Why this workshop?
I want to support folks in learning how to navigate the city of ATL, other regions without relying on GPS, particularly as the most "reliable" online GPS systems (Google, Apple) folks use are owned by tech companies infringing on our privacy rights1 and are in active collaboration with state agencies dedicated to our oppression2 and become useless should the power grid collapse. In this workshop I'll share tips and tricks for extracting ourselves from GPS through identifying major roads that connect different ATL metro communities, understanding the US highway system, determining directions and identifying landmarks.
What makes me qualified to run this workshop?
I’m not an expert in navigation, but I’ve been driving since I was 17 years old, learned about my navigation skills from my father (RIP) who spent most of his adult life driving folks around without GPS, and I generally have a love for extracting ourselves from surveillance technology. I’m not an expert, but I pride myself on limiting my use of GPS and/or beating the algorithm.
One time, I cut my travel time (SW ATL to midtown) from 35 to 13 minutes by skipping the route Google told me and using my knowledge of ATL’s layout cut around construction-induced traffic (thx World Cup) and a marathon running through downtown (⌐■_■)
This guide largely focuses on the ATL area (in the perimeter) as an example, but the methodology can be applied to other regions.
Check-in Question
How confident are you in navigating around ATL without the aid of GPS technology?If it helps, rate yourself on a scale of 1-5 (1 being not confident atl all).
What are you hoping to learn in this session?
Tips & Tricks for Navigation
5min Quick activity: as best as you can, sketch out a rough map of ATL as you know it.
- What informed how you drew you map?
- Did you imagine specific places, streets or people?
- What did you struggle with?
- What would have helped you fill in the gaps?
The layout of ATL – What I noticed:
ATL can be split into 4 quadrants. They are divided by i75/85 and i20 and/or by Marta's Red/Gold and Blue/Green lines. Within those quadrants you can begin to identify and orient yourself around specific neighborhoods within them. Here are some neighborhoods within each quadrant.
- NW: Bankhead, Vine City, English Park
- NE: Midtown, Virginia Highland, Inman Park
- SW: Sylvan Hills, West End, Cascade Heights
- SE: Grant Park, EAV, Lakewood Heights
Other ways you can section out the city:
- Council Districts (12 Districts) - useful for mapping ATL electoral politics
- Zones (6 zones)
- Side of the city. Most common ATL "sides" that I hear folks mention: SWATs (SW ATL), East side, North side, South sides
Getting to Know the Streets
As I get to know new cities, I slowly begin to familiarize myself with the major roads that will help me travel across the city. Keep in mind, roads tend to change names when they cross a different part of the city. Be mindful of where roads change name so you don't get confused when navigating and communicating directions.
Atlanta's Major North/South Roads:
- Main St/ Lee St SW/ Northside Dr/ Cobb Pkwy
- Metropolitan Pkwy SW/ Northside Dr
- Hank Aaron Dr SE/ Capitol Ave SE/ Piedmont Ave
- Whitehall/ Peachtree St/ Peachtree Rd/ Roswell Rd
- Boulevard/Monroe Dr NE/ Piedmont Ave/ Roswell Rd
- Moreland/Briarcliff Rd NE
Atlanta's Major East/West Roads:
- Washington Rd/ Cleveland Ave
- Langford Pkwy
- Campbellton Rd
- Cascade Rd/Ralph David Abernathy/Georgia Ave
- Boulder Park Dr / MLK Jr Drive
- Memorial Dr
- Dekalb Ave
- Joseph E Boon / Ivan Allen Jr Blvd/ Ralph Mcgill Blvd
- North Ave
- Ponce de Leon
Other Notable Roads:
- Marietta St NW
- Freedom Parkway
Take note of the Directions at the end of some of the road names. (ex, Briacliff Rd NE). The NE signifies north and east, which points to which quadrant you're in. This means you are north of i20 and east of i75/85. This can be helpful in orienting yourself around the city!
Identifying Landmarks
Landmarks are places or objects that are easily identifiable and help you orient your sense of navigation. Landmarks may be known community-wide, or they may be specific to your understanding of the city. When communicating directions, landmarks can be helpful when the receiver isn't as familiar with the names of roads.
Here are some examples ATL landmarks:
- SW: Westview Cemetery, Cascade Springs, ATL Airport, Perkerson Park
- SE: Grant Park, ATL Prison :/, Community Grounds, Starlight Drive-in
- NW: AUC, Shirley C Franklin Park, Atlantic Station
- NE: Piedmont Park, Oakland Cemetery, Krog St. Market
- Marta stations and differentiating between krogers can also be a landmark!
Keep in mind that if your landmark is a large landmass like a park or a cemetary, they'll be most helpful in communitcating which side of town your navigating to. Further instructions might be needed for specificity.
Something to consider:
What if we thought about navigation as not just as a tool for geeting from Point A to Point B, but for understanding the sub-cultures of a community. How then, do landmarks help us understand the experiences of those being born in, raised in, moved to, learning and loving a city? For example, here are some questions I've heard over the years that are essentially asks for directions in understanding someone's ATL experience.
- Which Grady were you born at?
- What high school you went to?
- What skating rink you be at?
- Where do you go out?
What questions help you to mapt your ATL experience?
Notes on Communication + Giving/Receiving Directions
Navigation doesn’t happen in a silo; developing this skills means finding alignment with your community in naming how to get around the city.
But cities change; roads get renamed, neighborhoods get erased, forests and parks get destroyed.
Understanding how cities have changed over time helps bridge the gap in communication between generations and migrations.
If you’re chatting to an ATL native who just moved back to the city after a decade – will they know what you mean if you tell them you live in “West Midtown”? Maybe not!
If you're chatting it up with an elder and they told you they grew up in the Lightning neighborhood, where would your inner map take you? Would you think of where the Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center currently sit? It was a Black working-class neighborhood demolished in the 1980s and 1990s to make room for these sites.
All of this is to say, navigation is skill built upon memory. As memories change, so does our ability to navigate together. Adapt to the changes, but don't forget old memories.
Activity
This activity uses language from a concept called “pod mapping”, developed by the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective.
“We created the concept of “pods” to refer to a specific type of relationship within TJ work. We needed a term to describe the kind of relationship between people who would turn to each other for support around harmful and violent experiences, whether as survivors, bystanders or people who have caused harm. These would be the people in our lives we would call on to support us with things such as our immediate and on-going safety, accountability and transformation of behaviors, or individual and collective healing and resiliency”
But pods can be used for all sorts of scenarios, not just navigating harmful & violent experiences. I recommend reading the full pod mapping guide to get an understanding of the concept.
For the purpose of this activity, we’ll think of our pods as folks in our community who we’ll link up with when the zombie apocalypse starts.
Scene: You’re sitting at home, watching tv and snacking when the tv turn to an emergency channel. The city is in complete chaos as thousands of people have come back on the dead to feast on the living. You’re in shock because you never thought this would actually happen, but luckily, you prepped for this exact moment. You run to your bedroom, grab your Lo-Ra radio to find a member of your pod already in go-mode.
This pod member lives in ATL metro like you, but on the opposite side of the city. Both of your neighborhoods are unsafe and so you decide to meet at a central location with all your emergency supplies before deciding where to hunker down. The grid is down and your local pod member does not know how to get to the meet-up point without GPS. Luckily, you’re an expert on navigating ATL’s streets.
- Where does this person live?
- Where is the meet up spot?
- Give them rough directions on how toget there using major roads and landmarks.
References:
- Six Reasons Why Google Maps Is the Creepiest App On Your Phone
- Google CEO commits to keep working with police despite internal backlash
- West Midtown isn’t a real place. It’s a sign of successful gentrification efforts.
- Lightning, Struck by Max Blau, Dustin Chambers & Sarah Lawrence
- Pods: The Building Blocks of Transformative Justice & Collective Care