FREE Concert this weekend— Sting, Dave Matthews Band, Muse, Ludacris, My Morning Jacket (Atlanta: airport, moving)

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

A lot of small town thinking in this thread. Stuff like this weekend should be a monthly or weekly thing.

My point exactly. Coming from a place where holding events that attracts hundreds of thousands of people on a regular basis is the norm and has massive transit that is convenient and moves millions every single day, I just don't get it sometimes.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

The ridership isn't there because it's too inconvenient to use and the people in this region are anti-transit, which again, is why TSPLOST failed. Does his hiring mean that MARTA is going to be expanded and cover more areas?

It isn't too inconvenient to use if you try. Bikes are allowed on trains and buses to help with the last mile connectivity.
Expansion takes time. He is now working on stabilizing the books, not raising fares, and cutting service.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by cqholt

It isn't too inconvenient to use if you try. Bikes are allowed on trains and buses to help with the last mile connectivity.
Expansion takes time. He is now working on stabilizing the books, not raising fares, and cutting service.

That defeats the purpose of having transit. I still have to walk more miles, take a taxi or ride a bike after already spending 2 hours on the bus?! Really?! That makes about as much sense as a glass hammer lol.

That does not sound convenient at all. Been there, done that. Never doing it again. I'll pass.

[alco89]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

That defeats the purpose of having transit. I still have to walk more miles, take a taxi or ride a bike after already spending 2 hours on the bus?! Really?! That makes about as much sense as a glass hammer lol.

That does not sound convenient at all. Been there, done that. Never doing it again. I'll pass.

I don't know where you're from, but I'm willing to bet it's a city much older than Atlanta.

People tend to forget that Atlanta is young compared to other American cities. Even Charlotte and Houston are technically older. I'll NEVER understand why people come to Atlanta and expect it to be like NYC, or Chicago, or Boston, or DC, or San Francisco, or even Philly when it's only been at this 'big city' business for ~30 years!!! Things like this take time, you can't make it into large vibrant city with density for miles and miles AND a massive transit system overnight! Especially since Atlanta grew up in a car-dependent era in a boundless geographic area (no large water bodies or mountains), a disadvantage that it has versus the aforementioned cities.

TSPLOST failed because it's infinitely harder to meet the transportation needs of a city AND suburbs. NYC, Chicago, Boston, and Philly only had to worry about there dense cores when it came to developing transit because that's all there was.

Some of you guys are overly negative about Atlanta's shortcomings as if the rest of us don't realize these problems. WE KNOW. It's good to recognize the problems and improve upon what's already there. Example: out of all the sunbelt cities, Atlanta DOES HAVE the best transit backbone. There's no other way to put it. Now, Atlanta is trying improve this backbone by adding streetcars, bike lanes, trails, etc. The city is trying to take care of ITSELF right now (since the suburbs are mainly not on board right now), and it will become denser because of it. At this point, commuter rail seems to be the only way the suburbs will get on board and at least it's being discussed.

Please, people (mainly the detractors), recognize the major challenges Atlanta has versus these older cities before constantly bashing it for where it stands right now. Atlanta is still a teenager which will go through constant changes, metamorphoses, and growing pains before it becomes what all its lovers and detractors want it to be. You should relish the oppurtunity of being a part of making Atlanta better as opposed to cities like NYC, where it's already established.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by alco89

I don't know where you're from, but I'm willing to bet it's a city much older than Atlanta.

People tend to forget that Atlanta is young compared to other American cities. Even Charlotte and Houston are technically older. I'll NEVER understand why people come to Atlanta and expect it to be like NYC, or Chicago, or Boston, or DC, or San Francisco, or even Philly when it's only been at this 'big city' business for ~30 years!!!

Oh, come now. We've had an international airport in this town for 60 years, pro sports for half a century and a subway since 1979. In the 1950s we had 3 major auto plants. By the 1920s we were a huge passenger rail hub, with nearly a hundred trains passing through every day.

And if you want to get picture of our skyline in 1930s, just stroll around and look at some of the buildings like Rhodes-Haverty, Candler, the Healey, William Oliver, the C&S Bank, Flatiron, etc., etc. By that time we had elegant old suburbs like West End, Inman Park, Buckhead, Druids Hills, Ansley and many others. Enrico Caruso performed here in 1912. In 1925 WSB was broadcasting with 50,000 watts from the 11th floor of the Biltmore hotel in Midtown. We had two highly influential and nationally recognized newspapers.

It's simply not accurate to assert that Atlanta is some Johnny-come-lately to the realm of big cities.

Here's downtown in 1907:



And again in 1935:

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Oh, come now. We've had an international airport in this town for 60 years, pro sports for half a century and a subway since 1979. In the 1950s we had 3 major auto plants. By the 1920s we were a huge passenger rail hub, with nearly a hundred trains passing through every day.

And if you want to get picture of our skyline in 1930s, just stroll around and look at some of the buildings like Rhodes-Haverty, Candler, the Healey, William Oliver, the C&S Bank, Flatiron, etc., etc. By that time we had elegant old suburbs like West End, Inman Park, Buckhead, Druids Hills, Ansley and many others. Enrico Caruso performed here in 1912. In 1925 WSB was broadcasting with 50,000 watts from the 11th floor of the Biltmore hotel in Midtown. We had two highly influential and nationally recognized newspapers.

It's simply not accurate to assert that Atlanta is some Johnny-come-lately to the realm of big cities.

Here's downtown in 1907:



And again in 1935:

Point is the other cities that are compared have Atlanta by 100+ years. No matter what it is still too new to have everything a major city of 150-200 years old has.

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by cqholt

It isn't too inconvenient to use if you try. Bikes are allowed on trains and buses to help with the last mile connectivity.
Expansion takes time. He is now working on stabilizing the books, not raising fares, and cutting service.

Honestly, I'm not sure why you moved to a place that is not Chicago if that is what you like. Atlanta won't reach Chicago's level in our lifetime (Houston might in population) so I'd focuse on moving back if I wanted a Chicago lifestyle.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

Honestly, I'm not sure why you moved to a place that is not Chicago if that is what you like. Atlanta won't reach Chicago's level in our lifetime (Houston might in population) so I'd focuse on moving back if I wanted a Chicago lifestyle.

I am not afraid of hard work and want to work to make Atlanta a bigger, better, denser city. Chicago is too cold and I enjoy Atlanta.

[noah]

Yes, Atlanta compares very favorably to most U.S. cities. We only hear the comparisons on here to the 4-5 below that out do Atlanta for Transit. If your from Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis etc you find the subway system pretty awesome. How about L.A? We get that much of the northeast is more urban then Atlanta but Atlanta does pretty good overall and is getting better in this area at a rapid rate.

Originally Posted by alco89

I'll NEVER understand why people come to Atlanta and expect it to be like NYC, or Chicago, or Boston, or DC, or San Francisco, or even Philly when it's only been at this 'big city' business for ~30 years!!!

Please, people (mainly the detractors), recognize the major challenges Atlanta has versus these older cities before constantly bashing it for where it stands right now. Atlanta is still a teenager which will go through constant changes, metamorphoses, and growing pains before it becomes what all its lovers and detractors want it to be. You should relish the oppurtunity of being a part of making Atlanta better as opposed to cities like NYC, where it's already established.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

Point is the other cities that are compared have Atlanta by 100+ years. No matter what it is still too new to have everything a major city of 150-200 years old has.

We're not as old as northeastern cities like New York, Boston or Philadelphia.

But we're hardly some little acorn that just fell off the tree 30 years ago. We're roughly the same age as cities like Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, LA, Miami and Houston. In fact we have seniority on several of them.