Article: "Stop all spending on roads and divert all funds to rail." Your thoughts?

[cqholt]

A more reasonable comparison would be to see if the average home value of houses within a half mile radius (walking distance) of a MARTA station is higher than that of similar sized homes elsewhere. I doubt you are going to see an advantage. In fact, the most expensive residential real estate which is the far west side of Buckhead (and to a certain extent south Sandy Springs and Vinings) isn't anywhere near a MARTA station, so I don't see your argument holding up. The reality on the ground, here is that those who can't afford to drive a car take MARTA.

There are homes in Candler Park, Inman Park, and Lake Claire all within 1/2 mile of a station that are worth more than homes in North Fulton and East Cobb. These homes are older, have character, and are walkable. The neighborhoods offer the option to commute by transit and that's the added value that suburban areas do not have.

[lastminutemom]

There are homes in Chamblee, Brookhaven, Doraville, Sandy Springs/Dunwoody that haven't seen that kind of benefit. An analysis would be interesting, but not sure that correlation equals causation, in this case.

[nrgpill]

He was talking about Powers Ferry/Riverside/Vinings area. Homes there are worth a quite a bit more than the areas you are talking about. Now, when talking aesthetics of Candler & Inman Park, I could buy into your argument about having "character" & "walkable".

Originally Posted by cqholt

There are homes in Candler Park, Inman Park, and Lake Claire all within 1/2 mile of a station that are worth more than homes in North Fulton and East Cobb. These homes are older, have character, and are walkable. The neighborhoods offer the option to commute by transit and that's the added value that suburban areas do not have.

[ATLTJL]

These homes are older, have character, and are walkable. The neighborhoods offer the option to commute by transit and that's the added value that suburban areas do not have.

OMG, people in this thread need to step down, relax, visit their local colleges and enroll in a Statistics 101 class!

This logic is so horrible, that it can't even be called logic. Let's apply it to every aspect of our daily lives.

* I got hit by a car in broad daylight. The next day it was snowing and I got home fine. Therefore, more car accidents must happen in sunny weather than snowy conditions.

* I have lived in an up and coming neighborhood for years with no problems and values stagnated. Last year, I got broken into and now prices are coming up. Therefore, more break-ins must equal increased value.

Alright, I could go on and on, but people with brains in their heads will understand what is going on here.

You can't talk about homes in neighborhoods that are desireable anyway and attribute that desireability to a single attribute. Especially when that attribute is shared by many, many areas that are completely NOT desireable. Compound that with the fact that there are many desireable areas....in fact, the city's MOST desireable areas....that do not share the attribute at all.

That's called anecdotal evidence. And it isn't accepted as an indicator of causation.

Now, if you want to take that anecdotal evidence and use it as a basis for a hypothesis and then use the scientific method to try to prove it.....go nuts! Once you do that, then you can make a valid point. When all you have is an isolated correlation, especially where in more cases the EXACT OPPOSITE correlation can be observed, then you have no point at all.

[gtcorndog]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

OMG, people in this thread need to step down, relax, visit their local colleges and enroll in a Statistics 101 class!

This logic is so horrible, that it can't even be called logic. Let's apply it to every aspect of our daily lives.

* I got hit by a car in broad daylight. The next day it was snowing and I got home fine. Therefore, more car accidents must happen in sunny weather than snowy conditions.

* I have lived in an up and coming neighborhood for years with no problems and values stagnated. Last year, I got broken into and now prices are coming up. Therefore, more break-ins must equal increased value.

Alright, I could go on and on, but people with brains in their heads will understand what is going on here.

You can't talk about homes in neighborhoods that are desireable anyway and attribute that desireability to a single attribute. Especially when that attribute is shared by many, many areas that are completely NOT desireable. Compound that with the fact that there are many desireable areas....in fact, the city's MOST desireable areas....that do not share the attribute at all.

That's called anecdotal evidence. And it isn't accepted as an indicator of causation.

Now, if you want to take that anecdotal evidence and use it as a basis for a hypothesis and then use the scientific method to try to prove it.....go nuts! Once you do that, then you can make a valid point. When all you have is an isolated correlation, especially where in more cases the EXACT OPPOSITE correlation can be observed, then you have no point at all.

[cqholt]

OMG, people in this thread need to step down, relax, visit their local colleges and enroll in a Statistics 101 class

Never took Stats, so that must be the reason.

[Saintmarks]

I can tell by the comments that the OP's article is laughable but since the text was removed before I could read it, could the OP please provide a link?

[nrgpill]

Or go watch an episode of Portlandia, choose one, they are both nonsensical.

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

I can tell by the comments that the OP's article is laughable but since the text was removed before I could read it, could the OP please provide a link?

[toll_booth]

Not all suburbs are created equal. There's a world of difference between living in the first ring out--Sandy Springs, Stone Mountain, Smyrna, etc.--and living way out in Cumming, Cartersville, or Cumming.

(Hmm...all cities in the first group start with an S, and all those in the second start with a C. Literary devices, much?)

[cqholt]

(Hmm...all cities in the first group start with an S, and all those in the second start with a C. Literary devices, much?)

Genius.