Morning Metro: Anger Over No I-20 Transit, Another DeKalb Fight (Zzzz), Salon Covers Athens’ Walmart
Decatur Metro | February 27, 2012 | 9:42 am
- Will lack to transit to Stonecrest Mall steer DeKalb support for T-SPLOST? [AJC]
- DeKalb Commission fight #6782: What should air on TV [AJC]
- Volunteers needed to rid Mason Mill Park of invasive species [MANA]
- Cath’s House vs. Lar’s Flat [AsianCajuns]
- How Birmingham became an indie rock destination [Atlantic Cities]
- Walmart “threatens” the town R.E.M. made famous [Salon]
Photo courtesy of Madding Crowd via Flickr
I honestly don’t understand this fight for a train line to Stonecrest Mall. Is there some expectation that intowners will want to ride a train to get to the Olive Garden at Stoencrest?
The entire area around that mall looks like sprawling suburbs. Not exactly the kind of place you would expect rail transit to work. It’s more of a park and ride, commuter bus kind of spot. If a commuter bus is good enough for the suburb dwellers of Gwinnett and Cobb, why can’t it be good enough for east Dekalb?
What am I missing here? Is there some plan for urban style development near this proposed Stonecrest station that I haven’t read about?
There are tons and tons of neighborhoods that have grown around that area, and leading out there and around it, that have been somewhat neglected by MARTA (mainly black) Covington Hwy, Panola, Redan, that are heavily populated, that don’t have convenient access to rail, or in some cases, even bus. It’s got nothing to do with intown people trying to get to the mall, or Olive Garden. They really need a transit hub, not just a commuter bus that heads out in the morning and comes back at 5, (though a bus is part of this plan). My decision on SPLOST is not completely made up yet, and how this part of it is decided won’t affect my final decision, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve been dealt with fairly and I really do not like that.
Good implementation is a frequent casualty of partisan strife.
Agree pretty much with what Rebeccab said. Regardless of the extent to which south Dekalb has actually been shortchanged on transit, folks out there obviously feel like they haven’t gotten their share and that is what’s driving this opposition.
BTW, Cobb and Gwinnett don’t have rail because they didn’t want it, right?
Cobb is in for light rail, but some folks there don’t want it and there’s a big fight.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think Gwinnett & Cobb have been paying the MARTA tax for a couple of decades…
I don’t understand the continued posting for AsianCajuns. If I wanted to read their blog I would.
Wouldn’t that same sentiment apply to every link on Morning Metro? If you wanted to read the AJC or Atlantic Cities or Salon or whatever, you also would, right?
I’ll explain it again but you need to explain the source of your animosity first.
I’m almost positive — DM, please confirm — that there’s no extra credit conferred for clicking on every link, nor do we lose points for skipping over those that don’t interest us.
I find it a nice reminder to check out other local blogs- sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I like the Morning Metro links as they take me to some things I would have missed out on- and provide a much better discussion forum than on ajc comments hell.
Perhaps DM likes it, and likes to share it with his readers? Doesn’t seem too complicated to me.
I can confirm that the greater Lithonia area population (primarily but not exclusively lower and moderate-income African American) feels neglected in terms of transit services. That is one of the fasted growing areas of DeKalb and many people who live there work in the central city area. It would help with the positive vote on the tax if this population had a reason to vote yes. The appeal to minorities is how MARTA passed in the first place so many years ago.
The solution is clear. As soon as Lithonia agrees to annex all the parts of unincorporated DeKalb that make “Decatur” look bad, we give them train service! One stone, two birds dead 😉
DM – What is the picture for this morning metro related to? I could not tell if it was related to any of the links and I think it looks interesting.
The Birmingham link.
The Birmingham music scene story did not mention that Teasley used to live in Atlanta and was the founder of a recording studio in Reynoldstown.