Why doesn't Marta Serve Smyrna area (Atlanta, Springfield: house, DMV, live)

[ATLdecatur]

Originally Posted by KevK

You know that most of the southern hicks down here hate MARTA because they see it as a "black" thing. In fact I have heard whites refer to MARTA as standing for "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta". This makes them white trash. Atlanta should be thankful us northeners moved here and finally brought the area and the state out of the 18th century. If not for that, the place would be another Birmingham or Jackson!

You seem angry and unhappy.

[davesm]

Originally Posted by Scraper Enthusiast

Racism, in itself, is not a bad thing, for it helps secure the larger family, the racial group, and the country/nation that racial group bonds. Of course, the US, ever since 1965, is no longer a primarily mono-racial nation, and it will be to its own detriment, simply for the fact that multi-racial countries are inherently unstable. Throughout history, multicultural and multi-racial empires have fallen from within. Studies have been conducted which back up the fact that in diverse settings, people are less trusting of one another, and innovation tends to decrease.

This post has been endorsed by the Deutsches Reich (1933-1945)

"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer."

Bringing you a safer tomorrow by limiting MARTA to Fulton & Dekalb.

Is it 2008 yet?

[Scraper Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by davesm

This post has been endorsed by the Deutsches Reich (1933-1945)

"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer."

Bringing you a safer tomorrow by limiting MARTA to Fulton & Dekalb.

Is it 2008 yet?

Dave, you simply are ignorant to the truths of history and social and cultural behaviors.

Your use of Nazi Germany comments are nothing more than ad hominem attacks, designed to take attention off the logical points made.

What exactly do you disagree with?

[davesm]

Originally Posted by Scraper Enthusiast

Dave, you simply are ignorant to the truths of history and social and cultural behaviors.

Your use of Nazi Germany comments are nothing more than ad hominem attacks, designed to take attention off the logical points made.

What exactly do you disagree with?

I have no intention or intrest in debating your ideologies with you. You have made up your mind and have searched for friends, books, and statistics to support your beliefs.

But, even you have to admit that your whole "One race nation" post seems very Third Reich (ish).

That post was not as enlighted as you think. Try taking the propoganda elsewhere and sticking to the topic.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by KevK

That is because back then Gwinnett was white trash and they were afraid that blacks would move in if they could ride MARTA out there. But to the amazement of the white trash, it was actually discovered in the 80s and 90s that black citizens in Georgia had the abililty to ..... drive a car AND pass a license exam! So the blacks ended up in Gwinnett County anyway! So since the blacks are already there, the whites probably figure "oh well, what the hell maybe the train will save me a few bucks in gas and get me home before bedtime".

I know this post is a few weeks old, but I had to respond to this... I was in Atlanta when the North-South Line opened. I rode the first train at North Ave (which is where the line ended). I was one of the people in Gwinnett who didn't want MARTA. After attending GA Tech, I lived in Gwinnett in the 1980's. I watched as Norcross was built up and became a technology center, and I stood on Pleasant Hill Rd, before the mall, at the 76 Truck Stop when there was nothing but a 2 lane country road on either side of I-85. Much of the north county was rural. Buford was considered way out in the country.

To say that people in Gwinnett were "white trash" because they didn't want MARTA is rediculous. What it really boiled down to was that the majority of Gwinnett had no need for transit and no need to travel to Atlanta. People in Buford or Dacula in the 1980s and early 90s had absolutely no desire or need for a bus or a train. It had nothing to do with racism or being "white trash". I was one of those people who didn't want MARTA. I lived in Duluth and worked in Norcross. Why the hell would I want to pay a 1% sales tax?

Now things have changed, but one of the weaknesses of MARTA (that was never addressed) is that it's a radial system that only goes to/from downtown. You can't easily get from say...Decatur to Alpharetta without going downtown and changing trains/buses many times. It's just not practical for people who live and work in the burbs. Even now, I live in Marietta and have an office in Alpharetta that I travel to every now and then. Even if it ran into Cobb Co, MARTA would do me no good at all.

[SteelCityRising]

Rail is the future in this country as gasoline prices are expected to continue to climb into the foreseeable future. My own area in PA is looking forward to having light rail established to New York City in 5-7 years, and there is now discussion of a rail line to Philadelphia after that. Widening a freeway to 22 lanes is asinine, and if people would support THAT breeding ground for smog over mass transit, then I feel sorry for them. Mass transit is the wave of the future; the days of stop-and-go traffic from the 'burbs to the city in a Hummer are nearing an end (thankfully).

[atlantagreg30127]

It would be nice to see commuter rail on a large scale such as in the 1940s and 50s come back to the U.S. An American version of the Eurorail. Air travel is so clogged, sometimes inefficiant, and in some cases expensive. Car travel costs $$ due to gas prices anymore, and everyone hates buses. It would be nice to get on a train for a reasonable price to go from city A to city B again. Likewise, Atlanta does need limited commuter services from some areas into the city and to other surrounding cities. It doesn't have to run every half an hour - just SOMETHING as an option.

Nothing is a one stop solution. Sure, we do need more roads, or more importantly, well-planned roads. We don't need MARTA heavy rail in every corner of the metro area, but we DO need it to extend further out beyond 285 with part and ride lots to handle a lot of incoming cars. More extress bus routes, light rail, and even localized trolley or people mover systems that simply service the areas around Perimeter, Cumberland, Gwinnett Mall.... they all play parts in helping to cut down congestion. No one of them will do it, but all of them together will have some impact.

[plessthanpointohfive]

As a side note...did you know that Hispanic is an ethnicity and not a race? Most Hispanics are, in fact, Caucasian. However, there are interracial Hispanics the way there are some interracial Italians...

Back to the topic...the radial problem of Atlanta..it's true. The beltline will help the inner city circle around but we need a second loop that goes around, say running along I-285. There should be radial shoots that go straight from the burbs to downtown, intersecting the inner and outer loops.

It should look like a giant spiderweb.

As for rail increasing property values...heck yes. I live 2 blocks from the Candler Park station and use it extensively for going downtown or to the airport. If I ever sold my house I'd advertise the heck out of it.

Oh, and there's not a lot of violent crime in Candler Park. Just smash and grab, mostly cars, exposed sheds, and the occasional house (usually door or window left open by accident).

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Nothing is a one stop solution. Sure, we do need more roads, or more importantly, well-planned roads. We don't need MARTA heavy rail in every corner of the metro area, but we DO need it to extend further out beyond 285 with part and ride lots to handle a lot of incoming cars. More extress bus routes, light rail, and even localized trolley or people mover systems that simply service the areas around Perimeter, Cumberland, Gwinnett Mall.... they all play parts in helping to cut down congestion. No one of them will do it, but all of them together will have some impact.

The solution has to be multi-faceted, and it has to provide people like me a reason to leave my car at home. The price of gas and even traffic won't convince me to leave my car at home, if transit doesn't go where I need it to go, when I need it to go there. If I had a convenient transit option, I'd use it as I did in NY and Boston. Unlike Atlanta, those cities built parts of their systems under private ownership 100 years ago, and the development followed the rail, not the other way around.

[netdragon]

If metro Hartford can get a commuter rail line, then any place can. CT is on track for an express commuter rail line from New Haven, through Hartford, to Springfield, MA. Having lived in metro Hartford for much of my life, I can say a lot of the people there are the most cynical and pessimistic I have ever heard about any possibility of mass transit and they criticize the CT DMV all the time for turning CT into a "giant parking lot".