Atlanta Gets Big Ol’ Check For Downtown Streetcar
Decatur Metro | October 20, 2010 | 6:08 pm
$47 mil to be precise on how “big ‘ol”. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood…
“We’re here today because you all have your act together,”…”People have to come together around a common agenda, list the priorities and then start working on them. And this community knows how to do it.
“I hope soon the state will take your lead and become a model for it,”
You gotta give Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed credit for this one. He focused the greedy and scattered Peachtree Streetcar effort and got the city some cash. The AJC reports that construction on the streetcar should begin in 2012 and be operational by 2013.
Whether downtown Atlanta is ready for a streetcar or a streetcar is ready for downtown Atlanta is yet to be seen.
Photo above courtesy of Kwanza Hall
Surely I’m not the only one thinking adding the streetcar to Marta & Beltline rail will make Atlanta confusing to tourists. I’ve heard rumors that a large stretch of this will even run parallel to an existing Marta line. Sounds like a wasteful use of cash to me.
Some it will run in the same direction as existing MARTA rail, but will be much more accessible since it will be on the street.
I hear there are streets that run next to Interstates. I hear there are even streets that run the same direction as other streets a mere block away! Crazy, isn’t it!
In other transportation news, Jill Chambers, the head of MARTOC, the legislature’s MARTA oversight committee, has filed for bankruptcy.
But…they’re both…trains?
Tourists in San Francisco and in New Orleans LOVE the alternate transportation modes offered there, and don’t seem a bit “confused” about their use. On a recent trip to SF, I utilized all of the following, with ease and enjoyment: BART, Amtrak, ferries, streetcars, buses, and cablecars. I even rode in three different automobiles. Plus the airplanes that took me from and to Atlanta. Oh, and I walked many miles too.
Yeah, but those street cars actually go to places people want to go. This is a tremendous waste of money in my opinion. And don’t get me started on why someone living in Arizona should have their tax money used for a city project in Georgia?
There are a hundred interesting things/places to see along the proposed route ALREADY! When such a line is built, development of more will occur. Hope you won’t miss the opportunities this will afford so many residents of the Atlanta area, as well as visitors!
I hope you are right.
Is this truly going to be a streetcar line or a bus that looks like a streetcar running on the road?
It will be a street car running on track powered by overhead wires.
I think that this streetcar has the potential to be much more than just a tourist trolley as many have derided it, connecting Centennial Park to the MLK Center.
The Edgewood/Auburn Ave corridor just east of downtown is just on the cusp of a boom (think about all of the great restaurants that have opened up over there). The streetcar will connect the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood with downtown and the existing north/south MARTA line. I would hope that a streetcar would spur all type of investment in that neighborhood to make it one of the next great neighborhoods in Atlanta. It really is one of the last great urban neighborhoods in Atlanta that got passed by for the most part in the urban renewal schemes of the 1950′s-’60′s.
Just think of the potential there.
Totally TOTALLY agree!
Agee with your observations for the most part, but as I recall urban renewal did not begin until the Va/Hi resurrection in the 70s.
Urban renweal does not refer to gentrification in general that occured in intown neighborhoods beginning the late 1970′s in places like Inman Park and Virginia Highland.
It refers to government programs in the ’50-’60 that tore down enrire blocks of buildings under the guise that these were slums and needed to be torn down for new, modern buldings that many times never came. Many great buildings downtown were torn down during this period in the name of progress.
Thanks!
G. William Domhoff’s essay describes this period well: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/local/atlanta.html.
Souces in it state that while urban renewal was meant to clear the way for downtown businesses it often competed with growing neighborhoods.
Old Fourth ward got passed over for “urban renewal”. And thank god for that.
Well said, Marshall. Edgewood/Auburn has some exciting developments from the past few years and has huge potential for growth.
This area is very rich in history and it’s a shame that it was neglected for so long after being harshly segmented by the interstate. The streetcar will undo some damage done to historic Auburn/Edgewood by the interstate overpass and connect it nicely to the rest of downtown.
Having more stuff to do in Atlanta without a car is a good thing.
I feel it should not run close to existing marta lines, however, it should have stops near marta stations, if that makes sense.
You mean that you want it to intersect existing lines at stations?
I am excited about the idea of a streetcar in that area. For one thing, it really opens up my lunch options from my office downtown to include everything at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market and the new spots up Edgewood without having to go get my car and deal with parking on both ends. I don’t think I would be alone in using it that way.
The street car line should connect to the Beltline for even more transit options. How exciting!
Ray LaHood is actually the Secretary of Transportation, not Interior.
Wow…that’s embarrassing. Thanks!
And a damn good Secretary at that !
Oh, I thought they hadn’t decide if it was gonna be a streetcar or a bus that looks like a streetcar..