Marta train ride from Airport to Five Points is very ugly. (Atlanta: apartments, move)

[gerrythesnake]

Originally Posted by alco89

This. Idk when I finally noticed how horrible it looked, but when I did, I was embarrassed lol. There's really nothing that could be done unless the whole area redevelops with the Beltline coming through, which probally won't happen for another 20-30 years if at all...

I say the exact same thing every time I take Marta to the airport

[Atlanta_BD]

MARTA rail going south goes into poor neighborhoods, so that fact that they look bad isn't going to change much. I think it's kind of silly to think that local government needs to clean up that part of the city just because it's the train coming from the airport and we need to somehow hide from visitors that there's poverty in this city.

Every city in this country has nice areas and poor areas. Anyone with common sense coming here from out of town would know that. Why try to put up some front that all of Atlanta is safe, clean and prosperous? The only thing that can be done to clean up the areas mentioned as to impress visitors coming in from the airport is to relocate the poor population out of that area. And why should these people be moved to make the city look good to out-of-towners? It's not as if visitors don't have poor and run down areas where they live as well.

The reality is that there are lots of poor people in the city and many of those poor people live by the airport and along the southbound MARTA route. And unfortunately a lot of those poor people tear up their neighborhoods. But I think the idea that something needs to be done to basically hide that from visitors is a little far-fetched.

[ATLondoner]

I agree that the view isn't the best but it certainly isn't a 'problem' that only Atlanta has.

Get the Heathrow Express into London Paddington and your view over the final 3 miles is almost exclusively graffiti, underpasses and industrial buildings. Not the best first impression of one of the worlds truly great cities.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by ATLondoner

I agree that the view isn't the best but it certainly isn't a 'problem' that only Atlanta has.

Get the Heathrow Express into London Paddington and your view over the final 3 miles is almost exclusively graffiti, underpasses and industrial buildings. Not the best first impression of one of the worlds truly great cities.

Exactly. Poor, run-down areas exist in major cities all over the world and Atlanta is no exception. So why try to put up a front as to impress visitors?

[cqholt]

The reality is that there are lots of poor people in the city and many of those poor people live by the airport

Why would the upper class want to live close to a noisy, pollution filled airport. I think HJIA is a big part of why the southside is poor.

[alco89]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Why would the upper class want to live close to a noisy, pollution filled airport. I think HJIA is a big part of why the southside is poor.

I doubt it. That's not the case with O'hare, Dulles, Reagan, just off the top of my head...

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by alco89

I doubt it. That's not the case with O'hare, Dulles, Reagan, just off the top of my head...

I was just about to say that.

Being that I'm not a native Atlantan, I can't speak as to what the condition was of south Atlanta near the airport prior to it being built.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Why would the upper class want to live close to a noisy, pollution filled airport. I think HJIA is a big part of why the southside is poor.

It predates the airport, believe me. The Southside has been depressed for as long as I can remember, and I can remember back to 1960.

[atler8]

The Atlanta metro south side has tended toward the blue collar type of economics for decades. It never had a large scale residential area the size of or as wealthy as Buckhead.
I would need to see proof positive though to believe that the location of the airport in that area has been a major factor toward keeping it that way.

[Supplies]

Originally Posted by cqholt

The route is an eye sore because it was heavily industrial before the de-industrialization of the US. it costs a lot of money for land reclamation of polluted soil and tearing down buildings. Also, this area is the southside and suffers from a lack of investment and stigma about the area.

PS its just MARTA, not the Marta. I can tell you are not very exposed to living in a big city and using transit.

Sorry, traveled from NY up to Ct for many years via Metro North , never was bothered with people asking for money ect.