Why are Cobb/Gwinnett still averse to MARTA rail? (Atlanta: crimes, home)

[northwinds]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

I would give Gwinnett county another 5 to 10 years. When a particular group of old heads who were of voting age before 1964 start dropping off & moving away, the political scenery in that county will be a vastly different place.

Cobb county is a different story. There is still a lot of old heads and their baby boomer kids are still aggressively hanging on to their cultural reminiscing of the "old world".

And I look forward to when the particular group of "old heads" in the City of Atlanta start dying off and the new young White and Asian energetic folks are moving back into the city to change the political scenery.....Atlanta will be a vastly different place....no more "old head" civil rights dinosaurs and their wimpy, useless chilrens (see King family) holding onto their cultural reminiscing and holding the city hostage over ancient history......demanding their "percentage" of contracts for doing nothin'......

[robertpolyglot]

Originally Posted by cittic10

Infill?
Bwaa hahaaha haha aahaha

Oh man.
That's a good one.

Well, not walk-up flats that would make it into a coffee table magazine, but a usurping of vacant lots for any kind of development.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by northwinds

Yeah, I can see where you are going with this.......the majority white populations in Cobb and Gwinnett see a Marta system coming into their neighborhoods as nothing more than a ghetto train bring crime into their lives....that's the perception....and perception is reality. We are all grown up here....just say what you mean....... These two counties, which were bastions of white, conservative demographics ten years ago are changing rapidly....particularly with the influx of Hispanics, so this "perception" may change. Atlanta gets more white and the old white 'burbs' get more ethnic...stayed tuned.....we may even see a white mayor again in Atlanta and Marta trains running to the Marietta Square.....

I've ridden the MARTA, as well as CCT. I haven't had any problems as far as crime goes. I've never been harassed on the train or the buses. My beef is that CCT is inefficient and doesn't have enough routes where I live. I live in Kennesaw area(KSU is up there and I'm a student there). I don't have a car. There are only 2 bus lines going northbound, the 40 and 45. The rest go south. Sounds kind of stupid to me. MARTA is even more inefficient in regards to buses. However, there is a larger network and they go more places. I haven't had problems with MARTA, other than it needs to come out to Cobb County. My perception of MARTA and CCT is not that of danger. Yes, alot of poor Blacks and Hispanics use mass transit. I haven't been bothered by anyone on the transit. In fact, the times I did fall victim to crime, the mass transit had nothing to do with it. The perpetrator had a car and used it. Who is to say that a criminal can't steal a car? If a crook is vicious enough to break into your home, than a criminal can steal a car.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by northwinds

And I look forward to when the particular group of "old heads" in the City of Atlanta start dying off and the new young White and Asian energetic folks are moving back into the city to change the political scenery.....Atlanta will be a vastly different place....no more "old head" civil rights dinosaurs and their wimpy, useless chilrens (see King family) holding onto their cultural reminiscing and holding the city hostage over ancient history......demanding their "percentage" of contracts for doing nothin'......

What do you really mean? I'm getting the idea that when you say "old head" and "civil rights" you might mean something else.

[ATLTJL]

I think northwinds is referring to the black leadership of Atlanta that seems to hold onto power by promising the densely populated areas of the south and west sides of the city with "Robinhood" types of deals like making sure the rich people in midtown and Buckhead who provide most of the tax base fund things like beautiful libraries on the south side that will never be used.

Of course, that's really more Fulton county.....the city of Atlanta tends to employ a good old boy system of offering jobs and no-bid contracts to their black buddies. It's just like a modern black version of old Huey Long politics.

And you know, there's really nothing racist about saying it because a lot of the wealthy blacks in Atlanta have had about enough of it as well, just like many whites don't support corrupt white politicians just because they are white.

Some people say Kasim Reed is sort of turning this around. I don't know, I haven't kept up with his administration, I'm basing the perception of Atlanta politics on what has gone on since the 70s. It might be turning around, I don't know. I do know that Atlanta hasn't had a white mayor in almost 40 years, since 1974. Just for the sake of giving the other guy a chance, I think it would be neat to see a white mayor just to see if that offers any kind of new perspective on how to run the city. Or an Asian, or a Hispanic, pretty much anyone who would shake things up a bit could get things interesting. Some fresh ideas are exactly what the city needs right now. I'm not saying the right black candidate couldn't have these ideas, I just think it would be fun to really rattle city hall.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I think northwinds is referring to the black leadership of Atlanta that seems to hold onto power by promising the densely populated areas of the south and west sides of the city with "Robinhood" types of deals like making sure the rich people in midtown and Buckhead who provide most of the tax base fund things like beautiful libraries on the south side that will never be used.

Of course, that's really more Fulton county.....the city of Atlanta tends to employ a good old boy system of offering jobs and no-bid contracts to their black buddies. It's just like a modern black version of old Huey Long politics.

And you know, there's really nothing racist about saying it because a lot of the wealthy blacks in Atlanta have had about enough of it as well, just like many whites don't support corrupt white politicians just because they are white.

Some people say Kasim Reed is sort of turning this around. I don't know, I haven't kept up with his administration, I'm basing the perception of Atlanta politics on what has gone on since the 70s. It might be turning around, I don't know. I do know that Atlanta hasn't had a white mayor in almost 40 years, since 1974. Just for the sake of giving the other guy a chance, I think it would be neat to see a white mayor just to see if that offers any kind of new perspective on how to run the city. Or an Asian, or a Hispanic, pretty much anyone who would shake things up a bit could get things interesting. Some fresh ideas are exactly what the city needs right now. I'm not saying the right black candidate couldn't have these ideas, I just think it would be fun to really rattle city hall.

I am going to be honest about this. I don't know that much about politics in the city of Atlanta or how the "good old boy" network runs in Atlanta. I don't live in the city of Atlanta. I do know there is tension between the city and the suburban areas. I do know that the way some of the municipalities work reminds me of feuding city-states.

[ATLTJL]

I don't know too terribly much about it, just the perception that Atlanta politics is dirty and corrupt.

Of course, it didn't help that mayor Bill Campbell got convicted of tax evasion shortly after completing his second term and served almost 3 years in prison and was subsequently disbarred. That's pretty freaking abysmal, don't you think?

I really don't know if Atlanta even has time to worry about tension with the suburbs as it seems to generally be too deep in it's own sea of doo doo to be concerned with anything else.

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Right, and they still drag their clubs and wear animal skins. Apparently those that work in the CBD are not the majority. People in Cobb and Gwinnett don't want to pay the MARTA tax for something they won't use. It would have been great for me when I lived in Cobb because it went where I wanted to go. But that's not true for a lot of people and they probably don't want to ride the train and transfer to a bus to complete their trip. And no, I don't think transferring to a streetcar would change their mind.

Would the rails not run from Gwinnet into Atlanta as well as vice a versa?There are a lot of people that live in Atlanta but work outside.Not to mention those that would shop like I do from time to time due to lower sales tax in the stores.Especially true for Cobb County(5or6% sales tax).

[AcidSnake]

Yep, you gotta love city data's moderators.

I won't respond to this individual trying to make his/her false equivalency response on my post, and I don't believe in making complaints in secret about individuals and their trollish postings as I think it's cowardly...I would rather confront the individual on that ignorance in the way that my ancestors have and debate it out...

But I have to wonder: Why is it that the moderators here on city-data won't slam this individual for disrupting this thread by making an inflammatory remark by bringing the King family into a thread on subject matter that they have NOTHING do with?

(The remark is at the top of this page for the curious.)

This individual is a known troll. This person is a known race-baiting provocateur that spews ad hominems on the regular about African Americans. But this individual time after time is left standing. But I can't even confront this individual indirectly let alone directly in my own intelligent way without getting slammed.

Gotta love y'all moderators.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

Yep, you gotta love city data's moderators.

I won't respond to this individual trying to make his/her false equivalency response on my post, and I don't believe in making complaints in secret about individuals and their trollish postings as I think it's cowardly...I would rather confront the individual on that ignorance in the way that my ancestors have and debate it out...

But I have to wonder: Why is it that the moderators here on city-data won't slam this individual for disrupting this thread by making an inflammatory remark by bringing the King family into a thread on subject matter that they have NOTHING do with?

(The remark is at the top of this page for the curious.)

This individual is a known troll. This person is a known race-baiting provocateur that spews ad hominems on the regular about African Americans. But this individual time after time is left standing. But I can't even confront this individual indirectly let alone directly in my own intelligent way without getting slammed.

Gotta love y'all moderators.