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Kevin Fisher had a good piece on the penny tax in the free times and Ron Aiken also had a good article in Midlands biz laying out both sides of the argument. Anybody have any thoughts for or against the referendum is nov 6th:
Kevin Fisher had a good piece on the penny tax in the free times and Ron Aiken also had a good article in Midlands biz laying out both sides of the argument. Anybody have any thoughts for or against the referendum is nov 6th:
Like we always say, we don't want to be another Atlanta.
I haven't known that to be a common sentiment around Columbia. Plus the people who say it really do; they just want the benefits of being a big city without the downsides.
It would be great to have the amount of industry Atlanta has without the sprawl. While a metro the size of Atlanta is bound to have a decent bus and rail system, its traffic gridlock is a lot worse than it would be if they had been more proactive in funding projects to help prevent it. Atlanta has lost a lot of luster as far as attracting the numbers of people it was attracting 10 and 20 years ago, and sprawl is one reason why. I have been reading articles for years with the mantra that Columbia doesn't want to be another Atlanta in that respect. I'm not dreaming it up.
Columbia and other midsize cities should focus on become more like Charlotte and Raleigh. Atlanta is a beast in its own respects and to achieve a similar would require huge shifts in state funding and resources.
Columbia and other midsize cities should focus on become more like Charlotte and Raleigh. Atlanta is a beast in its own respects and to achieve a similar would require huge shifts in state funding and resources.
Not to mention > 4 million more people, a HUGE air travel hub, multiple pro sports teams, a base of long-standing large corporations, so forth and so on. Did I mention the >4 million more people? Heck, the ATL area was over 3 million when I moved there in 1980. For better or worse, Columbia has no chance to become 'another Atlanta'.
IF someone is talking about a particular highway project and defends any position by telling folks "We're not going to become another Atlanta", I'd stop listening then and there.(although both areas have 'getting across the river' challenges...yet unresolved)
It's disingenuous to offer some sort of comparison between Columbia and Atlanta...unless you want to talk about weather, height of pine trees, beauty of an azalea-filled spring garden, etc. The two metros just aren't comparable in any meaningful way when it comes to commerce, traffic, population, tennis leagues etc. (OK, I threw in the 'tennis leagues' for a laugh...Atlanta has over 80 thousand members in their ALTA tennis league...yep, 80 THOUSAND ).
The only aspect I've ever heard the "not another Atlanta" mantra from is from the sprawl/traffic aspect, and since the penny tax theoretically would help prevent sprawl by making Richland County a more beneficial place to live in many respects compared to the outlying counties, and help prevent traffic problems by improving public transportation, I think the mantra and the penny tax effort go well together in response to Keven Fisher's editorial. I wasn't even thinking about things like population, commerce, the arts or anything like that. Somehow the topic got sidetracked, perhaps from my failure to clearly link what I said to the main issue at hand. I mean, if Atlanta doesn't have bad traffic problems then I guess I've been living on the wrong planet for 30 years. Columbia doesn't want to follow in Atlanta's footsteps in that regard, and local funding for amenities that can help prevent that from happening is pretty much the only option, since the feds aren't going to do it anymore.
It would be great to have the amount of industry Atlanta has without the sprawl. While a metro the size of Atlanta is bound to have a decent bus and rail system, its traffic gridlock is a lot worse than it would be if they had been more proactive in funding projects to help prevent it. Atlanta has lost a lot of luster as far as attracting the numbers of people it was attracting 10 and 20 years ago, and sprawl is one reason why. I have been reading articles for years with the mantra that Columbia doesn't want to be another Atlanta in that respect. I'm not dreaming it up.
Not really; the recession has more to do with that than anything. If sprawl was a reason why, it certainly doesn't explain why Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth are still growing like gangbusters, with greater levels of sprawl and less robust mass transit systems to boot.
The fact of the matter is that with growth comes greater traffic problems, and that will be the case either with or without more roads or more bus routes. It's no coincidence that the metro areas with the best road networks and mass transit systems also have lots of traffic. So if these folks don't want to be "another Atlanta," or live in a metro with more traffic, then they need to go ahead and move now.
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(OK, I threw in the 'tennis leagues' for a laugh...Atlanta has over 80 thousand members in their ALTA tennis league...yep, 80 THOUSAND ).
