Step It Up Atlanta!
Decatur Metro | February 7, 2011“There’s a pall that’s over this town that is unacceptable…We need a second act.” That’s Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed at last week’s Atlanta Press Club meeting, as reported by the AJC.
With Dallas’ recent hosting of the Super Bowl and Charlotte’s announcement that they had snagged the 2012 Democratic Convention, it’s easy to see how Atlanta could be sorta down on itself right now.
According to Reed, Atlanta’s 2000 decade boom spurred by the 1996 Olympics made the city complacent. With unemployment above the national average and a nearly 9 percent drop in available jobs since 2007, it’s easy to see why Atlanta would be sort of sensitive to the recent, high-profile achievements of its unofficial rivals right now.
And it’s not just Democratic mayors that want Atlanta to produce a “second act”.
Rusty Paul, a former legislator who headed the state GOP, laughed when told of Reed’s comments about Atlanta’s potential decline. “It sounds like the speech I’ve been giving,” he said. “I’m glad the mayor is talking this way. If you’re going to fail, fail big.”
“Atlanta was the regional hub of the South because it did things first; Atlanta was on the cutting edge of transportation,” Paul said. “But, after the Olympics, we sat back and coasted. We expected growth to keep coming like it would never end. We got lulled into complacency.”
No longer on the cutting edge of transportation (Dallas has apparently installed 72 miles of light-rail since 1996) and no Olympic-scale event on the books, the city of transplants needs to start acting like it believes in itself again. Because while its great fun to fight amongst ourselves over Atlanta’s direction, eventually we gotta move forward and DO something demonstrates faith in our future.
Otherwise, cities like Dallas and Charlotte will happily step in and fill the gap.
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Huh? I thought the slump had something to do with the loss of manufacturing, as when Ford and GM closed their assembly plants, and several major airlines folded operations, i.e., Eastern Airlines.
Are you sure that this isn’t called ‘Set-up, Atlanta’, as in setting us up for tax hikes for some new sports stadium?
“If you’re going to fail, fail big.”
Priceless.
I don’t get it, really. Both of these events — the Super Bowl and a national convention — move around all the time. Just because the wheel landed on “Charlotte” for the democrats doesn’t mean much of anything, really. They might have picked Charlotte for political value. Obama won NC by a very close margin in 2008, making it a ket battleground state, whereas Georgia is pretty safely in the red column.
Dallas got the super bowl because the Cowboys spent untold billions on the world’s largest high def TV, which also happens to have a retractable roof stadium built around it. Let’s just say that light rail was a very secondary factor in the NFL’s thinking. But if we are in the mood to fail big, building another football stadium with public money would be a great start.
Oh yeah, we’ve got such a good track record with big events. Remember how well the 1996 Olympics went?
Yeah.
Why be so negative! I was here then, and I am still here. Sure, there where problems, but the 1996 event was a success and helped make ATL an international city. In the past 20 years, we have hosted a super bowl, the 1994 Democratic convention and the Olympics. All those events benefited the City and region.
I have to agree with Another Rick, Unconcerned. I had a blast at the Olympics. Saw some fencing, some aquatics, some volley ball, and the men’s track and field finals. The crowds were fun and excited. And Decatur! The Olympics on the Square opened my eyes to Decatur, the town I’d been living in but pretty much ignoring for eight years. I’ll never forget it.
Dallas pus in 72 miles of light rail, while we spend $72 mil on a streetcar. Ugh.
“$72 mil on streetcar.” That isn’t even the Beltline!
Two words: “BeltLine”. (no, wait! that’s one word!)
Sorry for the overused phrase here but: “Build it and they will come…”
Technically, Street Car and Light Rail are the same thing.
They mean different things to me.
Yes, but from the standpoint of equipment and infrastructure, they’re basically the same thing.
I take the point that modern streetcars seem indistinguishable from LRT vehicles, but there’s more to it than that. LRT uses non-exclusive, mediated/signalized ROW (right of way); streetcars live on the street, with cars. Station design differs accordingly.
For sure, vehicle convergence blurs the difference; one line could have lengths of both types of operation. Let’s agree that this may be good for design flexibility but is bad for nomenclature.
I would not have responded had you said, “Streetcar and LRT can use the same vehicle technology.” However, I think this actually relates back to the post. Even more people may end up disappointed with the Beltline, if they expect LRT but find streetcars (that’s “even more” than those already ticked about roads being punched into their neighborhood). It’s probably best to expect no transit on the Beltline and raise a glass of Kool-aid if a trackless trolley goes into service eventually.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Mockingbird_Station_3.jpg/450px-Mockingbird_Station_3.jpg[/img]
DART LRT station. This photograph is the work of drumguy8800 [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Drumguy8800 ]
Also see this in the Saporta Report:
http://saportareport.com/blog/2011/02/are-atlantas-and-georgias-best-days-behind-us/
A pall? Is that anything like ennui?