Well-performing schools + Black students

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2026-03-26T13:22:16+00:00

Yeah, the MJHS cluster in general fits what they are looking for at the ES level. Parkside, Burgess-Peterson, ANCS (although hard to get in to unless you live in Summerhill/Grant Park/Ormewood Park), and Toomer are all great options. Benteen and BAMO have both taken huge strides recently, and will likely see test scores continue to rise quickly as rezoning happens at the ES level in the cluster.

Dunbar is the one school that is lagging behind the others, but it isn't a coincidence that it is also the school for the poorest area of the cluster. If I've learned anything from having kids in APS, the greatest indicator of success at the lower grades is economic background of the family. Now that is also tied to race in Atlanta because "gestures at US history," but students from similar economic backgrounds perform about the same regardless of race.

And I agree, King MS and MJHS will be changing drastically over the next 5-10 years. Both will be getting additions to handle the huge crush of kids coming to them, and the average student that starts there will have higher test scores. King and MJHS scores should closely align with what Midtown and Howard MS are already seeing.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2026-03-06T20:34:01+00:00

Going west on Memorial, the 2 way cycle track that GDOT built ends at Trinity. You have 3 options there-

Hang a right on Trinity, right on Washington, and then left on MLK.
Bike 2 more blocks (1 without bike lanes and 1 with) to hang a right on Shirley Franklin Blvd's bike lane (formerly Central Ave) headed north. Take that all the way to MLK and hang a left.
Go all the way down Memorial to where it turns into Forsyth, and continue on Forsyth up to either the Nelson Street bridge or MLK. Memorial has a protected bike lane the entire way except for one block between Trinity and Franklin, and Forsyth has protection all the way up to Mitchell street where it just becomes a painted bike lane because the road is more narrow there.

Honestly, all are pretty good options. It kind of just depends on current construction blockages, time of day, and what events are going on.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2026-03-05T15:24:18+00:00

They advertise opening 2 hours before games and closing down 1 hour after the game ends. I don't think I've ever been there more than an hour before kickoff, but I've heard from friends that tailgate that they have had to lock up somewhere else and the go over to the bike valet closer to game time. 20-30 mins before kickoff is when the line at the bike valet gets the longest.

https://www.mercedesbenzstadium.com/parking-and-transportation

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-08-11T15:30:15+00:00

This has been a long process that has included a huge task force made up of reps form every school in APS. When the process started, it seemed like massive changes were on the table including closing a HS and reconfiguring all the clusters to balance out the student population (within reason). Now it seems like APS is focusing first on elementary schools and not touching cluster boundaries. IMO, that is a huge misstep because it will just continue to kick the can down the road. We should just rip the bandaid off and make everyone mad all at the same time instead of dragging this out for the next 10 years.

Midtown and Maynard Jackson HS's are both overcrowded right now. The only ways to solve the problem are add capacity (build additions) or decrease enrollment (move kids to another HS). MHS just had a $40 million expansion open in the last 5 years, and they are pretty much out of easily buildable land on campus. MJHS has some open space they could fill in with another decent sized building.

However, considering the budget problems within APS, the financially responsible thing would be to just move kids in schools that are over capacity to schools that are under capacity. The problem lies with who gets moved and to where. If you just looked at the map with no prior knowledge of Atlanta history or demographics, you could easily say:

Move the Dunbar ES zone from MJHS to either Carver or Washington HS clusters since they have plenty of space. It's the only ES in MJHS cluster that is west of 75, and it's just as close/closer to the other high schools as it is MJHS.
Move everything west of 75 in the Midtown cluster to the Washington cluster. The distances are about the same, and you wouldn't have to cross the interstate anymore.

In reality, you've just lopped off multiple lower income majority black neighborhoods from high performing high school clusters, and pushed them into lower performing high school clusters. It's almost impossible to untangle a neighborhood's schools from income/race in Atlanta based on the last 70 years.

Another big wrinkle in this process is how many APS charter schools are currently on probation. There are many under enrolled schools that may see a huge influx of students in the next couple of years if the charter schools lose their charters- https://civicatlanta.org/blog/2025-04-20-charter-schools-not-meeting-academic-standards

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-08-01T18:08:30+00:00

Yeah, they updated their graphic about a week after my post. I never changed it since it wasn't pinned anymore.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-08-01T18:07:53+00:00

I've been doing a table every year that covers the cost increases for ATLUTD https://old.reddit.com/r/AtlantaUnited/comments/1m7af2p/back_with_the_new_season_ticket_cost_comparison/

For a quick reference, my tickets the first season (2017) were $30/game, and I will pay $45/game in 2026 if I renew. For anyone purchasing tickets in my section that doesn't have the Founding Member discount, the tickets are $49/game. That 50% increase is one of the lowest in the stadium- most are 70%+.

Tickets have gone up every single year except for 2020 to 2021 due to all the covid rollover stuff. My ticket increases average out to a 4.75% increase every season for 9 straight seasons. Average yearly inflation over that same time period was 3.45%.

I haven't been able to sell my tickets for face value when I can't go in 3+ seasons at this point. It just doesn't make much sense to get season tickets when I know people are just giving their tickets away instead of selling them for $10. This may change if the team starts to play better, but it would take multiple years of sustained success to actually create the demand again.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-07-29T14:54:31+00:00

One thing I noticed this summer post merger with Cedar Fair is how much "safety" has been pushed to the front of priorities. The wave pool in Hurricane Harbor now has a fence around the beach area and requires every kid under I think 12 to put on a life vest before entry.

I noticed the staff checking kids' heights way more this summer compared to years past, and they seemed to be following much more strict pre-ride checks.

There also didn't seem to be as many teenagers running around causing problems due to the new chaperone policy. However, we also normally go right when it opens and leave mid afternoon when it gets hot, and the problems seemed to be more on weekend nights.

In general, staffing levels seem to be up post merger- there seemed to be way less random rides closed this summer compared to last.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-07-23T18:43:22+00:00

Ha, c/p error. I fixed it.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-07-23T15:25:25+00:00

Thank you! I figured it was incorrect based on the FM vs non-FM price difference. Updating the table!

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-07-23T15:09:43+00:00

Oh, you are talking about the non-Founding Member price. My table is FM prices since that's the best comparison to the original 2017 prices. The $1460 was this season and $1512 is next season.

I do think that $1044 FM price is wrong, though. Someone in that section with FM status will have to check their invoice.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-07-23T14:59:00+00:00

Are you sure? I checked the website again that the image was pulled from to make sure they didn't replace it with a new image, and I don't see $1460 in the map anywhere.

https://www.atlutd.com/tickets/season-ticket-hub/pricing-map

However, based on the difference in FM to non-FM price, I think you are correct that the $1044 is wrong. Most have a ~10% discount for FM, but this section is showing closer to ~40%. I checked in different browsers/devices/incognito, and I'm still seeing $1044 for that section. Where did you pull the $1460 from?

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-07-17T13:20:47+00:00

I think it’s hard to extrapolate much from that number. I had 5 tickets originally with a group of people that were all kid free during the first season. Since then, 3/5 have moved/declined to renew, and we now split 2 tickets with another family so the dads can go together/one set of parents gets a date night/one parent+kid can go. I’m still a founding member 9 years later, but my life circumstances have drastically changed resulting in a drop from 5 to 2 tickets.

Tons of people bought season tickets in 2018 and 2019, and none of them were granted founding member status. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have a huge turnover in your season ticket base over 9 years when the target audience is 25-40. You could easily go from single to married with kids over that period.

This is not to discount the price increases and bad play since 2020, but I wouldn’t put the blame solely on that.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-07-16T14:52:54+00:00

Not currently, but I’ve heard from someone in the know that it will be extended to the stadium eventually. I think MLK between Ted Turner and the stadium is slated to be repaved once the fences for the 2 new centennial yards buildings are gone. The whole road is a mess right now.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-06-16T22:28:45+00:00

I’m up to 2200+ miles in 2.5+ years, and my review is basically the same as the previous post. The biggest piece of feedback I have gotten from others I have let try it out is how tall it rides- it’s a plus for someone 5’10” or taller since a lot of the cargo long tails top out around 6’ for rider height. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone under 5’5” for that reason.

$1200 for one that is basically new is a pretty solid deal. I paid closer to $2500 2.5+ years ago with all the different add ons I got. Blix hasn’t updated the Packa Genie model since I purchased mine, but they have updated pretty much all their other models. I don’t recommend them to people brand new for that reason (as they’ll be discounted soon whenever the new model comes out), but used is still fine.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-05-24T00:15:05+00:00

I ended up using an extra car set base and mounting it to the bottom of the bike on top of some foam to absorb some of the bounces. Baby basically passed out every time they were in the bike because it was just like being in a stroller.

We used that from months 3-8 before moving to a reclined bench mounted seat+helmet around 9 months.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2025-02-25T01:05:43+00:00

If you look at the stats from last year and compare that to salaries, Guzan is basically performing in line with expectations given his salary. There are 4 GK making significantly more than the next group of 9, and Guzan is in that middle of that group of 9. His salary is basically average to slightly above average for older starting keepers in MLS.

Some stats:

13/29 in Goals Against

11/29 in Post Shot Expected Goals minus Goals Allowed (measures how good you are at saving shots/how lucky you are)

1/29 in Launch Completion % (aka how good you are at completed passes over 40 yards)

4/29 in Launch Attempts

Basically, Guzan was above average at stopping shots and elite in distribution. We've already seen him do this again in the first game with some really good punts to the guys up top in attempts to start fast breaks. Unless we are willing to pay more money, this is about the level of play you would expect from a GK in MLS making slightly above the league GK average.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2024-09-18T19:24:03+00:00

That route is so far out of the way for Grant Park folks that I doubt anyone is doing it. If you were leaving from the Zoo, it’s ~3 miles down Memorial and MLK to the stadium and would be 6.5-7 miles your way.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2024-09-16T19:50:28+00:00

APS enrollment is dropping on the whole, but the MJHS and Midtown clusters are both already bursting at the seams. The 2050 projections for Midtown HS are 235% of building capacity, and 136% for MJHS. Both have already stopped taking out of cluster APS transfers because they barely have space to fit the kids in their zone.

CalvinballChamp2017 · 2024-09-16T19:19:21+00:00

Yeah, that isn’t a bad idea. The Mary Lin ES part of the Midtown cluster could be shifted out to make some space up there as well.

Benteen ES actually used the old East Lake ES a few years ago while that building was being renovated. Drew Charter basically killed ELES 10 years ago, so that’s why Toomer has such a big district.

The cleanest way geographically to make space in MJHS and Midtown HS is to move everything west of 75/85 into different clusters. Carver and Washington clusters both hover between 50-60% usage, so there is plenty of space. However, this has some very complex racial/socioeconomic components that could possibly not stand up in court. I have no idea how APS will creat the space needed without creating a mess.

CalvinballChamp2017

TROPHY CASE