Monday evening, May 21, . The meeting was moderated by Roswell Councilwoman Dr. Betty Price. There was panel of six speakers – some pro, some con. Among the speakers were myself, and
- Bob Ross, a retired Army colonel,
- Steve Brown, a Fayette County Commissioner,
- Brandon Beach, president of the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce and a member of the GDOT board,
- Tom Leslie, Director of External Affairs, Georgia Engineering Alliance, a TIA advocacy group, and
- Steve Acenbrak, the city of Roswell’s Director of Transportation.
Each of us spoke for five minutes, then the floor was opened for 60 minutes of Q & A. After much spirited discussion, the formal meeting ended and a number of informal discussions ensued.
During one of the informal discussions Tom Leslie told one of the attendees, “population follows transportation infrastructure.” To summarize, what came out is the underlying purpose of this so-called transportation initiative is not relief of traffic congestion, it is to fundamentally change the density and distribution of metro-Atlanta’s population. By their statements and advocacy, the proponents are admitting that this is a grandiose plan to line the pockets of in-town developers, commercial realtors and construction trade cronies at taxpayer expense.
Georgia, we can do better than this. Vote this monstrosity down and let’s have a
do-over.
As for hot real estate, I think you might learn something by looking at Avalon, or by talking to Rubbermaid, Exide or any other of the large companies that have chosen to move to suburban locations. Atlanta's major draw for the last 30 years has been its great suburban lifestyle. We should be spending our tax dollars making suburban driving easier, not trying to push everyone into trains and busses. The TRAFFIC you think is stunting growth can be much better relieved if we didn't spend so much on transit.
"Senator John Albers and approximately 10 others are working on a good Plan B that will put the responsibility to make road improvements in the hands of local transportation departments in north Fulton Co., and take it away from the dysfunctional GaDOT. Read the front page of this week's Roswell Neighbor to see the entire story. This is the path all local communities should be taking. Anytime a community, county or state receives federal funds for anything, you must remember that it comes with huge strings attached."
"Had the (housing) market not fallen, they would have moved," he said. "Cities and inner suburbs are able to hang on because they're getting windfall stayers." College graduates typically flock to big cities to start careers but later move to suburbs as they marry and start families. Before the crash and especially as new developments sprang up in outlying suburbs, they kept moving farther out, attracted by lower prices and more space. "As the economy has some recovery, you'll see a reversion to type. Once people get into their 30s they will tend to go where they went before. Generally it will be to the suburbs," said urban historian Joel Kotkin, a fellow at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. More new housing and services will be needed in the suburbs to accommodate everyone who wants to live there, he says. Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist stated "But when we look at search behavior, we see more searches from urban areas to suburban areas than the other way around." In a survey of lifestyle choices by consultants Frank N. Magid Associates for a Realtor group, 43% of millennials age 18 to 28 said their "ideal" place to live would be a suburb. "Big city" and "small city" choices trailed at 17% each. Older generations also said they preferred a suburb, with 31% saying it was their "ideal."
In Atlanta, Housing Woes Reflect Nation’s Pain (note the hilarious byline of Marietta, you know the 'hot cake' selling center of Atlanta). "Local unemployment, at 9.2 percent, is slightly higher than the national rate, in part because one in every four jobs lost was connected to real estate, a much higher rate than in the rest of the country. Those jobs have yet to return, while even people with work are having trouble qualifying for loans. The region, plagued by mortgage fraud and developers who dotted the exurban landscape with large luxury homes that never sold, is inundated with foreclosed properties. In fact, Atlanta has the most government-owned foreclosed properties for sale of any large city." Did you catch that part about 'landscape with large luxury homes that never sold'? More of the shortsighted, narrow-minded thinking you advocate. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/business/economy/in-atlanta-housing-woes-reflect-nations-economic-pain.html?pagewanted=all
"At a finer grain level, growth in Fulton and Dekalb outpaced Gwinnett and Cobb last year by 26 percent, a stark reversal of the prior decade’s patterns."