ABC Newsletter: Cumberland Walking Tour Review and BoC preview
Our experience at the Cumberland Walking Tour wasn't quite a home run, but was still a positive experience at the plate!
Cumberland could very well be considered Cobb County’s eighth city, and a lively one when The Battery Atlanta within it hosts one of each year’s 81 scheduled Atlanta Braves home games and other events.
With Truist Park having a capacity of 41,084 baseball fans, and hundreds if not thousands of workers in the stadium and surrounding businesses, plus residents of apartments within the Battery, this small area at active times may have a population to put it among Cobb’s largest cities of Mableton, Marietta and Smyrna.
A Better Cobb held its latest walking tour Wednesday night, starting in The Battery and continuing around to other portions of Cumberland. The meetup drew nearly 10 A Better Cobb members on a night where the Braves hosted the New York Mets and gave away Usher bobbleheads. Across the street from the stadium, the Coca-Cola Roxy was host to a concert headlined by BABYMETAL, drawing a distinctly different crowd from the typically baseball team-gear fans heading into the nearby larger venue
The afternoon’s heavy rains brought temperatures down to mostly bearable for a mid-June evening.
Takeaways
Many sidewalks along Cobb Parkway were cracked, which may lead to tripping hazards for those who regularly use them or to visitors in the area on game days or other special events. A Better Cobb encourages well-maintained sidewalks, especially in areas that have heavy pedestrian usage.
Despite ABC board member Matt S. reporting to Cobb DOT and Cobb County leadership the presence of an electronic sign blocking the sidewalk along Cobb Parkway near Circle 75 Parkway SE, the sign remained there Wednesday night, severely limiting the flow of pedestrians likely to have come from crossing Cobb Parkway at Spring Road.
The Battery Atlanta’s Walking Trail, promoted via mile marker signage along the path, travels along heavy traffic corridors such as Cobb Parkway and Windy Ridge Parkway, and those roads on a Wednesday evening game day were well used. ABC members who walked down Windy Ridge Parkway noticed narrow sidewalks, which would make foot traffic going in both directions difficulty. The sidewalk at certain parts also had pine straw and other landscaping debris spilling over onto it
Attendees only came across two pole-style bike racks during the walk — both next to each other and located near the Coca-Cola Roxy (though not far from one of the Truist Park stadium gates. Each pole, however, could seemingly only allow for two bikes each.
With The Battery Atlanta and its surrounding corridor home to several apartment communities, it’s curious that more bike racks were seemingly not present or at least readily apparent.
Two attendees came via CobbLinc bus, which at present does not have an arriving or departing stop conveniently located near The Battery. For example, for those coming from the Marietta Transfer Center via the Route 10 bus, as board member Jon G. did, the closest stop for those going to a Braves game is on Cumberland Boulevard at Cotton Street — the stop is near the Walton Grove apartments and just beyond an entrance to a shopping center featuring Marshall’s, Ross, and several other stores.
From that stop, it’s not a far walk from Cobb Parkway, but at that intersection public safety officers disallowed crossing Cobb Parkway there (where Cumberland Parkway becomes Windy Ridge Parkway) and sent pedestrians instead to continue along Cobb Parkway until reaching the Steak ’n Shake restaurant, where crossing Cobb Parkway puts you on Tim Lee Way.
For those who would ride the Route 10 back north to the Marietta Transfer Center, the closest stop in the area is on the other side of Cobb Parkway in front of the Kentucky Fried Chicken at Windy Ridge Parkway.
Jon believes Braves fans and other visitors to The Battery Atlanta would be better served with a bus stop, or special shuttle route, that would drop riders off within The Battery. In a previous trip to a game, one of those who walking off the Route 10 bus was a Truist Park employee who shared that he worked in one of the concession areas.
Most participants in the ABC did not attend the game, but rather stuck around The Battery while the game was underway. And while attendees stood around chatting on the artificially turfed area with the game shown on a big screen, several kids tossed a baseball or otherwise played with one another.
Following the walk, most participants ended the evening with dinner and friendly chatting within Ph’East, a food hall within The Battery.
Overall, the evening was enjoyable, and the city-within-a-not-an-official-city felt alive and safe, and a place worthy of visiting again.
Tuesday, June 24th Board of Commissioners Preview
One Tuesday, June 24th, there will be two Board of Commissioners meetings: a 1:30 p.m Work Session and a 7:00 p.m. Board of Commissioners Regular Meeting.
The key difference between these meetings is that Work Sessions have presentations that are given to the Board and discussions follow afterwards. Regular Meetings are the meetings where agenda items are voted on and approved.
The 1:30 p.m. Work Session will be a very important one. Commissioners will be presented with the county’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget, along with an annual update on Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta. Click here for the agenda for that Work Session meeting.
Here’s a preview to the 7 p.m. Regular Meeting:
Presentations (3 items)
Public Comment Round 1 (10 speakers, up to 3 minutes each on any topic)
Consent Agenda (41 items)
Of note, a few transit items are included in the Consent Agenda:
Item 16: Getting the necessary certifications and assurances to qualify for Federal Transit Authority funding and grants
Item 17: A Federal Section 5337 grant application for $800k that will be added to $200k in local funds that will go towards preventative maintenance.
Item 18: This one is a doozy. One part of it is a Federal Section 5307 grant application for $2.8 Million that will be added to $1.5 Million in local funds that will go towards multiple Capital and Operating projects. This grant will then be combined with two other grants (South Cobb Transfer Center preliminary engineering and 18 new Natural Gas buses) into one combined “Super Grant.” Seems to be this is the way the federal government is now managing the grant process…
Item 19: A new 3-year (with County options for 2 additional years) bus shelter and bus advertising contract to be approved. County will receive the maximum of 50% of advertising revenue OR an increasing amount of guaranteed revenue ($200k in year one, $400k in year three)
Item 24: A new amendment to the agreement for the sale of county land to an apartment developer that extends the Due Diligence period and reduces the cost of the sale due to GDOT’s expansion of 285 reducing the amount of property that can be accessed.
Regular Agenda (6 items)
Not really too much to highlight in the regular agenda
Public Comment Round 2 (10 speakers, up to 3 minutes each)
Appointments & Announcements (none currently)
That’s it for this week’s Board of Commissioners preview issue. Be on the lookout for a very special issue coming out soon with some BIG news! 🚀🚀
The lack of bike parking has always flabbergasted me. There used to be a small, covered area close to the 3rd base gates, but they turned the area into lockers. There is other bike parking by the Delta gate, but a lot of Stadium employees use it and it's always full with no spots by the time we arrive.
Thanks, Matt, for the updates.
Lynn