Come get NIMBY with us tonight!
I genuinely believe that Virginia-Highland (or “Vaggie Hi” as the locals* call it) is the best neighborhood in Atlanta for my current needs, especially now that more great spots are popping up on the other end of Ponce so I don’t have to drive to enjoy nightlife. And just this weekend I was bragging that it’s the perfect place to live because there’s no room for any condos to be built up.
THEN THOMAS WHEATLEY REMINDED ME ABOUT THE MIX.
I’d gotten so used to that foreboding sign at N. Highland and Briarcliff Place that’s been promising The Mix 841 for years now that I blithely thought it would never really happen. But tonight the NPU is voting on a recommendation to rezone the commercial stretches of North Highland, and I for one will be in attendance to vote in favor of anything that bans another Mix-like development, all after a harrowing descent into madness while navigating their website. What triggered my rage blackout just now, you might ask? What makes me so sure that glossy mixed use development (read: 218 parking spaces) is wrong for my treasured neighborhood? The actual names of their “12 unique floorplans”: Tom Collins, the Smokin’ Martini, the Greyhound, the Stinger, the Gimlet, the Tequila Sunrise, the Manhattan, the Sazerac, the French 75, the Brandy Alexander, the Harvey Wallbanger, and the Cosmopolitan. Can we get any other development company in town on this project besides the awful people who invented Neighbor’s, Wolf Camera (“Virginia Highland’s first national retailer”), and the Warren?
I need to go lay down with a cool washcloth across my brow, or whatever it is that rich ladies do when their blood pressure gets agitated by poor taste.
*just me
Additionally, The Mix has one of the worst websites I’ve ever seen. BLECH!
I was just running over by Hillside and saw a billion cars and went to CL.com to find out what the heck was going on. They had a link to your page here.
I don’t officially live in “Vaggie-Hi”, I live in “Mo-Side” so I couldn’t vote.
It appears The Mix is your pet peeve. Mine is people who drive 70 on Monroe (no exaggeration). I’m sure you’ve seen them. However, I doubt many people care. Two weeks ago a car sawed a power pole off at ground level, took down two trees, bounced off a stone retaining wall and kept going. She eventually decided to stop, but the front of her car including the bumper was left behind as a souvenir for the trash guys.
Morningside is in the same NPU (F)! You could have voted – it was to recommend the City change the zoning from commercial (C-1) to neighborhood commercial (NC). The Mix is coming whether I like it or not, and I don’t.
The Mix is the brainspasm of a demented developer. You don’t need to look any further than the design of this horrid building (even their website) to see the lunacy behind it. You can certainly expect a low budget, low class, low quality building. It will Exactly what VaHi does NOT need. Anyone considering buying into this place needs to have an MRI done on their brain.
I just checked out the membership costs for The Warren. I dunno. Any place that costs only $50 a month to be a member of isn’t terribly exclusive. What were they thinking?
I have never heard of the Warren but I have two useless things to say.
1) When I first read “The Warren,” I thought it might be the huge gray apartment building at the corner of Highland & North. It seems very (rabbit) warreny to me.
2) @ Gordon Lamb: You have to be a member to go to the Warren? That’s like… Chapel Hill-style but so much worse, because it isn’t a law, it’s just faux elitism. Faux Vaggie Hi elitism. Ickeh.
Yep, it’s “private”. Go check out the photo album. I guess if you’re a member you can rub elbows with celebrities like Shawn Mullins.
BTW those gray apartments gray Highland and North were built in the 1920’s. They are a historical part of the neighborhood. And they’re actually very cool inside. Lots of original tile, arched room passageways and real hardwood floors (i.e. not laminates). I love those apartments.
I don’t in Atlanta now, I used to, and i am moving back in two weeks….and my background is land and transportation planning. I know zoning and development. Without knowing full details and taking the design discussion out of the equation, what’s the main problem? Va-Hi turned into Buckhead-lite 5ish years ago, so people who are clinging to old Va-Hi — its over, been over, will never be the same — and i loved old Va-Hi. How is creating (free?) public parking spaces bad? Is running around the neighborhood searching for a spot on the street part a right of passage? 12 condos won’t make a dent in traffic. 25K retail will. But then you have 200+ off-street, in garage parking. Normal parking required for something like this would be 124, assuming 4 per 1000 retail and 2 per unit. That means almost 100 cars will be taken off the streets for current residents and their guests. Please explain negative aspects. Don’t say new = bad. That’s silly. It’d be different if they were tearing down historic structures.