Braves release new renderings of SunTrust Park (Vinings, Lenox: apartments, condos)

[JPD]

Originally Posted by brownhornet

Some of you seem to think that the traffic on the downtown connector is tame in the evenings lol. Traffic comes to a dead stand still from the north where 75/85 merges as late as 7 pm. So um...yea.

Well, I have the amazing luxury of never having to drive on that road for any reason, so...y'all can have it.

The new location is going to be a traffic disaster. Cheerlead all you want, but nobody will be able to deny that once this thing is up and running.

[stillinthesouth]

Originally Posted by Gulch

AJC Article

Interesting. I don't blame the mall owners for their concern about this.

Also from the same article: "Braves officials have said they will provide 10,000 parking spaces dedicated to the ballpark, but they have not been specific about how many of those spaces will be offsite. They also have said that there will be 6,000 parking spaces dedicated for the mixed-use development."

The Braves should be required to break down exaclty how many onsite parking spaces will be available for stadium parking. I seem to recall an article stating that there were 4,000 onsite spaces planned for the ballpark. That means the Braves would have to receive the OK from quite a few neighboring offices to use their parking, and that idea has already been shot down by one or more of the surrounding building owners.

Also, 6,000 spaces for the mixed-use development? That's a lot more than I would have expected. I wonder if that's accurate.

[evannole]

Originally Posted by JPD

Well, I have the amazing luxury of never having to drive on that road for any reason, so...y'all can have it.

Bully for you. That doesn't change the fact that the vast bulk of the people in the dark red areas on that map DRIVE to Turner Field today, and have to use either the Connector or the Connector in combination with GA400.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by evannole

Bully for you. That doesn't change the fact that the vast bulk of the people in the dark red areas on that map DRIVE to Turner Field today, and have to use either the Connector or the Connector in combination with GA400.

Sux to be them.

But really, what you're saying isn't exactly true. MARTA is an option for a lot of those people, so they don't have to use the connector at all.

[evannole]

Originally Posted by JPD

Sux to be them.

But really, what you're saying isn't exactly true. MARTA is an option for a lot of those people, so they don't have to use the connector at all.

True, it's an option; however, the fact that not that many actually use it shows that they don't really view it as a viable or desirable option.

Trust me, I'd like nothing better than to see a fully functional MARTA with denser coverage inside the city and greater reach outside of it, including in Cobb. We're not there today, but my hope is that the stadium's new location will serve as a catalyst for getting there.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by evannole

True, it's an option; however, the fact that not that many actually use it shows that they don't really view it as a viable or desirable option.

Trust me, I'd like nothing better than to see a fully functional MARTA with denser coverage inside the city and greater reach outside of it, including in Cobb. We're not there today, but my hope is that the stadium's new location will serve as a catalyst for getting there.

Get Cobb's current "leadership" out of there and we may see a referendum within the next decade.

[arc-lang]

Here are a few more renderings of the mixed use development. Apparently the Braves are going to give the mixed use development its own unique name. Not a corporate name, but something that pays homage to both the Braves and Cobb County.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Get Cobb's current "leadership" out of there and we may see a referendum within the next decade.

While it may not exactly be the same as a MARTA referendum, it has been reported that Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee wants to have a referendum in 2016 to vote on a 1% sales tax to fund a proposed Bus Rapid Transit line between Midtown Atlanta and Kennesaw by way of Cobb Parkway.

Also, as was discussed earlier, there's talk swirling around that powerful Northside business and real estate interests in Cobb, North Fulton, North DeKalb and Gwinnett may attempt to use the Georgia Legislature to a make a power play for political control of MARTA.

The talk is that those powerful Northside business and real estate interests are seriously thinking of attempting to take political control of MARTA away from black and liberal political interests in South Fulton and South DeKalb (and now Clayton counties) by getting the legislature to privatize the agency.

I guess that the whole idea of the potential power play for MARTA by powerful Northside business and real estate interests is for them to attempt to make rail transit expansion into the heavily populated and severely congested Northern suburbs much more palatable to traditionally transit-averse conservative white suburbanites who don't like MARTA's long time image as an urban transit agency dominated by and specifically tailored to cater to black and liberal urban political interests (as reflected in the pervasive and derisive acronym Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta).

There's been speculation that the powerful Northside business and real estate interests in Cobb, North Fulton, North DeKalb and Gwinnett counties may potentially try and use privatization to remake MARTA into a larger version of the state-run GRTA Xpress agency as a way to attempt to appeal directly to the MARTA-averse conservative white suburbanites who dominate the political structure of OTP Metro Atlanta and Georgia.

The thinking appears to be that politically-dominant conservative white Northside suburbanites might potentially be more accepting of the idea of rail transit expansion into their outlying suburban and exurban areas if a major transit agency like MARTA is operated and fronted by conservative white Northside suburbanites that they can relate to.

That's instead of attempting to expand rail transit into the Northern suburbs with a major transit agency like MARTA being operated and fronted by black and liberal urbanites that conservative white suburbanites cannot relate to and may even have a significant aversion towards.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Of course it is a business decision. Liberty Media is a for-profit organization. This is not what is best for Braves fans or Cobb Co tax payers beyond the benefit they bring to Liberty Media's bottom line.

And $400M makes it a pretty easy business decision (especially if you are only planning on owning the Braves for another several years). A business decision that would not make sense without Tim Lee's generosity with Cobb County tax payer dollars.

Pretty sure the vast majority of those fans, many of which hated going to Mechanicsville..especially at night, would disagree.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by brownhornet

Pretty sure the vast majority of those fans, many of which hated going to Mechanicsville..especially at night, would disagree.

You have a point. The present location is not the most convenient or hospitable location in the world.