Metro Atlanta Speaks survey shows strong support for public transit (Tucker: maintenance, tax)

[Ant131531]

That's not an excuse to have terrible transit coverage. I really can't wait until there is a must for transit coverage in American cities country wide as the gap between the rich and poor continues to increase.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Excellent point, though in all fairness, we must also keep-in-mind that inner-city crime rates were much-higher back in the 1960's and particularly in the 1970's in Atlanta and most major U.S. cities then they are today.

Prior to the late 1980's, the City of Atlanta was home to the largest cluster of public housing in the Eastern U.S. south of Washington D.C.

Most of that public housing in Atlanta and other major U.S. cities was crime-ridden, which had an effect on crime rates in areas surrounding that public housing.

Combine the very-high crime rates of public housing and surrounding areas with the disruption (and destruction) of many inner-city neighborhoods by inner-city/urban freeway construction and a general trend of abandonment of inner-city areas for far-flung suburbs in an era of automobile dominance and automobile-overdependency in the post-World War II era, and you have a major motivating factor for middle-class residents (whites and blacks) to abandon inner cities for outlying suburbs in droves.

Well said, B2R.

The city of Atlanta was going through some huge demographic convulsions in the 1965-90 period and crime went through the roof. By 1985 the violent crime rate was probably five times higher than it had been just twenty years earlier. In 1990 the city had 231 murders with only 394,000 residents!

People wanted out and they fled the city in droves back in those days.

Fortunately the situation began to stabilize in the 1990s and most of the city is very safe these days. However there's still much emptying out in the northwest, southwest and southeast quadrants. A lot of those areas have lost a quarter to a half of their population.

From a transit standpoint, the question is whether we gamble mega bucks on these areas that are declining in population in the hope that it will somehow convince people to move in, or do we put our resources in the areas that are dense and booming now?

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

That's not an excuse to have terrible transit coverage. I really can't wait until there is a must for transit coverage in American cities country wide as the gap between the rich and poor continues to increase.

Are you seriously saying, with the straightest face you can muster, that American transportation policy isn't an excuse for terrible transit coverage???????

That's like saying the lack of universal healthcare shouldn't be a reason for anything less than 100% insurance coverage for Americans.

[Ant131531]

Let's not use the argument, 'Since Houston and Dallas are larger and have poorer transit systems, then Atlanta's MUST be good'.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Come on now. Let's not make silly excuses for why the transit sucks for how large this metro currently is. There's no excuse.

I don't think there's any question of "excuses."

All the metro counties other than Fulton and DeKalb have made it clear that they do not want mass transit. That's a preference, not a failure.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I don't think there's any question of "excuses."

All the metro counties other than Fulton and DeKalb have made it clear that they do not want mass transit. That's a preference, not a failure.

Understandable, after 33 years, you'd think we would have had a new rail line going into say Emory or any of the Eastside neighborhoods by now.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Understandable, after 33 years, you'd think we would have had a new rail line going into say Emory or any of the Eastside neighborhoods by now.

What does 33 years have to do with it?

[gtcorndog]

This is not news.

People like the idea of transit. However, they don't like paying for it and riding it. They want others to pay for it and others to ride it to make their commutes easier.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Well said, B2R.

The city of Atlanta was going through some huge demographic convulsions in the 1965-90 period and crime went through the roof. By 1985 the violent crime rate was probably five times higher than it had been just twenty years earlier. In 1990 the city had 231 murders with only 394,000 residents!

People wanted out and they fled the city in droves back in those days.

Fortunately the situation began to stabilize in the 1990s and most of the city is very safe these days. However there's still much emptying out in the northwest, southwest and southeast quadrants. A lot of those areas have lost a quarter to a half of their population.

From a transit standpoint, the question is whether we gamble mega bucks on these areas that are declining in population in the hope that it will somehow convince people to move in, or do we put our resources in the areas that are dense and booming now?

SOME (though most certainly not all) of those areas in the NW, SW and SE quadrants of the City of Atlanta appear to be reversing the trend of population declines as new high-density developments have gone up and people have moved into previously-declining Intown areas.

New high-density residential development has gone up and people are moving into such Intown areas as the Marietta Blvd/Howell Mill Rd/West Midtown corridor and even the area formerly known as the Perry Homes housing project (where new homes and high-density residences have gone up) and areas near Bolton Rd and James Jackson Pkwy in Northwest Atlanta; the West End area near the Atlanta University Center; in Mechanicsville just below the I-20 and even near the Hamilton E. Holmes (formerly Hightower) MARTA Station in Southwest Atlanta.

There's also a substantial amount of revitalization activity (rehabbing of older houses, construction of new high-density residential development, people moving back into the area, etc) in Intown areas in Southeast Atlanta like near Turner Stadium, in Grant Park, Glenwood Park, Cabbagetown, Reynoldstown and East Atlanta.

The continued construction and development of the Beltline also figures to spark much new development and redevelopment along its path as it is completed through the aforementioned NW, SW and SE quadrants of the City of Atlanta.

With many formerly-depopulating Intown areas appearing to have reversed previous trends with new residents now moving in in rising numbers as high-density urban living continues to increase in popularity with younger generations, it's not really much of a gamble to run high-capacity passenger rail transit lines through Intown areas in the NW, SW and SE quadrants of the City of Atlanta, particularly when future passenger rail transit lines will have to run through Intown areas in the NW, SW and SE quadrants of the City of Atlanta en-route to the suburbs anyway.

Running transit lines through those areas will only serve to spark investment and help those areas comeback even quicker than many of them were already going to comeback.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by Gulch

What does 33 years have to do with it?

If I can quickly recall my MARTA history, MARTA opened in 1979 right? Therefore, it's been roughly 33-34 years since the opening of the MARTA rails.