Sunday issue: Transportation sales-tax project list
The AJC Editorial Board writes: The $6.14 billion in regional road and transit projects, while sorely needed, are far from bold. And the one exception, the Beltline, may be ill-advised. Is this really the best metro Atlanta can do?
We would have rather seen the Beltline funding — or at least most of it — go toward a project that would efficiently transport more people longer distances between homes and job centers.
Bob Ross, co-founder of the Fayette County Issues Tea Party, writes that the transit money would have been spent better elsewhere.
But Bucky Johnson, Norcross mayor and chairman of the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable, believes that an historic moment could have a lasting impact.
What do you think about the project list?
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31 comments Add your comment
larry.333
October 22nd, 2011
1:40 pm
PASS E VERIFY !!!
SO THE JOBS ARE A BENEFIT FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS AND KIDS!!!
RustyHinges
October 22nd, 2011
12:52 pm
WILL THE LAST DEMOCRAT
October 22nd, 2011
7:15 am
You lose all credibility with the remark that the Peachtree Streetcar is “another very important investment in the city’s future.” What do you think MARTA buses are for? The Streetcar project is a perfect example of wasting taxpayer money.
RustyHinges
October 22nd, 2011
12:49 pm
I will not support this tax unless:
* Language is written in the referendum stating that it will uncategorically END in 10 years with no way of weaseling around it like the GA 400 toll fee.
* Transparent purchasing and acquisition policies are in place with a projects neutral oversight committee appointed to guarantee monies are wisely and correctly spent. With 6 BILLION DOLLARS up for grabs – yes, grabs – the potential for cronyism, fraud and mismanagement will be enormous.
Joey
October 22nd, 2011
8:24 am
the beltline is the single most important project in the region.And here is why.
First, let me point out the flaws in this article. The beltline does move people between homes and job centers. It has direct connections to both downtown midtown and current marta rail stations. And there are plenty of homes along the corridor, in fact the beltline corridor may just be the most densly populated area in the entire southeastern united states.
It will help traffic by taking many of the people along the corridor out of there cars.
Secondly Jobs, baby boomers are heading towards retirement. In order for jobs to stay in the metro region there needs to be a healthy dose of young proffesionals ready to take there place. While the boomers enjoyed the suburban life style, most young profesionals do not. Most in the new generation want to live in cities with a high quality of life. And you can’t have a high wuality of life without good transit options. The beltine offers those transit options and also improves the quality of the core of the city, and infact the core of the state.Without the better options, young proffesionals will go elswhere and so will jobs and by then it coud be to late to catch up.
Without the beltline, we become Detriot.
Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
October 22nd, 2011
7:15 am
Road Scholar
October 22nd, 2011
6:02 am
It’s not the alleged lack of planning by GDOT that is the problem, it’s that lack of vision, leadership and planning from the STATE that “manages” GDOT that is the problem.
All of GDOT’s shortcomings are a direct result of the state government that has nearly mismanaged them into the ground with the legislative interference and blatant overpoliticization of the agency to the point of almost being completely ineffective.
Another problem with this process, except for a last-minute allocation of funds towards the long-proposed Atlanta-Macon line, has been the nearly total lack of attention to commuter rail as an alternative to (and as a means to relieve) the severely-congested freeway system. Commuter rail seems to be the 800-pound Elephant in the room that no one is talking about…a solution that should be talked about INTENSELY and acted on by the region and the state, soon, VERY SOON.
Though, I do admire the vision and ambition of such projects as the Beltline (there are linear parks in other major US and world cities that inspire it, but nothing else quite comes close to the breath and depth of its vision, very important investment for the city IMHO) and the Peachtree Streetcar (another very important investment in the city’s future).
Despite my concerns, the TSPLOST is, at the very least, a long-overdue start and is better than nothing and is MUCH better than the alternative which is Detroit-style DECLINE.
Road Scholar
October 22nd, 2011
6:02 am
Will:”I’m not necessarily that crazy about the way that the list is setup and I think that there is a much better way that the money can be targeted, but seeing as though there has been almost no leadership from the state on transportation planning whatsoever during a period where the Atlanta Region’s population increased by more than two million residents and that this is the first time that there has been a regional approach to transportation planning ever seriously discussed, it’s no surprise that the funding may not be targeted at the exact right places that it needs to be targeted at.”
That is one long sentence…a mouthful! But you state that you’re not wild about how/what the project list
has and the lack of alledged planning by GDOT. First, ARC (Atlanta Regional Commission) is the agency responsible for transportation planning for the Atlanta Region. Secondly the original broad list of projects were developed by ARC and submitted to GDOT to ensure they met the criteria agreed for selection: addressing congestion. Then the list was culled down based on the return on investment of addressing congestion. yes then politics took over to develop the final list. But how could politics not be a factor in the project list?
You are also reminded that many forums were conducted to allow the public to weigh in on desired /undesired projects.Unfortunately, the public has always had problems seeing the future design, impact, and benefit of each project and how they relate to each other. Planning meetings are not as “sexy” as design PM since no lines are on a map to understand the scope with alledged impacts.
Relocation Services and Moving Companies Blog » Sunday issue: Transportation sales-tax project list – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)
October 21st, 2011
11:35 pm
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Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
October 21st, 2011
11:32 pm
With the Atlanta Region and the State of Georgia’s infamous lack of investment in transportation infrastructure over the past couple of decades, the advent of even a flawed T-SPLOST list and referendum looms large for this region and state.
Though the sentiment for many quarters, especially in the I-85 Northeast Metro Corridor anchored by the state’s second most populous county, Gwinnett, is that the recent bungled implementation of High Occupancy Toll lanes (HOT lanes) on Interstate 85 through Gwinnett and the resulting massive traffic jams have hurt support for the T-SPLOST referendum SEVERELY as taxpayers are not willing to vote themselves a tax increase if they think that officials are going to spend that money on projects that will make their commutes LONGER.
yuzeyurbrane
October 21st, 2011
8:52 pm
There are a lot of good things. But there is also a lot of crap buried in the details.
Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
October 21st, 2011
8:39 pm
I’m not necessarily that crazy about the way that the list is setup and I think that there is a much better way that the money can be targeted, but seeing as though there has been almost no leadership from the state on transportation planning whatsoever during a period where the Atlanta Region’s population increased by more than two million residents and that this is the first time that there has been a regional approach to transportation planning ever seriously discussed, it’s no surprise that the funding may not be targeted at the exact right places that it needs to be targeted at.
Despite my reservations about where the funding on the list is being aimed at (Uh, has anyone in this freeway-overdependent town ever heard of COMMUTER RAIL?) and my objections, I agree that it this town DESPERATELY needs to demonstrate a willingness to make LONG-OVERDUE investments in its undersized and lagging transportation infrastructure to stay economically viable in the 21st Century.
But this long-overdue investment should only be the FIRST STEP in bringing our struggling and overstressed transportation infrastructure out of the 1980’s and into modern times.
The T-SPLOST is by no means is an endpoint, but should be approached as a start of a much-needed and long-overdue conversation about long-neglected infrastructure of all types in this fast-growing state, ESPECIALLY, transportation, water and education.
Even if the T-SPLOST does not pass, and there’s a strong possibility at this point that it will not, this should be the beginning of a long and neverending conversation about infrastructure investment as tax increases are not the only way to make necessary investments in infrastructure.