now. But it's also super important because it defines the history of the United States from this point forward, particularly when it comes to matters of race, politics, economics, social justice."

The fight for racial justice

Looking across Atlanta, seeing where that battle was fought, it's impossible not to sense the importance of the Civil War here. Its consequences can still be felt now and were especially resonant during the 1950s and 1960s, as the Civil Rights movement grew and spread across the entire country, in response to the oppression that remained despite the abolition of slavery some 100 years before.

By the middle of the 20th century there were two Atlantas, one black, one white. It was in the former where the driving force for change in America came from.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929. And whatever national or global influence and change he was able to effect, it was based on the values that he learned in this city.

Xernona Clayton was part of the movement that King led from Ebenezer Baptist Church. She first walked into that hallowed place in 1965 and became close with the man himself, seeing firsthand the change he was trying to enact as well as experiencing the prejudice that was the catalyst for much-needed change.

"Black people had restrictions and I ran into it every place I went," she says. "Ran into it. And it just hits you. Not in the face, but in the gut, because you know you're not responsible for what you look like. I don't want to be judged by what I look like."

Clayton was close with King's wife Coretta, even helping her choose her mourning outfit for MLK's funeral. But beyond her relationship with the Kings, Clayton was and is a pioneer in her own right. She helped to desegregate Atlanta's hospitals and in 1967 became the first black woman to host a prime time talk show in the South.

At 90 years old, the fire within her still burns.

"The hospital needed to be changed. I helped to change the philosophy of the hospitals. I've done a lot of things to help make that change," she says.

"But I was working with a man who said; 'Do what you can. All the time. Change a man's heart and you can regulate his behavior.' That's what I heard Martin Luther King say all the time."

She managed to do just that with Calvin Craig, a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan with whom she formed an unlikely friendship in 1967, before he denounced the organization. He said it was his conversations with Clayton that brought about his change of heart.

Today, Clayton is an Atlanta icon, with strangers coming up to her in the street to thank her for her years of work.

A city that loves to eat

Atlanta is a city where history is inescapable, whether it's the battles of the Civil War or the ongoing fights for racial justice and equality. And that proximity to its traditions extends to its food too.

Mary Mac's Tea Room is the place to be for the city's finest Southern fried chicken. The name is a misnomer. When Mary Mackenzie opened it in 1945, women were not allowed to own restaurants so she skirted that rule by billing it as a tea room. However, the iced tea she served came with a side of Atlanta's best fried chicken.

Jeff Thomas and Ronnie Holt are two chefs skilled in creating this most quintessential of Southern dishes. And Thomas has the key to ensuring perfect chicken every time.

"The secret is having a love and a passion for cooking," he says as he gets to work. "I watched my mom cook all the time. One thing that she'd always do when she cooked, she'd always hum and sing. I asked her, 'Why you always do that?' And she was like, 'Cooking has to come from your heart, from your soul. If the soul is happy, then you'll taste it in your food. You can't come to the table with a mean soul.'"

Ronnie explains that it's all about keeping things simple, rolling chicken in batter after it's been seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper, before dropping it into the fryer. The results are, unsurprisingly, spectacular.

To wash down these Southern delights, another Atlanta staple is required: Coca-Cola. No corporation has helped define the city like its biggest export.

According to company legend the secret syrup was invented in 1886 by a local pharmacist, who paired it with carbonated water. It was then sold as a "brain tonic" to "relieve exhaustion."

Visitors can head to the World of Coca-Cola, where they can try localized takes on the all-conquering beverage, as well as see how Coke went from "tonic" to iconic brand.

Everybody's welcome

Fortunately for those looking to work off all that delicious Southern cooking, Atlanta is a city that loves to spend time on the move. Those coming to Atlanta for the first time often call it a city in the middle of a forest. The sheer amount of greenery, especially during spring and summer, is breathtaking.

Piedmont Park is a mecca for runners and cyclists, but it's not just outdoor activities that are booming. One in particular has true devotees and a thriving culture in this corner of the South: roller skating.

"People have all kinds of ideas about what they think Atlanta is or what it isn't, but I just see people having fun," says Brandon Butler, executive director of culture site Butter.ATL, looking out over the landmark Cascade Skating Rink. Butler is a keen skater and it shows.

"The beautiful thing about this is, you don't know what these people do," he says. "Some of these folks could be doctors, lawyers, surgeons. They could be trash people, garbage men. They could be waiters, but they're all just coming together and just having a good time. Everybody's equal because they're all on skates. To me, this is just what Atlanta is. It's just people coming together and just bobbing and having a good time in some really interesting places."

For veterinarian and skate instructor Latoya McNabb, enjoyment is key. "It's about a vibe," she says. "So you just come in here, you vibe out, you have a good time. That's what it's about in Atlanta. That's why everybody comes here, because the energy is just on 1,000. It's never a dull moment. You're always going to see somebody doing something that's a wow factor."

For both McNabb and Butler, skating is about community too. While plenty of skaters show off their skills, newcomers are not only welcomed, but helped by the regulars to stay on their feet and have a good time.

This sums up modern-day Atlanta, a place that, as the 1960s slogan goes, is "too busy to hate." Much has happened here over the past 150 years. On the one hand, it's steeped in Southern traditions, whilst on the other, it is a place at the forefront of change and progress. And progress is unquestionably a word that helps define Atlanta today.

Source: CNN Travel

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Time to Explore!

The pandemic is over, it’s time to get outside and explore!

In this issue of ATLsherpa, I will be sharing ten of my favorite tour maps. Since I started leading tours in 2014, I have designed and led hundreds of tours throughout the City of Atlanta. When I design a new tour I first create it in Google My Maps. I then do a “recon mission,” where I go out and do the tour myself. I take photos and make notes (actual and mental) about the things we will be seeing along the way.

One of the nice things about Google My Maps is that you can make the maps interactive by adding photos, videos and other relevant information. This allows you to create tour maps that people can use to take the tours on their own both in person and virtually.

In the video below, I share ten of my favorite tour maps. These are highly customized maps that contain tons of information that you can use to explore and learn about ATL. I also share tips on how to get the most out of these maps. This will create a much better experience for you and help you get the most out of these maps.

Please feel free to share these maps with your friends. You can share them individually (explained in the video) or just share this issue of ATLsherpa. The best idea is to gather a group of friends and take these tours together. I hope you find these maps helpful. Have fun, stay curious and keep exploring!

Steve Saenz, your ATLsherpa

TIP: Click on the “full screen” icon in the lower right corner of the video below. That will make a HUGE difference for you…

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Good morning and welcome to the Sherpa Café. It’s Sunday, June 6, 2021 and this is Episode #10. This mini-podcast and newsletter goes out to my premium subscribers and members of the Sherpa Club. This week, we are going to explore one of the most historic and beautiful buildings in all of Atlanta — the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception...

Strike a pose! “Vogue” first appeared on Madonna’s “I’m Breathless” album, released in May 1990. It also appears on “Immaculate Concepcion,” her first greatest hits album, which was released just six months later.

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Shrines are found in many, though not all, forms of Christianity. Roman Catholicism, the largest denomination of Christianity, has many shrines, as do Orthodox Christianity, Anglicanism and some forms of Lutheranism. In the Roman Catholic 1983 Code of Canon Law, canons 1230 and 1231 read: "The term shrine means a church or other sacred place which, with the approval of the local Ordinary, is by reason of special devotion frequented by the faithful as pilgrims. For a shrine to be described as national, the approval of the Episcopal Conference is necessary. For it to be described as international, the approval of the Holy See is required."

The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the first Catholic Church and Mother Parish of Atlanta, is one of the oldest standing buildings in the city. This church is a highly imaginative early Victorian, Gothic Revival building. It was designed in 1869 by 33-year-old, William H. Parkins, who had come to Atlanta the year before and continued to practice in the city until 1882. Drawing upon English and European church architecture, Parkins built what was at the time the most magnificent edifice in the city. It was the harbinger of the new, post-Civil War Atlanta, and although today surrounded by the skyscrapers of the 20th century, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is one of the few vestiges of the old city and of the work of William Parkins.

The first Catholic Church in the city was a square-framed church built in 1848 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and named the Immaculate Conception in her honor. In 1861, Father Thomas O'Reilly was appointed Pastor of the church, and it was due to his influence with General Slocumb of Sherman's occupying Union army that some of the original buildings of Atlanta were saved from burning in 1864. During the siege of Atlanta, however, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was severely damaged by shellfire. The parishioners decided to build a new church dedicated to the Virgin Mary on the site of its predecessor. The estimated cost of construction was between $75,000 and $80,000. The cornerstone was laid on September 1, 1869 by Bishop Verot of Savannah, but it was not until 1873 that the huge church was finally completed and dedication ceremonies held.

MARKER TEXT

Named in honor of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Immaculate Conception Church began as a parish when Catholics held mass in private homes and a school in 1846. They erected a frame church on this spot in 1848 and called their first full-time priest in 1851.

Father Thomas O’Reilly, a native of County Cavan, Ireland, came to Atlanta in 1861 by way of Albany, Georgia. During the entire period of the war he labored tirelessly to assist the wounded, suffering, and displaced people in Atlanta. Fr. O’Reilly received an appointment as a Confederate chaplain in early 1864, after which Bishop Augustin Verot sent him to aid the Federal prisoners at Camp Sumter (Andersonville). Later that year he returned to his urban parish. When the fighting near the city, Fr. O’Reilly went to the downtown train depot to give aid to the wounded being transferred from the battlefields to the hospitals. During the ensuing battles for Atlanta he took care of the dying and dead from both armies.

In November of 1864, Union Major General William T. Sherman ordered his men to destroy the military-allied facilities in the fallen city of Atlanta. Fr. O’Reilly asked Union Major General Henry Slocum, who commanded the 20th Corps stationed near Immaculate Conception Church, to protect it from destruction. General Slocum knew O’Reilly well, as the priest had welcomed Federal soldiers into his parish and had given succor to the wounded. With Catholics in the Federal ranks who might find burning the church a sacrilege, Slocum agreed to provide protection that saved not only Immaculate Conception, but also Central Presbyterian, Second Baptist, Trinity Methodist and St. Philips Episcopal, as well as Atlanta’s City Hall and surrounding neighborhood.

The wartime use of Immaculate Conception Church as a hospital had left the sanctuary in a terrible state of disrepair. A growing Catholic population required a new building. Fr. O’Reilly commissioned noted architect W. H. Parkins to design a larger brick sanctuary on the same site, although the priest did not live to see the new edifice. The war had undermined his health. The diocese sent Fr. O’Reilly to recuperate at Chalybeate Springs, Virginia, but he died there September 6, 1872, at the age of 41. The Atlanta parish buried its beloved priest in a specially designed crypt under the alter of the new church. Having laid the cornerstone in 1869, the congregation dedicated the new building in 1873. Then in 1945, the Atlanta Historical Society, the five churches, and the City of Atlanta, placed a marble monument on the grounds of City Hall in commemoration of Father Thomas O’Reilly’s role in saving an important part of the city during the war. After renovation in 1954, Immaculate Conception Church was rededicated as a Shrine.

This beautiful example of Gothic Revival church architecture is an eclectic manifestation of an American version of religious architecture in which the style is a product of both foreign and local influences. The overall form of the church with its flat brick walls and square towers with corner pinnacles suggests a "Commissioners' Gothic" style which originated in England in the early 1800s. However, Parkins combined this with a French Gothic flavor found in the three rose windows and the towered façade. The nave was adapted from Italian Gothic design, as was the round organ loft balcony.

The church super-structure, built of red brick, has a modified cruciform plan defined on the exterior by a pitched roof over the long nave, intersected by shorter transept roofs adjacent to the apse and its side chapels. The most striking feature of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception's exterior is the pair of square towers flanking the central gable over a tripartite entrance. Alterations were done to the interior in 1923, 1954, and 1969. The exterior has remained largely intact except in 1923 when it lost a parapet balustrade with large trefoil crosses that connected the four pinnacles of its northern tower. In 1954, the Church of the Immaculate Conception was rededicated as a shrine.

Source: U.S. National Park Service

Father O’Reilly saves Atlanta [12:58]

Fr. O’Reilly was born in Ireland in 1831 and graduated from All Hallows Seminary in Dublin. In 1857 he was sent to the American South as a missionary priest, specifically the area of Atlanta where Catholics were meeting in homes to celebrate Masses. Four years later in 1861 Fr. O’Reilly was appointed pastor of Atlanta’s first Catholic church. It was a wood framed church carefully built by parishioners and dedicated in 1849.

At the time of Fr. O’Reilly’s appointment, the United States had split into northern and southern loyalties. According to an 1860 census, the population of Atlanta was nearly 10,000. Though a small city, it was nevertheless, an important rail and military center for the Confederate army. As the Civil War progressed, the population of Atlanta would soar to nearly 25,000. Atlanta also became a significant medical center with 10 large hospitals established to treat wounded soldiers. Fr. O’Reilly was appointed an official Confederate chaplain in March of 1864. Much of Fr. O’Reilly’s time was consumed with pastoral care of both Confederate and Union soldiers. As much as possible, he ministered to men on both sides hearing confessions, celebrating Mass, answering letters, and performing last rites.

By 1864 it was clear that the South was losing the war. Because Atlanta was regarded as the “gate” city to the South by the northern states, it was militarily vital that Atlanta should fall to Union forces. Under the leadership of Union Maj. Gen. William Sherman, a siege of Atlanta took place. On Sept. 2, 1864, the city fell to the advancing Union army. Sherman ordered all citizens to leave the city as his intention was to burn Atlanta to the ground as retaliation for the South’s rebellion against the Union.

Upon learning of Sherman’s intentions, Fr. O’Reilly protested the action saying that burning homes and churches as well as killing civilians was unreasonable, unfair, and unjust. Sherman not only ignored Fr. O’Reilly but some reported that Sherman intended to arrest him. There were even some reports that Sherman considered having Fr. O’Reilly executed but feared a public outcry over the execution of a priest.

In spite of those dangers, Fr. O’Reilly continued to negotiate with Sherman insisting that the Church of the Immaculate Conception be spared. When Sherman ignored Fr. O’Reilly’s requests, the priest sent word to Sherman reminding the general that burning churches was a sin against God and that he would excommunicate any Catholics who participated in the destruction of his Catholic church. Sherman, knowing that there were many Irish Catholics among his troops, feared a mutiny and conceded to spare Fr. O’Reilly’s church.

Emboldened by this victory, Fr. O’Reilly asked that city hall and the courthouse all be spared torching because they were close to his church. He also asked Sherman to protect Protestant churches in the city. Amazingly, Sherman issued his order to spare the city hall, the courthouse, and five churches: Immaculate Conception, Central Presbyterian, St. Phillip’s Episcopal, Second Baptist, and Trinity Methodist.

To ensure his orders were followed, Sherman placed Union guards around all the churches, city hall, and the courthouse. He also created a buffer of homes not to be torched in order to control the flames. As a result, an additional 400 Atlanta homes were spared. In the Memoirs of W.T. Sherman, Sherman described the scene as he and his soldiers moved on from Atlanta:

We rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur road, filled by the marching troops and wagons of the Fourteenth Corps; and reaching the hill, just outside of the old rebel works, we naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past battles. …Behind us lay Atlanta, smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in air, and hanging like a pall over the ruined city.

A few weeks after the siege of Atlanta, Confederate Gen. W.P. Howard, in his official report to the governor of Georgia, elaborated on the condition of Atlanta after it fell to Sherman:

The City Hall is damaged but not burned. The Second Baptist, Central Presbyterian, Trinity and Catholic churches and all the residences adjacent between Mitchell and Peters (Trinity Avenue) streets, running south of east, and Loyd and Washington streets running south of west, are safe, all attributable to Father O’Reilly, who refused to give up his parsonage to Yankee officers, who were looking out for fine houses for quarters, and there being a large number of Catholics in the Yankee army, who volunteered to protect their church and parsonage, and would not allow any houses adjacent to be fired that would endanger them. As proof of their attachment to their Church and love for Father O’Reilly, a soldier who attempted to fire Col. Calhoun’s house, the burning of which would have endangered the whole block was shot and killed, and his grave is no marked. So to Father O’Reilly the country is indebted for the protection of the City Hall, Churches, etc.

As the Union army left Atlanta moving toward the Atlantic, one-third of Atlanta survived, 400 houses were spared destruction by fire, and some 500 brave civilians along with Fr. O’Reilly remained to restore hope and rebuild their city. As a new city emerged, parishioners of the Immaculate Conception, needing a larger facility, built a new church a block away, one which stands to this day.

Sadly, Fr. O’Reilly did not live to see its completion. The stress of serving in wartime destroyed his health. He died in a Virginia sanitarium at the age of 41 in 1872. His remains were brought back to his parish for the largest funeral in Atlanta’s history up to that time. Members of the five churches spared as a result of Fr. O’Reilly’s intervention joined with city hall officials to build and erect a monument to Fr. O’Reilly on the grounds of city hall. It was a powerful ecumenical tribute to Fr. O’Reilly.

On Dec. 10, 1873, the new Church of the Immaculate Conception was formally dedicated and one local newspaper described it as one of the most “handsome” in the South and “an ornament to our city.”

In an odd twist of history, Sherman returned on an inspection tour of Atlanta’s Fort McPherson in 1879. Reports indicated his surprise and pleasure at the development of Atlanta. Though Sherman did not adhere to any organized religion, his wife Ellen Ewing was a devout Catholic and their son, Thomas, became a Catholic priest. The general himself was buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in St. Louis.

Fr. O’Reilly’s ministry and legacy continued to be honored more than eight decades later. On Oct. 18, 1945, the Atlanta Historical Society erected a monument to Fr. O’Reilly in gratitude for his courageous intervention on behalf of the citizens and churches of Atlanta. Today, the Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception proudly promotes Fr. O’Reilly and displays a variety of the church’s historic artifacts connected to the Civil War.

Source: Catholic Digest (2019)

Explore More

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (official website)

The Priest Who Saved Atlanta: Father Tom O’Reilly (Catholic Digest)

Live Feed of Sunday Mass (FB page)

St. Francis Table (soup kitchen volunteer info)

On Deck…

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Sherpa Café. Next week, we will explore another Atlanta landmark. As always, you can use the comments area below to share your thoughts. You can also use the share button below to let your friends know about ATLSherpa. Thanks for supporting me on this project; I hope you have a great week.

This is Steve Saenz, your ATLsherpa.

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Hello, summer!

Did you know…
There's a good reason June is so popular for weddings. In addition to nearly perfect weather, the month of June is considered auspicious for weddings because the month is named after Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, home, and family. Juno was a champion of women and protector of the Roman state. She was married to Jupiter, king of all the gods, and served as a part of the divine ruling triumvirate known as the Capitoline Triad. Source: Mythopedia

In This Issue [3:55]

[audio start times for each section]

June Field Trip Suggestion [06:40]

Six Days to Celebrate in June [13:55]

Alexander von Humboldt: An Explorer’s Explorer [17:00]

Atlanta Streetcar East Extension: My Thoughts [34:35]

Summer Reading List [1:04:00]

June Field Trip Suggestion [6:40]

Here’s a fun and interesting '“field trip” you can take with your family and friends to celebrate Memorial Day, D-Day and/or Flag Day…

Take MARTA to the Georgia State station

Walk to the Pete Wheeler Georgia War Veteran’s Memorial Plaza

Walk to the flag court in Liberty Plaza

Tour the Georgia State Capitol grounds (take museum tour if possible)

Explore the area with this interactive map— I’ve included three walking tours on the map that you can take (2-3 miles each)

ATLsherpa Notes

You will have the place to yourself if you go on a weekend.

BUT, if you want to tour the inside of the Georgia State Capitol, which I highly recommend, you will need to go on a weekday. Be sure to check their website and make sure they are offering the tours.

Allow 3 — 4 hours to take it all in. It is definitely worth your time and effort!

Spend some time at the Pete Wheeler Memorial Plaza (at least 30 minutes). Take in the profundity of this solemn place and read the markers. Do the same in Liberty Plaza and the Georgia State Capitol.

Use this website to familiarize yourself with these places before you go.

Six Days to Celebrate in June [13:55]

Follow the links below to learn more about these June holidays…

June 3 — Chimborazo Day (One Travel)

June 6 — D Day, WWII(U.S. Army)

June 14 — Flag Day (U.S. Library of Congress)

June 19 — Juneteenth (New York Times)

June 20 — Summer Solstice (Farmer’s Almanac)

June 20 — Father's Day (Good Housekeeping)

Alexander von Humboldt: An Explorer’s Explorer [17:00]

June 3 is Chimborazo Day! What is Chimborazo, you ask? Read on…

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography. Humboldt's advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring.

“Humboldt was one of those wonders of the world who appear from time to time, as if to show us the possibilities of the human mind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in the Americas, exploring and describing them for the first time from a modern Western scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in several volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined. He was the first person to describe the phenomenon and cause of human-induced climate change, in 1800 and again in 1831, based on observations generated during his travels. Source: Wikipedia

Although Humboldt’s name has practically vanished, his ideas have not. Many of his new ideas simply became an accepted part of what we know about this planet; others were superseded by his colleagues and successors. However, between the 1820s and 1850s Alexander von Humboldt was one of the most widely admired public figures in the world.

Humboldt, who died at 89, traveled on four continents, wrote more than 36 books and 25,000 letters to a network of correspondents around the globe. He had an infectious personality and boundless curiosity, surrounded himself with some of the leading minds of his era and never stopped talking. Charismatic, annoying, exuberant, caustic, but undeniably relevant, Humboldt straddled the enlightenment penchant for wanting to know everything about everything and the establishment of modern scientific methods designed to query that accrued knowledge. Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Frederic Church painted Heart of the Andes as his final homage to naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. This immersive 2.5D digital experience offers extreme close-up views of Church's South American landscape. The must-watch video above is narrated by SAAM curator Eleanor Jones Harvey, who takes viewers on an immersive journey to discover the connections between Humboldt's ideas and Church's ambitious painting. Discover more about Humboldt's influence on American art with the SAAM exhibition "Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture". — Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.)

"Heart of the Andes is a visual summation of Humboldt's influence on Frederic Church and a testament to the explorer's deep and sustained influence on American art." — Smithsonian American Art Museum

In the video above, Andrea Wulf — author of The Invention of Nature — articulates beautifully the life of Alexander von Humboldt and the extraordinary impact he had on mankind.

My thoughts about the Atlanta Streetcar East Extension [34:35]

Backstory

We are talking about a 90-ton vehicle* travelling 2 to 25 miles per hour inside the Beltline corridor…

The Siemens S70 Streetcar actually weighs about 48 tons (96,500 lbs) but still…

The video above is the recording of the March 27, 2021 public update. If you watch this video first, my comments below will make more sense…

My thoughts…

Beltline = Mass transit

Solution looking for a problem?

Throwing good money after bad?

Low (mass transit) priority vs other areas

Construction disruption

EV, AV and AI technologies are advancing faster than many realize

These disruptive technologies will alter mobility needs and habits

A LOT has changed since 1999

Are we better off employing more flexible, scalable options such as BRT?

MARTA is seeking public input now

Today's era is one of unprecedented disruptive innovation in mobility. Many transportation agencies’ processes and procedures are rooted in the mid-20th century and could be ill-suited to today’s rapidly evolving landscape. In the last decade alone, the transportation ecosystem has expanded to include transportation network companies, ride-hailing, car-sharing, bike-sharing, micro-mobility, and micro-transit, as well as digital trip planning, ticketing, and payment. At the same time, changes in commuting habits and demographic shifts are altering the economics of mass transit.

— Deloitte, from Transportation Agency of the Future: Managing mobility amid disruption and digitization (Aug 2020)

Summer Reading / Watching List [1:04:00]

Here are some articles, papers and videos you might find interesting…

Atlanta Freedom Trail — ATLsherpa [virtual tour]

Best Places to Live in America 2021 (ATL, #42) — Niche

Big Ideas Report 2021 — ARK Invest (2021)

Emerald Necklace Study — Alexander Garvin (2005)

Future of Wealth in the USA: Mapping Trends in Generational Wealth — Deliotte [interactive map] (2015)

Hudson River School — Metropolitan Museum of Art

Humboldt’s Gift — New Yorker (2015)

So You Want to Learn About Juneteenth? — New York Times (2020)

Which U.S. Generation Wields the Most Cultural Power? — Visual Capitalist (2021)

World of Alexander von Humboldt — Smithsonian [video]

The Invention of Nature — Andrea Wulf (here’s your summer read)

Ken Dychtwald — Get to know this man and his work!

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ATLsherpa is an educational podcast & newsletter for people who would like to know Atlanta on a deeper, more meaningful level. My mission is to help you connect with ATL’s past, present, and future. I hope you enjoy this special edition of my podcast & newsletter. — Steve Saenz, your ATLsherpa

“Cinco de Mayo” by “WAR” from their Outlaw album (1982)…

Bienvenidos amigos!

This special edition of ATLsherpa was created for the Curious, the Hungry, the Thirsty and the Adventurous. You know who you are! This “survival guide” features a six-pack of bucket lists that will fulfill your quest for knowledge, satisfy your craving for excellent food, quench your thirst for mouth-watering beverages and inspire you to pamper yourself with unique experiences. I hope you enjoy it! — ATLsherpa

5 insights that will make you sound smarter on the Cinco de Mayo (even more than the tequila)…

Cinco de Mayo is often mistaken for Mexico’s Independence Day. Actually, the holiday had its origin more than 50 years after the date the country’s independence.

Cinco de Mayo, which is not widely celebrated in Mexico, commemorates an underdog victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

$600 million worth of beer is sold on Cinco de Mayo, more than on Super Bowl Sunday and St. Patrick’s Day.

Americans consume 127 million liters of tequila and mezcal on Cinco de Mayo.

Americans consume 87 million pounds of avocados on Cinco de Mayo.

5 dining experiences that will make you want to take your sombrero off…

Agave — Cabbagetown @agaverestaurant

Alma Cocina — Buckhead* @alma.atl

Bone Garden Cantina — West Midtown @bonegardenatl

Casi Cielo — Roswell @casicieloatl

Superica — Avalon / The Battery / Buckhead / Inman Park

() Alma Cocina’s Downtown location is closed for remodeling*

5 dining adventures that will have you singing in Spanish by the end of the night…

La Parrilla — many locations @laparrillamexicanrestaurant

Mezcalito's Cocina & Tequila Bar — Grant Park* @mezcalitosgrantpark

No Mas Cantina — Castleberry Hill @nomascantina

Nuevo Laredo Cantina — Upper Westside @nuevo_laredo_cantina

Taqueria El Rey Del Taco — Doraville @elreydeltacoatl

() Mezcalito’s has another location in Oakhurst*

5 sources of inspiration for those who prefer to create their own experiences…

Cinco de Mayo Party Ideas — Inspired by Charm @inspiredbycharm

21 Popular Homemade Margarita Recipes — a couple of cooks @acoupleofcooks

15 Best Tequila Brands of 2021: Expert Sipping Guide — Luxe Digital @luxedigital

37 Mexican Recipes to Spice Up Your Cinco De Mayo Party — Delish @delish

Cinco de Mayo Party Ideas & Recipes — Food Network @foodnetwork

5 ways to spoil yourself on the Cinco de Mayo (you deserve it)…

Get down and party at a Cinco de Mayo event — Eventbrite

Get your Cinco de Mayo groove on — Billboard

Treat yourself to a Cinco de Mayo gift — Etsy

Celebrate the Cinco de Mayo elsewhere — Travel & Leisure

Escape from it all with a YOLO* vacation — Forbes Travel Guide

() In case you haven’t heard, we are now living in the YOLO (You Only Live Once) economy*

5 quick reads that will make you sound brilliant on the Cinco de Mayo…

Cinco de Mayo 2021 (National Today, 2021)

What is Cinco de Mayo? (New York Times, 2018)

Americans might love Cinco de Mayo, but few know what they’re celebrating (The Conversation, 2019)

5 Facts about Cinco de Mayo you should know (AJC, 2020)

The International Influences of Cinco de Mayo Favorites (USDA, 2017)

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MUSIC CREDIT: The song you just heard was Peace Train (now also a children’s book) by Cat Stevens. It was the tenth and final track on his Teaser and the Firecat album, which was released in 1971, the same year that Amtrak started service.

In This Issue

Listener Tip: The audio [start times] for each section are provided in brackets below. That makes it easier for you to jump around and zero in on the stories and topics that interest you most…

The Story of May Day: It’s “Complicated” [5:45]

Happy 50th Anniversary, Amtrak! [12:30]

Meet Me this Sunday at the Sherpa Café [27:00]

Big Ideas 2021 [28:30]

Road Trip! Humboldt @ Smithsonian [43:10]

Transformative Development News [47:20]

Explore More: Links + online resources you should know about… [1:03:10]

The Story of May Day: It’s “Complicated” [5:45]

Did you know that May Day has its roots in astronomy? It’s the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice! In ancient times, this was one of the Celtic ‘cross-quarter’ days, which mark the midway points between the four solstices and equinoxes of the year.

In early days, May Day was also important in agriculture. Springtime celebrations filled with dance and song hailed the sown fields, which were starting to sprout. Cattle were driven to pasture and special bonfires were lit. Both doors of houses and livestock were decorated with yellow May flowers.

Later, celebrations evolved to speak more to the “bringing in the May” with the gathering of wildflowers and green branches, the weaving of floral garlands, the crowning of a May king and queen, and the setting up of a decorated May tree, or Maypole, around which people danced. Such rites originally may have been intended to ensure fertility for crops and, by extension, for livestock and humans, but in most cases this significance was gradually lost, so that the practices survived largely as popular festivities. Source: Farmer’s Almanac

International Workers' Day

On a more somber note, the first of May is also known as, International Workers’ Day. In the late 19th Century, May Day became associated with workers’ rights during the Industrial Revolution, when thousands of working men, women and even children died annually due to harsh conditions. Laborers commonly worked 10-16 hours per work days in unsafe environments, according to the Industrial Workers of the World.

During a Chicago convention in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, which become known as the American Federation of Labor (AFL), proclaimed that a legal work day would be eight hours starting on May 1, 1886. On that day, 40,000 workers in Chicago and more than 300,000 laborers from 13,000 businesses across the U.S. staged walkouts, with the proclamation backed by the country's biggest labor organization at the time, the Knights of Labor. Source: Newsweek

Mayday, Mayday, Mayday

Last, but not least, the word “Mayday” is used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organizations such as firefighters, police forces, and transportation organizations also use the term. Convention requires that the word be repeated three times in a row during the initial emergency declaration — "Mayday Mayday Mayday" — to prevent it being mistaken for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call.

Mayday Celebrations in Atlanta

May Day Market — East Atlanta Village, 1-5PM

Spring Art Stroll and Earth Day Celebration — Buckhead Village, 1-6PM

May Day Open Air Artisan Market — East Point, 11AM-5PM

Happy 50th, Amtrak! [12:30 ]

The history of Atlanta dates back to 1836, when Georgia decided to build a railroad to the U.S. Midwest and a location was chosen to be the line's terminus. The stake marking the founding of "Terminus" was driven into the ground in 1837, which was called the Zero Mile Post. For this reason, I thought you might enjoy this train story…

Amtrak service was launched May 1, 1971 — 50 years ago today — when its first train rolled out of New York City bound for Philadelphia. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak’s original corporate name ) consolidated 20 different private passenger railroads into a single national network.

The 2-minute video below talks about Amtrak’s 50th Anniversary…

Traveling By Rail

The romance of railroading has directly influenced the history of America since 1830 when the steam engine "Tom Thumb" pulled the first passenger car 13 miles from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mill, Maryland.

Today's railroad cars have come a long way since the first one in 1830. The initial "stage coach" type of passenger car quickly gave way to the double-track car that was the four runner of those we know today. Soon many of the larger cities along the Atlantic seaboard were visited by the travelers who arrived on the "exotic cars," as they were called.

The first passenger sleeping car was introduced on what was then known as the Cumberland Valley Railroad. It provided three tiers of bunks on one side of the car for weary passengers desiring a few hours' sleep while traveling between Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and points in the Cumberland Valley region of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

In 1856 George Mortimer Pullman gave his name to a new type upper and lower berth sleeping car. In 1859 he introduced an all-steel version that was a major contributor to railway passenger safety.

By 1850, railroads linked the Atlantic Coast with the Great Lakes; Chicago came in the line in 1853, and the rails stretched all the way from New York to the western side of the Mississippi River by 1856.

By Acts of Congress in 1862 and 1864, the construction of the first transcontinental railroad was undertaken. It was completed on May 10, 1869 when the Union Pacific running westward from Nebraska, and the Central Pacific coming eastward from California met at Promontory Point, Utah for the famous Golden Spike ceremony.

On long trips, passengers were required to change trains at several junction points, because of different track widths (gauge) which made through car service impossible. This inconvenience was eliminated in the 1880's when "standard gauge" of 4'-8 1/2" between the rails was adopted. Air brakes were patented by George Westinghouse in 1872, and were incorporated as standard equipment on passenger cars a few years later.

Starting with the American Civil War, which military historians sometimes call "the first railroad war," the nation's rail network became a major factor in military logistics. During the Spanish American and both World Wars, tremendous amounts of material and millions of troops were moved efficiently by train. During World War I the Federal Government assumed control of the nation's railroads, and directed their operation through the United States Railroad Administration. The railroads were returned to their owners in 1920.

A new chapter in railroad history began when the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK) — a quasi-public corporation, dedicated to providing modern, efficient, attractive service, began operating the nation's passenger railroads on May 1, 1971.

As the nation moves toward tomorrow, new high speed ground transportation will supplement today's trains. The Department of Transportation is currently testing new modes of propulsion such as the linear induction motor, and a tracked air cushioned vehicle capable of speeds up to 300 miles per hour. Passenger car interiors and exteriors are being redesigned to permit easier boarding and exit as well as great comfort, safety, and convenience of passengers.

Sometimes regarded as an outmoded, vestigial form of transportation, doomed to extinction, the nation's passenger railroads, like the fabled Phoenix, have started to rise again from the ashes of the past to become a key element in the nation's balanced transportation system of tomorrow. Source: Amtrak Historical Society

Connecting this story to Atlanta’s past, present & future…

PAST: Terminus, 1837

PAST + PRESENT: Amtrak Crescent Train | Peachtree Southern Railway, (aka, Brookwood Station)

PAST + PRESENT + FUTURE: Pratt-Pullman District in Kirkwood, 1904 | A Mobile Alcohol Park on Rails Opens in May at Pratt Pullman District (Eater ATL)

FUTURE: 2021 Infrastructure Bill (Biden + KLB)

Much of the expansion [proposed in the 2021 Infrastructure Bill] would come in areas of the South and West, with new rail lines connecting cities like Nashville and Atlanta, Houston and Dallas, and bringing back service between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Source: Forbes

Meet me this Sunday at the Sherpa Café [27:00]

Weekly “mini-podcast” for premium subscribers and Sherpa Club members

Sunday morning musings delivered by email

Episode #4: The African-American Experience, Part I — LISTEN NOW

“Your Sunday morning essays are just wonderful! I’m enjoying all of them. Thank you so much for your exhausting research and the sharing of Atlanta’s history.” — Holly

Big Ideas: Window to the Future [28:30]

What is this important and what does it have to do with ATL?

Please make time to get acquainted with Cathie Wood and the work (research) she and her team are doing at ARK Invest. This has huge implications for businesses, careers, cities, investing — pretty much everything. Regardless of who you are or where you are in life — business owner, corporate leader, elected official, individual investor, parent, grandparent — you need to understand this. The key takeaway is that the rate and scale (magnitude) of technological change are far greater than most people realize. The future will arrive much sooner than people think and it will catch most people by surprise.Most people, businesses and cities are not ready for this. This will result in massive disruption and the elimination of millions of jobs. This will put even more pressure on the most vulnerable (anyone who is unprepared) and make it virtually impossible for them to survive, much less thrive, in the Digital Age. Please make time to get your brain around this. Share it with your friends, families, colleagues, etc.

Catherine Wood @ ARK Invest

Big Ideas Report 2021

Key Points…

Rate and scale of change is far greater than most people realize

This includes individuals, business leaders, elected public officials — everyone

“You want to be on the right side of change!” — Cathie Wood

Disruptive technology will eliminate millions of jobs

Many of those will be jobs held by the most vulnerable (“frontline workers”)

Make sure you understand the distinction she makes between “good deflation” vs. “bad deflation” (this is huge)

The convergence of various technology platforms is making it difficult for “traditional” research teams to understand the implications — they are multi-dimensional and wide-ranging

ATLANTA is a tech & innovation hub (Apple, Google, Microsoft). As such, it will be one of the epicenters of this disruption and change.

In many ways it will drive this change. At the same time, those who do not have the technical skills to complete in the Digital Age (the most vulnerable already) will be hurt, making the income / wealth gap even greater.

Advancements in AI, AV and EV will have major implications for transit systems. Those responsible making multi billion, multi-decade capital expenditure (CapEx) decisions need to understand these new technologies! The price of “being wrong” will be huge.

In this 38-minute video, Cathie Wood and Brett Winton break down our latest Big Ideas Report and discuss which companies are likely to thrive in the coming years (and why). They highlight some of the areas where ARK believes jobs are going to be lost and where jobs are going to be created in the future. We all should be prepared for this technologically enabled change—Brett and Cathie aim to provide some guidance, so tune in!

Road Trip! Humboldt @ Smithsonian [43:10]

If you’re up for a little “road trip” I have an idea you might like... In June, I’ll be heading up to Washington D.C. to see an exhibition called, Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture. It opens on May 14 and runs through July 11, 2021 and will be held at at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Who the heck was Humboldt, you ask?

Alexander von Humboldt was arguably the most important naturalist of the 19th century. Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture places American art squarely in the center of a conversation on Humboldt’s lasting influence on the way we think about our relationship to our environment. Humboldt’s quest to understand the universe—his concern for climate change, his taxonomic curiosity centered on New World species of flora and fauna, and his belief that the arts were as important as the sciences for conveying the resultant sense of wonder in the interlocking aspects of our planet—make this a project evocative of how art illuminates some of the issues central to our relationship with nature and our stewardship of this planet. The 35-minute video below explains…

Explorer Tip: If you’re REALLY in for an adventure, you can take the Amtrak Crescent Train from ATL to DC. The northbound train departs at 8:04PM and arrives at 9:53 the next morning. The southbound train departs DC at 6:30PM and arrives in ATL at 8:13 the next morning.

Transformative Development News [47:20]

Microsoft pays $3m to add 1.4 acres to its Atlanta campus (Data Centre Dynamics)

Microsoft buys 125-acre site in Fulton County, Georgia (Data Centre Dynamics)

New City Buys 19-Acre Site Near Future Microsoft Campus (BisNow)

Fresh renderings, timeline emerge for Krog Street Market expansion (Urbanize Atlanta)

New renderings, groundbreaking detail downtown's $5B Centennial Yards (Urbanize Atlanta)

Wild Leap Set to Open New Downtown Atlanta Taproom (Wild Leap)

Underground Atlanta sales price suggests its value only took small hit (AJC)

Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. Publishes Request for Proposals for the Purchase and Redevelopment of Murphy Crossing (Atlanta Beltline)

Atlanta BeltLine Design and Construction Updates: March 2021 (Atlanta Beltline)

Atlanta BeltLine and PATH Foundation to Collaborate on Northwest Trail (Atlanta Beltline)

Redevelopment of SW Atlanta factory complex to launch next week (Urbanize Atlanta)

Los Angeles Group Buys Massive Atlanta Blackhall Studio Complex For $120M (BisNow)

Microsoft currently operates more than 200 data centers across 34 countries. The company this week said it will be building 50 to 100 new data centers each year for the foreseeable future, and is expecting to add facilities in at least 10 more countries in calendar 2021. Source: Data Centre Dynamics

Explore More: Links + online resources resources you should know about… [1:03:10]

What is May Day? (Farmer’s Almanac)

The Brief Origins of May Day (IWW)

Amtrak’s History

Amtrak: 50 Years of Leading the Way

Homage To The Fallen Railroad Stations Of Atlanta

Before private jets, there were luxurious private train cars, (Curbed, 2018)

A Look Inside Amtrak’s Next-Gen Acela Express (Railway Age, 2020)

VIDEO: Watch: Testing Amtrak’s Next-Gen Acela Trainset (Railway Age, 2020)

Here Are The Major Amtrak Upgrades Proposed In Biden’s $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan (Forbes)

VIDEO: Big Ideas 2021 (ARK Invest)

PODCAST: What are Disruptive Innovation Platforms? (ARK Invest)

Urbanize Atlanta: Commercial Real Estate Development News

That’s going to do it for this month. I hope you enjoyed this installment of ATLsherpa. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments area below and please use the share button below to let your friends know about this podcast and newsletter. Thanks, again, and have a great weekend!

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.atlsherpa.com/subscribe

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In this episode…

Audio start times for each section appear [in brackets] below…

ATLsherpa Update [01:15]

Upcoming Events & Tours [06:03]

Critical update for Mar 6 virtual tour: Microsoft’s Big Announcement [15:28]

Using Google Earth to enhance my tour experiences [19:45]

ATL’s Vanishing Past: A Call to Explore! [25:40]

12 things to keep an eye on for the remainder of 2021 and beyond [31:09]

ATLsherpa Update

[Audio begins at 1:15]

Annual subscriptions discontinued after March 31.

Monthly premium and complimentary newsletter will still be available.

Complimentary podcast / newsletters (like this) will go out monthly instead of quarterly.

Premium subscribers will receive two additional installments each month on the first and third Saturday of the month.

Expect more virtual tours. Live Zoom meetings + recordings are free to premium subscribers.

Expect about one in-person tour per month. These are also free to premium subscribers.

Covid vaccine.

Upcoming Events & Tours

[Audio begins at 06:03]

Most current information is on my Eventbrite channel

Events are also posted on the ATLsherpa and ExploreATL Facebook pages shortly after they are created in Eventbrite

In person tours are quite different than in the past — more focused and content rich.

Check out: Spring Equinox Walking Tour on Mar 20 and Black Leaders of ATL event on May 2

Critical update for Mar 6 virtual tour: Microsoft’s Big Announcement…

[Audio begins at 15:28]

To participate in this event you must register here — even if you signed up via Eventbrite!

Please do this ASAP.Current attendance is 90. This event will fill up.

Going to create a Google Earth tour for this. Should be fun and interesting.

Using Google Earth to enhance my tour experiences…

[Audio begins at 19:45]

Takes the tour guest experience to a whole new level — literally and figurately.

Split screen allows me to show what sites look like now (present) vs. past and future.

Recording live virtual tours (watch video above) allows people to access this content at anytime and from any place. Think of the people who can’t come on my in-person tours for variety of reasons. Very happy about this.

Takes me 10-20 hours to create a one-hour virtual tour. This includes curating the content, mapping out the routes, uploading the text, images, etc. to Google Earth, formatting all of this and then testing it.

Watch the video above see what my virtual tours look and feel like.

You can also access my Google Earth tour directly if you want to take the tour at your own pace.

Feel free to share with friends and family.

ATL’s Vanishing Past: A Call to Explore!

[Audio begins at 25:40]

My Mission: Connecting residents and visitors to ATL’s past, present & future

Connecting people to ATL’s past is getting more difficult

Past is giving way to the future at an ever-increasing rate

The past is vanishing right before our eyes (watch video above)

Get it while you can!

“You might think that the present is pretty obvious and static but it’s not. The present is subtle and dynamic. It is changing at warp speed. If you have ever done a double-take and asked, “Where the heck did that come from?” (referring to a high-rise building) you know this already. The present pulls the future into existence. Sometimes it pulls the past into a new existence. This is especially true for historic structures like the Candler Building in Downtown Atlanta. Many “old” buildings in Atlanta (entire neighborhoods, in fact) are experiencing a renaissance as we speak.” — ATLsherpa

12 things to keep an eye on for the remainder of 2021 and beyond…

[Audio begins at 31:09]

Resumption of pre-pandemic activities (level / pace)

Return to the office (hybrid / flex)

Resumption of business travel (inbound / outbound)

Resumption of ACV business (conventions / leisure / mart / sporting events)

Absorption of new real estate (apartments / retail / office)

Job growth

Housing market

Affordable housing

Homelessness

Atlanta Beltline (trail construction / transit plans)

Disruptive technology (AI, AV, EV, WFH, SFH, fintech & real estate)

Financial markets

1: Visitor’s Center

This is the place to start your visit! Here you will find knowledgeable park rangers who can answer questions and offer suggestions. The Visitor’s Center is a veritable museum! The biggest mistake people make is not allowing enough time to do it justice. Please give yourself at least 90 minutes to explore this treasure.

Your first stop should be the information desk. Ask about the film schedule and be sure to take in one of the wonderful presentations that run continuously in the auditorium. This will provide you with some important context on the life and legacy of Dr. King. Depending on how many films you watch, that could take 30-60 minutes. The other thing you should do while you’re at the information desk is make a reservation to tour Dr. King’s birth home. The rangers can help you with this.

Next, take the self-guided tour through the museum. Spend some time at the multi-media kiosks. Here you will find videos, timelines and information boards that chronical important events that took place during Dr. King’s life. One of the many treasures in this area is the mule-drawn wooden wagon that carried Dr. King’s casket during his funeral on April 9, 1968.

2: Gandhi Statue + International Civil Rights Walk of Fame

As you exit the Visitor’s Center, turn left and walk about 100 yards. Here you will find a life-size statue of Mahatma Gandhi and the starting point of the International Civil Right Walk of Fame.

Though the two men never got a chance to meet (King was 19 when Gandhi was assassinated), King learned about Gandhi through his writing and a trip to India in 1959. King drew heavily on the Gandhian principle of nonviolence in his own civil rights activism, writing that “while the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.”

FRIENDLY SUGGESTION: Give yourself at least 30 minutes to explore this area. Instead of just walking around, you can turn this into a meaningful educational experience by stopping at each leader’s square and reading about his/her life and contribution. A link to a collection of biographies appears at the bottom of this article.

The International Civil Rights Walk of Fame was created in 2004 to give recognition to those courageous soldiers of justice who sacrificed and struggled to make equality a reality for all. This extraordinary display has enhanced the historic value of the geographic area, enriched the cultural heritage, and augmented tourist attractions in the city of Atlanta. Along the promenade just north of park’s Visitor Center is a parade of embedded 2'x 2' granite markers featuring the actual footstep impressions of civil and human rights icons, such as Rosa Parks, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Ambassador Andrew Young, US Congressman John Lewis, and others. Source: NPS

3: International Peace Rose Garden

The Garden borders the Peace Plaza, in front of the Visitors’ Center. It has 185 roses in a variety of colors and fragrances. The graves of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King can be seen directly across the street if you stand at the Peace Plaza, facing the rose garden. The video below explains the design of the garden including the significance of the colors and layout of the rose bushes.

4: Behold Monument

The Behold Monument, which is one of the crown jewels of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park, commemorates the historic principles that guided the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On January 11, 1990, Mrs. Coretta Scott King unveiled the monument as a tribute to her late husband and an enduring inspiration to all who fight for dignity, social justice, and human rights.

Sculptor, Patrick Morelli, was inspired by the ancient African ritual of lifting a newborn child to the heavens and reciting the words "Behold the only thing greater than yourself." You will find a link to the artist’s statement below.

5 Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church

Throughout its long history, Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a spiritual home to many citizens of the Sweet Auburn community. Its most famous member, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was baptized here as a child in the church. After giving a trial sermon to the congregation at Ebenezer at the age of 19 Martin was ordained as a minister. In 1960 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became a co-pastor of Ebenezer with his father, Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr., know as "Daddy" King. He remained in that position until his death in 1968. As a final farewell to his spiritual home Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral was held in the church.

The video above, narrated by the late U.S. Representative John Lewis, will provide you with some important context about this historical treasure.

FRIENDLY SUGGESTION: Allow at least 30 minutes to tour the inside of the church. Make your way to the main sanctuary and sit in one of the pews for a few minutes. There you can hear the words of Dr. King as he preached from the pulpit in front of you. This is a very powerful experience.

6 King Mausoleum

Doctor and Coretta Scott King’s tombs are located across Auburn Avenue from the National Park Service Visitor Center. Mrs. King chose this location for her husband’s tomb between his birth home and his spiritual home, Ebenezer Baptist Church.

7: The Eternal Flame & Reflecting Pool

The Eternal Flame is located in front of the King Memorial Tomb. The inscription reads: "The Eternal Flame symbolizes the continuing effort to realize Dr. King’s ideals for the “Beloved Community” which requires lasting personal commitment that cannot weaken when faced with obstacles." The video below provides some nice views of the eternal flame and reflecting pool area…

FRIENDLY SUGGESTION: Have a seat on one of the benches that flank the eternal flame. This is a great place to reflect and listen to the words of Dr. King, which are piped through outdoor speakers that surround this area.

8: King Center

The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, commonly known as The King Center, is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization. The center was founded in 1968 by Coretta Scott King. King started the organization in the basement of the couple's home in the year following the 1968 assassination of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1981, the center's headquarters were moved into the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site facility on Auburn Avenue which includes King's birth home and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he preached from 1960 until his death. In 2012, King's youngest child, Bernice King, became the CEO.

Friendly Suggestion: Give yourself at least 60 minutes to explore the museum at the The King Center. Also, be sure to hit the outstanding bookstore, which is on the main level.

9 Fire Station No. 6

Built in 1892, Fire Station #6 was the first integrated and longest active fire station in the city. Located on the birth home block, the fire station was frequented by young Martin as he was growing up.

10 King Birth Home

In 1895 a two-story frame Queen Anne style house was built for a white family at 501 Auburn Avenue. The home was purchased in 1909 by Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, for $3,500. Rev. Williams moved into the house with his wife Jennie Celeste and their 6 year old daughter Alberta Christine, their only child of three to survive infancy.

On November 25, 1926 Christine married a minister by the name of Michael Luther King at her father's church. Instead of Christine moving in with her new husband he moved in with her and her parents in the family home. Over time the King's would have three children born in the home, Willie Christine, Michael Jr. (later known as Martin Luther King, Jr.), and Alfred Daniel. On March 21, 1931 Rev. Williams dies in the home of a heart attack. After Mrs. Willies dies of a heart attack the King's move to a new home at 193 Boulevard.

The home stayed in the family and became rental property for the family. After Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968 plans were begun to restore the house as a historic museum. Today visiting the home where Dr. King was born and lived the first twelve years of his life is often the highlight of ones visit to the park. Source: NPS

FRIENDLY SUGGESTION: Be sure to stop at the Visitor’s Center Information Desk at the beginning of your visit to make a reservation to tour the birth home.

Resources

Articles

History That Shaped The Atlanta Neighborhood Where MLK Was Raised (WABE)

How to Celebrate Martin Luther King’s Birthday in 2021 (NYT)

Protecting, Planning, and Preserving the Legacy (NPS)

Atlanta's 4-mile goodbye to King (AJC)

MLK Nobel Peace Prize (Alfred Nobel Foundation)

How Martin Luther King Jr. Took Inspiration From Gandhi on Nonviolence (Biography)

Educational Resources

Atlanta Freedom Trail Interactive Map (ATLsherpa)

Photo Galleries (ATLsherpa)

7 Things to Know About Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park (US Dept of Interior)

International Civil Right Walk of Fame: Leader Biographies (NPS)

Behold Monument Artist Statement (NPS)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (Google Arts & Culture)

What's In a Name? Discover National Park System Designations (NPS)

Websites

MLK National Historical Park (NPS)

King Center

King Philosophy of Non-Violent Change

Ebeneezer Baptist Church History

Getting There

Atlanta Streetcar (best way to get there from Downtown ATL hotels)

Google Maps

The MLK Historical Park is about 1/2 mile (walking) from the King Memorial Station

There is plenty of public parking at this site

ATLsherpa is a small, locally-owned business. You can support this project by becoming a paid subscriber and letting your friends know about this unique podcast and newsletter. Thank you! Steve @ ATLsherpa

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.atlsherpa.com/subscribe

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My journey…

ATLsherpa is a natural ‘next step’ on a journey that began in 2014 when I started leading walking tours throughout Atlanta. Since that time, I have designed and led over 300 tours. I have also organized and hosted 500+ culinary, educational, and community service events around the city. In other words, I have gotten to know ATL pretty well.

If you are unfamiliar with my tours, here is some guest feedback. You will find some more reviews on my Trip Advisor page.

More importantly, I have had the privilege of helping thousands of people learn more about this amazing city. Sometimes the things we learn together are subtle and intriguing; other times they are head-scratching ah-ha’s that alter our perception of Atlanta; in a good way. In almost every case, people walk away appreciating their city more; grateful that they decided to move or visit here. That is the highest ROI for me as a tour guide.

Walking is the best way to REALLY know a city!

Within the first few months of being a tour guide, I noticed a consistent pattern — a reaction really — from my guests. Without fail, everyone who came on one of my tours said the same thing and it sounded something like this: "I have been living here all my life and I never knew this was here." OR "I have driven by this a million times and never saw that before." That made me realize something very important, and I hope you will take this to heart. Atlanta looks and feels VERY different when you WALK through it. You see and feel things that you cannot possibly see or feel when you are driving or even biking around. You see the cool stuff — the interesting stuff — the beautiful stuff — the gritty stuff — the stuff that makes you say, “Man, I’m really glad I came on this tour.” The stuff that makes you proclaim, “I want to explore ATL some more!”

Connecting with ATL’s past, present, and future…

So where does all this cool, interesting, beautiful, and gritty stuff come from? Well, it emanates from the city’s past, present, and future. The past makes itself known when you make time to learn about the people and events that have shaped the city over time. You don’t have to become a historian, but you have to develop a working knowledge of what happened before you arrived on the scene. In a future installment, I’ll explain how you connect with the past. That’s where it gets fun!

You might think that the present is pretty obvious and static, but it’s not. The present is subtle and dynamic. It is changing at warp speed. If you have ever done a double-take and asked, “Where the heck did that come from?” (referring to a high-rise building) you know this already. The present pulls the future into existence. Sometimes it pulls the past into a new existence. This is especially true for historic structures like the Candler Building in Downtown Atlanta. Many “old” buildings in Atlanta (entire neighborhoods, in fact) are experiencing a renaissance as we speak.

This is a very exciting time to be an explorer in ATL!

The future is being created right before our eyes, but you have to know where to look. It is revealed in blueprints and master plans and artists’ renderings. It often hides in plain sight until you look in just the right place. Then, it jumps right in front of you and reveals its intriguing, refreshing, and oh-so-sexy self.

So, the mission of this writing project — ATLsherpa — is to help you experience all of these wonderful things. I want to help you connect with Atlanta’s rich past; its vibrant present, and its very exciting future. ATL is like a giant treasure chest for the intrepid explorer. The treasures are everywhere but most are lurking quietly (incognito) waiting for you to uncover them. That is the explorer’s mission!

Please join me on this treasure hunt…

If you are one of these people, we are kindred spirits. As a fellow explorer, I would like to invite you to join me on this treasure hunt. Let’s explore ATL together. Let’s uncover the hidden treasures that are all around us. I will be your guide — your virtual sherpa if you will. I will help you connect with ATL on a deeper level, a more meaningful level. In so doing, you will develop a greater appreciation for this city. You will also acquire some new skills that you use to help others uncover the hidden treasures that ATL has to offer. In time, you too may become a Sherpa. I sure hope so.

For those who cannot explore ATL in person…

There are many explorers who, for various reasons, are unable to get outside and explore the city in person. If you are in that camp, please know that you have a special place in my heart. Virtually all the digital content I have created during the past six years was designed with you in mind. If you decide to join me on this journey, please know that I will always have your back. That is to say, I will continue to create content that you will find interesting, fun, and challenging!

Steve Saenz, Your ATLsherpa

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.atlsherpa.com/subscribe

Exploring ATL: Recent Episodes

Connecting you with Atlanta's past, present and future

1: Visitor’s Center

2: Gandhi Statue + International Civil Rights Walk of Fame

3: International Peace Rose Garden

4: Behold Monument

5 Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church

6 King Mausoleum

7: The Eternal Flame & Reflecting Pool

8: King Center

9 Fire Station No. 6

10 King Birth Home