Comments on: Why Grady and not MARTA? Why have business and civic leaders saved Grady and not MARTA?

By: To the contrary — business community does support MARTA and transit « SaportaReport

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:06:42 +0000

[...] recent SaportaReport column accused the business community of neglecting [...]

By: Mason Hicks

Mason Hicks — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:37:59 +0000

Maria, apologies for going off topic…

By: Mason Hicks

Mason Hicks — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:36:33 +0000

We’ll see if the cross-Asia high-speed rail is really a “money pit” when Asia and Europe are completely linked via high-speed rail. We will start noticing the effects long before any trains start running. We are in fact funding it with our debt-service funds to the Chinese treasury. Thanks to that and our Wal-Mart convenience, China has the money to fill many pits. This is in fact, a huge resource grab, with potential ramifications more far-reaching than the proposed rail network itself. China is making deals with the affected countries which would effectively turn over to China, control of the natural resources within their boundaries. An example of this is that Cnina is reported to be conducting talks with Myanmar concerning control of the country’s entire reserves of Lithium in exchange for China’s funding of the proposed rail system through this country, which is vital for linking India with the Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the rest of South Asia. Obviously, Myanmar is not a country that we are prepared to trust in any business relationship, but China’s actions here do shed alot of light on what their motivations may be. And remember also that Lithium when an element which will be vital in that it could become as important as oil in the coming decades. China is shrewd. I really hope that we’re paying attention.

By: Yr1215

Yr1215 — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:35:49 +0000

Density and transit are a bit of a chicken and egg problem. They both serve each other, and one doesn’t work well without the other. If you build transit, that is great. But it doesn’t work without upzoning the surrounding area and providing development incentives to build the demand for the transit. Otherwise, the transit just becomes a moneypit (which is what China’s cross asia high speed rail will be for sure). Of course I love high speed rail (or moderate speed rail) where it makes sense.

It’s crazy to think Hartsfield’s tram serves almost as many people every day as all of MARTA rail.

By: ACC 12 Booster

ACC 12 Booster — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:01:17 +0000

Yr1215:
“Ok. It’s officially a conspiracy. Everyone in Atlanta, even those at CNN, are hooked on Charlotte’s new transit, ignoring 30 years of transit in Atlanta, and the planned (but admittedly speculative) addition of the Beltline.”

“Arghhh…. oh well.”

Nah, no conspiracy, Atlantans just seem to think Charlotte is on hot on their tails while everyone else just wants to be close to Charlotte’s big banks and their what-used-to-be multiple trillions, even in the midst of a severe economic slump caused in part by those banks!

By: ACC 12 Booster

ACC 12 Booster — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:29:45 +0000

Yr1215, alot of that demand for potentially increased intown residential densities will come with the eventual development of those TWDROW corridors along major routes. Once a committment is made to develop those TWDROW corridors on routes like Peachtree, for example, Atlanta is primed for an unfathomable amount of domestic and, especially, foreign investment. Being the site of the Summer Olympics, combined with being home to the world’s busiest passenger airport has really helped to pole vault Atlanta to a level of the international consciousness that I’m not even sure many of the local political leaders are aware of.

One of the cities that you used to compare against Atlanta’s density, Washington D.C., is already the number one market for foreign real estate and business investment in the United States because of the city’s status as the political capital of the free world. D.C.’s population growth, while being very heady, still hasn’t been as explosive as Atlanta’s population growth over the last decade. With Atlanta’s usually annual explosive population growth, an international community that is growing to be more and more dominant, and a position and location as one of the world’s great transportation nexuses, Atlanta could potentially leave D.C. in the dust in the amount of foreign real estate and business investment that it could attract if our political leaders ever decided to exercise the political will and leadership and vision to make substantial investments in transportation infrastructure.

By: Yr1215

Yr1215 — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:02:39 +0000

Maria, since a lot of your articles are about transit, why don’t you just create a permanent transit blog comment section to your website so that we (the transit nuts) can blather on about this endlessly?

Call it The Atlanta Transit Forum, or some such thing.

By: Yr1215

Yr1215 — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:59:46 +0000

Ok. It’s officially a conspiracy. Everyone in Atlanta, even those at CNN, are hooked on Charlotte’s new transit, ignoring 30 years of transit in Atlanta, and the planned (but admittedly speculative) addition of the Beltline.

Arghhh…. oh well.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/01/infrastructure.rebuild/index.html?hpt=C1

By: Yr1215

Yr1215 — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:54:53 +0000

And I know midtown’s FAR cap is 11. So I know how ridiculous this idea is. The more I think about it though, the more I love it.

By: Yr1215

Yr1215 — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:51:52 +0000

Here’s a bizarre notion.

Were it not so detrimental to Atlanta’s tax base, and if I were temporary dictator, I would waive property taxes for 50 years for any developer (and the subsequent owners) who build any residential property (and perhaps commercial too) with an FAR over 20. The offer to sunset after 5 years.

Now that would liven things up.