Underground Atlanta redevelopment could hit $400M (Jackson: maintenance, transport, homeowner)

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by fieldm

Guy trying to improve the 5 points area but people here care more about a street closing lol smh. People arent happy this guy will spend millions of dollars transforming UA into a destination but people here are complaining about taking photos and security there like the security they have there now is so amazing that there is no crime there. Im glad we had people in office that are looking at the big picture and not the bs yall talking about

You can still have a redeveloped Underground and a much more vibrant downtown without privatizing downtown streets. You have a very simplistic, black/white way of looking at things.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

I just feel like it's things like this that lost Democrats everything this year in the federal elections. More and more as a party, they've become a party of elitists who ignore their citizens/voters and get in bed with corporations and developers. This was a problem with Clinton as well.

It's a disgusting precedence that is being set.

And the GOP doesn't? LOL Trump just talked a good populist game and decided to run on the GOP platform. Wait until you see how things play out when he gets in office.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

You can still have a redeveloped Underground and a much more vibrant downtown without privatizing downtown streets. You have a very simplistic, black/white way of looking at things.

Not going to argue back and forth about it. If you think UA will be better like it is now than with this new development then so be it

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

You can still have a redeveloped Underground and a much more vibrant downtown without privatizing downtown streets. You have a very simplistic, black/white way of looking at things.

Right. Heck, the city would have likely loved to let WRS do most of whatever it wanted with the streets anyway, just without handing over the rights of way.

I just find it a bit hypocritical how the poster you quote acts as if the city is looking at the big picture, by giving this one developer ownership of a small part of downtown. As if the larger picture here isn't how that will hurt city-wide plans in the future by blowing a hole in the street grid.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by fieldm

Not going to argue back and forth about it. If you think UA will be better like it is now than with this new development then so be it

You can have improvement without handing over public right of way. If WRS was building their own, new streets, that'd be one thing, but GIVING UP city streets is not okay.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

And the GOP doesn't? LOL Trump just talked a good populist game and decided to run on the GOP platform. Wait until you see how things play out when he gets in office.

And the fact that Trump of all people got into the white house should tell you all you need to know about how elitist the Democrats have become. Like I said, this sort of incident right here locally is a microcosm of what the Democrats have become on a national scale.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

You can have improvement without handing over public right of way. If WRS was building their own, new streets, that'd be one thing, but GIVING UP city streets is not okay.

Its just one small section of a street that nobody gives a shyt about. Its not like they bought the entire Peachtree St.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by fieldm

Its just one small section of a street that nobody gives a shyt about. Its not like they bought the entire Peachtree St.

Obviously people care about it, or else there wouldn't be a push back against it.

The problem, as I have said many times now, is that this section blows a hole in whatever city plan might have included it. That means that any street conversions, transit ways, or even future closings are all at the whim of WRS.

Sure, they are planning to close it to through traffic now, but what if it would have been better to give it a 2-way conversion and a road diet? What if it would have been better to turn it into a busway, or shift one of the streetcar lines to it? What if the city decides it DOES want it closed, and WRS decides they want it open to traffic?

The point is, this 'one small section' affects ANY transportation planning for the area in the future. The bigger picture is that that section is part of a larger network which should remain in the public control to match the public's wants and needs. Instead, we handed it over to a private entity with no real reason to adhere to that public vision of how to design and build our downtown streets.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

Obviously people care about it, or else there wouldn't be a push back against it.

The problem, as I have said many times now, is that this section blows a hole in whatever city plan might have included it. That means that any street conversions, transit ways, or even future closings are all at the whim of WRS.

Sure, they are planning to close it to through traffic now, but what if it would have been better to give it a 2-way conversion and a road diet? What if it would have been better to turn it into a busway, or shift one of the streetcar lines to it? What if the city decides it DOES want it closed, and WRS decides they want it open to traffic?

The point is, this 'one small section' affects ANY transportation planning for the area in the future. The bigger picture is that that section is part of a larger network which should remain in the public control to match the public's wants and needs. Instead, we handed it over to a private entity with no real reason to adhere to that public vision of how to design and build our downtown streets.

All I'm saying is we have wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more important shyt to worry about like expanding MARTA to Cobb and Gwinnett, if your sports teams bringing the city a championship, if 12th and Midtown will bring more stores to the most dead block in the city, who will be the next mayor, etc but people are worry about a shyt whole block in downtown but it is what it is

[onemanarmy]

Here is my issue, now that these streets are private. The owners can at ANY time, for ANY reason ban ANY person from walking on this entire block. Let that sink in...