As noted in Decatur City Commissioner Patti Garrett’s recent email to the community, there’s a March 1st MARTA public forum at the lovely Maloof Auditorium in downtown Decatur, from 6p-8p, to discuss the proposed bus route changes and flat-out discontinuations planned for the Atlanta transit system.  As noted rather succinctly by Garrett…

The routes around the East Lake, Avondale, and Decatur stations that face severe changes include the following:

Avondale: #2, #8, #36, #75, #114, #119, #120, #122, #125

Decatur: # 15, #18, #19,#123

East Lake: #22, #24

Garrett also suggests a couple other ways to give your feedback, which include…

1) Call the hotline, which receives and records messages from the public, at 404-848-5026; and 2) there is a “click and comment” section on the MARTA website at www.itsmarta.com.

Leigh wrote in yesterday with an alert she was sending out to her building’s listserv about the impact of potential cutbacks of MARTA’s bus service in light of an $120 million deficit in its operating budget.

Of particular concern to Leigh is the future of MARTA’s #2 bus route.  Instead of operating from Avondale Station to North Avenue Station along Ponce de Leon Ave., the new #2 would only operate between Inman Park Station and North Avenue Station, leaving Decatur behind entirely.

However, that’s only one of MANY bus routes modified or eliminated by the proposed service cuts that run through, begin or end, inside the Decatur city limits.  You can access the full list of proposed changes here (Excel), but I’ve also compiled a condensed list of those that directly affect Decatur’s three MARTA stations, which you can peruse after the jump.

MARTA will next meet to discuss the proposed changes on Saturday, February 20th from 10a-12p or 3p-5p at MARTA Headquarters at  2424 Piedmont Road NE Atlanta, GA 30324 (across from the MARTA Lindbergh Train Station).

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The common thread through the two of the three AJC articles on last night’s DeKalb County Commission meeting?  No new taxes!

Though MARTA is a stated top goal for the commission this year, and they support the proposed 10-county penny tax for the struggling public transportation system, they can’t currently get behind the bill because it asks Fulton and DeKalb to put up a second penny in sales tax.

CEO Burrell Ellis explains…

“We’ve got other pressing needs in our infrastructure and don’t want to be saddled with another penny,” Ellis told legislators.

That money is needed for roads, public safety, parks and other county services, he said.

And if the state were to impose the extra penny, commissioners stated they were ready to ask for a referendum to rescind the current penny tax.

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Emory announces a cutback in incentives for Emory bike and walk commuters…

The Clifton Corridor Transportation Management Association (CCTMA) recently announced they will no longer offer MARTA passes to bike commute program participants after December 29, 2009. The CCTMA, through funding provided by regional partners, provides certain commute option incentives for Emory staff commuters. According to the CCTMA, due to federal and state changes to policies governing how funding can be spent and regional transportation agency budget constraints, the decision was made to cut the MARTA incentive currently offered to Emory and Emory Healthcare staff cycling commuters.

The program provided 20 one-way MARTA rides monthly to bike/walk participants.

h/t: wcdarling (via Twitter)

Jill Chambers arguments against MARTA seem to rely on the assumption that NO ONE is paying attention.

“Every year they say they’re going over a cliff and there’s going to be a crisis, and yet MARTA’s running just fine,” Chambers said. “You can almost cut and paste the press release from the year before.”

I guess she’s forgotten about MARTA’s $25 million federal stimulus bailout this past year.  Perhaps we should just let the fed continue to pick-up MARTA’s tab from here on out.

Please.

Can we just drop the guise that there’s an actual debate going on here about how to best manage MARTA and get down to brass tacks?  If the MARTA acronym makes your stomach turn and you wish it would just hurry up and die already then let’s have THAT debate.

Why does the AJC continue to quote Chambers without challenging these baseless statements?  In an effort to write an “objective” piece they seem to abandon common sense.

h/t: Terminal Station

The AJC reports this morning that GDOT is considering trying to spend the $87 million “use-it-or-lose-it” federal funding for the Lovejoy rail line to help construct the much talked-about Grand Central Terminal in downtown Atlanta’s under-utilized “Gulch”.

The proposed terminal hub would be located just northwest of the current Five Points MARTA station – here’s an excellent map that shows all of Atlanta’s past, present and proposal rail stations – and would serve not just MARTA, but high-speed passenger rail, AMTRAK and commuter lines for the entire metro area.

Of course, any costly infrastructure improvement requires taking on some risk.  If high-speed rail and commuter lines never find their way out of the Northeast, and all rail becomes as difficult to execute as the Lovejoy line, an giant Atlanta hub might only echo with the footsteps of lovely MARTA riders lost in an underground world of unused tracks.

However, if the alternative is allowing the $87 million to go unused and thrown back into the federal pile only to be snatched up by some other competing second-tier city, I say “If you can determine its legality, build away!”

P.S.  In writing this post, I discovered the great Track Twenty Nine blog out of D.C., which did some exciting renderings of what Atlanta’s hub might look like, with high-speed, MARTA and commuter lines stretching in all directions from the city’s core.  Pretty cool stuff if you’re into rail porn.

The only problem with trying to make reality fit your perception of the world is that sometimes reality doesn’t cooperate.

Rep. Jill Chambers has made it her personal mission to discredit MARTA, calling on a full audit last year in hopes to find evidence of financial impropriety and an inevitable, glorious “Ah Ha!” moment.  However, things didn’t work out that way.  Instead of expected incompetence – like that at say…GDOT – the state audit gave MARTA a clean bill of health.

With this news, long-time Atlanta business columnist Maria Saport is asking, nay telling, Chambers, to get over it and move on.

MARTA is facing enough challenges with declining sales tax revenues and increasing operating expenses without having to defend itself at every turn from a Chambers’ attack.

In fact, for the life of me, I don’t even understand why MARTOC exists in this day and age. Remember, the state of Georgia does not have any money in the game.

But will Chambers consent?

A recent survey given to MARTA riders to determine their food and drink preferences came back stating that the most desired items were water, juice and fresh fruit.  In that order.  “Packaged candies and snacks” came in fourth.

Which raises the question, “Are MARTA riders just naturally healthy or do they, like most of their impressionable species, just respond to surveys with answers they believe people want to hear and not what they actually desire?”

Rep. Jill Chambers is still really worked up about MARTA’s attempt to allocate $400,000 to hire a lobbying firm to help the authority navigate those scummy, savage waters at the capitol.  According to her, any attempt by MARTA to get the state legislature to do anything about the still-failing transit system is a “waste of taxpayers money.”

And just in case any of her fellow MARTA board members disagree with her, she’s offering another option.  Getting the hell out!

Atlanta Unfiltered has Chambers’ email to her fellow board members…

I hope I have made it clear to the Authority that I feel this is a waste of taxpayers money – MARTA already has two staff lobbyists and the firm of Holland & Knight to represent them in government issues.

…Should either of these two issues come before the Board, those members who vote in agreement to these staff proposals may see their Board seats eliminated with any future restructuring of the MARTA Act.

Seriously, who needs subtlety when you can just make people do what you want?

Jump over to Atlanta Unfiltered to read responses from Board Chairman Michael Walls and MARTA CEO Beverley Scott.

I submit this question to the masses.

Sam writes in…

Do you know a good way of finding out how safe the bike racks at the Marta stations are? Particularly the East Lake Station? I wouldn’t leave my bike overnight, and I would use a chain on both wheels. Anything else I should do? Thanks.