It sounds like Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle has a broader vision for MARTA... (Atlanta: salaries, live)

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by LTCM

Cagle has zero chance of being governor. I don't mean that from a political standpoint but from a skeletons in the closet standpoint.

I've heard quite a few times over the years that Cagle has some skeletons in his closet that might prevent him from winning a gubernatorial election.


Many people even think some of Cagle's skeletons might have played a role in him dropping out of the 2010 Governor's race.


But until those skeletons come out and/or are revealed in the press and seeing as though Cagle has been the leading vote-getter in the last three statewide elections, seems to have the largest statewide network of any gubernatorial contender and seems to by far have the strongest relationship with the state's business community than any of the other 2018 gubernatorial contenders, Cagle has to be considered to be the presumed frontrunner in the 2018 Georgia Governor's race.


(...Some of the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial contenders include former Cobb Chairman and current Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, social conservative/Tea Party activist state Senator Josh McKoon, Secretary of State Brian Kemp (who is having some massive political liability issues of his own right now with the voter data breach controversy) and 2014 gubernatorial race runner-up Jason Carter.)

[primaltech]

McKoon is such an embarrassment. If he were to win Governor, I'm peace out to the Pacific NW or something.

I don't know about the skeletons, but Cagle seems like someone appropriate. Moderate Republican oriented more towards business, as opposed to driving businesses and economy growth away with discrimination like McKook. And I support Jason Carter, but Georgia's probably not quite ready to go blue. It will at some point down the line.

State politics and governors are typically the domain of Republicans, anyway. Except in heavily blue states. Georgia just needs some moderate and sensible and sane ones, not polarizing or extreme conservative.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

I've heard quite a few times over the years that Cagle has some skeletons in his closet that might prevent him from winning a gubernatorial election.


Many people even think some of Cagle's skeletons might have played a role in him dropping out of the 2010 Governor's race.


But until those skeletons come out and/or are revealed in the press and seeing as though Cagle has been the leading vote-getter in the last three statewide elections, seems to have the largest statewide network of any gubernatorial contender and seems to by far have the strongest relationship with the state's business community than any of the other 2018 gubernatorial contenders, Cagle has to be considered to be the presumed frontrunner in the 2018 Georgia Governor's race.


(...Some of the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial contenders include former Cobb Chairman and current Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, social conservative/Tea Party activist state Senator Josh McKoon, Secretary of State Brian Kemp (who is having some massive political liability issues of his own right now with the voter data breach controversy) and 2014 gubernatorial race runner-up Jason Carter.)

Olens vs. Carter would be an epic matchup.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Gulch

We've had this conversation before. "Northside business interests" aren't going to wrest control of a multi-billion dollar public agency from Fulton/DeKalb taxpayers without significant legal pushback, and that's assuming they'd even want to do it in the first place.

They could do the same thing (utilize MARTA as an efficient resource) without getting involved in that mess.

That's a good point that there would likely be significant legal pushback if Northside business interests (North Fulton with quiet help from Cobb and Gwinnett) made a hostile takeover attempt on MARTA.


...Which is why any type of takeover attempt by Northside business interests would more than likely come in the form of a much less adversarial action (...a much less adversarial action like a partnership proposal where the state provides the money, gets more political and managerial control and hires somebody like current highly-regarded MARTA CEO Keith Parker to run the entire rebranded and expanded regional operation).


But basically, looking at the big picture, it's no coincidence that Lt. Governor Casey Cagle (one of the state's most-popular politicians and the presumed frontrunner of the 2018 governor's race who has very close and very strong ties with both the state's and the metro area's powerful business community) is speaking about the state basically taking control of and rebranding MARTA to be much more palatable and appealing for regionwide and statewide audiences in front of the business lobbying organization (the Chamber of Commerce) of the state's second-most populated county (Gwinnett).


Cagle's comments about state government wanting to fund MARTA in exchange for rebranding and retooling it for suburban and exurban use in front the chamber of commerce in one of the most powerful suburban counties in the state is no accident.


Cagle's comments about MARTA where he made them at are a clear signal that the business community (most notably the powerful Northside business community in areas like North Fulton, Gwinnett and Cobb) is looking to make some kind of play for control of MARTA so that they expand rail transit service beyond the current service area of Fulton and DeKalb counties into the suburbs and exurbs....And if the Northsiders think (and/or know) that they've got to be friendly and/or non-adversarial to do it then they will do whatever they have to do to get rail transit service out to areas like North Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and beyond.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Olens vs. Carter would be an epic matchup.

I agree...


Next to Cagle, Sam Olens is another guy that has a very strong relationship with Metro Atlanta's regional business community (...Olens is a former Chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission and a former Vice-Chair of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District) and is very big on regionalism and implementing a regional multimodal transportation solution to Metro Atlanta's traffic issues.


The only thing that might work against Olens is that he is Jewish...Which is something that unfortunately might not go over all that well in a Republican primary where Christian evangelicals will the predominant voting block.

Originally Posted by primaltech

McKoon is such an embarrassment. If he were to win Governor, I'm peace out to the Pacific NW or something.

I don't know about the skeletons, but Cagle seems like someone appropriate. Moderate Republican oriented more towards business, as opposed to driving businesses and economy growth away with discrimination like McKook. And I support Jason Carter, but Georgia's probably not quite ready to go blue. It will at some point down the line.

State politics and governors are typically the domain of Republicans, anyway. Except in heavily blue states. Georgia just needs some moderate and sensible and sane ones, not polarizing or extreme conservative.

That's a good point about Josh McKoon.


McKoon, while he potentially could win a Republican primary (but only if conditions were just right, seeing as though someone like Cagle will most likely be loaded with money, organization and statewide business and political connections), is someone that could potentially also hand the state over to Democrats were he to make it to a statewide gubernatorial general election because of his tendency to alienate the business community and moderate voters with his pandering to social conservatives.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by primaltech

I hate to say it, but the MARTA name has a stigma and a race and segregation aspect to it. It's stupid, but true that the name is probably a big factor there, because of history and stereotypes and whatever. White conservatives in the north suburbs have a knee jerk negative reaction to the word.

Maybe what should happen is something like this: MARTA (and CCT and GCT) gets absorbed into GRTA, which is a state-level agency, and all the transit assets get re-painted, re-branded, etc. New color schemes and logos and stuff. New direction with its advertising as well.

MARTA shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to rebrand everything because racists don't want to ride it. f*ck them. let them sit in traffic.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

McKoon, while he potentially could win a Republican primary (but only if conditions were just right, seeing as though someone like Cagle will most likely be loaded with money, organization and statewide business and political connections), is someone that could potentially also hand the state over to Democrats were he to make it to a statewide gubernatorial general election because of his tendency to alienate the business community and moderate voters with his pandering to social conservatives.

That's a good point, and on one hand that's kinda how I feel about a Trump primary victory as well. Far right winger would tend not to win a general election. Maybe that could happen in Georgia, but I dunno, I'm too scared to take the chance. Democrats in Georgia just don't have the votes or the organization to win much, any time soon. But we'll see what happens once this oldest generation dies off, not to sound macabre.

[skbl17]

I'd rather see GRTA given more oversight and powers, if not outright consolidation between MARTA, CCT, GCT, and GRTA. GRTA itself was established to serve that role; it's too bad that Sonny Perdue chopped GRTA's head off after Roy Barnes fell in 2002.

Maybe something similar to Chicago's RTA would be appropriate. RTA does not provide transit service, but has control over finances, cooperation, and oversight of the three Chicago transit providers (CTA, Pace, and Metra).

Then again...

- skbl17

[bu2]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Well, the most rural regions of Georgia don't have a lot of people or much commercial activity going on, so they wouldn't be paying much of the total bill with their sales tax penny. But the idea would be that every county could get at least something to show for it, such as 1 park&ride commuter rail stop at the county seat, to cover their region, which would be a way to get to Atlanta and their airport when needed.

Exurban areas don't need to be in.

Cobb and Gwinnett would be helpful. We would want the 5 core and at most maybe a half dozen others (Henry, Cherokee, Forsyth and maybe Douglas, Fayette and Rockdale). The 5 core would be sufficient on their own. Commuter rail beyond that is a waste of money (intercity rail is a different issue like to Athens, Augusta, Macon or Savannah).

Development dispersing is making it more and more difficult for mass transit to serve metro areas. We really don't want to encourage high density development in Griffin or Gainesville. We really should discourage it outside the 5 core counties.

Public Transport

This Australian blog talks about the various factors working against public transportation working in the future, the changes in the nature of work, growth in suburban jobs, non-traditional locations of new tech jobs as well as society changing.

[magnetar]

“The existing model needs to be changed. A lot of people don’t see value in stopping every five minutes. You show value by people being able to guarantee people delivery times and being a transit option where there’s limited stops. That kind of infrastructure is very, very needed.”

I'm honestly not sure what he means by this, but it doesn't sound promising. More stops inside the city, and more frequent trains, is exactly what MARTA needs. Serving a wider geographic area via commuter rail sounds like something different entirely. I'm not opposed to commuter rail but that shouldn't require MARTA to change its existing focus on increasing MARTA rail service.