Fayetteville Mayor: Keep Fayette out of regional mass transit agency (Atlanta: low income, for sale)

[LynnHarris]

Wow...Fayette County is SERIOUS about saying no to any form of mass transit...



F’ville Mayor Steele: Keep Fayette out of regional mass transit agency


If a new transit agency is created to handle bus and rail service in the Atlanta region, Fayetteville Mayor Ken Steele says he doesn’t want Fayette County to have any part in it.

http://thecitizen.com/articles/05-18...transit-agency

[mike7586]

Who cares about these removed. Fayette County only has 100,000 people anyways. It's not important at all and when their quality of life declines in the future they will be sorry.

[912]

Originally Posted by mike7586

Who cares about these morons. Fayette County only has 100,000 people anyways. It's not important at all and when their quality of life declines in the future they will be sorry.

They choose not to subsidize rapid transit for others. Sounds like a smart fiscal policy to me.

comment removed

[K-SawDude]

That's a heck of a lot of bluster over a bunch of nothing so far. How can you complain about the transit tax and related projects before they've even put the bill together? Good grief.

Way to set a tone of reasonableness from the get-go, Fayette.

[mike7586]

Originally Posted by 912

They choose not to subsidize rapid transit for others. Sounds like a smart fiscal policy to me.

comment removed

But I guess it's okay to subsidize roads for others that you will never use? Or schools/education if you don't have children? Guess what, you live in a community of people and while it might not benefit you directly, there are many other indirect benefits. If you don't want to live in a community (or a large metro area) move to a deserted island or a small town far away from here. But then, I don't expect people like you to "get it".

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by mike7586

Who cares about these removed. Fayette County only has 100,000 people anyways. It's not important at all and when their quality of life declines in the future they will be sorry.

That's the way I feel and can think of 0.0 reasons why I'd want go down there anyway.

[PKCorey]

Same thing out here in Rockdale.

Rockdale News (http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/mobi/news?storyid=122201194&showPrev=y&page=1 - broken link)

[koko339]

Originally Posted by mike7586

But I guess it's okay to subsidize roads for others that you will never use? Or schools/education if you don't have children? Guess what, you live in a community of people and while it might not benefit you directly, there are many other indirect benefits. If you don't want to live in a community (or a large metro area) move to a deserted island or a small town far away from here. But then, I don't expect people like you to "get it".

You said it brother.

If these yahoos are this shortsighted in 2011, then so be it. Do they not realize the reason Atlanta is f***ed on the transportation level now is because of a lack of vision decades ago? Screw 'em.

[aries4118]

This is bad.

Poo on Fayette and Rockdale.

[atlantagreg30127]

I think there are two main fears in some of the counties that fuel the anti-transit mentality:

1) That MARTA would be allowed to have any roll in running a regional transit agency. There are "for and against" arguments about MARTA leadership, but you can't argue that over the years they've had their share of controversy from accusations of mismanagement of funds to a leader that was caught having sex in the airport bathroom, to name only a couple over the years. It's not so much that transit is the issue for some county leaders - it's transit run by MARTA that is the issue. This is why it took so long for Cobb and Gwinnett to finally get on board with possible (light) rail plans - only under the condition with their Federal applications that THEY run their own systems and would connect them to MARTA.

2) A report published I think on 11alive in just the last couple of days talked about migration trends in the metro area, and it said that against rumor, most of the Atlanta housing project residents did not move to the suburbs when the projects were torn down, that around 80-85% moved with the City, "Because there is no bus service in the majority of the suburbs". For some, that statement only heightens the perception that "buses/transit = low income". Is it true? Maybe. Maybe not. In cities like New York City, a majority of people from all walks of life use the trains/buses, but in cities like Atlanta, perhaps a higher percentage of the people that do use it are of lower income.


I remember a few years ago when that experimental Maglev train company opened a test track for their train right off of Highway 278 in Powder Springs; someone from nearby Paulding County saw it and thought that MARTA was expanding the rails into Paulding and posted it on a local web site they have there. Within 24 hours the thread was filled with dozens of posts from residents saying they had contacted Realtors to list their homes for sale as they would have nothing to do with that. Likewise, when Xpress opened a route that goes into Paulding, someone thought it was a MARTA bus and caused a near panic on that same board. Paulding, like Fayette, will never allow "curb to curb" buses within the county boundaries (though they did open up to Xpress).

But should this be worthy of an argument? Should it be worthy of calling County leaders names who don't want to participate? Seriously, we DO need extended transit options within the City of Atlanta. We do need expansion into North Fulton, NorthWest Atlanta, and rail services into Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton, and somewhat beyond in SOME directions (Athens, Buford, etc). But not every county in the entire region needs curb-to-curb bus service, or rail for that matter. Some don't want it near them - and that's their choice. It might be a boon for them to attract residents, or it might hurt economic development. But we shouldn't immediately label them as "backwards" because they don't want it.

Does metro Atlanta need A LOT more transit? Yes. Does every corner of it need it? No.