The Porch Press – Historic Atlanta Neighborhoods of Grant Park, Ormewood Park, East Atlanta Village, Benteen Park, Glenwood Park, and more

By Keisha Hines

A special delivery of some of the world’s rarest reptiles has arrived in the Southeast. Eight critically endangered ploughshare tortoises are now residents of Zoo Atlanta and Knoxville Zoo, and may represent the last hope for a species marked for extinction.

Widely considered the world’s most endangered tortoise species, ploughshare tortoises are native only to the island of Madagascar. Despite a concentrated recovery program begun in 1986 by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the population continues to founder due to the combined effects of illegal commerce and habitat destruction. Ongoing demand on a global black market, where ploughshare tortoises are often sold to collectors at higher than the price of gold, may have reduced their numbers to as few as 400 individuals.

In 2008, the Recovery Plan Workshop for the Ploughshare Tortoise suggested the establishment of a captive population outside Madagascar. The founders of that population, a group of 10 tortoises confiscated from illegal traders in Hong Kong and Taipei, were imported to the U.S. by the Turtle Conservancy/Behler Chelonian Center.

Now, a second group of eight ploughshare tortoises have recently been imported to the U.S. by the Turtle Survival Alliance, a nonprofit organization committed to zero turtle extinctions. The tortoises arrived thanks to the cooperation of the TSA’s strategic partner Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, as well as the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department that initially confiscated the ploughshares entering Hong Kong illegally. The tortoises will be housed at Zoo Atlanta and Knoxville Zoo, with oversight from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP), which manages the breeding and placement of the species in zoos accredited by the AZA. Zoo Atlanta and Knoxville Zoo each received four ploughshare tortoises, which will be on public view later this spring in Knoxville.

“We are proud and honored that Zoo Atlanta and Knoxville Zoo have been specifically chosen to house and reproduce a new U.S.-based population of ploughshare tortoises, given the outstanding reputations both of our organizations have for success in breeding critically endangered turtles,” said Dwight Lawson, PhD, Deputy Director, Zoo Atlanta, and Vice President of the Turtle Survival Alliance. “This species is probably more numerous on the black market than it is in the wild. This represents a far broader and more alarming problem, not just for ploughshare tortoises, but for so many other turtle species now being decimated by overharvesting for food and the pet trade.”

Should ploughshare tortoises reproduce at Zoo Atlanta and Knoxville Zoo, the event would mark the latest in a series of successes in reproducing other rare species threatened by the Asian turtle crisis. In 2007, Zoo Atlanta became the first zoological facility to breed Arakan forest turtles, and in 2010, became just the second AZA institution to successfully reproduce impressed tortoises. Knoxville Zoo was the first zoo to successfully breed Madagascar flat-tailed tortoises in 2002 and Northern spider tortoises in 2008.

2011 EABF Volunteers pause work for a photo. Photo by Zach Porter Photography

By Lauren Leschper

The 9th annual East Atlanta Beer Festival returns on May 19 to shady Brownwood Park in East Atlanta Village. Doors open at 1:00pm (or noon for VIP ticket holders) for over 175 craft beers from around the world, live music, and food from local restaurants. Food trucks are being premiered in 2012. This year’s festival footprint has increased substantially, allowing more room for attendees to enjoy the park.

All proceeds from the East Atlanta Beer Festival support a variety of local organizations and initiatives, funding projects that make East Atlanta a great place to live. Grantees from the 2011 festival included the East Atlanta Farmers Market, Friends of East Atlanta Library, RecycleEAV, Burgess-Peterson Academy, and the East Atlanta Community Association.

Please visit www.eastatlantabeerfest.com for more information or to purchase tickets. For any questions, email marketing@eastatlantabeerfest.com.

By Ken Rose

Last year, less than 20 people from Martha Brown United Methodist Church (UMC) membership sat together in a room after church and committed to the following goals. First, create an opening and inviting place for everyone; second, serve the East Atlanta community outside their doors; and third, expand the children’s ministry.

For many years, the church has been working to upgrade its facilities to support its mission of creating an opening and inviting place for everyone. With funding help from the community, like the East Atlanta Beer Festival, the church has been able to make several significant improvements. One of these was creating a community center that can help strengthen the East Atlanta community.

The road to meeting this goal started a few years ago, with church members opening the church for two hours every Saturday night. Later the community center opened and this ministry has grown. The community center is also home for community groups like NPU-W and others to meet. This year the community center saw about 900 visits for community meetings. The church offers these free of charge to neighborhood community not-for-profit groups.

This community center is now home to an addiction recovery group every night of the week. Throughout last year, the community center had around 8,000 visits to the church for this purpose. This ministry was the church’s first step in restoring its role as an East Atlanta community church.

The second goal for the church was to serve the East Atlanta community outside the church’s doors. Martha Brown began the year last Christmas by offering free food to anyone outside its front doors who wanted it. Every Sunday this year, church members served lunch to anyone outside its doors who was hungry. Afterwards, members also delivered meals on their bicycles to people living under a bridge in West End. Members used their bicycles to reduce their carbon footprint. Throughout last year this ministry delivered about 1,000 meals to hungry people.

When the church was deciding what it could do to serve those around it last Christmas, it reached out to Branan Towers; which is run by Wesley Woods, a UMC mission; to see if they would like to share Christmas dinner. Over 60 residents said yes and Martha Brown members had the joy of sharing Christmas dinner with their neighbors at Branan Towers.

In addition, the church expanded two of its partnerships and continued a third. The first partnership with Action Ministries serves women and children who are homeless. Members continued to sponsor two families that live in East Atlanta and took responsibility for buying Christmas gifts for these children. The church added a second partnership with Street Grace ministries. This organization seeks to stop human trafficking in Atlanta. Tragically, some of this trafficking occurs in East Atlanta on Moreland Avenue right outside of the church’s doors. The church also continued its ongoing service to the UMC Children’s Home.

A third goal for the church was expanding the children’s ministry. The church added a Wednesday night education time, vacation bible school, and reinvigorated its Sunday children’s session. Through this ministry, the church had over 1,200 individual education sessions for children throughout the year. In addition, many children have become active members of the church’s mission in serving the hungry. The older adolescents have helped the adults deliver food to the people living under a bridge, younger ones have helped serve food in the front of the church, and most “waited tables” when the church shared Christmas dinner with Branan Towers.

Martha Brown UMC is a church with a mission of creating a warm, embracing spiritual home for everyone. Last year the church sought to meet this mission by creating an open and inviting place for all people, serving the East Atlanta community outside its doors, and expanding the children’s ministry. Martha Brown is a small church with less than 100 people in its active membership. Through their support, last year Martha Brown UMC had over 10,000 community encounters serving Christ’s mission in East Atlanta. If you are interested in learning more please visit www.marthabrown.org.

By David Ringstrom

The Grant Park Pool will open for the season on Memorial Day Monday, May 28. The pool will remain open through Labor Day September 3. District 1 Councilmember Carla Smith www.district1atlanta.com will be holding her eighth annual Memorial Day pool party from 2:30pm to 4:30pm on Monday, May 28. Regular pool admission fees apply, but the party will include a DJ and pool games, as well as free hot dogs and other refreshments.

Swimming lessons are expected to be offered once again this summer by Sabir Muhammad and his team from Atlanta Swim School. Registration and schedule information will be available on the Atlanta Swim School website at www.atlantaswimschool.com. Swimming lesson scholarships are also available through Atlanta Swim School, which offers one free scholarship for every four paid attendees.

Six Feet Under is graciously sponsoring their eighth dine-out to support the Grant Park Pool on May 22 at the Grant Park location from 4:00pm to closing. Please be sure to thank Six Feet Under for their ongoing support of our pool and the Grant Park neighborhood. The Friends of the Grant Park Pool rely primarily on restaurant dine-outs to fund improvements to the pool, such as lounge chairs, and to provide swimwear for those that can’t afford proper attire.

New this year, the City of Atlanta has outsourced the management of their outdoor pools to USA Pools, a professional pool management company. All admission fees and pool rules remain the same as before. Daily admission to the pool is $4.00 for adults, and $2.00 for children 6 to 16. Kids 5 and under pay $1, and seniors 55+ pay $2. Admission to the pool is free for everyone between 1:30 and 4:00 on weekdays, except for holidays. Annual and seasonal passes will be available—see www.grantparkpool.org for more details, including hours, pool rules, and the latest pool news. You can also get the latest pool news on Facebook (search for Friends of Grant Park Pool and join the group), follow the pool on Twitter at www.twitter.com/grantparkpool, or sign up for the e-mail newsletter www.grantparkpool.org/subscribe.

When visiting the Grant Park Pool, be sure not to park within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, or in a crosswalk. ParkAtlanta and the Atlanta Police Department do enforce parking regulations strictly in the vicinity of the pool. Further, be sure not to leave any valuables visible within your vehicle.

The Friends of Grant Park Pool are a dedicated group of Grant Park neighbors who have volunteered as advocates for the pool since December 2004. The Grant Park Pool is owned and operated by the City of Atlanta.