What’s Plan B after TSPLOST defeat?

1. Did Kasim Reed really think this thing had a snowball’s chance, as dirty and corrupt as Atlanta politicians have proven to be? Bill Campbell of course was the worst of them all. This cabal which is in charge of Atlanta’s government is intertwined with the same crew of cronies which has been in place since Maynard Jackson assumed the helm in the 1970’s. Fulton and Dekalb counties have pumped 7.5 Billion in sales tax dollars into MARTA over the past 40 years and it has gotten us the 10th worst transit system in the country while still being the 9th largest. So it is big and inefficient, just like Atlanta’s government.

   Now they want us to trust them with a tax increase which they will supposedly live up to their promise to end after 10 years just like the Georgia Toll Authority ended its fleecing of the citizens when it was supposed to. And given Atlanta’s track record with corruption the people showed that they understand the concept of “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. Kasim Reed and the army of contractors who stood to make a lot of money pumping funds into the TSPLOST Ad campaign (Surprised?) did not fool the people of Metro Atlanta. I praise the people of Atlanta for raising their collective middle finger at Kasim Reed and those corrupt fools doling out the construction contracts. The people of Metro Atlanta know that the money will be wasted and overspent to contractors as kick backs for political support that got the likes of Kasim Reed and the Atlanta City Council elected.

   Dirty, Dirty, Dirty is the way Atlanta politics is played. Please don’t tell me anyone has forgotten the recent Atlanta Airport Contracts fiasco. http://www.ajc.com/business/challenges-costs-continue-on-1449438.html

   Sources:

   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27atlanta.html

   http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-government/georgia-last-in-public-1390032.html

   http://www.lawlessamerica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80:corruption-in-atlantas-federal-courts&catid=120:news-reports&Itemid=222

   http://www.naturalnews.com/032968_public_schools_cheating.html

   http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/03/19/georgia-ranked-worst-for-public.html

   http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/press/2006/03-10-06.pdf

   http://www.ajc.com/business/challenges-costs-continue-on-1449438.html

   Transit Rankings
   http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2070992_2071052_2070981,00.html

2. Such a shame. All the major leaps in Atlanta’s fortunes have been brought about by visionary leadership and a commitment to the future – where would be we today without the airport, having the marts, or the GWCC, or having hosted the Olympics? The TSPLOST list wasn’t even that visionary, but would have given us a good start on our long-neglected transportation infrastucture. Many of the items on the list should have been addressed years if not decades ago. Plan B so far seems to be the Gov. filling in the gaps as the sole arbitrator of who get’s what, and by all indications he plans to rule with a tight fist and miserly view of what Atlanta should have as far as transportation.

   Atlanta has long gotten the short end of the stick on transportation, being a net loser in tax revenues vs. benefits. We see what gas tax dollars we do get syphoned away to politically-connected south ga districts, and not used here at home where it’s needed most. The state of GA can only beat the Atlanta Metro cash cow so long before she starts to suffer.

   Republicans call this a victory. Yet it’s cut off any hope for stimulus from construction jobs the would have come our way. For repubs it’s austerity and tax slashing as usual. The Tea Party especially is calling this a victory, getting some sort of satisfaction out of bringing metro Atlanta to it’s knees. They seem to have no problem at all with Atlanta losing jobs, company transfers, expansions, no problem with us being branded as a “once” vibrant city with our best years behind us. It seems they have a rather well we’ve got ours; the poor, minorities, the jobless – well tough.

3. Cleo,

   This was a bipartisan resounding NO. This was not a Republican victory. This was a victory for all of the residents of Georgia to hold our politicians accountable for getting behind such a behemoth of bad legislation. This is a vibrant city and will continue to be a vibrant city as long as we elect officials with real vision instead of he same old backwards thinking that we are used to accepting.

   Give the tax base a legitimate plan that REALLY addresses traffic and it will pass. How about MARTA to Turner Field? How come we are one of the only cities that doesn’t offer transit to the ball park?

   This whole T-SPLOST was a sham and everyone knew it.

4. Response to Cleo,

   In my opinion, there is no such thing as a plan that really addresses traffic in Atlanta except centralizing our people and resources. Atlanta isn’t a city where the majority of people commute from point A to point B. It is a city where we commute from A to D, B to C, E to F, which makes it nearly impossible to adequately provide services of any type. The only solution to Atlanta’s problems is for people to stop commuting 30 miles each way and move into the city limits. While the TSPLOST wasn’t the exact list of projects that I would have personally picked, it did a decent job of building up core areas of the city that are prime for families to move into the city. Until we make the core of our city a nice place to live and spend time, we are going to have problems dividing resources between too many areas (police, sidewalk/road repair, sync traffic lights, transit, etc).

5. Atlanta will face this problem…possibly forever.As Confused said above, we have to many people commuting in to many different directions. People live in Midtown and commute to Alpharetta because that is where the company landed when it moved to “Atlanta.” I understand the Alpha’s and the Marietta’s and all wanted to say, “Look who’s moving to our town,” but that mindset takes away from a central business area where a majority commute to.

   Another challenge is our government. The Metro Atlanta area is not one county…it’s TEN! (If not more) How do you think you will ever bring 10 points of view together when each county has it’s wants and needs. Imagine today, if Home Depot were moving from another city to Atlanta. There would be fierce competition to get them to locate in Cobb County, Fulton County, Gwinnett County…not Downtown Atlanta. Look at some of our competition. Houston, TX is ALL one county, Harris. Look at Charlotte, all ONE county, and just recently annexed MORE into the county and City of Charlotte. Here, communities are almost ENCOURAGED to go create their own place. I recall an article in the AJC where it said in the Metro Atlanta area we have something like 320+ City Council members.

   I’d like to say I have high hopes……

6. @Heffe
   I don’t have time to fact check all your statements, but I would like to comment on two of them.

   “Did Kasim Reed really think this thing had a snowball’s chance,”

   Now that the precinct data is out, it is clear that the people of the city clearly supported the referendum. After all we are trying to fix the that that our city is the 10th worst for transportation in the nation. Which leds to my next point.

   “Fulton and Dekalb counties have pumped 7.5 Billion in sales tax dollars into MARTA over the past 40 years and it has gotten us the 10th worst transit system in the country while still being the 9th largest. ”

   I looked at the Time Magazine link that you provided and I think that you have missunderstood the article. It never stated that MARTA was the 10th worst transit system in the county. What it said was that ATLANTA was the 10th worst city in the country for transit.

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