MARTA eyeing major expansion up Georgia 400 corridor (Atlanta, Alpharetta: sale, bankrupt)

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

That's a good point that Cobb County likely would have never been able to acquire the Atlanta Braves if it had held a long commenting period before deciding on whether to make such a major financial transaction.

But it hasn't been MARTA's advance consideration of public comments anywhere near as much as it has been MARTA's severe managerial, operational and financial blight of recent years that has been the main reason that the agency has not been able to expand its Heavy Rail Transit network to the places that it is desperately-needed, like up the fast-growing and increasingly severely-congested Georgia 400 North corridor.

When transit agency is so poorly-managed almost to the point of total financial collapse as MARTA had been, it should be no surprise that it is going to have extreme difficulty attempting to expand its service area.

That and the atmosphere towards transit has changed since the last time MARTA talked about the extension.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by cqholt

That and the atmosphere towards transit has changed since the last time MARTA talked about the extension.

Yeah...people in outlying areas have become much more desperate for transit now that they've figured out that Atlanta is not going to revert back to the much-smaller, much-less congested, much more-provincial mid-sized city/metro area that it was in the mid-20th Century.

[SAAN]

Originally Posted by cqholt

And what if they picked your house?

As much as that sucks, that is just life in America. When the government wants to widen a road for the good of an area, there will be houses in the path that is going to loose land space to accommodate.
I dont see anything where MARAT would have to demolish houses to extend this rail since it is going to be parallel to the expressway.

Remember when MARTA wanted to expand to Northlake in the 90's but all the NIMBY's pretty much made sure that didnt happen because they felt a 45 min bus ride is good enough for that area, so it proves in ATl that NIMBY's will make an entire zip code suffer so their neighborhood isnt affected.

I do understand where you are coming from, but in metro ATL, all this wanting people opinions have pretty much ruined the region from having a setup like the DC metro because of the usual, My property value, it will bring undesirables, etc.

[SAAN]

Originally Posted by Zanarkand A East

Focus on DeKalb.

Exactly! Build to Emory and Stonecrest and those lines will be packed and not have a bunch of paranoid people who will run and tell their friends not to ride MARTA when a once in while incident happens on the train.
Atleast a Stonecrest line could benefit, SE Dekalb and west conyers and prove that you can have life outside of the northern suburbs.

[SAAN]

Originally Posted by cqholt

That and the atmosphere towards transit has changed since the last time MARTA talked about the extension.

The only reason the atmosphere has changed is because Plan A of moving 30-40 miles outside the city to avoiding living around certain crowds has resulted in clogging up the roads in the morning/afternoon with unbearable traffic jams and the same crowd that was being avoided now lives where they moved to anyways. So since traffic isnt going to change its either, lets just welcome a MARTA rail now, or move back in town.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by SAAN

The only reason the atmosphere has changed is because Plan A of moving 30-40 miles outside the city to avoiding living around certain crowds...

Honestly? You actually believe that most folks in the burbs live there to avoid certain crowds? About 750k live ITP. The rest of the 5 million live OTP. I assure you, there are many, many more reasons to live OTP than the the narrow-minded reason you noted (not implying you are narrow minded). Some folks, like me, realize what a better monetary value OTP is, if you aren't too interested in density.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Some folks, like me, realize what a better monetary value OTP is, if you aren't too interested in density.

But it is an artificial cost savings (that is being rolled back). If you include unsubsidized transportation costs, living in the the burbs is a higher cost of living than the city.

That is why many more in other countries live in cities. And many here in the US that currently live in the suburbs would prefer cities if they did not have to live in the suburbs to take advantage of cost saving subsidies.

[SAAN]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Honestly? You actually believe that most folks in the burbs live there to avoid certain crowds? About 750k live ITP. The rest of the 5 million live OTP. I assure you, there are many, many more reasons to live OTP than the the narrow-minded reason you noted (not implying you are narrow minded). Some folks, like me, realize what a better monetary value OTP is, if you aren't too interested in density.

I agree there is a better value OTP, but I lived in Stn Mtn and watched most of the area move in to Gwinett and take all of Memorial drive with it. Once blacks started moving into Gwinett too, many started moving from Snelville to the 124 area and then to Logansville, so yes it is true "many", not all have moved way outside of the perimeter to avoid certain crowds, and to make sure marta doesnt run in their area, so those certain crowds dont have access to them.

Same situation with Conyers, many moved to west Conyers then they were followed so they moved to east Conyers and even Covington. And im sure this scenario applies to northern Fulton, Forsyth, the west metro and south metro too. We are looking at what the OTP has now, compared to how it had nothing but woods and people moved out there to start a new life, rather than trying to improve where they lived.
At times I can agree with their move as I live in Decatur and am sick and tired of the ghetto behavior in the area at times, how some the kids in those schools are hopeless, and that I have to go to northern suburbs for alot of things if its not at stonecrest.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Honestly? You actually believe that most folks in the burbs live there to avoid certain crowds? About 750k live ITP. The rest of the 5 million live OTP. I assure you, there are many, many more reasons to live OTP than the the narrow-minded reason you noted (not implying you are narrow minded). Some folks, like me, realize what a better monetary value OTP is, if you aren't too interested in density.

That's an excellent point that most Metro Atlantans currently live in suburban areas OTP because they can get more value for their money (more house, bigger yard, more-affordable single-family and multi-family housing, good public schools, etc).

But one of the major reasons that suburban areas around Atlanta and other major U.S. cities first came into being and grew so explosively between the end of World War II and the start of the 21st Century is because middle-class residents (often middle-class whites, but also middle-class blacks and Latinos) wanted to move out of inner-cities to live in outlying areas with more open space and less crime.

(...Most major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, experienced a major crime wave from about the mid-1960's to about the early-mid 1990's that accelerated the migration of the middle-class population from inner-cities to suburbs and exurbs during that period.)

Now heavily-populated and increasingly-urban suburban/post-suburban areas like Cobb, Gwinnett and North Fulton and even Clayton and DeKalb counties initially grew directly as a result of very-heavily out-migration by middle-class whites from inner-city Atlanta to outlying rural and exurban areas.

It was a mix of socioeconomic reasons (...like middle-class whites seeking outlying areas with less density, bigger yards, less crime and fewer blacks during a time of growing black political power in inner cities like Atlanta in an era when segregation was still very-much a socially-accepted practice amongst whites not just in the late and post-Jim Crow South but also in cities all around the country) that were unique to 1950's-1980's America that the suburbs and exurbs came to be outside of major American cities.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by jsvh

But it is an artificial cost savings (that is being rolled back). If you include unsubsidized transportation costs, living in the the burbs is a higher cost of living than the city.

That is why many more in other countries live in cities. And many here in the US that currently live in the suburbs would prefer cities if they did not have to live in the suburbs to take advantage of cost saving subsidies.

Burbs are lots less expensive - for about the same amount of property and house I pay less than a tenth in property taxes than I paid in COA and my water and sewer bill is less than a half. And, I don't have to put up with the city's traffic nightmare. (Traffic out here is generally far better than in the city, in my experience.) The subsidized transportation thing argument really has no impact on my decision where to live. City transportation is subsidized, too - streets and choo choo (big choo choo and little choo choo) and bicycle lanes.

You are right - there are some in the burbs who would prefer the city, but most of us way out here in the hinterlands actually want to be out here in the hinterlands. I imagine there are plenty folks in the city, who would prefer the burbs, too, but for a variety of reasons can't live in the burbs.