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Old 02-20-2019, 08:39 AM
 
10,339 posts, read 11,347,320 times
Reputation: 7708

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
That's a darn shame.

If it doesn't pass, I blame the idiots who pushed it to March instead of allowing it on the mid-term ballot. I've actually seen no real press on it. I bet turnout is light and a lot of people who would vote for it don't even know the vote is happening.
Gwinnett County Chairwoman Charlotte Nash, who appears to be at least a somewhat reluctant backer of the idea of improving and expanding mass transit in a still fast-growing and urbanizing major suburban county of nearly 1 million residents, appears to claim that the only way that she could get the other Republicans (who continued to completely dominate the five-member Gwinnett Board of Commissioners until two Democrats were elected to the board for the first time in nearly 40 years in November 2018) on the Gwinnett BoC to agree to allow a public referendum on MARTA expansion into the county was to go along with their demands for the referendum to be held in March of a non-statewide/non-presidential election year.

The four other Republicans who made up the rest of the five-member Gwinnett BoC at the time that the decision was made to allow a public countywide referendum on MARTA (for the first time since 1990) most likely were not all that hot on the idea of even allowing a referendum increasing taxes to fund MARTA expansion into the county.

… Which is very likely why the remaining members of the previous all-Republican Gwinnett BoC wanted the MARTA referendum at such a strange time in March and not during a statewide and/or presidential election... So that fewer Democratic and progressive voters (who would be most likely to vote for a tax increase to fund MARTA transit expansion into the county) would be likely to show up, and so that Republican and conservative voters (who despise MARTA and don't want it in Gwinnett County) would be more likely to win the day.

But if the MARTA expansion referendum fails next month (which appears to be a real possibility at this point, given how poorly the issue appears to be polling with the conservative and Republican voters who dominated Gwinnett's electorate before 2016), I suspect that it likely will not be almost another 30 years before the issue is again raised of expanding high-capacity transit service into the county from Atlanta.

That is because Gwinnett County is a large urban county of nearly 1 million residents and the traffic, mobility, economic recruitment and quality-of-life issues that the county is dealing with are not going anywhere if the MARTA expansion referendum fails.

A large urban county of nearly 1 million residents that is the core part of a large major metro region of nearly 7 million people, like Gwinnett County is, absolutely needs a robust mass transit connection to the rest of the metro area/region, particularly to places like Central Atlanta (Buckhead, Midtown, Downtown, Emory University, etc.) and (especially) the world's busiest airport at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

If anything, a Democrat-controlled Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners is likely to re-examine the issue of high-capacity transit service expansion into Gwinnett from Atlanta in the not-too-distant future if the MARTA expansion referendum fails next month.
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Old 02-20-2019, 09:01 AM
 
9,008 posts, read 13,980,642 times
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The big irony is if it does fail, and then a much better plan is introduced in 5 years....we could actually see trains coming and going from deeper into Gwinnett county sooner.

I'll vote for the MARTA referendum simply because there isn't another choice. But I'm very not happy about how weak it is on rail.
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Old 02-20-2019, 09:44 AM
 
1,581 posts, read 2,173,542 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
The big irony is if it does fail, and then a much better plan is introduced in 5 years....we could actually see trains coming and going from deeper into Gwinnett county sooner.

I'll vote for the MARTA referendum simply because there isn't another choice. But I'm very not happy about how weak it is on rail.
Gwinnett county created the referendum plan. Where is a plan with more rail going to come from?
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Old 02-20-2019, 10:05 AM
 
Location: Buckhead Atlanta
1,180 posts, read 973,686 times
Reputation: 1727
Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
That's a darn shame.

If it doesn't pass, I blame the idiots who pushed it to March instead of allowing it on the mid-term ballot. I've actually seen no real press on it. I bet turnout is light and a lot of people who would vote for it don't even know the vote is happening.
Talked to two of my friends in Gwinnett and they had no clue about it. We're all millennials and they actually use MARTA to come in the city to hang out. I don't think it will succeed either.
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Old 02-20-2019, 10:16 AM
 
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I guess maybe we need to get grassroots with this and hang out on the side of I-85 with picket signs telling people to vote!
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Old 02-21-2019, 09:36 AM
 
1,581 posts, read 2,173,542 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Atlanta Scientist View Post
Talked to two of my friends in Gwinnett and they had no clue about it. We're all millennials and they actually use MARTA to come in the city to hang out. I don't think it will succeed either.
I agree. There is not nearly enough publicity about the referendum for it to succeed at this point.
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Old 02-21-2019, 05:17 PM
 
Location: Georgia
5,845 posts, read 6,121,658 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J2rescue View Post
I agree. There is not nearly enough publicity about the referendum for it to succeed at this point.
That was by design.
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Old 02-26-2019, 06:43 PM
 
Location: Atlanta, GA
1,209 posts, read 2,239,211 times
Reputation: 886
I got a piece of mail from Gwinnett County letting me know about it.

In other Gwinnett news...

https://www.bisnow.com/atlanta/news/...-stadium-97690

A Dallas-based company is under contract to purchase the indoor retail portion of Gwinnett Place Mall for an undisclosed sum, with plans to transform the 1.2M SF regional mall into a cricket stadium

Pandya has previously said Atlanta is an ideal market for a cricket league given its population of people of Asian and Indian descent.

Nonetheless, there is hope that there may finally be light at the end of Gwinnett Place's long, dark tunnel.
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Old 02-26-2019, 06:46 PM
 
Location: Decatur, GA
7,345 posts, read 6,480,685 times
Reputation: 5144
So rather than a mall that sits 80% idle all of the time, we'll have a stadium that sits 100% idle most of the time.
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Old 02-26-2019, 08:17 PM
 
9,008 posts, read 13,980,642 times
Reputation: 7638
This is a ludicrous idea for so many more reasons than I can even count. It boggles the mind that Gwinnett county officials are so hung up on having an empty mall, you could propose ANYTHING and they'd listen. You could literally say, "I think we should put a slaughterhouse there than can handle 5,000 catttle per day," and they'd be like, "What an interesting idea! We're super excited about the mall's redevelopment!"

Even if you do think a cricket stadium is a good idea, the fact that the crooks who run Moonbeam are part of the company who wants to start it up should be a clear indicator it won't be done well and will be a blight on the area.

If this goes through AND the MARTA vote fails, I'm definitely launching a house hunting campaign for properties outside Gwinnett county.
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