What’s before 1.0? Trying to describe Atlanta’s streetcar sitch
Thomas Wheatley at Creative Loafing sums up Atlanta’s transit situation nicely this afternoon with a post entitled “Atlanta tries again for streetcar while Charlotte pops the champagne.”
It details Atlanta’s second, much more modest attempt at winning federal dollars for a streetcar line while, Charlotte…wait for it….learns it’s already won federal money for streetcars!
Those lucky son of guns! I’m so happy for them. I mean, really. I mean, shoot, maybe I should move to Charlotte!
You can read his post here.
Even Phoenix, Ariz. has light rail
Maria Saporta reports on a delegation of Atlanta leaders who visited Phoenix, Ariz. recently as part of a regular outreach series of trips to other cities organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission.
And she tells us and shows us that yes, even Phoenix, Ariz., — yes THAT Arizona! — has a light rail system. You can read her piece here at SaportaReport.
What’s significant is that the light rail links university campuses in downtown Phoenix and downtown Tempe.
Running to stand still. Feels that way sometimes, despite recent legislative wins.
Who’ll save MARTA? Good question, Maria
*Post has been amended and corrected*
Maria Saporta asks some great questions today in her regular Monday column at SaportaReport.
Namely, why did civic groups and private businesses rally to save Grady Hospital but no one is rallying to save MARTA or C-TRAN for that matter?
Maria quotes Mayor Kasim Reed as saying recently, “I…want to send a message to the economic development community and business people.”
‘If budget cuts force MARTA to cut back service to six days a week, he said, it will weaken metro Atlanta’s economy, especially tourism, and it will weaken the state’s attractiveness to business.’
“If Atlanta is going to remain dominant, if Atlanta is going to continue to be the economic engine that drives metro Atlanta and the State of Georgia, how are we going to do that with a train line that runs six days a week?” Reed asked.
(Or half the number of buses that run now, for that matter).
You can read her column here.
There was also a great op-ed about MARTA recently in the AJC by Jim Durrett, who is executive director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District and sits on MARTA’s board.
Thanks to kind reader Darin, you can see Durrett’s piece here.
What caught my eye was that the Buckhead is home to many businesses and residents that don’t rely on MARTA, and yet this group is smart enough to know that transportation is key for any community.
Durrett makes so many great points. For example, he says:
“The state Legislature should do three things. First, pass long-term transportation funding legislation (that has been considered for four years now) that includes transit operations and maintenance as allowable uses of the new funding. Second, permanently eliminate the 50/50 restriction on the MARTA sales tax revenues. Third, provide short-term funding assistance to MARTA during the next three years, such as state-supported bonding for capital projects, which, coupled with elimination of the 50/50 restriction, would help MARTA to make ends meet.”
So many smart people here in Atlanta and yet MARTA may have to cut 30 percent of its service next fiscal year (i.e., in July) and C-TRAN is on life support.
At this rate, I think I’ll stop trying to be smart because all of these “smart” people are giving smart a bad name.
MARTA to gain a few new bus shelters
Photo credit: Willamor Media via Flickr
I produced this short piece on MARTA bus shelters yesterday for WABE and I thought you guys might find it interesting that not only are there 11,000 bus stops that don’t have shelters but that most of them probably won’t ever have shelters.
I talked to Tony Griffin with MARTA and he said it’s just not feasible to outfit the agency’s 12,000 bus stops with protective shelters and benches. And it’s not just cost, apparently. At many stops, there’s simply no room, or the stop is on a sloping hill.
I find that amazing because it means there will be riders — Riders in the Storm, you could say, ahem! — who will always be subject to rain, heat, snow, sleet, whathaveyou.
I pestered Tony a lot about this but who knows? He might have been thinking, “Hey lady! Have you heard? We might have to slash 25 percent of our train and bus service over the summer because we have no money! I don’t have time to worry about bus shelters!”
And I suppose he would be right, if he were thinking that.
The story is actually about a pro bono project of the the Atlanta chapter of Architecture for Humanity to build and design bus shelters for free for MARTA. The group, which will cull designs for the shelters from an open contest, will start this year with three stops in south Atlanta.
For more information or to submit a design entry for the bus shelter contest, contact Rick at rick@afhatlanta.org. By the way, Rick says you don’t need to be an architect or a designer to submit an entry. And you don’t need to complete a fancy schmancy design on a computer. You can draw something on the back of an envelope, he said!
UPDATE: Read more
Streetcar announcement today — I hope!
Photo credit: kevinseanw via Flickr
Good morning!
As you probably know, Atlanta expects to hear word today whether it has been awarded up to $300 million in federal funds to build a streetcar system downtown.
MARTA and several other organizations put together an application for funds, which, if awarded, would help bankroll a six-mile line on Peachtree Street and/or a three-mile, east-west line on Auburn Avenue that would connect the King Center with Centennial Olympic Park.
Officials have said they think Atlanta has a good chance. We’ll see.
Federal regulations recently changed to favor the construction of streetcar systems, and many cities already have a head start (the photo above shows a streetcar in Toronto).
In fact, Charlotte, which already has a light rail line, has begun to explore the possibility of applying for federal funds for a streetcar line.
I think many of you are up to date on the prospects of streetcars in Atlanta but if not, check out this post on SaportaReport and this post from Thomas Wheatley at Creative Loafing.
No, really, this train is bound for Charlotte
Charlotte, N.C. — you now the city where that light rail car is headed — is applying for $25 million in federal funds to build a streetcar line.
That would be on top of the light rail system.
The Charlotte Observer reports that city council voted 7-4 on Monday to apply for a grant that would pay for most of the cost of constructing a 1.5-mile line.
The newspaper also noted that three Republicans on the council and one Democrat voted in favor.
You can read the whole story here.
This train is bound for Charlotte
As a freelancer, I pitch story ideas and sometimes editors bite and sometimes they don’t.
Last week, the global conglomerate Siemens came to Atlanta to show off a light rail car that will be part of Charlotte’s transit expansion. I thought it would make a great story, but I was the only one.
Or was I? Maria Saporta was on it, of course, and from her column I learned that the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce actually laid track to properly display the car, which can also be used as a streetcar.
Laid tracks? You have my attention now.
Maria mentions a lot of great things, so please check out her column.
But I would like to mention one thing former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory said while he was in town.
McCrory, who Maria points out is a Republican, said you need to marry transit with the existing transportation network and expansions need to make economic sense. And he said you can’t build transit without a land-use plan.
“The right is only going to want to build roads. The political left will want to put transit everywhere out of fairness. This is not a fairness issue,” McCrory said. “There needs to be an inter-connected system of sidewalks, bikeways and buses.”
So many good ideas for Mr. Reed!
Do I wish I had thought to write/solicit ideas for a to-do list for the new mayor, as Atlanta magazine did in its January issue, or do I wish I had thought of some of the actual ideas?
Needless to say, both.
It doesn’t look like you can access the whole article online but you can read a taste of it here. (It’s worth getting your hands on a copy of the actual magazine to take a look at the whole piece).
The suggestions were published in conjunction with the proceedings of a roundtable the magazine convened to discuss Atlanta’s problems and what we can do to fix them.
The magazine solicited ideas from people all around Atlanta, and while many of the ideas are a bit self-serving — someone involved in a volunteer organization thinks every Atlantan should start volunteering — all of the suggestions merit consideration.
I think the best single comment comes from Creative Loafing’s Andisheh Nouraee. (You may think we are biased in favor of Creating Loafing folks here since Ken worked there for so long but I never worked there and I don’t even know Andisheh. I just like good ideas).
While I don’t agree with every idea, I love the way he presents his thoughts in a very no-nonsense way that just says, “Let’s get going.”
Here’s his comment:
“Treat critics with respect instead of as enemies. Honor responsible homeowners by cracking down on serial code violators whose derelict properties are magnets for criminals. Create an Office of Transparency and empower citizen watchdogs by putting every new government report and document online in real-time. Admit the BeltLine is a park with a bike path, not a mass transit project. Require large parking lots to install secure bike racks. Mobilize Atlanta business leaders against rural GOP lawmakers who revel in hurting the city. Hire more cops, and tell the ones directing traffic at Hartsfield-Jackson to stop being such dicks.”
Alright so let’s get going!
Outtakes from today’s sustainable roundtable
Filed under: Cityscape, GREEN BUILDING, SMART GROWTH
Well, darn if you can never tell where I might show up on the Web!
I covered Southface’s Sustainable Roundtable this morning for SaportaReport.
The topic, one near and dear to my heart and yours, was the future of transit in Atlanta, and the featured speakers were Erik Steavens, director of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Intermodal Programs, and Lee Biola, president of Citizens For Progressive Transit.
The event gave us, as I put it in the piece, reasons for optimism and reasons for skepticism. Read the piece here.
So what’s with the photo above?
Please go to My Green ATL to read the rest of the post.
Is MARTA listening to me?!
We all like to flatter ourselves sometimes, and that may be especially so for broken-down reporters such as myself.
So I would like to think Michael Walls, the chairman of MARTA’s board of directors, read a post I wrote a few months back about the utility of our mass transit system, particularly when you need to reach certain destinations.
In an opinion piece for SaportaReport (clearly the source of so many great things) Walls wrote the following:
“For residents and visitors alike, MARTA matters tremendously to our quality of life. If you’re heading to the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th, watching musical legend Paul McCartney perform at Piedmont Park, going to a hometown game for the Braves, Falcons, Hawks or Thrashers or leaving on a business trip from Hartsfield-Jackson airport, MARTA makes all of that possible.”
That’s more or less what I said in the post. Here’s how I put it:
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