Braves' Bridge Chances Dim (Decatur: cost, buses, moving to)

[rselah25]

Enjoy that traffic cluster F*** in cobb country -2017 ... Meanwhile, I'll still be commuting by marta rail to work everyday, with no delay.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Basically it boils down to that area was once a vibrant neighborhood of mostly jews and AA. Then the freeways were build, homes and businesses were torn down in the name of urban renewal and replaced with a stadium, which at the time did not have a tenant, and parking lots. How many middle class families do you who would want to live next to parking lots, visited by people who leave litter and care nothing about the area? The Atlanta Braves caused the issues that plague those neighborhoods.

Blame for those machinations falls on the city of Atlanta, not the Braves or Falcons.

As you say, the Rawson Washington area had already been significantly impacted by expressway construction.

Then, in a sort of coup de grace, the city targeted the area for "urban renewal" (i.e., destruction) in 1957.

Some have argued that these actions were an attempt to wall off downtown from the poor black communities. It's hard to deny that possibility.

In any event, little else was done until Atlanta decided to go after pro sports franchises in the 1960s. When the city built Atlanta Fulton county stadium it was considered a marvel at the time.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by jsvh

I will be surprised if Tim Lee lets this bridge fail. Can't he use eminent domain to take the land he needs? Or couldn't they just downsize the bridge more just to connect to the road below and not the parking deck?

I have never cared much for this bridge. Surely there are better solutions.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by Mishap

A 1/4 mile long pedestrian bridge uphill w/ an over 1/2 mile overall hike to rectify the lack of onsite parking doesn't sound too pleasant in the heat of July-August. The goal was always to budget for a pedestrian bridge and panhandle their way into a bus bridge (w/ buses they didn't budget for) once people realized the horror that Cobb Parkway would become.

Quite the oversight, eh? What's dumb is that there is no way in hell that the Cobb Parkway underpass under 285 can handle large volumes of pedestrian traffic. It was designed for cars and trucks, period. So they have to build a bridge that they can't even figure out how to orient, let alone how to fund.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Well, Tim Lee, this is what happens when you end run a plan in order to avoid community input. Your lack of scruples has come back to haunt you. Any one with any sense could see that lack of a parking plan along with a dearth of transportation options was going to be a major problem there.

Oh come on, Tim didn't do it on his own. Remember when he opened the floor up to dissent to all those people wearing the Bring the Braves to Cobb shirts? Full vetted plan. No rushing, nothing shady. Everything negative was just anti-Cobb rhetoric. /s

Honestly, why is this even Cobb County's concern? Did they agree to take care of parking? The Braves has tons of room on their plot of land, why aren't they just building garages on the property?

[Mishap]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Oh come on, Tim didn't do it on his own. Remember when he opened the floor up to dissent to all those people wearing the Bring the Braves to Cobb shirts? Full vetted plan. No rushing, nothing shady. Everything negative was just anti-Cobb rhetoric. /s

Honestly, why is this even Cobb County's concern? Did they agree to take care of parking? The Braves has tons of room on their plot of land, why aren't they just building garages on the property?

Liberty wants to save that land for the biggest Bubba Gump Shrimp Company this side of Orlando. Parking infrastructure is expensive and relatively low revenue which is why they never built any at Turner Field but famously complained about it and still grossly undersized it at Suntrust Field. W/ their dollar, they'd much rather invest in other revenue generating ventures while piggybacking (freeriding) on other infrastructure w/ Tim Lee as the hired muscle to make it happen.

Mr. Lee cares b/c this is a big break in his narrative about how organically the stadium will fit into Cumberland and reuse existing infrastructure to make up for the undersized parking (worse than Turner Field) plan. No bridge means more on-site decks which means they won't get the property valuations needed to claim the self-funding nature of all these giveaways. If Suntrust Field turns into another stadium surrounded by acres of mostly empty parking (which it will), his legacy will be tarnished by bankrupting Cobb County before he's even in the nursing home.

The Braves get all the rent/parking/naming rights revenue and pay 3M to the county for the rights. Based on the planned 6,000 spaces, they should already be clearing ~7M parking on that if they sell out parking at $15/spot for all the games. Even if they pave the entire 60 acre lot (minus the 15 for the stadium), they can only get ~10,000 spots on site (w/o going to decks) so clearly they'd rather build something that generates more rent income while building enough parking to support their multi-use needs and socializing the rest to the fine citizens of Cobb.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Quite the oversight, eh? What's dumb is that there is no way in hell that the Cobb Parkway underpass under 285 can handle large volumes of pedestrian traffic. It was designed for cars and trucks, period. So they have to build a bridge that they can't even figure out how to orient, let alone how to fund.

Unless they do major work in the underpass and build wide sidewalks on the other side of the bridge piers. That would be expensive, but cheaper than a bridge. Also, Cobb County is reducing Interstate North Pkwy to 2 lanes, adding a wide sidewalk, and pedestrian bridge across 75 along Windy Ridge.

[red92s]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Honestly, why is this even Cobb County's concern? Did they agree to take care of parking? The Braves has tons of room on their plot of land, why aren't they just building garages on the property?

Liberty Media has financial incentive to fill their property with retail/dining/entertainment options that can produce revenue the ~280 days of the year when the Braves are not playing a game at home. They'd much rather see the surrounding businesses carry the load for parking, so they can devote as much square footage as possible to more profitable ventures.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Oh come on, Tim didn't do it on his own. Remember when he opened the floor up to dissent to all those people wearing the Bring the Braves to Cobb shirts? Full vetted plan. No rushing, nothing shady. Everything negative was just anti-Cobb rhetoric. /s

Honestly, why is this even Cobb County's concern? Did they agree to take care of parking? The Braves has tons of room on their plot of land, why aren't they just building garages on the property?

So do you not remember the announcement that the Braves were moving to Cobb? It was completely out of left field to almost everyone. Hell, Lee hired an attorney to help this deal under the table.

[Gulch]

Braves bridge delayed at least one year | www.ajc.com

Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee said the proposed bridge over Interstate 285, which would link SunTrust Park with the Galleria Centre, is not on schedule to be completed in time for the Braves first season in SunTrust Park and he will recommend “that we postpone the implementation of this project.”

Lee made the announcement through an emailed newsletter Wednesday morning.

The announcement comes one week after The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the Georgia Department of Transportation did not provide any funding for the bridge, or the $3.5 million estimated cost to reinforce the Galleria’s parking deck to which the bridge would attach.

That decision left funding for the project in question.

And over the weekend, the Marietta newspaper ran a gossip column that quoted an unnamed member of the Galleria Authority saying that Lee did not have enough votes from that board to get approval for the bridge.