Committee: Raise taxes to pay for transportation (Atlanta, Stone Mountain: real estate, employment)

[hautemomma]

Originally Posted by architect77

Of course! So much for leaving a better America for your children. Our national infrastructure is falling apart, and it's becoming a joke compared to the rest of the world.

I'll never understand why you don't want to see any physical benefits for your taxes, like roads, bridges and higher speed railways, contributing to the economic strength, logistic advantages, and resources to attract high-paying jobs to Georgia.

No, everyone can just walk wherever they need to go. And if they lose their job, which is next to their strategically chosen residence, or their company relocates 20+ miles away, well, tough luck. Invest in thicker soles.

[PKCorey]

Originally Posted by skbl17

Dead link.

- skbl17

State has millions more to spend, but can't meet pent up demand | www.myajc.com

Should work now.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Yes, but not on those things that make us the envy of the world. I'll take freedome of speech and religion any day over a high speed train (and, I know, you would, too!).

Well, that is true, and cq is also right about our safety regulations.

Sometimes it just seems like it takes forever to get things done in this country. Could we build MARTA today? A reservoir like Lake lanier?

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Yes, but not on those things that make us the envy of the world. I'll take freedome of speech and religion any day over a high speed train (and, I know, you would, too!).

Why would that even be a choice?

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Could we build MARTA today?

MARTA construction was subject to the same regulations regarding OSHA/NEPA etc that exist today, so yes.

[jero23]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Any increase will have to include funds dedicated specifically to alternative transportation. I don't see why ARC can't spend the money as they see fit. They know the metro areas transportation needs better than anyone else and they could use the money for transit projects. Any conversation will have to include MARTA.

That's because ARC is too afraid of some of the suburban counties reaction if they did push for the MPO to do such.

Additionally, ARC and its predecessors are the primary reasons why we have as much sprawl in this region as it is because they encouraged it...

[skbl17]

Originally Posted by jero23

That's because ARC is too afraid of some of the suburban counties reaction if they did push for the MPO to do such.

Additionally, ARC and its predecessors are the primary reasons why we have as much sprawl in this region as it is because they encouraged it...

To be fair, I don't even know if ARC has all that much power to begin with. It definitely feels like one of the weaker metropolitan government organizations in the country.

- skbl17

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Any increase will have to include funds dedicated specifically to alternative transportation. I don't see why ARC can't spend the money as they see fit. They know the metro areas transportation needs better than anyone else and they could use the money for transit projects. Any conversation will have to include MARTA.

Originally Posted by jero23

That's because ARC is too afraid of some of the suburban counties reaction if they did push for the MPO to do such.

Additionally, ARC and its predecessors are the primary reasons why we have as much sprawl in this region as it is because they encouraged it...

Originally Posted by skbl17

To be fair, I don't even know if ARC has all that much power to begin with. It definitely feels like one of the weaker metropolitan government organizations in the country.

- skbl17

Those are some excellent points about the ARC, but it should be noted that the Atlanta Regional Commission does not have any taxing authority and therefore cannot collect and spend funds on constructing and operating transportation infrastructure.

The ARC does not have any taxing authority because the state has not given the ARC any taxing authority and collecting and spending tax revenues on transportation projects was not and is not their intended role.

The ARC's intended role is just basically to be an advisory regional planning organization that makes metropolitan planning recommendations to government at the local and state levels.

The ARC (and its predecessors) may not have any taxing authority and spending ability when it comes to transportation planning, but the ARC has made and advocated for some very strong policies during its existence such as:

> Recommending and strongly advocating for the creation of a regional transit agency....Strong advocation that eventually led to the creation of MARTA (which was intended to be a five-county transit agency before its inception) and GRTA (which was created to be the eventual state-run regional multi-county successor to MARTA)...

> Recommending the construction of a midfield terminal between parallel runways that led to the Atlanta Airport becoming the busiest airport on the planet...

> Recommending the preservation of natural areas which led to the state's purchase of Stone Mountain Park as well as the protection of the natural area along the Chattahoochee River...

> Recommending the construction of new hospitals in fast-growing areas...

> Recommending the development of regionwide water-use and sewer plans...

> Advocating for the protection of area waterways...

> Recommending and advocating for the creation of the largely well-intentioned but ill-fated and highly-flawed 2012 T-SPLOST referendums as a means of coming up with more transportation funding on a regional basis.

The ARC may not have the power to fund and enact policy, but the recommendations that the ARC makes have much weight and are taken very seriously by policymakers.

Over the last 7 decades of post-World War II era growth, though they likely played a role in the construction of lower-density development, the ARC did not necessarily have to encourage sprawl in a society where low-density automobile-oriented development was by far the most dominant and most in-demand style of development in the real estate marketplace.

No matter how much a planning organization like the ARC might have advocated for denser development styles, there was not much, if anything at all, that the ARC could have done to stop sprawl.

With low-density sprawling development just almost totally and completely dominating the real estate marketplace up until just very recently, all that the ARC could do was make recommendations to attempt to better accommodate the explosive, uncontrollable and overwhelming growth of the last 7 decades, most of which happened to come in the form of low-density sprawl and speculative development.

An advisory planning organization like the ARC was not going to stop land speculator and real estate developer-dominated governments from approving every construction permit that came across their desks.

An advisory planning organization like the ARC also was not going to stop an overwhelming crush of consumers from buying detached single-family homes in low-density suburban and exurban areas in droves.

The ARC was not going to stop the automobile-oriented development obsessed real estate marketplace of the late 20th Century, no matter how much it might have tried.

The factors that drove Atlanta's very low-density automobile-obsessed metropolitan development patterns of the late 20th Century were infinitely much deeper than an organization like the ARC would have had any type of control over.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

An advisory planning organization like the ARC also was not going to stop an overwhelming crush of consumers from buying detached single-family homes in low-density suburban and exurban areas in droves.

The ARC was not going to stop the automobile-oriented development obsessed real estate marketplace of the late 20th Century, no matter how much it might have tried.

The factors that drove Atlanta's very low-density automobile-obsessed metropolitan development patterns of the late 20th Century were infinitely much deeper than an organization like the ARC would have had any type of control over.

Thanks for a very good analysis of the ARC, B2R.

The fact is that people like elbow room and the enormous convenience of getting around by automobile. No planning agency (at least not in a free nation) is gong to change that.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Thanks for a very good analysis of the ARC, B2R.

The fact is that people like elbow room and the enormous convenience of getting around by automobile. No planning agency (at least not in a free nation) is gong to change that.

Sure people everywhere want more room if given the choice. However they often don't want to pay the extra cost.