About this item
Atlanta is on the verge of tremendous rebirth-or inexorable decline. A kind of Petri dish for cities struggling to reinvent themselves, Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the country, gridlocked highways, suburban sprawl, and a history of racial injustice. Yet it is also an energetic, brash young city that prides itself on pragmatic solutions.Today, the most promising catalyst for the city's rebirth is the BeltLine, which the New York Times described as "a staggeringly ambitious engine of urban revitalization." A long-term project that is cutting through forty-five neighborhoods ranging from affluent to impoverished, the BeltLine will complete a twenty-two-mile loop encircling downtown, transforming a massive ring of mostly defunct railways into a series of stunning parks connected by trails and streetcars.
About the Author
I am an independent scholar and science writer, the author of many books of critically acclaimed non-fiction, plus several children's books. Please check out my books by entering my name at Amazon. They include, among others, CITY ON THE VERGE, a book about my native Atlanta; THE MOST HATED MAN IN AMERICA, arguing that Jerry Sandusky is probably innocent; MEMORY WARP, about the myth of repressed memory; JAPAN'S TIPPING POINT, about Japan's renewable energy policy; INSIDE THE OUTBREAKS, a history of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service; UNCOMMON GROUNDS, the history of coffee; FOR GOD, COUNTRY AND COCA-COLA, the history of the soft drink, MIRROR MIRROR, a history of mirrors, and others. One critic called me "the ultimate freelance journalist with an eclectic mind." I suppose he meant that I write about whatever interests me. I prefer to call myself an independent scholar, since my books are heavily researched. I joke that I should have earned an honorary Ph.D for each of them in their respective subjects. What my books all have in common is that they cover subjects that matter. In my small way, I hope to make the world a somewhat saner, safer place. I'm not sure if my children's book, JACK AND THE BEAN SOUP, will make the world a better place, but I hope it makes it a bit more humorous. The book is a fractured fairytale -- basically, an elaborate fart joke, though it does explain how evil came to the earth and the origin of thunder! SILLY SADIE is another fractured frog-prince story, and THE GODFOOL is a philosophical children's book. I live in Vermont with my wife and dog, and I like to hear from readers. For more information on my books, see www.markpendergrast.com.
