Bike share program coming to Atlanta

Atlanta will soon join list of worldwide cities that have a bike share program. Popular in New York, London and Paris, bikes for public use are parked at various locations around those cities and can be rented for short trips by the locals or for use by tourists. Atlanta Commissioner of Planning and Community James E. Shelby told the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods earlier this month that the city would issue a contract this summer to install 57 stations around the city with more than 500 bikes available for rent. Advertising on the bikes will offset the cost of the program and tracking devices will be installed so the bikes don’t go missing, Shelby said.

– Collin Kelley

Mark your calendar for the Greenprints Conference 2014 on March 12-13. Now in its 17th year, Greenprints is a gathering of more than 200 national thought leaders in sustainable design, construction and communities. The event will be held at Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center. For more information, visit greenprints.org.

IKEA at Atlantic Station has installed four Blink electric vehicle charging stations as part of its partnership with Car Charging Group. To charge an EV at IKEA Atlanta, drivers pull into a designated parking spot, tap their Blink InCard to the reader below the screen, plug the charger into the EV, and then shop and eat at their leisure in the IKEA store while the vehicle is charging.

The Zeist Foundation, an Atlantabased family foundation that addresses the needs of at-risk children and families through education, arts and culture and health and human services, is partnering with the Wylde Center on the next phase of development of the Edgewood Community Learning Garden (ECLG) in East Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood.

The partners have announced ECLG’s first-ever brick dedication project to raise funds for the public greenspace. Individuals, families, businesses and foundations will have the opportunity to purchase one or more bricks through March 31 and inscribe a name or names on the brick. The engraved bricks will be used to create the main walkway leading from the entrance to the outdoor classroom pergola. Donors may select from three sizes and costs: $25 for a 4 x 8” brick, $50 for an 8 x 8” brick and $75 for a 12 x 12” brick, and may be ordered at wyldecenter.org.

“When the Edgewood Community

Inscribed bricks will support community garden

Learning Garden was created in June 2009, we had high hopes that it would become a safe and joyful learning environment for kids and families in Edgewood, and it has exceeded our expectations. However, this new redesign that the Wylde Center is managing promises to make the Learning Garden a beautiful sanctuary for Edgewood residents, Atlanta Public School students and neighborhood visitors for years to come,” said Brad Foster, Zeist Foundation board member.

In 2012, ECLG, located at 1503 Hardee Street, Atlanta, 30307, became a managed site by the Wylde Center, an Atlanta non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating vibrant greenspaces and inspiring communities of environmental stewards. The 3/4-acre education garden is open daily to the public during daylight hours, and includes a chicken coop, 11 raised vegetable beds, a 1,700-gallon rain harvesting cistern and a composting site. The brick dedication program will support the efforts of the Wylde Center and the Zeist Foundation to expand the garden’s environmental and educational offerings. In addition to the brick walkway and teaching pergola, plans include increased square footage for fruit and vegetable production, a larger chicken coop, bees, a butterfly garden and a tree house.

“We are excited about renovating our outdoor classroom area to make it more functional, productive, and safe for the community and our education programs, said Monica Ponce, ECLG manager. “The dedication brick walkway will add an interesting feature to the garden, and the roster of names inscribed hopefully will honor loved ones, community members, partners, volunteers, and others. The plantlined walkway will start at the garden’s entrance and end at the pergola/ outdoor classroom. We hope our supporters will be excited to have the opportunity to contribute one or more bricks and will visit often to see ‘their’ section of the walkway.”

By Melissa Weinman

Tucked away in a brick warehouse in Cabbagetown is something you don’t see much anymore: a small, family-owned factory.

With around 25 employees, Colgate Mattress produces some of the most popular baby mattresses in the country.

“We’re one on the few manufacturers left in the city,” said Dennis Wolkin, national sales manager for the company.

Wolkin is the third generation of his family to work at Colgate. His grandfather started the business when he moved to Atlanta after returning from World War II.

“There was a lack of quality baby mattresses and he said, I can build better ones,” Wolkin said of his grandfather.

Aside from size, the main difference between adult mattresses and crib mattresses is the firmness, Wolkin explained.

“Babies need a lot more support and firmness. Their bones are growing and developing, they need the support,” Wolkin said.

He said Colgate is still a tight-knit family business. He works with his father, brother, and uncle. And he praised the company’s loyal employees as an extension of the Wolkin family.

“The average employee has been here well over a decade, which for a manufacturing facility is very high,” Wolkin said. “I like the people. I like working with family. The people in the office I’ve known all my life. They’re like family.”

Most products are now manufactured overseas in places like China where labor is cheap. But Wolkin said his family hasn’t considered moving their production elsewhere.

“We’ve always been interested in staying in the U.S. We know it would be a lot cheaper to do it overseas,” Wolkin said. “But we know there’s enough consumers interested in a quality product made to our exacting standards.”

Plus, he said, it would mean laying off their long-time employees.

“We have to live with ourselves and look in the mirror,” Wolkin said. “These people have known me since I was a kid. These folks are very good at their job. They take pride in their job, in their work.”

During a tour of the factory, a man wearing a baseball cap with “Atlanta” printed on the front inspected fabric coming out of an embroidery machine stitching the patterns onto a mattress cover. Wolkin said they aren’t afraid to scrap something if it doesn’t look just right.

One of their most high-profile fans is Martha Stewart, who bought a Colgate mattress for her grandchild, Wolkin said. She later featured a Colgate mattress on an episode of the Martha Stewart Show focusing on nurseries.

Kelly Nelson, manager of New Baby Products on Cheshire Bridge Road, said her store carries Colgate crib mattresses exclusively, “not only because they’re local, but because of the quality of the product and the integrity with which they do business.”

“They are the industry leaders for crib mattresses,” Nelson said. “They’re always in the top-rated mattresses and have been for decades.”

Nelson said she also appreciates the environmental aspect of selling a product that is made locally and doesn’t have to be shipped in.

Wolkin said they’ve found themselves in a now-trendy area of town. But when they moved their operations from Ponce de Leon Avenue to their current Fulton Terrace address in the early 90s, the neighborhood was a lot different. He said the Atlanta Police Department used to use the roof of their building to monitor crime in the surrounding neighborhoods.

But Wolkin said they’ve always maintained a good relationship with Cabbagetown, even when the neighborhood wasn’t so good.

He said his uncle hired a lot of local people, especially young people, to work in the factory. They provided jobs, and in turn, they were able to avoid becoming victims of the crime that plagued the area at the time, Wolkin said.

Wolkin said his family saw potential in the neighborhood as well as a couple of other logistical advantages: easy access to MARTA and interstate highways.

“We liked that it was residential and it was close to downtown and close to major highways because we ship all over the country,” Wolkin said.

Though they are an old company, Colgate has done a lot to stay relevant. Wolkin said because they are a small company, they are able to adapt to changing demands quickly.

For example, they now make an oval shaped mattress for the Stokke crib, a European brand popular with people living in smaller spaces. They also make a crib mattress with an organic cotton cover.

“People are concerned about chemicals in mattresses,” Wolkin said. “We give people an option.”