MARTA in Gwinnett (Atlanta, Kennesaw, Woodstock: buy, college, tax)

[WorldChamp]

It may actually be happening! Here is a link to the AJC article about it:
MARTA officials court supporters in Gwinnett | ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2008/06/24/marta.html - broken link)

[atlantagreg30127]

It's actually being discussed in this thread: //www.city-data.com/forum/atlan...ing-speak.html as well as a couple of others if you search around on here. July 15th is the "fake vote" in Gwinnett to see if they'd even vote yes for it in the future, FYI.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

It's actually being discussed in this thread: //www.city-data.com/forum/atlan...ing-speak.html as well as a couple of others if you search around on here. July 15th is the "fake vote" in Gwinnett to see if they'd even vote yes for it in the future, FYI.

I remember that thread. I made the very last post on the thread. From what I heard, Gwinnett voted no to it. I wish Barnes was the governor. He would have put everything under one umbrella.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I remember that thread. I made the very last post on the thread. From what I heard, Gwinnett voted no to it. I wish Barnes was the governor. He would have put everything under one umbrella.

Gwinnett did vote no, but by a much smaller margin than the overwhelmingly one-sided votes of the past. It was encouraging for MARTA and for Gwinnett.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

Gwinnett did vote no, but by a much smaller margin than the overwhelmingly one-sided votes of the past. It was encouraging for MARTA and for Gwinnett.

Maybe so, but Gwinnett still said no. I sound a bit impatient, but to me, no is no. More work needs to be done NOW. I just read about Sound Transit in the Seattle area. It is rather young, and it has a light rail, commuter rail and buses. No heavy rail. With that said, more routes are being built, more things are getting done. People there are for it. Many times I wonder "what is wrong with metro Atlanta? Why aren't we doing this?" Other times it doesn't surprise me. That is why I plan to get involved.
The way I see it, there are other options to explore:
a)Get the college students involved and other people who might want it and get a petition to have MARTA expanded to places like Kennesaw, Woodstock,etc
b)Opt for a private rail system that will buy all of the current stations and expand to Cobb, Gwinnett, etc. No one could say no to it because the land would be in private hands and no one could do anything about it. Japan is doing it. Kintetsu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

[DeaconJ]

The point I was making...the results of the previous vote in Gwinnett were 70% NO to 30% YES. This time it was very close - I don't remember the exact numbers, but the measure was barely defeated. It's good to get involved and try to make changes, and I applaud you for that. But realize that tremendous change has already occurred in Gwinnett and all around Metro Atlanta.

Look a little deeper into Sound Transit in Seattle. I guarantee it has it's oponents, just like every other transit system when it tries to expand. Sure, people there are excited about it because they have never had the option before. It's a long-standing battle with some counties here extending back to 1970, so that's why things are very different. Even look into Charlotte's new system and the opposition it is facing by my residents. That is a very common sentiment and, right or wrong, is not unique to Atlanta.

[ericsonga]

The vote last year was 46.9% for Marta, so it was defeated by a very very small percentage. It was only a test however to see what the response would be if the county did decide to pursue linking with Marta.

BTW, I was totally a part of that 46.9%.

[J2rescue]

Just to be clear, the Marta "vote" last year in Gwinnett didn't "defeat" anything specifically. It was just a general question that asked whether or not Gwinnett voters would support in tax money for Marta expansion into the county and it was asked during the Primary season with a separate Democrat and Republican ballots. It was nothing specific and was legally non-binding even if the vote had been 90% yes.

It is rumored that the question was placed on the ballot by transit opponents to quiet the push for transit from people within the county, believing that by merely using Marta, the vote would be overwhelmingly negative. I do know that pro-transit people in the county consider it a very positive outcome.

[MisterNY]

Originally Posted by Missingatlanta

Too bad it didn't pass. I ride MARTA everyday along with many other people at my job. We are definitely not trash (that's just ignorant to think that quite frankly) and mostly all college educated. It sure beats fighting traffic and I save a lot on gas too.

Speak the truth!!!

[Georgia]

Again, we already have track, we already have train ability, we already have a mass transit line set, we could enter again into talks with CSX and open up the entire eastern and northern arc mainline to Athens, but due to local and state politics (mostly MARTA's cronies) it has been held up for 3+ years. The main reason it would be a statehouse or even a possiblility of private controlled entity and not under the MARTA umbrella.
They have an identical successful model in Chicago, one being the CTA (Atlanta's MARTA) and the NW corridor rail, being separate.
But, MARTA would rather keep it's stranglehold on everything and spend unneeded billions to lay new rail up the 85.
I support the previous. MARTA's management has already proven itself as underperformers, thus the constant influx if taxpayer subsidy. So as long as it is MARTA I will not support it as from a financial level, their view and power grab ambitions do not make sense for Georgia and it's taxpayers.