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Interesting short comment in this housing article... saying Atlanta is the third most "abandoned" city - not literally, but in terms of the number of empty new/rental homes, etc...
I just wonder if the right lesson(s) will be learned from this, from what metropolitan Atlanta(DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Clayton, so on and so on) has endured in terms of overbuilding and rapid unmanaged growth for the last 10-15 years, if not longer. I am angry at how our leaders both public and private could allow for such irresponsible growth and not account for whether or not the existing infrastructure can handle it.
Do they(Atlanta and Georgia leaders) not sit in the same traffic? Do they not worry about whether or not the water supply will be available in the future? Have none of them ever experience a car being broken into, or being harrassed by a vagrant downtown? Are our leaders so far removed from the reality on the street?
We've endured traffic pains, water pains, and escalating crime pains because we have encouraged too many people to come here and not take into account if our economy has the ability to absorb them all. If I, with my limited education and utter lack of worldly experience is thinking about this, I pray to God that the powers-that-be are as well and will hopefully learn to to write laws and policies that will prove more pragmatic and will finally show that Atlanta is mature enough to hang with the big boys.
Atlantagreg,
You beat me to it. I was going to post it. (sourced from yahoo)
Acidsnake,
Points well taken. A few words about those who make decisions. Greed and Lack of insight. It's a commnon pattern. Look at South Florida, Las Vegas. Same things. Greedy officials, greedy developers....Same all over. Dont be surprised, and GA is not alone.
i believe it. i live in midtown, supposed to be such a nice area right? well at the condo where i live there's eyesores on all sides surrounding it, abandoned buildings all with boards in place of windows. but when you go into the older, destitute areas of atlanta which are massive & comprising most of the city, you can drive literally for miles upon miles & see more abandoned buildings than you will see those inhabited. it's so ugly here. a great number of these abandoned buildings (entire apts, houses, and stores) are covered in graffiti, that never gets covered or painted over. this place is pathetic. a good chunk of the city looks like a third world country.
In Gwinnett, the developer has always been "right" per the powers that be. Until recently, communities have been very passive in trying to control development in their own back yard.
Gwinnett has no decent master plan... that is why parts of it have gone down hill way to fast.
Okay, color me stupid, but I can't for the life of me understand why they would have no decent master plan. Further, I have to wonder why the citizens are letting them get away with it. We've had years of drought now, and the only plan I've heard, even if it is a joke (I hope) is to steal the Tennessee River from Tennessee. As for traffic, I still haven't heard anything even remotely feasible on the drawing board. Folk are still arguing about decisions made 30 years ago as if they're relevant. What the heck are we going to do now. If MARTA is really inefficient then get a board that is efficient and get on with the plan. Or is this more of the 'folk that don't look like us' dilemma that keeps so many places from embracing progress? Whatever it is, this place could very quickly turn into an absolute hellhole if something isn't done quickly.
Do they(Atlanta and Georgia leaders) not sit in the same traffic?
Most of them have "drivers", or stay in the complex downtown during the week. They do very little actual driving themselves in rush hour traffic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AcidSnake
Do they not worry about whether or not the water supply will be available in the future?
Well, Perdue put more emphasis on legalizing certain types of fireworks at one point and blocking Sunday liquor sales, than he has to build new water reservoirs. So that should answer your question. Oh no... wait! He DID do something last year to solve our water problems... he organized a prayer vigil to solve it (yes, really)....
Quote:
Originally Posted by AcidSnake
Have none of them ever experience a car being broken into, or being harrassed by a vagrant downtown? Are our leaders so far removed from the reality on the street?
They're using State owned cars, and some of them even have drivers. So no, they don't care if the cars are broken into or vandalized - the State just pays for a replacement while the old one gets refurbished or scrapped. They have their lunch and laundry delivered to their chambers, so they don't "mingle" with the riff raff on the street downtown, as well. So you are correct, they are indeed FAR removed from reality. Something good to remember on future election days as more and more homes and building lay empty and folks wonder, "gee, how did that happen??".
Okay, color me stupid, but I can't for the life of me understand why they would have no decent master plan. Further, I have to wonder why the citizens are letting them get away with it. We've had years of drought now, and the only plan I've heard, even if it is a joke (I hope) is to steal the Tennessee River from Tennessee. As for traffic, I still haven't heard anything even remotely feasible on the drawing board. Folk are still arguing about decisions made 30 years ago as if they're relevant. What the heck are we going to do now. If MARTA is really inefficient then get a board that is efficient and get on with the plan. Or is this more of the 'folk that don't look like us' dilemma that keeps so many places from embracing progress? Whatever it is, this place could very quickly turn into an absolute hellhole if something isn't done quickly.
Yeah, when I read last year that Georgia was going to re-fight some boundary war with Tennessee from like a 100 or so years ago as a way of solving the water problems it really got my gourd, so to speak. Typical lazy-minded reactionary bullcrap from Sonny and his good ol' boys. It never entered into the minds of some our politicians to try to change the culture of building too much and too fast and encouraging residents to aggressively look at how they use their water.
Once again it was a classic opportunity for someone to show some true leadership in our state in face of adversity and once again the leaders here disappoint me, everytime guaranteed
Empty homes are just stupid redneck builders who can't make a living doing anything else but building cheap homes, so they thought back in 2007 when the recession coming was obvious, that they could make a buck...
I've seen it, those idiot developers from Florida (I won't name them)who tried to build a massive 100 acre subdivision up in Canton just last year and have ruined that whole area's home values.
Most developers around here are brainless when it comes to complex infrastructure issues such as water supply and traffic engineering... Those are issues best left up to government. We need to tell all these dumb home developers to hit the road and let's bring in some competant people... only the government has the power to do this.
Let's also stop focusing so much on the NUMBER of people moving to Atlanta, and instead let's start attracting QUALITY people instead.
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