On Tuesday you will have an opportunity to directly influence the way that transportation planning and development is managed in the metro region. The pro-TSPLOST vision is to spend over 52 percent of your increased tax dollars on economic development for downtown Atlanta (MLK Center trolley, beltline), on bailing out MARTA (“state of good repair” capital projects), and on expanding rail and bus transit. Very few major road projects are included in their vision, and those are deferred until the end of the project period. For example, the much-touted GA 400/I-285 interchange project isn’t to start until 2020.
The anti-TSPLOST position is that this is a very badly formed process that has, pardon the pun, gone off the rails. We think the legislature needs a do-over to establish a much-reformed and open transportation planning and management process. The solution isn’t simply to find more ways to throw more money into the process. It is to fix a badly broken process, then re-evaluate our needs and develop coherent solutions. That do-over cannot begin until you vote NO on the TSPLOST on Tuesday.
The metro-Atlanta region has grown well beyond the confines of the city limits of Atlanta. Most of our job growth has been, and will continue to be, in the suburbs. We have the nicest, least-dense suburban lifestyle of any city in the United States. We don’t need to change that, we need to support it and develop real transportation solutions that work to help you travel from origin to destination in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible. The key elements of a working solution were advanced in Baruch Feigenbaum’s stellar analysis found on the Georgia Public Policy Foundation website.
Our transportation planners, and our politicians, are on a completely different wavelength. You can help them to shift their thinking by voting NO on Tuesday, then following up with letters and phone calls to let them know what you think.
It’s time they stopped doing things to us, and started doing things for us.
Everything now seems to be centered around focusing/servicing Atlanta! Well, I have bad news for the downtown folks. The bad schools, crime, racism, cronyism, poor policies, pathetic decision-making has finally caught up with them. We are a metro area of suburbs and some call it sprawl. As Atlantans, it is how we have chosen to live, and the so-called brilliant braintrusts say we should stay focused on Atlanta--just like MARTA in 1973! Well--Bull-hockey! Vote NO, Heck NO, on TSPLOST!
MARTA service has really just become somewhat bad in the last few years. MARTA had over 150 routes and trains use to come every 8 minutes or so. Now they have trains every 15 minutes and only 91 routes. Trains and buses are far from filty and I always see security in the stations. I've personally never ran into a rude employee but I'm sure they are out there. And service couldn't have been that bad because you rode for 15 years!!
By the way, there are 3 projects which are ready to roll in Roswell. So if you live in North Fulton and vote NO you are voting against Roswell's ability get people to Ga 400. When someone asks you where do you live? What is your answer? If it is Atlanta then you should be voting YES.
Also, I'm for charging out of county people to park at stations and also are for tolls for those coming from outside of Fulton and Dekalb to drive on our streets. I would due away with the Breeze system and make those that want to transfer pay full fare to ride MARTA from the other systems.
Have the gumption and intestinal fortitude to "do for yourself" to stand on your own and not constantly depend on others (the burbs) to hold you up. IE: Be a MAN!
MARTA should be forced to operate on a fare-paid basis and not subsidized by general taxes. If the demand is there for its service, it will survive. If there isn't enough demand, it will die -- as it should.
I won't cave to the thinking being promoted by the pro-TSPLOST contingent that this is our only chance. There are always alternatives.
The Emory area is the largest job center in the metro with neither transit nor interstate access and it happens to be outside of the city of Atlanta as is the majority of the line. It is on the list because it is the MOST needed transit project in this entire area. Secondly, the Downtown streetcar IS NOT a part of this referendum. And it also goes to Centennial Park but I suppose you don't find that destination as offensive as the MLK center. The fact that you choose to live in sprawl is your choice. So don' then expect the region to fund transit to your sprawl. It is simply not practicalnor is it affordable for transit. Transit is focused around the center of the metro because thats where it is most appropriate. Many potential businesses bypass Atlanta BECAUSE of its sprawl. There are scant few places designed for a human being rather than being designed primarily for the car. I suppose it will take another decade of Atlanta lagging the rest of the country economically for the suburbanites to get over this juvenile "whats in for my county" realize what the rest of the country figured out in the 90's (or sooner).
Atlanta doesn't have to be like New York or Chicago but it has no choice but to be a lot better than it is today if it is to continue to thrive. It is fascinating the standards that some require for Marta when the government has been subsidizing this regions sprawl habits by the billions. Lets just let both modes of transportation stand on their own then. Raise the gas taxes enough to FULLY fund the roads so the metro can continue sprawling to the Tennessee border. You are also COMPLETELY wrong on the demand for dense development. Even in this spectacularly bad real estate mess for Atlanta ONLY three walkable intown areas saw appreciation in their home values. The next generation have been there and done that with this suburban blandness and want no part of it. They as well as retiring boomers are going to require dense walkable areas.
Improving the interchanges at 400 & 285, Windy Hill & 75, I-20W & 285, Spaghetti junction alone will absolutley improve traffic not to mention all of the other projects. And I would also like to point out that this is in ADDITION to whatever the GDOT does with funds from the gas taxes. This is not be the end all and be all for road construction nor should it be.
What are the most worthless T-SPLOST projects that won't help anyone's commute? Maybe it is the new floor tiles and paint and lighting at the Airport MARTA station, or maybe it is the new elevators and escalators at MARTA stations. What about the 15% that will go to local governments? Roswell City Council said that they want to use their 15% to build a sidewalk from one end of Roswell to the other end. Yep, that will help the traffic in Roswell. The worst thing about T-SPLOST is that it won't help the commute but will take 1% from hardworking folks who would otherwise go to a movie or to a restaurant. How many businesses in the Chamber of Commerce will close because 1% is taken from the Atlanta economy? The answer is to build more capacity where the traffic is: on our interstates and on major roads. Only government would see a demand for roads and respond by allocating 52% of T-SPLOST to mass transit. Please vote NO on T-SPLOST on Tuesday!
I live in N. Fulton, have paid into MARTA since I move here in 1984, and have little to nothing to show for it. There hasn't been a MARTA vehicle pass w/in 5 miles of my home in a decade--and I STILL PAY THAT FREEKIN TAX TO SEND PEOPLE TO ATLANTA!!! I am SICK of it. If you want to pay more for MARTA, then drop an extra 5 bucks in the hopper every time you ride. Spend your OWN money and stop attempting to compel me to pay for your freaking train ride. Pay for it yourself, you bloodsucking mooch. GOT IT?? LEAVE ME OUT OF IT!!!
This might be the most ridiculous paragraph in this entire thread, not an easy achievement. For every person who may 'move here and refuse promotions to stay here' I have a feeling I can show either an entire business that has relocated or one that has been forced to shut down because of arrogant Atlantan attitudes such as this that fail to acknowledge the economy and overall operations of this city which all rank in the bottoms rungs of the country, while attempting to proclaim itself as a top tier metropolitan area. Guess what? Chicago has plenty of non-dense areas much like Atlanta, like the Evanston area, that cooperates with the city of Chicago to increase the value of both the urban and suburban areas to outside businesses.