Variations of BeltLine Expectations
Decatur Metro | January 12, 2010In a recent Atlanta Magazine spread asking “dozens of Atlantans” for advice for new Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Decatur’s Own Lain Shakespeare and Andisheh Nouraee inadvertently showed the broad spectrum of expectation for Atlanta’s massive BeltLine project.
Mr. Shakespeare has great hope…
Atlanta’s best idea is already at work: the BeltLine. The BeltLine’s potential addresses many of Atlanta’s problems so effectively, there’s no reason not to follow its lead. By focusing on what people need to thrive instead of exclusively on what cars need to thrive, Atlanta will become safer, healthier, and more competitive. Expanded transit, connected neighborhoods, affordable housing, and complete streets will foster denser and more vibrant communities.
Mr. Nouraee? Eh, not so much…
Admit the BeltLine is a park with a bike path, not a mass transit project.
Hat-tip honors go to Mr. Nouraee
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I like this quote, from an Emory student:
“On a drive from Emory to west Midtown, I hit every light on Ponce de Leon between Briarcliff and Juniper. What Google Maps estimated as an eighteen-minute trip took over half an hour in light traffic. Synchronizing traffic lights would be an easy fix to ease congestion.”
Yes. I’ve come to expect to have to stop at every red light under virtually any and all circumstances in this town. It’s pathetic.
A couple of years ago, to much fanfare, the Gov announced his “Fast Forward” (or something like that) transportation initiative. Traffic light synchronization was a big part of that. Wonder what they did with those $$?
Andisheh – brilliant reply!
Your insights belong in office. As our mayor and president show, once scary sounding names are now in vogue. It’s your time!
Vote the bores out.
To be clear, I like the idea of incorporating the BeltLine land into a city/regional mass transit system.
My point is that the transit portion of the project so far consists of artist’s renderings of trains. In less time than we’ve been talking about the BeltLine, far more impressive projects have been mulled, funded and completed.
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2007/12/14/add-it-up-beltline-timeline/
Indeedy. That’s why I used the word “expectation” instead of say “support”.
As for your “Add it Up”…is mulling time equated into the 20-30 years it took to build the Great Pyramid? Because I’m sure that was a long, drawn out process.
Cube? Cone? Pyramid? SPHERE?!?
Oh man, they totally dropped the ball on that one.
You can thank the guy who challenged the Beltline bonds for much of the delays on the project– supposedly in the name of taxpayers, the suit cost the project much money, momentum and opportunity. So frustrating to see one or two greedy individuals derail (maybe literally) such a big public benefit.
re the greedy individual– the same guy who filed the beltline bonds challege was the same individual who got recorded trying to shake down a developer in exchange for not challenging bonds or legality of the developer’s project. what a slime. And yes, I’ve purposefully deleted the guy’s name from my memory.
macarolina, I disagree. Regardless of John Woodham’s intentions, his legal argument was sound. It’s not Monday morning quarterbacking either. A year or so before the Ga Supreme Court backed Woodham’s argument, a former colleague of mine with good sources in the city said the city was aware its bond scheme for the BeltLine was legally shaky.
That city planners rolled the dice like that is the essence of bad leadership. Add in the Wayne Mason debacle, and it’s clear the city has no clue HOW do transit, much less the means to do it.
There is no local solution to our transit problem. The city, Metro Atlanta counties, and the state have to do this together.
What’s the point of a ring around Atlanta unless it’s fully integrated with the current mass transit system? And what’s the point of our current mass transit system unless it enlarges and expands?
None of that is John Woodham’s fault.
Who was responsible for the legally shaky strategy? The city? Beltline leadership? Other?
As a former consultant to the BeltLine (starting in 2005 with the formation of the BeltLine Partnership) and former staff at Atlanta BeltLine, I can assure you that there was never any question of the legality of the City being able to issue TAD bonds for the BeltLine. Any “shakiness” was due to the increment being generated by multiple private projects + appreciation, vs. the single-developer approach of the City’s other TADs.
While it’s fair to discuss how Atlanta BeltLine structured the Mason deal (and, like most real estate deals, it wasn’t a slam dunk), the fact of the matter is that he was the owner of the NE Corridor of the BeltLine. The City had no choice but to deal with him.
I completely agree that there’s no entirely local solution to the transit problem, and that the BeltLine won’t be fully realized unless it’s completely integrated into a comprehensive mass transit system (note that I didn’t say “current” – our current mass transit system is a mess). And I would add that most of my former colleagues at the BeltLine and the City of Atlanta share the same perspective.