79% of Barrow County Voters Oppose Atlanta-Athens Train
Decatur Metro | July 22, 2010
Sure Barrow County isn’t part of the Atlanta “transportation district”, who’s voters will determine whether to levy a 1-cent sales tax upon their own hides to fund new transportation efforts in the metro.
But it IS a neighboring county.
And in a straw poll taken during this past Tuesday’s primary vote, 79% of voters voted “NO” to this question, according to Online Athens…
Would you favor an increase in local taxes in order to help passenger rail service from Athens to Atlanta?
What does this say about a potential regional tax for Atlanta? Probably not too much. Barrow isn’t actually a representative sample of Atlanta opinion. But still, it is only a skip and a hop from Gwinnett County.
It probably says a bit more about the potential for statewide support of any larger, far-reaching public transportation goals within Georgia.
Something along the lines of, “Hell no.”
h/t: That’s Just Peachy
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Hmmmm…perhaps a more useful way to pose the question to the denizens of Barrow County would be, “Are you willing to spend a penny to make a buck?”
To tell the truth, I think that whole section of Brain Train could be paid for in about 3 UGA football seasons without taxing the locals at all!
Dumb rednecks.
Who, the Barrow Countians or the GA fans…? And why are they dumb rednecks…?
In my opinion anyone who opposes the Brain Train is dumb, as the benefits far outweigh the cost.
The redneck part was approximately 30% in jest.
It does seem a bit odd that those voters don’t want to pay for the Brain Train. Barrow has outpaced the rest of the state and the nation in growth in the past 30 yrs., it’s primarily a bedroom community where almost 35% of the population commutes out of the county.
Construction seems to be the largest employment sector, by far, so I’m guessing that these folks probably have to drive to their worksites. Guess the brain train wouldn’t do them much good…
The question doesn’t specify the amount of the tax increase, so who in their right mind would say “yes” to this question, as opposed to asking “how much”?
That’s a good point, but it’s just a straw poll. They could always vote “HELL NO” when the actual tax increase figures were known and were up for a binding vote.
This is a non-story on at least three grounds: (1) it was 79% of Barrow County GOP PRIMARY Voters, not all Barrow voters, in opposition to the hypothetical tax, (2) the sample was a nonrandom sample of Republican voters, which means it was a survey of mainly the most ardent and conservative partisans, and (3) the question was posed as a NIMBY question rather than a regional economic development question.
Agreed – and this is most simply read as a tax increase question, not a train question.
Ha! Well, there you go. Guess I should have read the fine print.
duh.
Which question would get more negative responses from Barrow voters?
A. Would you favor an increase in local taxes in order to help passenger rail service from Athens to Atlanta?
B. Would you favor an increase in local taxes in order to help passenger rail service throughout Barrow county with routes to Athens and Atlanta?
Of course, Atlantans and Atheniens could pay for the Brain Train through Barrow without building a station and when Barrowites decide they want a station, they could then chip in for the station.
In other words, I don’t really care if Barrow wants a station or not, they shouldn’t be able to block a couple of the higher population areas from reaching each other THROUGH Barrow. This is where eminent domain is an important and powerful tool (as long as it’s not abused).
Without their cooperation, they simply should miss out on their slice of the pie.
I agree about the station. Furthermore, I don’t think we shoud build a commuter rail station or a transit stop in a place that hasn’t adopted and implemented anti-sprawl land use policies. There must be transit oriented development around the stations with some density. Otherwise we’re over investing in infrastructure without obtaining benefits in reduced congestion and improved air quality.
Whatever happened to the proposed high-speed train to connect the Atlanta and Chattanooga airports?
It hasn’t even gotten to the study stage. One of the problems is that local governments along the way can’t come up with their share of the study money. Another would be that it would use largely untested, very expensive technology.
Shuttle service between the Atlanta and Chattanooga airports is really cheap, cheaper than taking the airport shuttle to Athens, as a matter of fact, even though the miles to Athens are far fewer. We need a train between ATL and Athens much more than a train to Chattanooga, in my opinion. I agree with others that the Barrow folks should not have a station for the train when it is built if they are unwilling to support the project.
I’ll never fly Wilber…
The UGA-ites will never figure out how to park the train in the middle of a parking lot (or in a flower bed for that matter) so they can tailgate before a game and its so hard to carry the grills back to the station…
“TO HELL WITH GEORGIA”
“I’m a Ramblin Wreck from Georgia Tech….”
UGA’s already putting the hurt on tailgating, so seize the opportunity. Build the train station to include grills all around it & storage lockers for folks’ stuff, and there you go! Brain train paid for! GO DAWGS!!!
( *Make sure Game Day transport fee includes shuttle to Marta or something to get inebriated fans home upon return. )
By hindsight, they shouldn’t have closed in the far end of the stadium… folks could have just stayed on the train and watched the game from the tracks across the street.
It was always more about the party than the actual game, anyway!
GO DAWGS!!!
For those who were around 15 years ago, the now-defunct state operated New Georgia Railroad excursion trains did make 2 or 3 trips a year from their station near Underground to Athens for football games. The train was unloaded and parked on the railroad at the end of the stadium by the cemetery. Even then, you couldn’t see the field from the train, but it was very convenient. Usually about 400 fans made the trip.
Alas, the whole train operation was dismantled by Zell Miller, who thought the state shouldn’t be in the train business, despite the fact that it made money. BTW, the state is in the excursion train business again now, with the train from Cordele to Plains in South Georgia.
So THAT’S when Zell started going off the rails! (groan. :0)
I really need to go ride that South Georgia train. I love Cordele & Plains. My great grandmother was the general store owner/ post mistress in the tiny community of Cobb, Ga by Lake Blackshear. As a kid, I used to love to sit out on the store’s bench & watch the train go by! (With an RC cola & a pack of salted peanuts. Good times!)
Well, cover me with butter and call me a biscuit, there’s a train from Cordele to Plains…?! Are you kidding me? I used to live down there, and I can’t imagine why even the most desperate tourist would take such a trip…
Come to think of it….wonder how much of the investment could be recouped through an on-board beer concession on game days?
Love the on board beer idea, I have seen trains (in another country :-)) make money by having starbucks style coffee shops, beer and wine, and nice sandwiches etc on the trains!
It’s a good idea. On a recent trip to San Francisco we rode bikes from S.F. to Sausalito. On the ferry back to S.F. they served beer, wine and concessions.
This is such a typical DM discussion. If I may surmise up to this point:
Public transportation is good. People who oppose paying increased taxes for it are rednecks. Insert assorted, good natured jabs at local universtiy. And then, like so many of our conversations, we come back to booze as the solution.
Still waiting on these common themes to emerge:
Taxpayer subsidized roads and GADOT are wasteful
We need to do this or fall further behind Charlotte
Free Westchester
I think you’ve got your political platform pretty much ready to go Robbie.
Just remember to steer clear of anything related to parking or historic districts. If anyone brings those topics up, do a little jig and back out of the room.
Free Westchester! There’s vehicles all over the lawn again today! It looks like a tractor pull!
Just to be clear – I wasn’t making fun of anybody in particluar there.
I believe the brain train could be one of the smartest moves we could make – truly uniting the two leading academic environments in this state. Not too mention, as Right Wing mentions above, so many of these folks aalong the route re already commuting into the city that it would have benefits far beyond simply connecting points A & B.
Funny, just looked at a state map…. why *is* there a Bartow County? It’s tiny. They should just split it up and tack the pieces onto the surrounding counties.