Day: July 15, 2011

Georgia Realizes Revote on New License Plates Necessary

Why make decisions yourself when you can just have the Internet do it for you?

I mean, all you have to do is throw a bunch of different options up on a website.  What could be easier?  No need to even account for standardization across selections. The democratic process will sort it all out!  Right?

Uh oh, what’s this?

Georgians will get a second shot at voting for the design of a new license plate after state officials on Friday acknowledged miscommunication over whether “In God We Trust” would appear on the new tag.

…The Department of Revenue on Thursday released the three plate designs that received the most online votes, all of them featuring IGWT. This led [Revenue Commissioner Doug] MacGinnitie to determine that the confusion might have skewed the results.

…The commissioner also said his office will try and prevent voters from casting more than one ballot. Commenters on websites on both sides of the issue — urging votes for or against plates with IGWT — bragged about casting multiple votes.

Voting will begin again next week.

Atlanta Streetcar Gets Greenlight To Begin Construction

Whether you “Yay!” or “Nay!” it, you all may be interested to know that the Atlanta Streetcar project can now start tearing up the streets in downtown Atlanta.

Darrell points out this press release from the Federal Transit Administration Wednesday…

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today announced that work can begin on the Atlanta Streetcar project, which was awarded $47.6 million from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II Program in October 2010.

…The electric streetcar will run 2.6 miles through the heart of Atlanta’s business, tourism and convention corridor. Its planned 12 stops will provide access to residential, cultural, educational and historic centers, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and the Georgia Aquarium.

…The streetcar will connect with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) rail system at Peachtree Center, and with numerous area bus routes. Besides providing easy access to jobs and downtown attractions, the streetcar will spur new development in an economically distressed area. It will also reconnect the eastern and western sections of downtown, which have been separated since Interstate 75/85 was built in the 1950s. Also, the project is expected to create an estimated 930 jobs during construction and more than 5,600 jobs over the next 20 years. Service is scheduled to begin in 2013.

Free-For-All Friday 7/15/11

Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not discussed here over the past week.

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