Over The Hedge

While we're talking about squirrels, here's a video. This is a trailer for a movie that came out a couple of years ago, and its focus is on suburban sprawl and its effects on nature. The video speaks for itself, so enjoy!

Posted by: Rajeev Atluri

Look! It's a Squirrel!

Let's be honest! Not many people pay attention to squirrels when they are living in sprawl. Most of the time people are in their cars, going 50 mph, and not noticing the landscape around them. The least of their worries is a squirrel. The design of sprawl doesn't enable people to walk to places and enjoy nature's beauty. This is the total opposite of the Georgia Tech campus.


The Tech campus is completely, pedestrian friendly. The design of the campus actually encourages students to walk. The Stinger, the campus bus system, is not very reliable; especially when a student is running late for class. Part of the reason is because the stop times are very inconsistent. It only takes 20 minutes to walk from one end of campus to the other end. So, it is a better choice to walk to places. While walking on campus you will notice many, many squirrels.

My friend and I were talking about how there are so many squirrels on campus. He suggested that all of them moved to Tech when Atlanta developed into a major city. That could be true, because if I were a squirrel I wouldn't want to get run over by Atlanta traffic either. I'm glad that these cute, little fur-balls moved to Tech because they are an integral part of my life now. One day I was walking to Math class, and as I walked by a trash can, a squirrel popped out of it. I was scared and so was the squirrel, but the squirrel just froze. Then I slowly walked toward the squirrel to see how close I could get towards its face. People around me probably thought I was weird, but who cares. I almost got within two feet, and then the squirrel bolted out away from me.

As you walk around campus you will see many occasions when someone just had an encounter with a squirrel. How many times does someone living in sprawl have an encounter with a squirrel? Not that many. Sprawl takes away these little, fun moments in life that people need to experience to get away from their busy lives. A kid growing up in a traditional neighborhood will know more about his surroundings than a kid growing up in sprawl, simply because the kid in the traditional neighborhood is more engaged in his community. Get out, and look around! You don't know what you might find.

Posted by: Rajeev Atluri

Community is What You Make of It

All this semester we have been reading about how the suburban structure of building has destroyed America's communities and left her people worse off. I have to wonder, though, is this a damnation or a test of faith? While subdivisions in suburbia leave a person feeling isolated and unwelcomed by their neighbors, does it not also test the bonds between people to the extent that any sense of community that emerged from it would be stronger than had it emerged out of obligation to tradition? It reminds me of religion. Many people who were raised in the church are true believers, but in my experience many more just attend out of consistency or to hang out with their friends. If people reach out and try to build a community in an inhospitable land, doesn't it seem more genuinely wanted and lived?

Drozily from the turkey fest,
Virginia Dobson

End of Sprawl???

A recent article in the AJC discusses the possible demise of sprawl as we know it in Atlanta. I know what you are thinking, "how in the world are we going to revert back to urbanism if we already live sprawled out?" Well it isn't going away in THAT sense. The blogger, Jay Bookman, suggests that, as soon as we get out of this recession, the "sprawl industry" will not come back as it was before. The sprawl industry Bookman refers to is the explosion in housing and credit opportunities. He believes the plots that had been cleared for new developments prior to the collapse will just be "reclaimed by nature," and we will hopefully learn from our mistakes that caused this recession and not plan developments the same way again.

Bookman's dream sounds very promising and hopeful, but I just cannot buy into it just yet for a few reasons. Atlanta is still one of the worst sprawl cities in the nation, so the effects of no sprawl will take a loooooong time to make any headway in the suburbs. Also, people are not going to want to welcome more urban environments in their quaint suburban neighborhoods unless it can be proven to be safe and efficient to them. While Suburban Nation has shown that this can be done in a beautiful manner, it will still take some time to convince the sprawlers it will work.

Dont get me wrong, I like the idea of no more sprawl, I just think it isnt a realistic ideal in the short run. I have seen new neighborhoods in recent years, however, that lead me to believe that people are starting to buy into new urbanism sooner than I am thinking. For instance, downtown Smyrna and Atlantic Station are wonderful examples that people enjoy urban environments when they are built and maintained properly.

Posted by - Matthew Orr

The Last Project: Virginia's Take

Tonight my group spent 3 hours putting the finishing touches on our community website for Sudan. When we got to the point int eh syllabus where it asked about suburbanism and new urbanism my mind got a jolt. Our project might go off topic here, but let's keep something in mind: The people in the Sudan live under different circumstances than we in America do, and so their communities develope differently. Our society is advanced and therefore lazy. We don't have to go to wells or rivers for our water, or even shop outside our computer rooms for that matter. To live, these people must interact with each other, establishing a human bond that is enviable. Unfortunately for the Sudanese this is a bond of suffering. Instead of suburbia where the greatest danger is getting run over or distanced from one's neighbors, the people in the Sudan live in refugee camps where they worry about rape and murder at random as they wait for the money and supplies for their next meal. Things have to be close by because these people are weak from hunger and vehicle access is severely limited.

And then it hit me, anger. Why read a book that complains non-stop about suburbia when these people who lived in together and shared the life experience suburbia lacked were livign in such terrible conditions? It seems like the authors of Suburban Nation might think all our problems would be solved by going back to a traditional neighborhood way of life, but there are deeper issues. Maybe the whole point of the book was to make us question what we had come to accept as normal, but I feel that by doing this community site on Sudan I not only got to question the places and lifestyles I came from but gained a new found appreciation for the privilege to live in these mistake communities and think of nothing but the devastation that the cul-de-sac brings to Anytown, USA.

Football creates community beyond the campus of White and Gold

I think Georgia Tech football has grown significantly in national recognition ever since the win against Virginia Tech a few weeks ago. That game not only allowed the rest of the nation to see what we are all about with out triple option, butt he Georgia Tech community has grown significantly stronger because we share a common bond of football. Sure, you may say, it's JUST A GAME, but it is so much more than that. Football at Tech gives us something to draw our attention away from school work and studying for an afternoon, even for just three hours or so. No matter how much hate there is between two people during the regular week, these same people will be giving each other high fives after a spectacular touchdown by Jonathan Dwyer.

Another thing I have noticed since the Virginia Tech game is the popularity of Roscoe Flat's song "All the Way Turnt Up." I know people that absolutely hate rap and hip hop altogether, but cant get enough of the unofficial theme song for the football team each Saturday. During pregame, tents and RV's fill the air with the song as I walk down Techwood to Bobby Dodd Stadium. During the game, it pumps us up and makes us feel more connected with the team as they try to stop the opponent on 3rd and inches. After the game this past Saturday against Wake Forest, the woman taking my Buzzcard at Brittain Dining Hall just burst out, albeit with the wrong lyrics, singing All the Way Turnt Up. This goes to show that young, old, black, white, man, or woman all feel even more connected through song with just a few word repeated for four minutes.

Football is such a great game for connecting people, whether in college or professional sports. Georgia Tech alumni live all around the country, and even the world. The Tech community is not just limited to the campus located on North Avenue and Techwood. Saturdays in the Fall make this even more prevalent because many of these alumni are still connected to the campus through football. In porfessional sports, teams lke the Steelers have a fan base that stretches from coast to coast. The Saints have grown to be a rebuilding force and a sign of hope in an area ravaged by Katrina and still recovering. Community goes beyond what kind of house you live in or how bad the traffic is in Atlanta. Community is the sens of connection you have with others like you, and nothing illustrates this better than Gamedays at Georgia Tech.

Posted by - Matthew Orr

Community All the Way Turnt Up: GTHP

The Honors Program at GT isn't like your typical college hp. Our honors program isn't based on grades or SAT scores (or even really just a ploy to get "more qualified" candidates from elite/Ivy League schools), but instead is based on how willing you are to be a part of a special community as shown by your essay and extra circular involvement.

Life in the Honors Program is very community based. We live together, play together (sometimes), and take a lot of the same core classes. The writers of Suburban Nation would have had a field day of rarely seen positive light for community. We are situated in a multi-use building with legitimately used green space and parks in between buildings. We either walk or take busses to get places, and there are even unicycles (only at Tech). But wait, this is urban Tech in general.

Anyways, the honors kids having classes together and living together strengthens community in a few simple ways:

1) It helps the building reach its full multi-use potential as a place to eat, sleep, have fun (maybe), and study. It's a place to congregate and a place where you can be by yourself; just a place to be.

2) The interaction as stated above means that we actually have to interact and build relationships.

3) Even the halls have 2 exits, making them through ways. Epic win in the fight against cul-de-sacs for our souls!

GTHP: COMMUNITY all the way turnt up...

-Virginia Dobson