For most of the past decade, a Sandy Springs weekend meant one address: 1 Galambos Way. City Green, the amphitheater, the farmers market on Saturday morning, a show at Byers Theatre after dinner. The Chattahoochee was where you went if you wanted to be alone with a kayak.
That balance has quietly tipped. Between the new Springway boardwalk over Orkin Lake, the first-ever paddleboard race on Bull Sluice Lake, and a growing weekend program at Morgan Falls Overlook Park, the river corridor is now doing real weekend work. City Springs is still the evening anchor. The daytime center of gravity has moved north.
Morgan Falls is hosting a race this month, and it tells you what changed
On Saturday, August 15, the city is running the inaugural Sandy Springs SUP Showdown at Morgan Falls Overlook Park. Paddlers from across the Southeast are being invited to compete on a six-mile out-and-back course on Bull Sluice Lake and the Chattahoochee River, presented in partnership with Murph's Surf and Sandy Springs Recreation and Parks. Catalyst Sports is on board to support adaptive kayak athletes.
The competitive angle is new. The setting is not. Morgan Falls Overlook Park opened in 2010 as the first new park the city built after its 2005 incorporation, and its 30 acres already include pavilions, a boat dock, a playground, porch swings, and rentals for stand-up paddleboards, kayaks, and canoes. What the SUP Showdown does is signal something about how the city thinks about the park now. A place that spent fifteen years marketed to families with fishing poles is being pitched to competitors with race bibs.
If you already keep a board on the roof rack, the practical implication is this: expect a busier put-in than a normal August Saturday, and expect the trail on the way in to be different than it was a year ago.
The Springway boardwalk changes the walk-in
The 1.88-mile Springway segment that opened last spring is the piece of infrastructure most residents still haven't tried. It is worth the trip.
The scenic segment connects Morgan Falls Overlook Park to Cimarron Parkway and Roswell Road with a boardwalk over Orkin Lake, and the path itself is an 8-to-12-foot-wide paved trail with retaining walls, raised boardwalk, concrete decking, lighting, benches, landscaping, and trail signage. Mayor Rusty Paul used the ribbon cutting to note that the $8.5 million spent on this segment sits inside more than $70 million the city has committed to the north end when you count the new police headquarters, the municipal court, and the Roswell Road North Boulevard project.
The delay everyone remembers has a specific cause worth knowing. The city did not know there was rock under Orkin Lake when it began construction of the trail, and the discovery increased the cost and pushed the timeline. That is why the boardwalk feels overbuilt when you walk it. It is drilled into stone.
For a Saturday morning, the practical route is now: park in the lot next to the Morgan Falls Dog Park at 100 Morgan Falls Road, walk the boardwalk out toward Roswell Road, and turn around when you feel like it. It is a real walk, not a token trail, and it is the first of a planned five-segment loop. The Springway is the name of the city's 31.4-mile trail master plan, and this is one segment of it.
City Springs after dark is still doing the heavy lifting
The evening program at City Springs has held its shape. What is worth flagging for the next month:
- Movies by Moonlight, free on City Green. The Lizzie McGuire Movie shows Friday, August 7, with free admission. Spy Kids follows on Friday, September 4.
- City Green Live concerts on Friday nights. Gates open at 4 p.m., food trucks begin serving at 6 p.m., the music starts at 7:30 p.m., and the headline act takes the stage around 8:30 p.m. Outside food and drink are welcome, no outside alcohol, adult beverages available on site. Lawn seating is free; reserved tables cost extra.
- Tai Chi on the City Green. Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m., led by Florin Szondi of the USA Chen Taiji Center in partnership with the city's Recreation and Parks Department.
- The Saturday farmers market. Runs 8:30 a.m. to noon at City Springs, rain or shine.
Two operating notes worth internalizing. Parking for concerts is free this year at the South Parking Lot at Blue Stone Road and Mt. Vernon Highway and at the City Springs Parking Deck at 1 Galambos Way, accessible from either Mt. Vernon Highway or Sandy Springs Circle. And dogs are not permitted on the City Green lawn or plaza, which trips up a surprising number of first-time attendees.
Rumi's is open again, and it is not the same restaurant
If you tried to book Rumi's Kitchen in Sandy Springs any time between March 2025 and this March and got nowhere, there is a reason. The flagship location closed in March 2025 for a planned $3.5 million renovation estimated at six months, and it reopened nearly a year later after the budget nearly tripled. The reopening was March 6, 2026, timed to the restaurant's 20th anniversary.
The rebuild is more than cosmetic. Plaster walls have been installed to absorb sound, addressing a frequent complaint of previous Sandy Springs guests, and the new space includes a 22-seat curved marble bar, wood- and stone-inset tables, and a private dining room with a floor-to-ceiling mural by artist Dean Barger. Owner-chef Ali Mesghali spent five years looking for a pastry chef and finally hired Sohrob Esmaili, the 2021 Food Network Spring Baking Championship winner, who is serving spiced chocolate mousse cake, a bread-pudding-like majoon toffee cake, and a Persian ice cream sandwich made with profiterole dough and saffron-rosewater-vanilla ice cream. Sunday brunch launched March 15.
If it has been on your list to reintroduce out-of-town family to the room, it is a different room now.
Blue Stone is the date to hold in September
Mark September 25 and 26. The Blue Stone Arts & Music Festival returns for its fourth year, positioned as the reimagined version of the former Heritage Sandy Springs Festival. The two-day event fills the City Springs District, including City Green, Blue Stone Road, and the surrounding area, with two music stages, an Artist Market with over 100 vendors, a Kids Zone, and more.
Two useful things to know about how the festival has grown up.
First, the road race is now a qualifier. The Blue Stone 5K-9 is an Official Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Race Qualifying Event, letting runners earn a Peachtree qualifying time while running through the festival. That is a real upgrade for anyone who has been trying to shave a July 4 corral placement.
Second, access has been thought through. Springs Landing Shopping Center, including Brooklyn Cafe, stays accessible during the road closures, and residents of Blue Stone Lofts, The Aston, and neighboring apartments retain access to their parking garages. Pets are only permitted at the Blue Stone 5K-9. Service animals are permitted throughout.
Reading the shift
Put the pieces next to each other and the pattern is clear. A race on the river. A boardwalk that gives people a reason to walk in from Roswell Road. A restaurant reopening at scale on the south end of the corridor. A festival growing into its fourth year with a Peachtree-qualifying race attached. City Springs did not lose anything. The city built a second anchor upstream and connected the two with paved trail.
For someone who already lives here, the practical takeaway is small and specific. The Saturday morning that used to end at the farmers market can now begin at Orkin Lake. The August weekend that used to belong to the pool can include a paddleboard race worth watching. And the September calendar has a fixed point again on the fourth weekend, with parking, road closures, and pet rules already published.
If you are thinking about how these changes affect the value of your street or your next move within Sandy Springs, we would be glad to talk it through. The Barnes Young Team lives and works this market every week. Schedule a consultation to discuss your next move.
