Your morning jolt: Think about a new interstate through east Atlanta, says Oxendine
While examining the Atlanta mayoral race yesterday, I picked up a call from a friend who was more interested in the Republican contest for governor.
The topics merged when I was told that state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine had figured out a way to neutralize many of the Democratic votes that come out of the city year after year after year.
It’s very simple. You pave over them, by building another interstate through Atlanta’s east side, roughly parallel with the current Downtown Connector.
Manuel’s Tavern, of course, would deserve its own exit.
With a laser pointer, Oxendine explains his thinking in a video on his campaign web site, at about the 4:30-minute mark:
Oxendine’s Transportation Solution from Team Ox TV on Vimeo.
Says the Ox:
”One thing we’ve got to address is the [Downtown] Connector. Everyone agrees the Connector is beyond capacity.
“You cannot widen the Connector. Some people say we should double-stack it. Some people say we should tunnel under it.
“I think we should study and look at the possibilities of actually doing a parallel connector.
“If you look here at the map, you can actually see we could build a connector — a parallel connector — running from the 400/85 corridors, going through this area…
“This area,” according to Oxendine’s laser point, is most of east Atlanta. But to continue:
…cross over I-20, let people come into Turner field or Downtown Atlanta and also go down here to 285, to swing into the back door of the Hartsfield airport.
Now, that is going to be very controversial. There are a lot of people living in some of those areas.
This is something that, we’re simply saying, we need to sit down and honestly look at it. We to explore and see how feasible is this. DOT did studies on this decades ago, and it was mothballed.
But such a new connector, Oxendine said, would have the advantage of giving North Georgia access to the state’s largest airport without a messy trip through downtown Atlanta.
On another topic, the Associated Press is reporting that Thurbert Baker has a new deadline:
Georgia’s attorney general has until Oct. 10 to file a written response to an appeal by the lawyers for Troy Davis.
This latest action by a U.S. district judge signals it could be several months before the high-profile death row inmate gets a court hearing on his claims of innocence.
Since being convicted of killing a Savannah police officer in 1991, several witnesses have recanted testimony in the Davis-case. Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court ordered a federal court in Savannah to hear the Davis claim of innocence.
A couple years ago, Baker got crossways with many African-American leaders when he insisted that his legal duties wouldn’t allow him to drop his pursuit of appeals against Genarlow Wilson, who was sent to prison for, as a 17-year-old, engaging in consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl.
One wonders if Baker will be under similar pressure in this case.
While you ponder that, consider these items found while perusing this morning’s ajc.com:
‘Black agenda’ memo stirs mayor race. Nearly six in 10 Georgia banks are in the red. GOP candidate for governor finishing 1,000-mile trek to Capitol. AARP Georgia to hold town hall on health reform. Ga. Power cleared to shift funds to bottom line. Social services workers face furloughs. Women mugged near Georgia Tech campus. City replaces ‘Marin’ Luther King sign. Troy Davis case treads new legal ground.
Some opinion:
Your Luckovich fix. Jim Wooten begs: Please don’t come tax my co-cola. Two small businessmen worry — but disagree.
From elsewhere in Georgia:
Access North Georgia: Deal addresses ethics complaint again.
And beyond:
WP: Obama keeps Bush’s search policy for travelers. NYT: Abuse issue puts the CIA and Justice Department at odds. WSJ: Reversal on Senate succession stirs a Massachusetts storm.
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter.
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138 comments Add your comment
GoOx
August 28th, 2009
9:29 am
Thats leadership from my man Ox. Once again he is looking out for the ordinary citizens of Georgia. Just like he does by keeping his office open until 7:00. Real practical solutions for real problems.
He doesn’t line his own pockets, like Deal, Real Steal. Even Wooten agrees with me on Real, Deal, Steal
good grief
August 28th, 2009
10:09 am
“He doesn’t line his own pockets,”
Yes, yes he does.
Agent007
August 28th, 2009
10:10 am
Ox doesn’t explain why he prefers building roads instead of alternatives like rail, which would be more economical and less polluting in the long run. Building even more roads seems insane and would only fill up with cars and add more congestion very quickly, especially if they aren’t tolled.
Another counterpoint to a statement he made in his video: the residents along 400 and I-85 *could* take the subway. They’re forced to take the highway.
Agent007
August 28th, 2009
10:11 am
Correction to previous comment: I mean they’re *not* forced to take the highway to the airport.
GoOx
August 28th, 2009
10:11 am
GG, false accusations hurled at the front runner in this race. My man Ox holds himself to the highest moral standard.
Dash Riptide
August 28th, 2009
10:12 am
Pave over densely populated areas of Atlanta for the sake of those just passing through?
It’s as if Barnes is paying Oxendine to run.
frank
August 28th, 2009
10:12 am
Thats funny, if they think that the people who can afford to live in the historic areas of L5P, Candler Park, Inman Park, Midtown, the Highlands and the rapidly changing EAV, Kirkwood and East Lake will let this happen they have another thing coming. My wife is an attorney and almost every attorney she knows lives in these areas. Every Emory Alum we know has moved into these areas. We live in one of these areas and the reason we do is because of the traffic OTP. More roads are not the solution. I ride my bike to work and if they think that razing neighborhoods so the exurbanites can continue to waste gas is the solution they are mistaken. Wasnt this attempted before? Isnt it now the park and trail system that surrounds the Carter Center? Shouldnt we finish the beltline and do something to benifit the taxpaying residents of these areas instead of tearing down there homes?
GoOx
August 28th, 2009
10:13 am
007 – My man Ox knows people will not ride rail, show where it has worked as a viable alternative for transportation, and has not required massive subsidies.
frank
August 28th, 2009
10:16 am
GoOX-You havent noticed the huge road, car and oil infrastructure subsidies that this country takes part in.
Kotter
August 28th, 2009
10:19 am
Everything old is new again. Go through the archives, wasn’t this idea proposed in the 70’s. I-385 or something? there was a large swath of Morningside which was razed and ultimately used for high voltage power lines.
Reid in EAV
August 28th, 2009
10:21 am
It’s official. I hate this man with everything in my being. I am going to show up at his campaign rallies to yell obscenities at him at the top of my lungs.
Reid in EAV
August 28th, 2009
10:22 am
Also: Adding roadway capacity to “cure” congestion is like letting out your belt to “cure” obesity.
jcatl
August 28th, 2009
10:26 am
He’s on crack if he thinks he’s going to raze high dollar in-town neighborhoods for a new highway that will be filled beyond capacity within 2 years. The politicians in this state keep bringing knives to a gun fight. We need transit vision beyond more paving and more lanes. Sure tunnel underneath the connector but use it for more Marta lines that actually go somewhere.
L5Pdweller
August 28th, 2009
10:27 am
The OTPers are just jealous of the gentrification of the east side of Atlanta. Other than the Liberals it’s a great place to live! We don’t have problem with traffic and have an abundance of amenities. Where else in the city can you walk from your house to your choice of restaraunts? Where else in the city can you easily bike to open green space like Piedmont park and Freedom Park?
sbg
August 28th, 2009
10:30 am
Oxendine is crazy if he thinks another connector is the solution. I’m rooting for a different John… John Monds… http://www.VoteMonds.com
Let the private sector come into play a little bit here and show the government how things can really be done. I would bet plenty of people would be willing to pay a toll to bypass Atlanta from 85 to 75 or vice versa, or various other bypasses as well. Or let a private company double stack the freeways and charge a toll to travel on the upper or lower level or whatever.
Glenn
August 28th, 2009
10:30 am
Why doesn’t the AJC have a conservative answer to Luckovich? The guy is such a tool of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy that it isn’t even funny.
Agent007
August 28th, 2009
10:31 am
“GoOx”: I also meant that rail to be used for transporting goods instead of big rig trucks on new highways. Why do you think Warren Buffet bought shares of rail companies recently? Besides, the large numbers of folks in East Atlanta won’t want their homes and neighborhoods destroyed simply for another highway either.
CommonSense
August 28th, 2009
10:34 am
If he wants an idea everyone can get behind it would be a MARTA station at Turner Field. If wants to make it easier to get to the Airport, why not put an Airport in Dunwoody?
Or how about double stacking the connector, but have NO exits, only entrance ramps. Get on and get out of town.
Dash Riptide
August 28th, 2009
10:36 am
It’s not nearly as nice as L5Pdweller suggests. Everybody here actually wishes they lived in Duluth. Honest.
PS to L5Pdweller – Ix-nay!
Reid in EAV
August 28th, 2009
10:36 am
OK, I apologize for the ad hominem, but this just has me unspeakably angry.
And yes, the DOT did study that extensively in the 60s. The original plan was to link what is now 400 with 675 via a separate north/south right of way through East Atlanta / West Dekalb and tie that up with an East/West corridor from downtown to Stone Mountain via a huge stack interchange.
The land that was cleared for the East/West route, of course, is now Freedom Parkway, Freedom Park and the Carter Center. Jimmy, God bless him, killed the original plan by dropping his presidential library (aka The Carter Center) right where the spaghetti-junction-style interchange was supposed to go. Can you imagine an even MORE sprawled out and freeway’d Atlanta?
Anyway, this is just bluster. For as organized as Morningside and Va-Hi and Druid Hills were in the 70s and 80s (when the Presidential Parkway was killed), there’s even more organization, activism and money there now (which is probably why this GOP tool wants to pave it.) Not ever gonna happen.
Perplexed
August 28th, 2009
10:37 am
If Mr Oxendine thinks that putting a highway through the east side of atlanta is really a good idea then I question how in touch he is with the pulse of Atlanta and altogether question his credibility as a civic leader. They tried doing this same thing in the 70’s by running a highway through the highlands that would connect to 400. They even started clearing land and demolishing houses for it. Its why we now have freedom parkway and the carter center where they are. It languished in the courts for years and was stopped dead by a grass roots effort of intown residnts and eventually killed by Jimmy Carter (then governor) by decree. That was at a time when intown neighborhoods had fallen on hard times and property values and political will were were both at all time lows. Just try putting a highway now through a vibrant, affluent, politically active and culturally important area and see what happens.
AtlantaFan
August 28th, 2009
10:43 am
More Roads. More Roads. More Roads!!! When will the Republicans learn this is NOT the answer. I have to believe their voters also agree with me here. That more roads will just increase more traffic. Please! Get this train off the ground, the rails are already there. Pour money into that. More trains, less cars , less smog! Please voters, do the right thing. I can’t take 4-8 more years of GOP rule in this state. Test scores have went from bad to worse, traffic is horrible, furlough days are running rampart.
atlpaddy
August 28th, 2009
10:47 am
And how about we put a methane plant where Ox’s house is? Just make sure the dumb@ss is still in his house when the demolition crew shows up.
Herb
August 28th, 2009
10:49 am
Oxendine must not have heard about the battle that intown neigborhoods fought and won against the GA DOT in the 70’s and 80’s over a freeway passing through the very area he is referring to. Why would he think that it would be an easier go now?
CommonSense
August 28th, 2009
10:50 am
“Test scores have went from bad to worse”? “running rampart” You’re obviously not qualified to speak about the quality of education in the state.
Oxendine: Build an interstate through East Atlanta? Let’s talk! | Fresh Loaf
August 28th, 2009
10:57 am
[...] to Jim Galloway) var linkwithin_site_id = 36181; (function () { var elem = document.createElement(’script’); [...]
Oxendine: Build an interstate through East Atlanta? Let’s talk! | Fresh Loaf
August 28th, 2009
10:57 am
[...] to Jim Galloway) var linkwithin_site_id = 36181; (function () { var elem = document.createElement(’script’); [...]
Will Jones - Atlanta
August 28th, 2009
11:01 am
Oxendine:
“people don’t want to come to a state that has some of the worst transportation in the entire country, and that’s what we have right here in the State of Georgia.”
Actually, those of us who regularly drive on the highways and byways of Atlanta and Georgia know our roads and transportation are superior to any other of the 48 states, and likely infinitely better than Maine or Alaska, of which I have no experience.
Oxendine:
“we can’t pit one part of the state against another part of the state”
He then spends the majority of his presentation arguing against driving to or through Our State’s Capital City: Atlanta, and for paving much of one-half of it.
What a clown!
It is no mystery that he pronounces “either,” incorrectly, in the monarchist/papist manner proscribed, for good reason, by the lexicographer of the American language, Noah Webster.
The “rail system” of which The People of Georgia should soon make “Sirens and Lights” Oxendine, a poor, corrupt fool with the emotional I.Q. of an eight-year-old, “intimately” familiar, is the one upon which he should be placed to be “run out of town.”
Any who thinks Oxendine “good” or a “man,” is neither.
Will Jones - Atlanta
August 28th, 2009
11:03 am
errata “47 states I’ve traveled” not “48 states”
Rail
August 28th, 2009
11:04 am
Maria Saporta talks about rail today:
http://saportareport.com/blog/?p=1643
RJ
August 28th, 2009
11:32 am
Ox lines his pockets with insurance industry money. The man is incredibly dishonest. The new highway idea makes as much sense as redrawing the GA-TN line.
Do you want real solutions while securing the nation? Promote alternative transport. Get people out of their petrol-burning cars and get them in trains and on bikes. Real leadership to achieve these goals is what’s needed. Thus far, no gubernatorial candidate possesses that ambitious vision.
Steve
August 28th, 2009
11:32 am
Briliant! Exercise eminent domain over some of the most expensive real estate in the city and further bankrupt city coffers when it comes time to pay road contractors, compensate residents for the “right” to displace them, and respond to their neighbors’ lawsuits – all for the “noble” purpose of making it easier for all the losers in Gwinnett to get to the airport and Turner Field.
Too bad there’s no cure for Oxendine’s brand of myopia.
Dave
August 28th, 2009
11:37 am
How about we just make it that much harder to get a driver’s license? Perhaps even make it so that you actually need to learn how to read? That would eliminate roughly half the drivers in Clayton, DeKalb, Douglas and Rockdale Counties, and about three-quarters of those who live between i-20 and Fairburn (why do they need to drive anyway? It’s not like they have jobs they need to get to!).
Donald Baxter
August 28th, 2009
11:38 am
At least the people of Atlanta will NEVER have to really worry about this proposal getting off the ground. The last inner city freeway was built in Los Angeles 20 years ago (I-110) and there will surely be no more. Thankfully our shameful legacy of destroying our inner cities by community destroying highways is over. And Oxendine, his brain transplanted in a bumblebee–the bee would fly backwards.
20 Years in ATL
August 28th, 2009
11:39 am
When I moved here 20 years ago I wondered why the connector existed. Why didn’t 75 and 85 have a straight path North and South. With a cross section patterns of roads or small high ways between the two. I now know that there are communities that would be demolished. The answer was and is expand MARTA and light rail. Everyone in this corridor must learn to leave their cars at home. Cut down emissions and use rapid transit when they arrive at their destinations.
Josh
August 28th, 2009
11:39 am
ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY IN BLACKLANTA!!! THANK YOU THUGS.
Another robbery near Georgia Tech campus
2 mugged at same intersection less than 24 hours before latest incident. 10:03 a.m.
Girl, 4: ‘My whole family is dead’ 9 mins
Shooting victim fights for life 9:00 a.m.
Boy, 5, hit by car in Marietta 9:42 a.m.
Kidnapped girl hidden 18 years | Photos
3rd arrest in violent invasion 9:48 a.m.
2 teens shot at bus stop 8:31 a.m.
Dan Dawg
August 28th, 2009
11:44 am
This guy is a joke. He even talks/sounds like a weasel.
I agree on two points, but they’re not his ideas:
- Build a northern arc north of Lake Lanier. This would benefit the carpet mills in Dalton and the chicken processing plants in Gainesville.
- The Fall Line Freeway. Make it I-18, since it’s the first east-west interstate south of I-20. Extend it to Montgomery (or to Auburn, then 18/85 to Montgomery) and then to Meridian, which would create a true I-20 alternative.
The other ideas here are a joke.
Mike
August 28th, 2009
11:46 am
So finish I-675 as originally proposed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_675_%28Georgia%29
That’s not innovative thinking. That’s old-school thinking. 30 years old school.
Also, if anyone remembers the fight over “I-485″ (which became the greatly scaled down Freedom Parkway) in the 80s, this fight would make that look friendly. Bad idea from a politician who’s only interest is securing votes form the base in the suburbs over those of us who live in the city that makes the whole region work.
And the cost? If property owners are to get fair market value, even in the depressed economic climate today, it would still have to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Jeffisonline
August 28th, 2009
11:46 am
From Wikipedia, “At one time, Georgia 400 was to connect to Interstate 675 in southeast DeKalb county; however, residents in northern DeKalb did not want the highway to cut through their neighborhoods, and a freeway revolt ensued, ending when Jimmy Carter had the plan terminated while he was governor of Georgia. This freeway was to be known as Interstate 475 (a number now used for the Macon bypass), a parallel route to the Downtown Connector which is just a few miles or kilometers further west through downtown and midtown. The point where this road would have had its interchange with the also-doomed Interstate 485 (now Freedom Parkway and Georgia 10 to Stone Mountain Expressway) is now the site of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. A later routing of I-485 would have had that number running from the Downtown Connector (I-75/85), west to the current library, then up what is now 400.”
Hats off to Jimmy Carter.
Fred
August 28th, 2009
11:51 am
Oxendine is beyond stupid. He is off the scale. Once the public hears his tweety voice in a campaign he’s dead as a candidate.
True grit
August 28th, 2009
12:02 pm
Oxendine is leading in every poll. He has the largest grassroots organization in the state. He is the only candidate to announce a comprehensive Contract with Georgia.
LB
August 28th, 2009
12:05 pm
The parallel connector idea won’t be allowed, and its not a good idea. However, getting more trucks away from Atlanta is a great idea, especially if we are to have more manufacturing elsewhere in the state. Getting the trucks away from 285 and other routes will make the connector more open and accessible, and it will be help traffic in the north and east metro generally. The two biggest traffic factors are trucks and exit only lanes. These issues can be addressed without building more highways ITP or in the immediate OTP. The ideas of the West Georgia connector and Mid State Fall Line Connector would greatly help traffic in Atlanta, and then the focus there can be on mass transit.
David
August 28th, 2009
12:09 pm
I’m rooting for John Monds, the Libertarian. Ox is a joke.
I live in Alpharetta… it seems to me that I can get on 285 to BYPASS Atlanta pretty easily, or I can hop on MARTA at North Springs. Is he really sure I only have one route that I can take?
Billy
August 28th, 2009
12:10 pm
He’s obviously never been to any of these neighborhoods or met any of residents.
Donald Baxter
August 28th, 2009
12:13 pm
More like a comprehensive contract *against* Georgia. The place has so much going for it and so much wrong at the same time I’m pretty sure it won’t stand Oxendine. Oxendine will certainly kill the place off… he’ll be your Mark Sanford.
bbb
August 28th, 2009
12:13 pm
I don’t love Marta…but using common sense and going to other large cities..we need to expand our rail use. We need stations in conventient places, commuter trains, and bike and green paths, not more highways. This same thinking is what has made Atlanta one of the worst commutes and ugly with 10 lane highways. Trains, trains, trains…that go somewhere!
I should be running for governor
August 28th, 2009
12:20 pm
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein
You’re transportation plan won’t alleviate Atlanta’s transportation nightmare. Interstate building is what brought on the nightmare. This proposal is like a reoccurring nightmare that we have to hear every four years. You’re proposal will include more paving over our communities, more congestion, more pollution, more blight and result with a tremendous piece of road infrastructure that will cost us dearly.
And a SECOND connector? It’s obvious the first one worked so well! I believe Atlanta learned its lesson with the first Connector. Perhaps we should build a 14 lane connector through your hometown of Lilburn. Are we building our cities for people or for cars?
Rather than wasting money on more of the same, we should be building commuter rail in Atlanta, connect our major cities by high speed rail and expand MARTA. There’s a real transportation solution. You want to go make Georgia the economic capital of the country? Go visit NYC, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and copy what they’re doing in the field of transportation. You’re proposal looks like you drew it up yourself.
Any transportation planner will tell you that building more roads and interstates won’t reduce demand, rather it will increase it.
Zeb
August 28th, 2009
12:37 pm
Sounds like Oxendine is pandering to powerful road builders, developers, and contractors, who have basically run the state for decades and who probably support Barnes. Road building is fixated in the minds of Georgia’s retrograde politicians as the ultimate goal and highest purpose of government. Nevermind the fact that building more roads is now so costly that it is almost impossible. Where will the money come from in a state that has to furlough it’s teachers and has one of the highest unemployment rates (and bank failure rates) in the country? Do they expect the feds to cough up the billions when the U.S. is already in hock up to it’s eyeballs? This state cannot even afford to cut the grass on the highway medians now, and here is Oxendine promising pie in the sky highway projects. He and the rest of the backward thinking politicians need to fly to Spain, Singapore, Japan, China and witness 21st century transportation systems based on efficiency and rational thinking. Also, there is a basic fallacy–repeated endlessly as the mantra of “economic development” –that attracting millions of new residents to Georgia (often low paid laborers who compete with GA’s existing work force) is somehow a good thing. Uncontrolled growth is not the solution to all our problems, it is the cause of all our problems.
George Dienhart
August 28th, 2009
12:48 pm
This is yet another example of finding a GOOD solution that doesnt involve buying more trains that nobobody rides- way to go team Ox
http://atlantapoliticsonline.blogspot.com/2009/08/transportation.html
Name One
August 28th, 2009
1:05 pm
Hey GoOx, even very conservative cities such as Salt Lake, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Houston are building or have built commuter rail and light rail. Our main competitor for business, Charlotte, is building rail.
Guess you’ve never been real cities, like Chicago, Portland, Boston. We can’t road build our way out of gridlock. Yep, it would be fought against by the big road building companies like CW Matthews who own our state rep’s and state senators. CW Matthews and the other road builders expect huge contracts from GDOT. It’s just another form of welfare, corporate welfare.
John Oxendine, if you want to fix transportation in Georgia, rail is much more important than just more capacity.
GoOX
August 28th, 2009
1:13 pm
Been to Chicago, Portland, and Boston, spent plenty of time sitting in traffic in all three. How much are the rail systems subsidized in those three cities. My man Ox has a real vision. He is customer service focused. Imagine being able to get your drivers license at 7:00pm, you will be able to when my man Ox is elected.
We need a man of integrity, not Deal, Real, Steal
Name One
August 28th, 2009
1:22 pm
How much are highways and state roads subsidized in Georgia? CW Matthews wants to keep it that way.
Jed B.
August 28th, 2009
1:31 pm
GoOX – yes, because getting my driver’s license and dealing with the government at 7:00pm is exactly what I want to do instead of eating dinner with my family.
East ATL Resident
August 28th, 2009
1:40 pm
If he thinks the residents of East Atlanta are going to let him get away with that he is not thinking straight. We pay our taxes like everyone else. If you want less traffic, invest in better public transportation, more trains, light and high-speed rail, bike shares. So our children don’t have to choke on the smog of commuters.
Base
August 28th, 2009
1:43 pm
All it takes is money and Sorry Sonny ,his henchmen and the legislature don’t want to spend the money accept for tax breaks for movies.They believe in just say no.
I should be running for governor
August 28th, 2009
1:56 pm
@GoOX I’m glad you pointed out that Chicago, Portland and Boston all have horrible congestion. Just another reason why we don’t need to waste more money building these new interstates! They don’t solve traffic they generate more demand. By the time they’re built, which will be 15-20 years from now, the new roads will be just as congested.
What boggles my mind is that politicians like Oxendine talk about the freedom of economic choices and pure capitalism, but yet they refuse to build a decent transit system in Atlanta to let us choose whether or not we want to use cars or transit. We can’t choose between cars and transit if you only provide one option.
Will Jones - Atlanta
August 28th, 2009
2:08 pm
He doesn’t want the job – who could blame him – but Max Cleland is the man we need to make governor. He has proven integrity unlike Deal, Oxendine, and Handel, who’ve been proven corrupt, time and time again.
KT
August 28th, 2009
3:22 pm
Ray McBerry is the only candidate that will work for all of Georgia.
Check Ray out at georgiafirst.org
OZZFEST
August 28th, 2009
3:23 pm
Maybe we could just turn 6 Flags into a prison farm.
Road Scholar
August 28th, 2009
3:27 pm
Hey John, have you ever heard of the GRIP system, the 4 laning of state routes in rural Georgia. The US 17 cooridor is to handle N-S traffic, the Fall Line Freeway would handle SW-NE traffic, and two corridors are alredy built for E-W traffic in south Ga. The trouble is is that they don’t have much traffic! The daily traffic counts are paled by some of the hourly counts here in Atlanta. The bonds sold to finance it has bankrupted the DOT (Sonny doesn’t talk about this , does he?). And they were 4 laned with at grade intersections, which does not promote speedy travel. GOP priorities wrong? Again?
John, at least familiarize yourself with Ga transportation history before openning up a can of worms!
Eric
August 28th, 2009
3:29 pm
“Imagine being able to get your drivers license at 7:00pm, you will be able to when my man Ox is elected.”
And exactly where are we going to get the money to add even more hours to the state’s payroll? The governorship and politics in this state are a joke. All they do is play politics with social issues and never do a darn thing to improve the state. Transportation, water, education, all a mess, and never dealt with.
Stan
August 28th, 2009
3:31 pm
This won’t happen. It was originally the route of I-675 and that got shot down in the 60s.
http://www.southeastroads.com/i-675_ga.html
“Originally Interstate 675 was to be numbered Interstate 475 as part of a longer unconstructed corridor through east Atlanta between Interstate 75 at Stockbridge and Interstate 85 near Buckhead. The numbering later was reserved for the Macon west bypass and thus Interstate 675 was chose for the east Atlanta freeway. 1960s opposition to freeway construction in Atlanta grew to a fever and several of the east Atlanta proposals such as unconstructed Interstate 420, unconstructed Interstate 485, and unconstructed Interstate 675 faced the chopping block. These routings remained on highway maps until the early 1980s, with unconstructed Interstate 675 still continuing north to meet Interstate 420 at Gresham Park. However the unpopularity of all these routes resulted in their mass cancellations and Interstate 675 today ends at Interstate 285, well short of its original planned northern terminus in northeast Atlanta.”
Stan
August 28th, 2009
3:33 pm
Oh, and these are the other two interstates that got shot down in the 60s through Atlanta.
http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-420_ga.html
http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-485_ga.html
One in Atlanta
August 28th, 2009
3:39 pm
GooGoo for Ox, nearly all roads and highway sin GA are completely paid for by tax dollars. Why is it such a big leap to subsidize rail? I lived in Chicago for many years and rarely to barely drove my car. The “L” and bus lines were fantastic.
Kudos to the poster who proposed a rail station AT Turner field. It’s a slam dunk.
Lastly to Josh the racist child. Sit down and be quiet, the adults are talking now. idiot.
rififi
August 28th, 2009
3:48 pm
Jiminy Christmas, this guy is a spectacular idiot. Aside from the fact that there will be no money for something like this, and even the fact that it displaces residents and disrupts the most vibrant development market in the entire region, the freeway system is overloaded in general– adding a new link to a weak chain doesn’t strengthen it. I suspect that this is really just strategy to fan the city-suburb and city-rural flames a little more. Atlanta will (largely) oppose him one way or another, so why not make Atlanta’s reason for its opposition him look completely selfish and city-centric? What a creep.
Reid in EAV
August 28th, 2009
3:56 pm
@GoOX: Yes, there is traffic in Boston, Chicago and Portland. Lots of it, in fact. It’s an inevitable byproduct of any socialized good — when you don’t charge users the true costs of any resource (i.e. the highways, in this case), it will become oversubscribed. Really, there’s no difference between rush hour traffic and waits for cabbage in the former Soviet Union. It’s all a line to get a free or underpriced resource.
The difference is, in Chicago, Boston or Portland, many have the choice to opt out of traffic congestion thanks to robust transit systems and walkable neighborhoods, and many do. Here, unless you’re one of the relative few well-served by MARTA rail (say, those who live in midtown condos and work downtown, or at the airport), you’re stuck with no choice but to use the heavily subsidized highways.
I will never be able to understand why so-called conservatives have made this form of single-mode, heavily subsidized, socialized infrastructure an idol of their ideology. There’s not the slightest thing free-market or conservative about it — even less so when you’re talking about using the big-government powers of eminent domain to shove it right through my front yard.
Republicans: renounce highway socialism! Live Free Or Die! Don’t Tread On Me!
jasbro
August 28th, 2009
3:57 pm
GoOX (goox?): “My man Ox knows people will not ride rail, show where it has worked as a viable alternative for transportation, and has not required massive subsidies.” Brussels. Chicago. London. New York. Tokyo. Washington, D.C. Oh, wait; those weren’t built by local grass-roots campaigns, with no public sector participation whatsoever. Well, geez … . (Is it true Barnes is paying Oxendine to run? There’s a win-win; Ox gets more $$$, and Barnes looks good!) A viable solution to challenges that Georgia faces will have to account for 4 (not 2) Georgias: in-urbs, sub-urbs, ex-urbs & non-urbs. Most of us this side of Macon are drinking from Lake Lanier (BLECH! I’ll just have bourbon instead) and trying to get decent schools (Yugo, AtlantaFan!); and, Bubba/Honey, none of us is gonna get out of here alive. Show me a candidate with state-wide vision; I’ll show you a yard waiting for a campaign sign!
LOL!!!
August 28th, 2009
4:05 pm
HaHaHaHaHa!! This is too funny. Where is this guy from? Proposing something so silly tells me he is way out of touch with the largest city in the state he wants to govern. He must live in the boondocks. Has he ever even been to Atlanta? I am so glad he proposed this so we can all see how stupid he is before we mistakenly vote for him. I actually took him seriously until now! Shame on me!!!
RedPantsDawg
August 28th, 2009
4:07 pm
“Now, that is going to be very controversial. There are a lot of people living in some of those areas.”
Perhaps he needs to review what happened to the Presidental Parkway and the Northern Arc. People don’t react well when the government wants to take their property.
wirelessg
August 28th, 2009
4:07 pm
I think Rip Van Oxendine just woke up from his 20 year sleep. How ignorant of grass roots opposition to all large road projects in the past 3 decades is he?
asdfs
August 28th, 2009
4:08 pm
He talks about being a statesman. I am looking forward to seeing the first real statesman stand up and lay out where the money comes from. They seem to be short on details with that. People are buying more fuel-efficient cars and they’re driving less. Even someone as dull as Oxendine has to see that funding the DOT with the gas tax is a losing proposition. I’m not voting for a regional sales tax, sorry — it’s too regressive. If you’re a true statesman, you’ll tell us the ugly truth. Let’s hear it.
datominator
August 28th, 2009
4:17 pm
Additional rail projects would be worthless – yes, they appeal to the “green” sensitivities of a small sector of dilettante in-town dwellers, but they would underserve the larger community, consistently lose money, and become yet another drain on the taxpayer. I don’t know that what Oxendine is proposing is the best solution, but at least he appears willing to discuss options, rather than putting his fingers in his ears and screaming like a petulant 4-year old “nyah, nyah, nyah! can’t hear you! My way is the only way! I won’t be happy until we’re all riding bikes!”
fildawg
August 28th, 2009
4:18 pm
Um… my house is in one of “these areas” – No Ox – No way!
Tucker
August 28th, 2009
4:27 pm
Make I-285 into a Mobius strip so cars can drive on both the top and bottom of the asphalt. That way twice as many cars can circle the city at a time. That would be more doable than Mr. Oxendine’s plan.
andy
August 28th, 2009
4:28 pm
Wow. A Republicon who actually wants to DO something instead of say NO NO NO to everything? This is a real change.
atlpaddy
August 28th, 2009
4:33 pm
After this stupid @ss highway idea, Ox should just drop out of the governor’s race now and spare himself further embarrassment. What a tool.
chris
August 28th, 2009
4:40 pm
Oh boy when will these repubs learn you can’t build over or drill your way out of problems. We need more public transit options, correction we need public transit options that are conducive to people riding.
gimmeabreath
August 28th, 2009
4:41 pm
the city is already violating clean air standards….light rail is the way to go
Ward
August 28th, 2009
4:47 pm
I have no intention of voting for Roy Barnes, but if this is the kind of lamebrain the GOP wants to put forth… wow. Blasting a new highway through East Atlanta is so far out of touch with reality, I can only wonder what other snakes are crawling around in his head.
Paul in marietta
August 28th, 2009
4:49 pm
Frankly, as one of the ex-urbs, I’d LOVE to have the option NOT to deal with the I-75 speedway with a light rail option. FIE on busses, I prefer the train option when I want to spend time in midtown. C’mon folks, light rail enhancing MARTA is the future – not more pavement! NIMBYs be damned!
R Cagle
August 28th, 2009
5:01 pm
Ox needs to talk with Jimmy Carter about how to ram through a pointless road leading to no place worth going that be reached by other roads and that exists only for the glorification of its creator.
HooBoy
August 28th, 2009
5:03 pm
Didn’t Oxendine get caught illegally using the lights on his “State issued” vehicle to avoid traffic a few years ago?
Dave
August 28th, 2009
5:04 pm
Has anyone thought if we take all these cars around Atlanta, how much Atlanta’s economy will suffer as a result. More cars/vacationers equal dollars for the city. They get gas, they eat, they stay at hotels, they might drop by and see the Aquarium on the way, etc. More freeways are not the answer to Georgia’s transportation problem.
JeninAtlanta
August 28th, 2009
5:04 pm
Wow, John has just proved that he does not have at least 2 brain cell to rub together to generate an idea! This idea is so dumb it makes God look bad for creating him. Who voted for this clown?
True Grit
August 28th, 2009
5:10 pm
One thing that should impress people about Oxendine, whether or not you agree with his transportation ideas is that he is the ONLY major candidate for Governor that is offering specific solutions to the problems that are and have been facing Georgia.
For the past 12 years the last two Governors did absolutely nothing to fix transportation and you can’t find one specific solution from Karen Handel, Nathan Deal, Eric Johnson or any of the others.
Once again when Georgia is faced with a problem we need a Governor who is not afraid to offer REAL solutions not just sound bites.
KDD
August 28th, 2009
5:11 pm
Ah, pandering to everyone, but the east side of ATL. It will probably work, too.
The last laugh will be when Ox tells everyone that in order to pave all of GA, everything will be a toll-road with tolls collected in perpetuity (that means forever to the none financial types).
Start saving your quarters!
Base
August 28th, 2009
5:16 pm
Every idiot runs for GA political office and this proves it.
Zeb
August 28th, 2009
5:19 pm
In the news today are a northern arc, tunnel under Atlanta, connectors through East Atlanta, privatized roads, toll roads and yet another tax to support all these wacko ideas. Hello, we can’t even afford to mow the grass on the Interstates, let alone build new ones. GA is rapidly becoming a third world state because of the backwards (and backwoods) GA politicians.
Durrrr
August 28th, 2009
5:19 pm
Will Alabama or Mississippi take our colored folks?
Just a Teacher
August 28th, 2009
5:23 pm
Not that I’m picking on True Grit, but how is what Oxendine suggesting a real solution? He’s proposing to bulldoze the oldest neighborhoods in Atlanta just to make the commute to the airport easier for those who live in the northern suburbs. That’s crazy! A real solution is extending rail lines. How about a reginonal rail system.
Becky
August 28th, 2009
5:23 pm
Durrrr: No, Alabama or Mississippi take our colored folks but they would love an inbred like YOU!
Paul Bunyan
August 28th, 2009
5:23 pm
Georgia’s transportation system is terrible because our zoning laws are lax. The Washington, DC Metro was built at the same time as MARTA, but land around stations was zoned as dense, multi-use. In the subsequent three decades, areas like Roslyn have blossomed where offices and condos were built adjacent to stations. Intown MARTA stations like Midtown and North Avenue still have surface parking lots across from them.
Allowing traffic generators like Turner Field to be built away from MARTA lines is an outrage. More interstates won’t fix the problem Ox. You and Barnes can share your terrible transportation ideas when someone else takes Sonny’s spot.
MildewMan
August 28th, 2009
5:24 pm
Did this dude’s nuts never drop? He sounds like a lollypop kid.
Matt_Edgewood
August 28th, 2009
5:28 pm
An eastside connector through some of Atlanta’s most densely populated, affluent, and historically significant neighborhoods. What a crazy idea. Unless you realize what Oxendine fails to mention. He lives in Peachtree Corners. Therefore, he’s proposing an expressway that would begin close to his home and run over or through these largely Democrat-leaning areas making it easy for him to get to the airport. We all know Oxendine would never consider riding MARTA…he’s so important that he needs his own expressway. Yes…I’m being sarcastic and yes I happen to live in “these areas”. If he wants a fight I have two words for him…Presidential Parkway.
Donald Baxter
August 28th, 2009
5:29 pm
“Trying to cure traffic congestion with more capacity is like trying to cure obesity by loosening your belt” –Glen Hiemstra, futurist.com
KPW
August 28th, 2009
5:29 pm
It’s a win-win to upgrade the Fall Line Fwy to interstate status and extend west to I-20 (not Natchez or wherever has been proposed in the past) as a sensible bypass. Less traffic for Atlanta and Birmingham, more traffic for middle Georgia and middle Alabama.
None of your business
August 28th, 2009
5:31 pm
What a concept – “people in North Georgia need access to the airport”… so let’s pave over a TON of people who actually live in East Atlanta so they can have access to the airport… Someone PLEASE educate him and these “people in North GA” that MARTA actually does go to the airport. By the way – this is THE DEFINITION of Environmental Justice – mostly wealthy mostly white people on the north end of the town want to drive to the airport faster, so mostly poor and minority communities will be impacted (paved over) to provide them the benefit of being able to drive their SUVs (or their Prius) to the airport.
You call this leadership? This is the same old tired idea of the past 50 years – we need new ideas, like expanding public transit, congestion pricing, and other more innovative ways to address the traffic issues in Atlanta – not this same old tired 50-year old mentality that has been responsible for so much destruction, mostly at the expense of poorer and/or minority communities for the benefit of mostly wealthier and/or white communities.
MeriCDC
August 28th, 2009
5:37 pm
What a typical Georgia Redneck. He proposes building a highway through some of the most expensive and beautiful neighborhoods in Atlanta. My home in Morningside was 1.3 million and the least expensive home on our street is around $600,000. All these homes are on 1/4 to 1/3 of an acre.
I guess this Redneck can’t even do the math on how much this idiotic idea would cost.
Ox is unbelievably ignorant.
Reid in EAV
August 28th, 2009
5:39 pm
@datomominator: I’m afraid the only ones in this argument jamming their fingers in their ears like petulant 4-year-olds are the road advocates, who can’t believe the public isn’t dumb enough to fall for the very definition of insanity (doing the same old thing, expecting different results) over and over again. Induced demand is real, new capacity generates new traffic, and any new capacity is guaranteed to be just as jammed as the existing capacity unless some form of congestion pricing is in effect.
Meanwhile, where is your data showing rail to be a guaranteed failure? I’d like to see it. And please, show me a road that does not lose money. Why is transit held to a self-sufficient standards while roads are given a free pass. Don’t even try to tell me the gas tax covers all the costs associated with highways — it doesn’t even come close.
Reid in EAV
August 28th, 2009
5:40 pm
Ahem: a better version of that last paragraph with better grammar and fewer typos —
Meanwhile, where is your data showing rail to be a guaranteed failure? I’d like to see it. And please, show me a road that does not lose money. Why is transit held to a self-sufficient standard while roads are given a free pass? Don’t even try to tell me the gas tax covers all the costs associated with highways — it doesn’t even come close.