Eplan knows this.įor example, MARTA remains a regional transit system in name only and continues to suffer from a severe case of arrested development. While metro Atlanta has grown and matured in ways that few might have imagined, there are intractable challenges that continue to impede our higher aspirations. But he has no more time to waste treading old ground when there are new horizons to be charted. Eplan hasn’t abandoned his hopes for this city or this region. He walks with the insistent gait of all men who realize their steps are numbered but their work is undone. Still funny and dapper as ever, Eplan is 80 now. Likewise, Eplan’s ideas about mass transit and intown housing were years ahead of their time. He knew the long-term challenge was attuning our urban habits to the imperative of protecting and preserving green space. Whether you’re born with that native impulse or its bred into you, it helps having an “uncle” like Eplan to help make it plain.Ī rare combination of enlightened principle and grounded pragmatism, Eplan understood “smart growth” before the phrase was cool or popular. Like so many of us transplants, he shares an abiding sense that this city’s future will outshine its past. Then as now, Eplan was a relentless visionary who had an infectious belief that the city and the region were destined for genuine greatness.Įplan, who’s originally from Florida, has lived here long enough to become a “naturalized” Atlantan. We met nearly 20 years ago while I was working as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after moving here from New Jersey with my family. Leon Eplan, the city of Atlanta’s long-retired planning commissioner, has been a mentor to many people.
0 kommentar(er)
