Georgia grew by 115,759 between 2016-2017 according to latest census estimates (Atlanta: subsidized, restaurants)

[bu2]

The state is already subsidizing the north with higher education. UGA, Georgia Tech, Augusta St. and Georgia St., the 4 research universities, are all in the north.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I still tend to ask myself though if funds are really the only reason we don't have an efficient transit system..

Lack of funding is the second reason. The first reason is the lack of a transit agency that covers the metro area.

Even if Cobb and Gwinnett joined MARTA, then we'd only be caught up to where we should have been 45 years ago. It still wouldn't really make much sense for today and the future. Just look at that link above that shows the county populations. Cherokee and Henry counties are right there with Clayton.

IMO we need one, singular transit agency, that covers the whole Atlanta region. Much like MBTA up in Boston.

The Atlanta metro region is more like 20 counties. MARTA is only allowed to operate in 3 of them. And there's no other regional or metro transit that does rail. So that's really our biggest issue, followed by funding.

Even if MARTA's funding were tripled, as it stands, they still couldn't even cover all of ITP. Let alone Norcross. Let alone Woodstock.

MAJOR fundamental change to transit is needed. My suggestion would be, take MARTA, GRTA, CCT, GCT, all of it, combine/merge it all into one new unified agency, that can operate anywhere it needs to. Then we can look at funding for that agency.

Individual counties are doing transit studies, and that's the opposite of what we need. We need one solution for the whole region, as a region.

[arjay57]

The state of Georgia has been a fantastic friend to the city of Atlanta. They've hung in there when so many were heading to the suburbs.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by travbo

The state has clearly failed, but the City of Atlanta and Mayor Reed aren't blameless either. City of Atlanta needs to back off on fighting other cities that are trying to open larger airports nearby.

What other cities are those?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Columbus1984

How do you propose making that happen? To me, the state needs to work harder to bring more development to other areas outside of metro Atlanta. Georgia is too top heavy with metro Atlanta.

That is a good point that the state of Georgia is too "top heavy" with most of the economic activity being in the Atlanta metro area and region.

But even with most of the economic activity being located in the Atlanta metro area/region, Georgia state government has done a great job (a much better job than many people might think) of working to bring development to other parts of the state outside of metro Atlanta.

Georgia state government has invested heavily in other parts of the state outside of metro Atlanta with such programs as GRIP/Governor's Road Improvement Program (which is one of the best rural road development, expansion and improvement programs in the nation).

Georgia state government has also invested extremely heavily in expanding operations and recruiting business to the Port of Savannah, a facility which has been one of the fastest-growing international seaports on the planet in recent years and a facility which has created many jobs and much economic activity that might not otherwise exist in South Georgia.

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

I know this is a pipe dream, but I wish Georgia was divided into two North Georgia, and South Georgia as two states.

Originally Posted by fieldm

You and me both!

It is understandable that many frustrated metro Atlantans would want secede the more developed urban/metropolitan developed northern part of the state from the less developed and more rural southern part of the state.

Other states like Virginia (where the increasingly cosmopolitan and progressive-trending Washington DC suburbs of Northern Virginia (which increasingly aligns with the heavily-populated Northeastern U.S.) have often experienced much political, social and cultural tension with rural Southern Virginia (which aligns heavily with the Deep, Deep, DEEP South and the Old Confederacy)) have had similar issues that have generated serious talk of secession or division within the state, while other single mega metro-dominated states like Illinois (Chicago) and New York (NYC) have long experienced tension between their single dominant urban/metro areas and their more sparsely-populated rural areas in other parts of the state.

But dividing the northern and southern parts of the state of Georgia into two separate states likely would be a particularly bad idea for metro Atlanta.

That is because much of metro Atlanta's outstanding economic prosperity has been built on having direct logistical access to the booming Georgia state government-managed international seaports at Savannah and Brunswick on the Atlantic Coast.

The international seaport at Savannah in particular has played a crucial role in generating massive amounts of economic growth, success and prosperity for metro Atlanta by being metro Atlanta's sea link to the world.

If Georgia were divided into two separate states (North Georgia and South Georgia) then metro Atlanta's economic performance potentially could be adversely affected because of its location in a landlocked new state of 'North Georgia'.

[JoeP]

The state has clearly failed, but the City of Atlanta and Mayor Reed aren't blameless either. City of Atlanta needs to back off on fighting other cities that are trying to open larger airports nearby.

The city shouldn't own the airport. It should be its own authority. That said, it would likely fight any other airport and don't forget Delta doesn't want one either.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by bu2

The state is already subsidizing the north with higher education. UGA, Georgia Tech, Augusta St. and Georgia St., the 4 research universities, are all in the north.

Augusta University

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Soccernerd

Be careful. The state's power is by far disproportionately in Atlanta. If you keep forcing issues unique to the metro on someone in Tifton or Albany, you’re going to create resentment. I’ve seen it with the political situation between Chicago and downstate Illinois.

Those are great points and good warning to heed as metro Atlanta grows larger and more dominant compared to the rest of Georgia.

That resentment by other parts of Georgia (exurban and rural Georgia) towards metro Atlanta was most recently clearly displayed during the T-SPLOST debacle of 2012 when a statewide series of proposed regional special local option sales taxes for transportation improvements went down in flames during a statewide referendum because many (if not most) voters incorrectly thought that the revenues that the tax would generate would go towards funding MARTA in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

But that resentment by much of the rest of the state of Georgia towards Atlanta is nothing new and has been around for decades and longer when it was not necessarily resentment but just outright hostility from rural areas towards urban areas in a past Georgia that was much more rural and provincial and dominated by rural and agricultural interests.

After the Civil Rights Movement, that resentment and hostility towards Atlanta by much of the rest of the state became more racial in nature as white flight to the suburbs turned the City of Atlanta into a majority-black city with a majority-black city government by the 1970's.

But the continuing economic and population boom of the Atlanta metro area is indicative of sort of a dramatic reversal of fortune of sorts as much of the political power is now concentrated in the Atlanta metro area and North Georgia region after being concentrated in rural South Georgia pretty much since the state's inception.

Originally Posted by bu2

The state is already subsidizing the north with higher education. UGA, Georgia Tech, Augusta St. and Georgia St., the 4 research universities, are all in the north.

With most of the state's population living in the northern part of the state above the 'Gnat Line' (the Fall Line that separates the Piedmont Plateau from the Coastal Plain that runs from Columbus to Macon to Augusta), Georgia state government's funding of those 4 research universities and other public universities and colleges in North Georgia (like UGA, GT, KSU, Clayton State University, Georgia Gwinnett College, Georgia Perimeter College, University of North Georgia, University of West Georgia, etc) are not subsidies so much as they are critically important investments in the educational and economic needs of a large and growing population in metro Atlanta and North Georgia.

Likewise, even with the continuing population boom in metro Atlanta and North Georgia, Georgia state government continues to invest in operating and expanding postsecondary educational facilities in largely rural and less heavily-populated South Georgia.

That's because people in more sparsely-populated areas need to be educated just like people in more heavily-populated areas need to be educated.

The state also continues to make investments in postsecondary educational facilities in South Georgia because the population boom in North Georgia has increased demand at postsecondary educational facilities in South Georgia, particularly at campuses like Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia State College & University in Milledgeville, etc.

Plus, with most of the state's population living in North Georgia (and with most of the state's economic activity and tax revenues being generated in North Georgia), it is not the state that is subsidizing North Georgia.

If anything it is more than likely North Georgia that is subsidizing all of Georgia as a whole, including many rural counties with local tax bases that are not even large enough to fully and adequately fund their own school systems... Hence, the reason for the QBE (Quality Basic Education) formula that often diverts funding from school systems in large urban and metro areas to school systems in rural areas just so that those otherwise underfunded rural school systems can stay open and functioning.

[BR Valentine]

Here is an article relevant to this discussion. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/u...ion=highlights

The authors make the case that global cities such as Atlanta have and continue to become more economically detached from surrounding small cities and rural areas in their respective regions. It’s having a devastating effect on small cities and rural areas and there is no likely end in sight for this trend.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by jhtrico1850

Here's more things I've read that I think will continue to tip Atlanta forward.

Georgia growth super-concentrated in Atlanta; half state's counties are losing population



White voter registration sinks below 57 percent in Georgia | Political Insider blog

The number of white registered voters in Georgia continues its incremental decline, dropping from 59 percent in 2012 to under 57 percent

white voters make up the only demographic to experience a decline in raw numbers over the last four years – down by more than 91,000 voters.

Wow! Thanks for sharing, political things about to change big time. The Latino growth rate is astonishing.