MARTA News (Atlanta, Roswell, Alpharetta: subdivisions, taxes, cost)

[LT6789]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Still amazes me that this referendum will be next March and not this November or November 2020.

https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/lo...278e19238.html

They don't really want it to pass thats why

[ATLTJL]

They don't really want it to pass that's why

That's not why.

They know this issue will draw Democratic voters to the polls. And they don't want that to happen when government seats are also on the ballot because then some Democrats might get elected.

Everybody pretty much accepts this is going to pass and are not trying to fight it. They're trying to save Republican seats. It's all shenanigans.

[cqholt]

Now DeKalb County is crying foul, since MoreMARTA Atlanta and future Gwinnett Co referendum. They feel they are getting left out, yet their own leaders blocked them from holding a MARTA expansion referendum.

Some also accused the agency of favoring projects that benefit white residents over black riders. They demanded more service in southwest Atlanta, eastern DeKalb County and other neighborhoods.
“That’s where the black people are,” Joe Beasley of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said at a press conference outside MARTA headquarters.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt-...yHpwcHjz9sk3J/

[oobanks]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

That's not why.

They know this issue will draw Democratic voters to the polls. And they don't want that to happen when government seats are also on the ballot because then some Democrats might get elected.

Everybody pretty much accepts this is going to pass and are not trying to fight it. They're trying to save Republican seats. It's all shenanigans.

Agreed!!! I have never liked Georgia Politics on either side of the Aisle and has always been Metro Atlanta's biggest down fall IMO. Atlanta has the potential to be a Great City and Metro if we can get rid of all of these Fake, Crooked and yes Racist politics sad to say! That's where it starts. It's almost like a bad spirit that lingers over the city... Sad to say, our Nation this day in time. As a side note, I still don't like the fact they don't have bus shelters and benches constructed all through out Clayton county as of yet. It has improved but not to the level it should be for the time frame Marta has been running in clayton but I know a lot has to do with the logistics of it all and I get it. It just seems the south side and black communities have to pay a higher price for services but yet in still get cheated with the services sad to say. I hope they get that rail going in Clayton way before they even lay a Track in Gwinnett, I'm just saying. That's already paid for

[cqholt]

DeKalb County is feeling like the wallflower at the dance as they see Atlanta pass a 0.5% sales tax for expansion, Clayton County commuter rail, and potential Gwinnett County referendum. Specifically the deals Gwinnett and Clayton got about sales tax distribution.

“We welcome new participating jurisdictions to MARTA, however, we must address important deficiencies in the contract and in the level and quality of service that MARTA has delivered in DeKalb,” reads part of a letter from DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond and Jeff Rader, presiding officer of the county board of commissioners.

The two wrote that there are longstanding service deficiencies in DeKalb, including the extent, quality and reliability of DeKalb bus service, paratransit and amenities like bus stops and shelters.

As that letter was being read into the record at MARTA’s board meeting, perhaps a dozen members of the audience stood up.

They had all come to the meeting to demand more and better service in east and south DeKalb, including bus shelters, benches, and heavy rail to Stonecrest.

That idea has been on the drawing board for too long and south and east DeKalb residents are paying a penny sales tax for service they’re not getting, said John Evans, a former MARTA board member and part of a new group called the Transit Equity Coalition.

https://saportareport.com/marta-oks-...ands-services/

[bu2]

Originally Posted by cqholt

DeKalb County is feeling like the wallflower at the dance as they see Atlanta pass a 0.5% sales tax for expansion, Clayton County commuter rail, and potential Gwinnett County referendum. Specifically the deals Gwinnett and Clayton got about sales tax distribution.

https://saportareport.com/marta-oks-...ands-services/

Reality is that MARTA is run for the city of Atlanta. Dekalb is just along for the revenue. They need to start speaking out.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by bu2

Reality is that MARTA is run for the city of Atlanta. Dekalb is just along for the revenue. They need to start speaking out.

They certainly get more rail than Fulton County, outside of Atlanta, for less sales taxes than Fulton pays.

[autolycus25]

Originally Posted by cqholt

They certainly get more rail than Fulton County, outside of Atlanta, for less sales taxes than Fulton pays.

I'd have to look at the current bus maps, but I'm guessing they get a lot more bus service than non-Atlanta Fulton too. But I do think Dekalb contributes more sales taxes than non-Atlanta Fulton.

[MattCW]

The demographics of each are a bit different though. Dekalb is SFH suburban out to its borders. Fulton however gets pretty darn rural toward its southern end, and really low density SFH on its northern end. If you look at distance from Atlanta, then Fulton likely gets comparable service per distance that Dekalb does.

[ATLTJL]

From what I can see, Stonecrest Mall is 11 mils past the Indian Creek station.

Dekalb county really thinks it deserves 11 additional miles of heavy rail? At $250 million per mile, that's $2.75 billion. Pretty big ask for a county that generates a fraction the revenue of Fulton county, especially when the rail doesn't even extend past North Springs (even though I know that's because of some idiot local leadership that doesn't want it.) That's more or less the same distance from Doraville to Gwinnett Place, and I bet Gwinnett immediately starts contributing more to MARTA if it is voted in than Dekalb does. And that rail extension is 30 years away. If it happens at all.

The route to Stonecrest just doesn't seem densely populated or commercially important enough to justify extending heavy rail that way. Dekalb county really should go back to the drawing board and make some more reasonable asks. Or else start contributing a lot more to the bottom line.