Atlanta according to Angel Poventud

If you’ve visited Piedmont Park on a sunny day, you’ve seen Angel Poventud. In fact, if you’ve been on an Atlanta Bicycle Coalition ride, Atlanta Beltline hike, or basically any farmers market, you’ve seen this ubiquitous and active Adair Park resident who drives freight trains when he’s not giving back to the community.

Walking along the South Fork of Peachtree Creek is my favorite place to go chill in Atlanta.

Standing near any of our freight train rail lines is the best place to see art in Atlanta. Work from all over the country comes rolling through town round the clock. It’s been my favorite art gallery for the last 10 years.

The best advice I could ever give Atlanta visitors is do not go to the World of Coca-Cola. There is so much to see in the city that is free to see, I’m glad that Coke is a draw but I am always steering my couch surfers away from the World of Coke.

Something I know about Atlanta that nobody else knows is how well connected we all really are physically to one another. Between riding the rails about the city, biking, Rollerblading, skateboarding, walking, planting trees and attending meetings for the Beltline, in every neighborhood I can say that we all affect each other greatly. Atlanta is one big neighborhood.

The southeast section of the Atlanta Beltline is my favorite spot that nobody else knows about. It’s just four miles, has great views of the city, and only two street crossings, connecting Glenwood Park to Adair Park. The city is really going to enjoy learning about and using the Southside Beltline trail over the next few years.

Sevananda is my favorite spot to go for munchies. I love the bulk bins, the prepared foods, and the snacks and chips. And the Grant Park Farmers Market come spring. Come on, spring.

The Hurt Building is my favorite building.

Lucinda Bunnen is my favorite living Atlantan. Her photographic eye and passion for the arts makes me glad to know her passion is all Atlanta.

That Atlanta once had a streetcar network of 220 miles of single track rail pretty much inside of the Beltline boundary with five mainline rail lines that brought all of Georgia to the city before the car is the weirdest thing about Atlanta. Metro Atlanta is a car-developed creation, but the core of Atlanta was and is rail.

I live in Atlanta because of the trees. It is the most forested urban environment this size in the country. I love that you can be a regular person and have a major impact. The bar is set very low for involvement in all aspects of the city if you show up and have a passion.