Racial reasoning on MARTA is off-track
During my recent series of columns about MARTA, several readers suggested that the biggest obstacle for MARTA is a racial divide in which rich whites, mostly in the suburbs, despise a transit system for poor urban blacks.
I think they’re wrong. And not terribly helpful.
I was born in 1978, 13 years after the General Assembly passed the MARTA Act and mere months before the agency’s first train got rolling. So, I will not pretend to know first-hand about the racial atmospherics of MARTA’s early days.
I heard a reasonable argument recently — from a transit proponent, I’d add — that suburbanites opted out of MARTA based on one cold calculation: They stood to pay for years, maybe decades, before the rails crossed I-285 to reach them. Why say yes to that?
But I also understand that our branding as The City Too Busy to Hate always mixed public relations with public reality, in varying parts. I don’t doubt that attitudes toward race played a substantial role in any referendum in Georgia in the 1960s and ’70s.
Then again, lots of things that were true 40 years ago are no longer the case. So, what about this one?
Has racism been eradicated? No more than kudzu has. But we have come closer to the former, and certainly far enough that flat assertions that racism drives transportation policy don’t pass the smell test.
I’ve heard people say that connecting the city to the suburbs via transit would bring crime (read: blacks) to peaceful (read: white) areas. Strike that — I’ve heard people, mostly in-towners, attribute that line of thought to OTPers.
Some suburbanites think that way, but I highly doubt that theirs is the prevailing belief. Both Cobb and Gwinnett counties are increasingly diverse, to say nothing of majority-black Clayton County. The keep-blaming-race crowd ignores those facts. And it’s not as if these places are otherwise sealed off by moats.
Some readers pointed the finger at the state’s Republican — excuse me, republiNazi — leadership. Their idea is that institutional racism not only lives but rules in 2010. Hardly.
If the standard for “racism” among Republicans is whether they will agree to spend money the way liberals want them to do, then there are a lot of unwitting racists in the world.
If the standard is whether MARTA gets singled out for restrictions among the state’s other 100-plus transit agencies, then we have to ask whether Republicans have been fooled into thinking that wealthy whites fill most of the bus seats in Augusta or Savannah.
If the standard is whether top Republicans hear MARTA’s pleas, then we have to ignore that House Speaker David Ralston spent much political capital to pass a transportation bill. The bill wasn’t perfect, but it filled all of MARTA’s requests from just a year earlier. Ralston worked closely with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to secure GOP and Democratic votes.
And if the standard is whether these Republicans represent rural or urban areas, well, Ralston isn’t exactly from East Point.
The race-blamers offer no substantive counter-argument to any of this, just another finger pointed at the South’s stained past.
Neither will many of them engage on the substance of MARTA’s track record, and that’s too bad. Because any of them who truly care about the agency’s future would see there are plenty of real problems to address.
NOTE: I realize this is a touchy topic, and I ask that you keep that in mind as you comment on it.
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144 comments Add your comment
Fang1944
May 23rd, 2010
11:23 am
When I lived in the Atlanta area (1995-2003), I always found MARTA to be safer, pleasanter, and cheaper than getting in a car and fighting the Atlanta traffic for an hour. Unfortunately, it didn’t come anywhere near my ‘burb.
The only time I heard anybody say anything against MARTA, it was “Those black people are going to ride it to my neighborhood and commit crimes.”
jon
May 23rd, 2010
11:48 am
You are too young to remember what a wonderful mall Lenox was in the 1970’s . Then Marta came ,shoplifting increased due to easy access to trains back to downtown , Car break ins and thefts increased due to the type of individual who now had access to the north side of Atlanta .
A public transit system is needed that is efficient , clean ,safe ,but more importantly goes where people want to go . I have ridden it to the airport twice and both times felt like I was in a third world country . Whenever I ride the subway in Boston, NYC and or DC I feel safe and I know I will get to my destination safely and on time.
MARTA is a typical government agency ,in Atlanta, bloated , wasteful and ignorant of the needs of the citizens and tax payers . I cringe every time I see requests for more tax payer assistance .Ask Marta management about the warehouse full of IT equipment that sat unused , the software they buy and don’t implement and the bloated payroll of do nothing Marta Police . If they can respond and show us where the extra dollars go ,then maybe I will listen. You are right you were born too late to understand the issues surrounding Marta ,it was a great idea that has not lived up to it’s promises .
vuduchld
May 23rd, 2010
1:07 pm
Yet again have proven that you are nothing but one long running joke. I lived in Gwinnett, specifically Duluth back in the late 1980s when MARTA was attemting to have a rail line at Gwinnett Place Mall. This would have inculded a one cent sales tax which to me wasn’t a big deal. Well, the stories started about how thugs would be coming to Gwinnett, stealing televisions and hopping on MARTA to head back downtown with their bounty. Then the KKK had a big rally in Lawrenceville telling people how the “blacks with Afros” would be coming to Gwinnett en masse to rape and pillage “poor white women” and the elderly.They even had this lady come up and tell her story about how her husband was murdered and she raped by a gang of blacks when their car broke down. It was later discovered that this woman had her husband murdered by a hit man. Naturally the one cent sales tax never saw the light of day and the rest is history.
I have ridden MARTA many times and there were instances where there was trouble on the busses and trains, but nowhere near what some of these readers claim. I’ve never been assaulted or harrassed on the train and I found them to be quite convenient to get to palces like the airport, downtown, etc. However, what truly lacks is getting to areas of the suburbs where jobs are. Cobb and Gwinnett bus services on the other hand are a complete joke, in fact, embarrassing.
From your column I can see you have very limited experience riding MARTA, in fact, you really have little or no experience at all to be commentring or writing about anything. Where the hell the AJC found you is beyond me!
Old Man
May 23rd, 2010
1:53 pm
Dear Kyle,
I have enjoyed your articles on MARTA and public transportation this week. Most conservative arguments I read these days are unreasonable. You offer an exception to this and I appreciate your columns. Having said that I would like to address a few of your suggestions and points that I have read this week.
One: racial reasoning on MARTA is off track. I agree wholeheartedly with this general statement. Racists might be a problem, but racism at MARTA is no more of a problem than racism at Hartsfield. It’s an excuse, but if there was a way to easily make money in public, mass transit, then people would pay no attention to the race of riders. Racism, as usual, is the lazy person’s excuse. However, on the same general lines, people apparently love the privacy and comfort of the single-car commute. While the single-car commuter’s reasons for their choice to get to work and back may not be racist, they are selfish, and contrary to their own financial advancement. I would ask you to do the math on the amount of money you save taking MARTA to your job downtown.
Two: I read some things from your columns to the effect of “heavy rail is prohibitively expensive” and MARTA lost about “$150 million last year.” And MARTA costs .94 cents per mile compared to Dallas and Phoenix who, by contracting to independent carriers, pay substantially less. “Prohibitively expensive” is a term that needs to be applied to the automobile monopoly on our existing, single-car-commuter, transportation “system.” According to the AJC, June 2009, when the Fed was passing out stimulus funds, the roads received $932 million, mass transit received $144 million. A downtown round-trip on Marta costs $3. The same trip in a car costs over $2 per mile. Additionally, this same paper stated that Delta lost $256 million just during the recent volcano. Why so much money for cars and planes but rail, the far more efficient alternative, is left to beg for just a fraction of the airway and highway money from the overburdened middle class?
Three: Safety: Cut and pasted from the front page of today’s AJC.com: “Driver, 80, hits wall, dies 10:52 a.m.” “Seat belt crackdown set,” “Driver killed in wreck on Ga. 316,” “Toddler trapped in car window critical,” “Dad of 5 killed in drive-by.” Bottom line: about 40,000 people are killed annually in car wrecks in the US. Furthermore, for every auto death, there are approximately 5 people who are seriously injured. These include broken bones, ruptured organs, extended hospital stays, plastic surgery, unbearable pain, loss of limbs, third-degree burns, paralysis, the list is endless. The leading cause of teenage deaths is car wrecks. These deaths, injuries, and the mandatory insurance required for drivers to pay for them are prohibitively expensive both financially and psychologically. That’s before we even mention the carcinogens and their effects emitted from every single car by the metric ton every few minutes.
Four: While your suggestions are sound, one thing I do not see from your articles or from any articles about mass transit is the lack of effective marketing. Mass transit should compete head-to-head with car dealerships. I see car ads stating $249 lease for 3 years as if that is some kind of great deal! I see BP oil on the TV telling us how they are working to save the environment!? You want to increase ridership on MARTA, run a few ads with sexy riders and celebrity endorsements. Show a stream in Georgia filled up with battery acid and tires; they are all over the place. Do a cost benefit analysis of the car side by side with public transit. For example, about 7 years ago my family became a 1-car family and all work commuting is done on the bus/MARTA. We live well into the suburbs and our bus service is relatively new and tragically underused. Public commute takes longer, but the time in the bus and on rail is spent working and reading. Commuting is transformed into a productive part of the day. And as the day is regimented around the transit schedule, my arrival time to work is more predictable and dependable. But the best part is the savings. Including gas, insurance, normal wear and tear, we save probably about $200 a month, even more if you factor in a car payment. When we became a 1-car family we decided to put the money saved into stock, bonds, mutual funds, ETF’s, & savings accounts. After seven years we have saved about $70,000.00. When we owned 2 cars we lived paycheck to paycheck.
Last, one thing that is not mentioned are the powerful groups who have no intention of giving up the billions and billions they extort from the single-car commuter to pay for gas, concrete, speeding tickets, normal repair, tires, insurance, and medical care. A few very wealthy and very powerful people have no intention of letting rail (or plane for that matter) take away their transportation monopoly. The oil/car barons are the most powerful people in the world and they have conned the American commuter hook, line, and sinker. Between the road, cars, junkyards, polluted air, and polluted streams; to the endless political strife between the US and the Middle East, the gas/car barons have pervaded every step of American life, literally. It is time for Americans to wake up, get rid of all the cars, and start walking, biking, and riding the bus more. Until that day, there can really be no talk of fiscal reform in any of the other woefully underfunded methods our federal government uses to regulate intrastate commerce. That giant sucking sound you hear is your car.
In sum, Warren Buffet has stated that he does not believe mass-transit can be profitable. While that may be true, the benefits to businesses from people moved by mass transit is enormous. If high speed rail connected ATL with CHI, DFW, DC, NYC, & LA, then maybe transportation wouldn’t come to a screeching halt every time there is a “wintry mix” of weather. If rail took us to Savannah, Florida, or Tennessee, no doubt my family would regularly go there to spend our tourism dollars. As it is now, our only way is to waste a day driving or take an overpriced, inconvenient plane. We badly need high speed rail connecting all major transportation centers throughout the country, like we used to have! These would be the same rails that made Atlanta the largest metropolis in the southeast. However, with people’s selfish attitudes and the belief that a car is not only a birthright but an important status symbol, I am not optimistic. People prefer traffic gridlock, car expenses, and spending hundred of billions maintaining dangerous motorways to cheap, low maintenance, low fuel, quick, and convenient buses and rails.
I didn’t even mention the ugly and expensive parking decks that clutter our city, parking fees/fines, speeding tickets … and people complain about tax to pay for schools! It’s sickening!
Thanks to anybody who read this.
CJ
May 23rd, 2010
2:41 pm
I don’t like riding buses. They get stuck in the same traffic as everybody else.
People like riding trains, but they haven’t expanded the train system to criss-cross the city or loop the perimeter. By now people have decided whether or not the train goes somewhere useful.
If the powers that be develop a plan for expanding trains to more useful places, people will buy in to saving MARTA.
CJ
May 23rd, 2010
2:42 pm
Regard race: Ha! Jokes on you, if you think MARTA will bring minorities to the suburbs, look around! Cobb County is full of hispanics and Gwinnett is full of asians. People will live, work, and shop wherever they want to, regardless of a train system.
mrs. w.
May 23rd, 2010
2:47 pm
I suppose that if I wanted to be an urban, city dweller I would ride Marta fairly regularly. I, however, prefer life in the burbs and therfore do not want any mass transit, at least in northern Gwinnett. S. Gwinnett is already shot to hell. I do not feel that I should have to subsidize mass transit in any way. If I ride ( and occassionaly I do ) I will pay. No one subsidizes my car pmnt., insurance or gas…. Not to mention that this is a very poorly run outfit so why throw more of anyones hard earned money at them.
Michael H. Smith
May 23rd, 2010
2:53 pm
Tiger Woods + Jesse James = SuperBAD meets SuperEVIL in “SuperUGLY!”
May 23rd, 2010
10:58 am
What I said is exactly what occurred the last time MARTA was put on the ballot in Gwinnett County. When people who said they wanted MARTA service were asked if they were willing to pay the added tax, their answer was no. The issue was about money then as it remains the issue now. Even if MARTA could deliver on a promise of instant service I doubt you could get enough serious support to get it on the ballot a fourth time in Gwinnett County.
You and I can agree on sticking a fork in MARTA… It’s definitely done!
PS. The issue for me remains the proper use of taxpayer money and what government should or should not do. Government should provide Public infrastructure, Government should not provide Public transportation.
Chris
May 23rd, 2010
2:57 pm
Now I’ve been in Atlanta over 20 years almost from the beginning of MARTA train service, when I first moved here there was just the first part of the E-W line open. I’m not sure you can really discount the racial argument though, but that’s only part of the issue. There’s a larger race and CLASS issue involved in the perception of just what MARTA is and who it’s there for. I’d say the overwhelming impression among most surburban folks is that it is a public transit sytem mainly for the poor who have no other alternative than to take public transportation, MARTA is the transportation of last resort. This feeds into racial and class stereotypes, perceptions about cleanliness, etc. However, until MARTA is seen as a viable commuting alternative for everyone, then it’s not really going to thrive. You actually have to be able to capture that part of the surburban market that actually has cars and make them want to leave them at home, becuause it’s just easier, cheaper, and less stressful (gas, time, frustration, etc.) than sitting in traffic. MARTA has a big obstacle to overcome with the perception of what it’s there for. If they can address that, reshape themselves as a truly viable commuting alternative rather than a transportation of last resort – we can take a huge step forward in urbanizing Atlanta.
Nick
May 23rd, 2010
2:59 pm
You need to understand that MARTA is hopelessly lost. The entire thing. The people, the culture, our culture, the representatives in GA. It’s all a mess. And more so – GA has a car culture that eschews mass transit. There once was a place for MARTA back when ATL was cool. This is no longer the case.
Frankly, this is the main reason why Atlanta is an awful awful place to live. If it takes you an hour and a half to drive from Alpharetta to Atlanta during rush hour then you’ve wasted more of your life on the road rather than being out in the beautiful GA sun. We no longer recognize what it is to be alive – we go from our suburban mansion into our BMW and sit for an hour listening to Rush Limbaugh and then go to work, rinse and repeat.
Nowhere in there should anyone care whether or not MARTA exists – in fact most people write it off. And that’s exactly the problem – it becomes a problem of the city of Atlanta which can’t support it because it’s filled with residents from mostly poor economic backgrounds.
By the way – one of the main reason why Georgia Tech isn’t revitalizing Atlanta is BECAUSE of marta. With all of the international students coming in and experiencing America for the first time, they think they cna’t go anywhere, that mass transit is a horrible experience and they can’t afford a car so they sit at home all day and go to work. It’s a horrible existence with no redeeming qualities about Atlanta. They tell me all the time that they’re leaving b/c America isn’t what they expected. Some may say good riddance but it’s important – these are your tax payer dollars helping these students out in an effort to bring good talent into GA.
But you know what, Atlanta doesn’t deserve a working MARTA. The dream is dead – we chose our cars and our ever expanding and dangerous road system. You really want to make this city work? Flush out the connector – make it a green space, route all traffic around the city and utilize the 16th street tunnels that were dug and never used. Connect MARTA with all the major city squares – L5P, EAV, Grant Park, GT ( and no North Ave. is not GT), Vinings, VaHi, etc etc
They all need connecting before you can expand to the suburbs. Look, the suburbs don’t want mass transit. This is our city damnit and if someone wants to drive through our city – make them go around it. We need the critical space through the center. This is all stupid, I can’t believe the way this city was laid out.
Hopeless, this city is hopeless.
Joe B
May 23rd, 2010
3:10 pm
THE CAUSE OF ALL of MARTA’s problems should be obvious to the most casual observer: it is operated by a PUBLIC SERVICE UNION. Management decisions are made by bureaucracy, salaries are determined, not by market forces, but by union coercion which does not subside even in the face of disaster.
THE SOLUTION SHOULD BE JUST AS OBVIOUS – privatize the system and get costs under control. Once that is accomplished, a whole new world of possibilities emerge.
Steve
May 23rd, 2010
3:21 pm
“Neither will many of them engage on the substance of MARTA’s track record, and that’s too bad. Because any of them who truly care about the agency’s future would see there are plenty of real problems to address.”
MARTA’s management does well in overall comparisons to other US transit systems.
The essential problem of urban planning was never addressed in the series. (shocking) MARTA trains connect giant parking lots to other giant parking lots. Northern and European trains connect urban centers with each other. Those stations have beautiful streets with retail, offices and condos a few steps away fron the station entrance. MARTA has made some changes to a couple of old stations but the proposed stations are still designed as giant parking lots. Until MARTA transforms every single train station into a mixed-use tranist oriented center with shops, offices and residences, it will be an awkward and somewhat useless system for most trips in Atlanta. The privatization idea will do no better than the current public system (except for making a few of Kyle’s buddies extremely wealthy)
Breeder
May 23rd, 2010
4:35 pm
Attacking the burbs, calling people racists or fools will never help MARTA. Like much of what passses for political leadership in Atlanta, it plays a lot better to their political base than it ever will to the voters OTP who hold the balance of power in MARTA and the region’s future. You can always tell when someone is not serious about real transit progress by how they talk about the suburbs. It’s going to take a lot more than a few ephithets to craft a political coalition that might help Atlanta’s transit woes.
Aquagirl
May 23rd, 2010
5:36 pm
Regardless of the current state of racism, the mumbling about “those people” in the ’80’s doomed MARTA. In transportation, if you don’t anticipate expansion you’ll never catch up. You need more access in the very place the land prices have risen because of growth. It would kill MARTA to buy the land to reach where people want to go.
Telling MARTA to get over it, deal, privatize, etc. ignores basic reality. Check out the North Springs parking lot. There’s an abundance of vehicles from Counties that don’t pay taxes for MARTA. No transit system can support 20-30 counties on sales taxes from two. So thanks for an interesting series, Kyle, but it was kind of a waste of time. All we can do now is wait for traffic to come to a complete standstill, or gas prices to hit $5. Until then, nothing of substance will be done.
Bishop Shauntelle Thunderclap
May 23rd, 2010
5:36 pm
Well, very unfortunately indeed, it looks to me like it IS about race, and I wish it weren’t so. However, many of us have seen what has happened first, to Lenox, and then, to the Perimeter Mall area, and we cringe. Last time I was at Perimeter, there were roving bands of “urban youths” walking en masse, holding their pants up, and doing their best to look menacing. They intimidated other pedestrians, and refused to yeild even when walking four and five abreast down the walkways. When my wife and I went to see a movie at Perimeter Pointe, we were appalled by the same groups shoving in line, loudly cursing and threatening one another. We rarely go back to either location any more.
It is no secret that petty — and some not so petty — crimes like shoplifting, car break-ins and robberies have skyrocketed at both Lenox and Perimeter since MARTA arrived. It is just as off-putting to see large numbers of kids riding in from the southside with NO idea how to act civilly, whatsoever.
I wish it were not about race. Perhaps it would be better to define it as a class issue? Regardless, if MARTA was considering coming to my neighborhood, I would say “no.”
Jenniferro10
May 23rd, 2010
5:46 pm
I ride MARTA everywhere (to religious services in Dunwoody and HIghlands, to work in Midtown, to see friends clustered in Decatur, East Point, and Chandler Park, and regularly to the doctor around the airport). I carry with me copies of the schedules for buses I regularly use: there are 14 in my purse right now. I notice- and often only have to wait a few minutes for my guests to nice- that the further south or more extreme east/west you go, the darker the riders get and the poorer the service becomes. Roach-killing contests on the 121 vs. drivers that cheerily greet their passengers and hand out candy from the North Springs Station…I swear to you, the buses pulling out of the Medical Center Station “ting” and sparkle in the morning (one always smells like Febreeze), while I carry paper napkins specifically so I can sit on the 114 worry-free. Once, at the Decatur Station, after the train operator’s announcement a teenager added, “This stop is the end of the line for all white passengers”, and the train car exploded in laughter. It’s true. Anyone who actually rides MARTA knows that. It is so clear that you don’t ride MARTA day-to-day (no, the Braves game doesn’t count).
Ready for next weekend
May 23rd, 2010
5:53 pm
Everytime someone calls anyone who has doubts about MARTA a racist, the opportunity to actually address our transportation problems slips further away. While calling your oppoents racists might be helpful in some political quarters, it alienates the very people that MARTA needs if it is to be part of a larger solution.
atlin83
May 23rd, 2010
9:02 pm
For Andy the native, 7:12 am: MARTA rail did not go to any of the projects you mentioned. Sorry, but you’re just wrong. You missed the one, single project that the system used to serve pretty closely – out of 38 stations – but you’re not right. Clearly, you don’t know where MARTA goes, and clearly you never overlaid the housing projects either.
For Kyle – if you let these through, I’d hate to see what you moderated out:
smarternotmarta, 7:33 am: “And white folks shouldn’t be concerned about black crime coming to their neighborhoods via MARTA?”
BeBe KID, 9:16 am: “Keep many blacks from having transportation to the suburbs because we all know that you can’t have law and order and black people too.”
mike, 10:58 am: “Do you watch the news? It is not middle class whites that are committing the violent crimes.”
I’m glad you moderated this post, as much MARTA-related news turns into racist garbage quickly. But for the other side of the argument, doesn’t preventing racist commentary from posters on your article artificially back you up, removing user commentary that contradicts with your message? Not accusing you of being dishonest in any way, but that could be a quandry.
And by the way, I’m seeing Aquagirl’s comment, and I have to say – I don’t agree with lots of your points in this series, Kyle, but you’ve addressed this in a more thoughtful and thorough way than anyone with a conservative bent that I’ve ever read. You added nuance, history, and stats, instead of brick-wall “transit and subsidy is bad” pandering. Thanks for provoking some thought out there.
Kyle Wingfield
May 23rd, 2010
9:40 pm
atlin83: Thanks. Your point about preventing racist commentary is a good one, and I’ve tried to err on the side of allowing comments for precisely that reason. In fact, I’ve only withheld one comment (other than repeats or questions about why a previous comment was held in moderation). Using moderation was more of a precaution than anything else.
That Smell !
May 23rd, 2010
9:50 pm
What is it about MARTA trains and that funk ! Can’t they do something about the smell !
REALLY?
May 24th, 2010
4:43 am
Kyle Wingfield is either exceedingly naive or willfully ignorant, which is not a good look for an AJC columnist no matter how you slice it. Since racism and bigotry are no longer socially acceptable (for the most part) the cowards on AJC’s blogs and their teabagging kinfolk feel safe hiding behind vacuous slogans and half-witted pseudonyms like a bunch of closeted Klu Kluxers. That’s the reason we hear President Obama (who’s a millionaire, mind you) repeatedly labeled a “socialist” — a term which has become the new “n****r.” Kyle and his ilk are either consciously concealing their racial fears or are so unevolved (that’s right, EVOLUTION!) that they don’t even realize they harbor those repressed sentiments. It’s curious how Kyle has taken such self-righteous umbrage to posters who have dared to even suggest that, in this more enlightened age, MARTA’s plight has far less to do with racism than with fiscal mismanagement, flawed executive decision-making and a failure to adopt time-tested private sector principles, such as “outsourcing” its bus service to for-profit contractors. Since color-blind Kyle is apparently too busy smugly congratulating himself for his hard-won, post-racial attitudes, I’ll have to pick up the slack in deconstructing his anemic, simple-minded analysis, albeit in abbreviated fashion:
*MARTA, like all human endeavors including the circulation-challenged AJC, is imperfect. But, pound-for-pound, it’s one of best run transit systems in the country. Kyle knows this, of course. But fully acknowledging that fact would have completely blown his addlepated thesis to smithereens
*MARTA’s CEO and the management team she has assembled are not paragons of perfection. But they are more experienced, competent and professional than their peers at any public agency or private company in transportation you’ll find in Georgia — which unfairly damns them with faint praise
*Outsourcing public functions — such as building and operating libraries, schools and mass transit — often doesn’t work because it generally ain’t profitable. And if Kyle wasn’t such a hapless naif, I’d love to hear him list the private companies he suggests MARTA should be modeling itself after: Enron? Goldman Sachs? AIG? The scores of failed Georgia banks? The AJC? Painful recent history has illustrated that private companies have no monopoly on prudent, or even ethical business practices
Finally, for posters to Kyle’s blog who also share his unfortunate, and possibly genetic lack of intellectual aptitude, here’s an even shorter primer on MARTA. (I’ll try to use monosyllables, OK?)
*From its inception, MARTA has ALWAYS aspired to be a more expansive regional system that connects us to more places. It isn’t because of short-sighted racists and assorted knuckle-draggers who think mass transit is only for low-income people, who, at least in this backwater of a state, are often African-American or minority. That group of flat-earthers is smaller today, but no less virulent
*MARTA is mostly funded by sales taxes collected in the jurisdictions where it operates. In other words, if you live outside Fulton, DeKalb and Atlanta but still complain about how MARTA is “wasting” your precious taxpayer dollars , you’re just another misinformed moonbat who needs to get back on your meds. Tell your friends, if you have any.
*Mass transit — just like roads and bridges — are subsidized government activities because they all serve the common good, promote economic development and are prohibitively expensive for the private sector to undertake. The relatively low fares of mass transit passengers are heavily subsidized by those who may not use those services. But so are roads, bridges and highways, and those obscenely high subsidies are NOT covered by the prices motorists pay at the gas pump. If they were, you’d be coughing up closer to $15 a gallon instead of $3, which is fine by me because that would force all you faux conservatives to recognize the true cost of driving.
I apologize for the long post, but not for sarcasm. You can thank me later.
(P.S. I’m a white, fiscally conservative Republican who makes a boatload of money and who doesn’t ride MARTA but would love to if only it were more convenient
Horrible Horrace
May 24th, 2010
8:09 am
Perimeter Mall is a prime example. Whenever the Marta train shows up the crime stats, thuggery stats, stupidity stats etc increase dramatically.
bigmars
May 24th, 2010
8:56 am
Black,born in atlanta.rode marta the first day it opened and have riden it ever since.When Cobb, Clayton, Gwinnett opted out originally it was absolutely about race and crime.white surbannites did not want the criminal element{blacks}easy access the their counties. When i was in police acadamy in Cobb 1988 I remember the director saying that marta would never come to cobb in a discussion about crime and traffic.Everybody knew what he meant and why.
Steve
May 24th, 2010
8:57 am
In a previous article you quoted the cost of tax subsidies for driving at 1 cent per mile. The International Center for Technology Assessment, in The Real Price of Gasoline, and Stephen H. Burrington in Road Kill: How Solo Driving Runs Down the Economy, both estimated the real cost of driving a car at about a dollar a mile (including individual costs and tax subsidies). Some say it’s even more but compared to your cost of MARTA at 42 cents per mile, MARTA is a bargain even with all of its inefficiencies.
david wayne osedach
May 24th, 2010
8:58 am
There may not be a racial divide but there is certainly an economic one.
Willie
May 24th, 2010
9:04 am
Discussions about MARTA do become racist garbage…on both sides.
jm
May 24th, 2010
9:35 am
I think many of the blog comments have proven that race is still a portion, though a small portion of the problem. For the idiots who only think poor people live in Atlanta, apparently you haven’t been to Buckhead or Midtown. As a wealthy Atlanta resident, I’d like to say go put your head back in the sand.
Bob
May 24th, 2010
10:01 am
Taxes. Roads are subsidized at the state level, public transportation at the local level. Not a fair playing field. Public transportation should be funded and managed at the state level.
Crime. I’ve ridden MARTA for 30 years and have never seen any crime. Sure, I read about it in the paper but if the system is so unsafe, why do I have 30 spotless years of experience? Maybe that explains why I haven’t won the lottery? Wasted my good luck on MARTA! Dang!
Pay and wait. Interesting people will pay taxes for roads and wait a long time for improvements to happen but don’t want to pay for the train and have to wait for it to come to them. If Gwinnett voted the right way in 1990 (20 years ago) I suspect we’d have a train line all the way to Mall of Ga by now.
Politics. Probably more politics than race. Why doesn’t MARTA go to Turner Field, Zoo Atlanta, the Carter Center or Emory? Well it does but you have to take the bus from the train station. Of course, the same can be said for Morris Brown, Morehouse and the MLK National Historic site. Hard to understand that one. BTW, I think the walk from Ga State or Garnett is about the same as the walk from Kenmore or Fenway to get to Fenway Park in Boston.
Population Density. Why doesn’t Wyoming have a world class public transportation system? Well, they do sort of but it’s all busses and the average trip cost is $5.50. http://wytrans.org/ You see, they don’t have the population density in Wyoming to support a nice train system like MARTA. Of course Salt Lake City supports a train system and offers free WIFI on the express routes. That would be nice on MARTA. Well, our population density in Atlanta is growing ITP and is pretty darn good OTP. We can’t support a map like this http://www.cfpt.org/documents/worldclass_map.pdf but we are getting closer every day. Build to a vision like this and you are building for our economic future.
I am a native Atlantan. I was around when the white people left the city for the suburbs. The blacks were happy to see them go. We all were just afraid of each other because we looked a little different and we acted a little differently. That was 40 years ago. Are we still afraid of each other? I’m not but I’m sure there are people who are still afraid of those who are different. Perhaps if the State ran our transit system (as they do our road system) maybe we could make the trains run everywhere and break down this barrier of fear?
I just got back from a trip to The Netherlands and Italy. Had one day of a rental car and the rest of the time it was trains, busses and taxis with one ferry for fun. I got around Venice, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre and Rome without any real transportation issues. I even go stranded at the airport in Treviso when our arranged limo didn’t show up. No problem. We just caught the bus to the train station and then the train to Venice. Rick Steves wrote about the pick pockets on the busses in Rome. So, we took the train and some taxis. (sound like a familiar big city problem?) Why can all of Italy get it right and Georgia can’t? Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a good train system. We need to invest for the future. It will take time. If we had started in 1990 when I lived in Gwinnett and voted YES for MARTA, we’d be 20 years closer today.
Today I live in Atlanta near Cheshire Bridge. I work near 5 Points. Sadly, taking MARTA would result in about a 46 minute trip for me to go only 6 miles. So, I don’t ride MARTA to work. If the beltline were in place, I’d probably have a public transit option that worked for me. But, it isn’t here today. I do ride MARTA to go to Decatur from downtown and have used it for the Airport. Any time I get a chance, I’m on the train. Oddly, there used to be a trolley that ran down N Highland into downtown. If it were here today, I could leverage it for a short trip to work. Atlanta used to have a nice trolley system and we had trains to go to towns like Marietta and Stone Mountain. Today, we just don’t have those options anymore. I hope we get them back one day.
WM
May 24th, 2010
11:09 am
As one who has grown up in the Atlanta area, I know that race has played a role in limiting MARTA. However, what I believe is hurting MARTA now is its inefficiency. Inefficiency in terms that the service goes nowhere and truthfully only serves those who live ITP. Let me explain by giving you my personal problem (And I’ll take any suggestions/answers). I live in Smyrna and work downtown (Five blocks from Grady). As it stands right now, my daily commute takes me down 75 (I get on at Cumberland) to the connector where I exit at Dobbs St. Not bad, but as others have mentioned it’s a lot of unneeded wear and tear on my truck. Total commute time, around 30 minutes. Now then, if I wanted to take the bus I have two options. Catch the commuter bus that picks up at Cumberland Mall and the ride it along the same roadway I’d use anyways being stuck in the same traffic and getting off again at Five Points. (Note: I’d have to leave my truck parked at the mall, which leaves me a tad uneasy) My other bus option is to take the MARTA bus that connects at Cumberland Mall and ride it into town. However, with that option I’d be subjected to the stops along the line plus I believe I would have to change busses at some point. Total time: Commuter bus, say 40 minutes and MARTA bus at least an hour& a ½.
Now then, let me present my options concerning the MARTA rail service. The closest MARTA rail station to me is Sandy Springs. So if I were to take the train, I would first have to drive to Sandy Springs during morning rush hour across the top end, then catch the train and get off at either Five Points or P’tree Ctr. Now anyone who makes the commute across the top in the morning knows it’s no picnic. Just to get to the train station would easily be 20-25 minutes plus unneeded wear & tear on my truck. Then of course I would be subjected to the several stops along the train line before exiting. Total commute time: at least an hour.
Now to be fair, let’s look at this on a weekend, say I’m going to a Braves, Falcons, or Thrashers game. Again, Sandy Springs is the closest train station to me. If I’m headed to a Braves game, I would take train to FP, traverse through the mall itself, then catch a bus to take me to the stadium. Well I’ve done that, and I refuse to do it again. I’d rather pay the inflated parking prices. Falcons/Thrashers games are better but not by much.
I’m a big fan of commuter rail & I cannot for the life of me understand why this region does not have a commuter rail system. The infrastructure is already there. Yes, I understand contracts and legalities would have to be worked out between CSX and NS, but still. I found several months ago a project done by either a Ga. State or Ga. Tech student, which addressed the creation of a commuter rail system in our region. I wish I could remember it, but it went into great detail and would certainly have my support if it were to ever be implemented. Again, my biggest gripe about MARTA isn’t a fear of increased crime, schedules, etc. No, it’s because MARTA goes nowhere.
GTStudent
May 24th, 2010
12:13 pm
“Why should I pay for other peoples’ transportation. Will they pay for my car repairs? User should pay.”
To everyone who expressed this opinion in some fashion: I commute by bike almost everywhere I go. I rarely drive anywhere, and when I do it’s almost always in a carpool. Despite rarely utilizing roads, my tax dollars help to maintain roads throughout the entire state. So I have a great solution, users should pay right? We should stop all state and federal funding for road maintenance and instead put a tax on gasoline to pay for road upkeep. You think gas prices are high now? That way only people who use roads pay for road upkeep. The more you drive, the more you pay. Those of us who utilize alternative modes of transportation will continue on our merry way while gas-guzzling hypocrites have a heart attack at the actual cost of driving their precious single commuter vehicles.
Angus
May 24th, 2010
12:28 pm
Um, WM, I feel your pain, but, um….you do realize that you live in Cobb County, right? And that your fellow citizens and local governments have rejected MARTA’s extension into Cobb County at every given opportunity?
GTStudent – I think you’re overstating and oversimplifying things a bit, but your on to something. Take a look at GA’s absurdly low motor-fuel tax (the one, user-pay transportation fee) compared to others – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States . And we wonder why GA’s transportation agencies are broke.
WM
May 24th, 2010
12:59 pm
Angus-
Oh I certainly realize where I live. But technically you’re incorrect b/c there is MARTA service to Cumberland Mall. What I was getting at was not soley concerning MARTA but commuter rail in general. Something that would compliment MARTA service not add to it. Honestly Angus, that’s the only way mass transit rail will ever get approved in Cobb, Douglas, Gwinnett is by creating a new service and calling it something other than MARTA. But I digress. We both know nothing will change in the near future. MARTA will still continue bleed money while being run by incompetent people and it’s expansion into the burbs will be denied because people are afraid of what may come into their communities.
Tiger Woods + Jesse James = SuperBAD meets SuperEVIL in "SuperUGLY!"
May 24th, 2010
1:08 pm
Michael H. Smith
May 23rd, 2010
2:53 pm
“You and I can agree on sticking a fork in MARTA… It’s definitely done!”
“PS. The issue for me remains the proper use of taxpayer money and what government should or should not do. Government should provide Public infrastructure, Government should not provide Public transportation.”
Depends on what your definition of public infrastructure is. In almost every major city passenger buses, trains and rails are thought of as being as much of a form of public infrastructure as a road or a school because as we’re seeing now, movement of people, raw materials and goods doesn’t flow too well if your transportation system isn’t truly multimodal. If it helps to get some of the commuters off the road or helps the road to flow better so that industrial and commercial goods and materials can get to and thru every point of its processing from raw material to consumer markets, it’s in government’s best interest to provide it as a very much needed public service. Having a multimodal transportation system that includes ROADS, BUSES, PLANES, SHIPS and RAILS is a very wise investment for government and the society it serves. Where would Georgia be without the Interstate System, the rail system and the Ports at Savannah and Brunswick? Mass transit is just as much a form of intrastructure as the roads, the commercial rails, the airports and the seaports!
Angus
May 24th, 2010
1:30 pm
WM – you got me on the Cumberland thing – I didn’t know that.
I agree on your points and add that only the state is in position to make happen what many of us want (although I’m not so sure GDOT is much better with $$$ than MARTA). Unfortunately, state law actually prohibits GDOT from participating in rail service. And on top of that, I think the state officially wiped its hands clean of metro Atlanta traffic woes with the new transportation bill – I can’t wait to see these message boards when that referendum approaches.
FWIW, I used to live in Smyrna – actually drove 35k miles one year. Now, I’m nestled in one of Atlanta’s historic ‘hoods and can’t really complain about traffic (I’m down to driving ~5k/year).
Good luck to you.
be honest, for once
May 24th, 2010
1:47 pm
To be fair, MARTA will continue to struggle as a result of two important contexts: Atlantans have primarily viewed public transportation as serving the poor and Atlanta’s culture has as its foundation racial segregation. MARTA will never expand to the northern suburbs because too many people dismiss the poor, despise Blacks, and have zero tolerance if you are poor AND Black.
StevenCee
May 24th, 2010
6:57 pm
Kyle, you’re a perfect example of why Pres. Obama seeks SCOTUS justices that also have some “empathy”, and I don’t mean you are not a nice person, but you must have lived in Georgia, and still do, with your eyes closed. To believe, & you gave no evidence to support your opinion, that racism was not a major factor in stifling MARTA’s growth, since it’s inception, is frankly, preposterous. I’ve personally had people admit that, and also regret today, that action, since it meant massive gridlock, plus hugely increased costs in future expansion (as compared to had it occurred 20-30 years ago).
And to compound your apparent historical misread, you insist on carrying it to the present. When otherwise educated, prosperous, family men, who happen to also be Republican, conservative, businessmen, readily admit their “fear” at the thought of a “black man in the White House”, (during the campaign), in 2008, it takes someone really oblivious to their environment, to say that racism, for the most part, is not a factor in Georgia politics & social affairs.
Now c’mon Kyle, even if you aren’t “on the ground”, as a man of letters, I’m sure you see the kinds of comments, not just here, but all over the web, that smack of the internet’s anonymity being the 21st Century’s white sheets/hoods! Are these visceral, hate-filled, racist rantings simply the words & mindset of a few backwoods, redneck misfits? Or is that just the expedient rationalization, to explain away so troubling a thought, that perhaps America has not really moved off of race, quite yet?
Annoyed 1
May 25th, 2010
11:37 am
Kyle I have read your articles and summation of Marta’s circumstance. Likewise, I have read many of the subsequent comments associated with your articles. Consistently, you and many of your readers have exuded some level of contempt for what marta represents.
I have worked for this organization for over 20 years and have witnessed much of the abuse that many of your readers constantly complain about. Admittedly, Marta has been a bottomless money pit for those in position to exploit its resources. However, to be frank, much of the exploitation and mismanagement has occured at the hands of its previous white leadership and white owned and operated contractors.
There have been black leaders in this company that have lead with incompetence and malice, but the overwhelming beneficiaries of it ineffeciencies have been upper level white managers and contractors. For decades these individuals have been allowed to exploit Marta with impunity and malice with no fear of reprise.
Conversely, the majority of blacks employed by the authority have had to carry the stigma of a reviled and dispised organization by many whites.
Many of your readers complain that the union and its members have some sort of strangle hold on the authority. In reality Marta union members have, for decades, been underpaid and recieved the slimmest of raises and compensations.
Meanwhile, the state and many of it’s constituents, instead of offerering support, instead offer criticism and contempt.
If you’re dissatisfied with Marta and the service it offers direct some of you venom torward your legislators and business owners who have, through innaction and malice caused your regions public transportation to be underdeveloped and exploited by the real thugs of this state.
Port O' John
May 26th, 2010
4:52 pm
I’ve lived in Atlanta for a long-time and I think you are underestimating the racial animus against MARTA by suburbanites and conservatives. There is a black/white divide in Georgia, even if you don’t want to see it. I ride MARTA every day (and have for 10+ years) and I enjoy its convenience and, for the most part, its reliability. But many of the comments above focused on the race of MARTA riders as to why they don’t want it in the suburbs. Maybe racism has decreased in Georgia, but maybe not. I don’t think people are honest about that issue unless they can hide their identity.
I think you’ve made some really good points about what MARTA can do to improve its performance. Update bus-routes, reduce middle-management, etc., all very good ideas. Privatizing para-transit is a good idea and needs exploring, but I think Conservatives automatically resort to privatization for too often and private contractors are too interested in profits than in providing service. On the other hand, I think the MARTA employee’s union is too obsessed with protecting its employees in the short-term as opposed to making MARTA a premier transit service provider. Difficult situation.
But the one thing I think you’ve overlooked in this series is the balkanization of transit services in metro Atlanta. That GRTA competes with MARTA, Gwinnett County and Cobb County transit on bus routes isn’t helping any of them. Creating one system for the entire metro Atlanta would be the best remedy — but that would take a lot of heavy lifting (including amending the Ga Constitution) and I don’t see the GOP interested in doing any of that, ever.
I think the system will stay the same and either MARTA will right-size itself or suffer such a financial calamity that it will have to right-size itself. Maybe we are there now. But without consolidation, we will have lots of little, inefficient county bus systems and MARTA for the forseeable future.
StevenCee
May 28th, 2010
4:16 am
Sure wish Kyle would offer us his response to the last two (Port o John & Annoyed 1) posts, as they are both well-written, make excellent points, & one is even supported by two decades of being on the inside. It’s easy to swat back oppositional partisan rants, not as simple to refute rational, factual, and intelligent responses. Kyle, what do you say to these two men’s comments?
StevenCee
May 28th, 2010
9:02 pm
It’s hard to believe you actually read the stuff you write here, Kyle. You point fingers & name call those who disagree with you, accusing them of exactly what you are guilty of. You say “The race-blamers offer no substantive counter-argument to any of this, just another finger pointed at the South’s stained past.” This, after you admit you weren’t even born during the early days of MARTA, & pooh-pooh the current day existence of racism, on the basis of ONE person who made what you considered a reasonable argument, and you call those of us who are actually aware of racism, “race-blamers”, and we offer “no substantive argument”? And yours once again, was, what exactly? A feeling perhaps, a belief that 40 years after the Civil RIghts Bill, racism must be in near complete remission? Something “substantive” like THAT?
Either you need a dictionary, or come with a little stronger game, but admitting you know little about what went down before you were born, or as a little kid, & base your whole case for the present, on one person’s comments to you, is not going to win over any juries… Maybe, to make up for knowing little one way or the other about the role of race in America, and especially here in Georgia, you might want to get out and around, and maybe talk to residents about race, and about MARTA, it might be an eye-opening experience…
But calling posters names, and demanding higher standards of evidence than your own, is not getting any of us any closer to truth, or to solve our many problems.
Oh, and to say the argument that Republicans drag their feet on MARTA, because they don’t want to help out Atlanta, is unfounded on the basis of Ralston finally getting some kind of transportation bill passed, after EIGHT YEARS of nothing being done, is laughable…
eg
June 1st, 2010
9:36 pm
Mass transit works.
You people need to either a) read a book or b) leave the state or country.
Or better yet, do a) whilst doing b).
Go to Spain, France, New York. Or even Charlotte, North Carolina.
But please, whatever you do, get a clue. Opposing transit is a sure sign of ignorance.
And you’re making the rest of us look bad.
Not smarta
June 1st, 2010
11:27 pm
marta–the most poorly run mass transit program in the country. I’ve been to every major city with mass transit—they are all better than marta, which is run by a bunch of incompetents drawing big salaries for accomplishing little or nothing. Do the escalators work yet? The system is an embarrassment.
Jason
June 6th, 2010
2:28 pm
After taking the time to read all the comments here, I seriously wonder where people are getting their information from.
1. “MARTA is a corrupt, over-funded system.” You seriously think this doesn’t apply to the GADOT? Even if it were true, stop saying this until you can come up with a way to restructure MARTA so that it is more accountable to the taxpayers. How about direct, popular voting of its board by those who pay the 1% sales tax?
2. “MARTA trains smell foul.” Ah, nothing like the smell of exhaust fumes and the constant drone of car engines to fix this one. FYI this problem of MARTA has almost entirely disappeared since they got rid of carpeted trains.
3. “MARTA is a socialist tax burden.” And roads aren’t. Go look at how many state tax dollars go to our roads vs. MARTA, and then get back to me. How many of our roads pay for themselves?
4. “MARTA is unsafe.” Post proof or retract. My sources tell me that, mile-for-mile, MARTA is a far safer form of transportation than roads are. Every year I can count the number of people who die or are seriously injured on a MARTA train, on one hand. I’d need a new hand every hour for our roads.
I have very little respect for these unfounded claims that MARTA is a complete failure. You don’t like something about MARTA? Then put up some constructive solutions or shut up. We don’t need your negativity any more. Other cities such as Charlotte, Austin, and Tampa if we don’t get our act together, put aside this petty bickering, and help make MARTA a more robust transportation system. Put up or shut up!
Jason
June 6th, 2010
2:30 pm
^ Meant to say, other cities such as Charlotte, Austin, and Tampa will pass us by if we don’t get our act together.