Too many of my contemporaries are dying, years too young.

Debra Halpern Bernes, my high school classmate, passed away last week after fighting cancer for two years. The synagogue was full of family, friends and associates who marveled at how she had been able to keep an infectious upbeat attitude despite her pain.

For those of us who attended Grady High School 40 years ago, it was another one of those unpleasant reunions. After the service, a group of us gathered to outside the Ahavath Achim Synagogue for hugs and even a group photo. Another one of our classmates had left us.

One of the last times we had gathered was in May, 2007 when one of our most notorious classmates — Yolanda King — had passed away, again way too young. That time we gathered at the new Ebenezer Baptist Church for a multi-hour service that touched on all the varied aspects of her life.

Again a sadness, a reconfirmation that the good die young.

Debbie and Yolanda were part of that special combustion that was underway in the late 1960s and early 1970s — when Atlanta was learning to live with integration of its public schools, and deep friendships were being formed that bridged the races, religions and cliques.

Debbie was a cheerleader with a buoyant personality and one of the most popular girls in school. Yolanda gravitated to the arts and theater. I worked on the high school newspaper and was a political activist hoping to change the world.

The diversity at Grady didn’t stop there. The common ground of our campus was not always harmonious or celebrated, but many of us emerged out of that experience knowing that we had shared a special bond that would last for decades.

Debbie and I had not stayed in close touch until 2004 when she was running for a seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals.

For a variety of reasons, Debbie ended up having to three different elections for that same seat in a matter of months — and each time she participated in the debates put on by the Atlanta Press Club and broadcast by Georgia Public Broadcasting.

One of the most amazing moments for me was when one of her opponents, I believe it was Mike Sheffield, began praising Debbie Bernes for being a wonderful person and a competent prosecutor. He sounded as someone who was endorsing Bernes rather than running against her.

Over the years, Debbie and I would run into each other — most often at the Commerce Club, one of our favorite luncheon places. Two years ago, Debbie was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer, and yet she kept going to work and keeping her life as normal as possible.

Whenever I saw her, she would smile and say she was fighting as hard as she could to stay alive. Somehow, given her tremendous determination and uplifting attitude, I kept feeling that she would find a way to beat her cancer.

On Sunday, July 18, her husband Gary called Judge Robert Benham, for chief justice for the Georgia Supreme Court, and told him that Debbie wanted to talk to him. Debbie asked if he would speak at her service. She did not sound as someone who would die only two days later.

At the service, Benham also remembered when Debbie told him she had cancer, she quickly deflected the conversation and asked how he was doing.

As I was leaving the synagogue, I ran into Barbara Babbit Kaufman. She told me how her parents and Debbie’s parents had been best friends for decades and how she and Debbie had been roommates in college.

Oddly enough, I had run into Kaufman at another recent funeral — that of Ralph McGill Jr., son of legendary journalist Ralph McGill Sr., and the husband of our close friend Mary Welch.

Kaufman explained that day that she just couldn’t stay through the service.

Just a few weeks before, Kaufman had lost her husband — Richard Kaufman — to cancer, which had only been diagnosed less than two months before he died. He was only 55.

“You just do what you have to do in life,” Kaufman said in a phone conversation this Sunday. “Life goes on and life is for the living.”

Kaufman said that her mother-in-law, who she described as “amazing,” has inspired her to stay strong. Several times, Kaufman said she finds comfort in remembering “there is a time to mourn, and there is a time to dance.”

Coincidentally, Debbie and Richard Kaufman are buried almost next to each other, which also gives Barbara comfort.

While I barely knew Richard, Barbara described him as someone who connected with every one — poor, rich, black, white….

In many ways, that also described Debbie. Both of them had captured the best traits of an open Atlanta.

Inevitably that brought me back to the death of Ralph McGill Jr., 65, followed three weeks later by the death of his son, Ralph McGill III, who was only 42.

Both were the namesakes of one of the greatest leaders in Atlanta’s history — Ralph McGill Sr. — a newspaper editor who was able to help guide our city and our state through some of its most difficult days as we shifted from the Old South towards the New South.

Attending both of those funerals, back-to-back, made me all too aware of what we’ve lost. Can we as a city still lead a region and a state through the discord of our modern times?

Unfortunately, the recent deaths of Yolanda King, Debra Bernes, Richard Kaufman and two generations of McGill, will make it all the harder.

At this past week’s Regional Transit Committee meeting, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s David Emory made an interesting presentation.

A total of eight light rail projects are included in the Concept 3 plan. They would cost about $8 billion to build, and they would have an annual operating cost of $200 million.

Coincidentally, if metro Atlanta voters pass a regional sales tax for transportation, it would raise about $8 billion over 10 years.

I couldn’t help myself. I began to think about how wonderful it would be if the Atlanta region would spend most, if not all, of the new sales tax revenue on transit projects.

The eight light rail projects in the Concept 3 Plan actually would be a good starting point.

The first project was building the 22-mile loop for the Atlanta Beltline, now being planned by MARTA and Atlanta Beltline Inc.

The second light rail project was the Clifton Corridor light rail line that would connect MARTA’s North lines with the East line and Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control along the way.

The third project would be building light rail along the I-20 East corridor, a line that could extend to Rockdale County.

The fourth project would be to build light rail along the top end of I-285 between I-75 and I-85 (a transit specific study for the corridor is supposed to be done in 2012).

The fifth light rail project would be along the Northeast corridor going from Doraville, Norcross to the Gwinnett Village and the Gwinnett Area. That feasibility study is supposed to be completed later this year.

The sixth project would be to have a light rail line along the Northwest corridor in Cobb County, going along U.S. 41 from the Cumberland Mall area up to Town Center.

The seventh proposed line would be a fixed rail line along the Georgia 400 corridor — either extending the existing MARTA heavy rail line or building a light rail line towards the northern parts of Fulton County.

The eighth (and last) light rail project in the Concept 3 Plan is the Atlanta streetcar project that would go from downtown to Buckhead, and connect the tourist attractions around Centennial Olympic Park with the King Center.

The Regional Transit Committee, now chaired by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, passed a resolution this past Thursday to endorse establishing a permanent transit governing body for the Atlanta region.

The resolution was part of a “quad party” agreement between the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, the Georgia Department of Transportation and MARTA.

Never before has there been such a level of consensus among all the 10 ARC counties and all the major transportation-related entities in the state and the region. And that can only be a welcome development for the region.

But then on Friday morning, metro Atlanta leaders launched a campaign to build a “big tent coalition” to support a regional sales tax for transportation. They unveiled a plan to raise millions of dollars for the campaign to convince people to vote in favor of the sales tax.

Metro leaders brought in representatives from the cities of Phoenix, Denver and Salt Lake City to talk about how they were able to put together winning campaigns for their transportation sales tax initiatives.

In showing TV spots on their marketing campaigns, the themes were the same. We can’t pave our way out of congestion. If we want to accommodate new residents to our region, we must invest in transportation options.

Every one of those campaigns showcased light rail projects in their separate communities. And the various representatives spoke about how important it was to listen to voters before presenting a list of projects.

In Denver, leaders realized that voters were far more likely to pass a transportation sales tax if most of the dollars were to be invested in transit and rail.

The representatives from Salt Lake City, Denver and Phoenix said it was critically important to sell the sales tax as a quality of life campaign. In Utah, part of the effort included explaining to voters that no transportation projects pay for themselves, including transit.

Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, said it was all about economics and how Utah would be able to handle all its growth. Because the city has been building 70 miles of light rail, there is now $4 billion in development underway with national companies moving to Salt Lake City.

Peggy Bilsten, who worked on getting the sales tax passed in Phoenix, said the city’s “Transit 2000” campaign ended up building a 22-mile segment of light rail connecting three different cities.

“We have transit-oriented development that would blow your mind,” Bilsten said. “We got $600 million from the federal government.”

Maria Garcia, who worked on the Denver effort, did make a back-handed comment. “The longer you guys take to get your act together, the better it will be for us,” she said.

That reminded me of what the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told Georgians when he was in Atlanta nearly a year ago. He said Georgia would get left behind in transportation funding if it didn’t get its act together on transit and rail.

The region can decide whether the referendum of 2012 will be a game-changer and help pay for transit once and for all, or whether it will be more of the same — spending the region’s limited dollars on roads and bridges.

For the first time in decades, the Atlanta region has an opportunity to invest substantial dollars in transit, be able to leverage federal funds and to encourage transit-friendly developments.

Let’s not blow it.

Crosswalks. Some would rather watch paint dry than talk about crosswalks.

But well-designed crosswalks can make all the difference in the world when it comes to developing a city that welcomes pedestrians.

Atlanta’s crosswalks — or lack there of — is one of my pet peeves. There’s probably no better barometer about how pedestrian-friendly a city is than the way it designs and maintains its crosswalks.

Friends of mine roll their eyes when I start talking about the beauty of painted piano keys that safely outline the space reserved for those walking from one side of the street to the other.

Those wide white-painted stripes command respect for pedestrians and clearly communicate to cars their boundaries.

To reinforce the message, some cities change the pavement type right before a crosswalk by putting several feet of rough stones, causing drivers to put on their brakes without even realizing it.

In the United States, all too often, our streets are designed for cars with smooth pavement so drivers can have as comfortable (and speedy) a ride as possible.

(I’ll never forget visiting with a transportation planner in Belgium 30 years ago who showed me a street designed with several obstacles — sharp turns, zig-zags and changes in pavement — forcing cars to slow down for the safety of pedestrians).

It’s counter-intuitive to our culture to design our streets for pedestrians, cyclists and transit — especially if those modes hinder the ease of travel for cars.

And yet, we wonder why our cities don’t have that human touch — why people seem to be second-class citizens to our automobiles.

As a way to illustrate my point, I took pictures of crosswalks on my recent trip to Paris. I know, some people take pictures of beautiful monuments and landscapes, and here I am taking pictures of crosswalks.

But if you bear with me, you too might see the beauty in wonderful crosswalk design.

Some could argue the chicken-and-egg argument. Does Paris have great crosswalks because it has so many pedestrians? Or are there more pedestrians because there are well-marked crosswalks?

Of course, a city’s street-level experience is far more multi-dimensional than how a crosswalk is painted. But I would argue that there are few initiatives as easy and as cheap that a city can take to become more pedestrian-friendly. In other words, if we want to become more people-oriented, crosswalk design is a good place to begin.

In the last few years, a less-than-satisfactory agreement was made with the Georgia Department of Transportation to adopt a ladder design for crosswalks on state roads. That design has been adopted on many other streets as well.

The argument for this “solution” was that cars would have plenty of space to ride over the crosswalk without rolling over the paint lines, which would reduce maintenance costs.

But as you can tell from the photos, this solution isn’t working. Even when fully painted, the crosswalks don’t give pedestrians a sense of protection. And often drivers ignore that the lines (or pedestrians) are even there, especially when making that all-too-dangerous right-turn-on-red.

The problem could become even worse than that.

After several years with some improvements in pedestrian safety, we might be slipping backwards.

In the most recent newsletter of PEDS, the pedestrian advocacy organization, a reference was made about the possibility of removing crosswalks altogether at intersections of thoroughfares not controlled by traffic signals.

If that policy change gets implemented, streets like Ponce de Leon could end up not having any crosswalks for blocks — a move that would increase jaywalking and the likelihood of accidents between pedestrians and cars. Certainly, that’s not a positive direction for us. PEDS is working with the Atlanta Regional Commission to make sure pedestrian safety is taken into account.

Given the power of the automobile in our society, we must be ever-vigilant that pedestrians are not run over by transportation engineers wanting to design streets primarily for cars.

We must keep working towards the day when our streets are designed for feet first before moving up the food-chain to bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses.

To get there, many factors are important: the type of traffic signals that are installed; wide sidewalk; medians where pedestrians can pause while crossing a multi-lane street; handicapped access with safe curb-cuts; bicycle lanes wider than a couple of feet; comfortable bus stops with seating; the list goes on.

In the meantime, I’ll keep talking about crosswalks — well-painted crosswalks with long, wide bars that can serve as stepping stones across our busy roads.

More people living downtown is key to creating a vibrant center city for the Atlanta region.

That is the view of Paul Kelman, executive vice president of Central Atlanta Progress, who recently announced his retirement effective July 16 after 22 years with the downtown business organization.

Kelman is the longest-serving employee in CAP’s 70-year history — providing continuity for the organization through at least seven different presidents, and even filling in as interim president during one of its transition periods.

He is the one member of CAP’s staff who dates back to the tenure of legendary president Dan Sweat — who led the organization during the pivotal 1970s and 1980s — when Atlanta’s political power shifted from white leadership to black leadership with the election of the late Mayor Maynard Jackson.

In a wide-ranging interview, Kelman share his thoughts about the challenges that downtown has faced over the last couple of decades and the potential that lies ahead.

Kelman first moved to Atlanta in 1963 to attend Georgia Tech. In 1973, Dan Sweat, who was then running the Atlanta Regional Commission, asked him to join the metro planning organization in the environmental division.

“Dan hired me, and two weeks later, he went to Central Atlanta Progress,” Kelman said.

Later Kelman became planning director for Gwinnett County. And in 1988, Sweat reached out to him again.

“Dan called me and asked if I would consider working at CAP,” Kelman said. “I came over, and two weeks later he went to work for the CF Foundation.”

In 1988, Kelman said downtown was an exciting place. Plans for new office towers had been announced — the 191 building and what is now SunTrust Plaza. Atlanta’s downtown department stores — Rich’s and Macy’s — were still retail hubs. The city was revamping Underground Atlanta. And a couple of years later, Atlanta was selected to host the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

“We were riding pretty high,” Kelman said. “If it were not for the Olympics, I don’t know what we would have been doing. Downtown was a great beneficiary of so much that the Olympics brought here.”

In his mind, Kelman believes that the greatest contribution that the Olympics brought to downtown was its first wave of new residences thanks to projects developed by Jim Borders and John Aderhold.

“That was our mantra — market-rate housing,” Kelman said. “We had been trying for a number of years to get more market-rate housing in downtown.”

Today, downtown Atlanta has about 10,000 residents within a four-mile radius, which is a definite increase from the mid-1990s when most of the central city residents were living in public housing. Now, most of those public housing projects have been replaced with mixed-income residences where people of all income groups live side-by-side.

“The key to making downtown Atlanta a better place, a healthier place, is ultimately populating this place with people who live here — not just students, not just tourists, convention goers, office workers or government workers,” Kelman said. “All the great downtowns in the world have people living in them.”

Much of the work Kelman has been doing in his 22 years at CAP has revolved around making the downtown environment more welcoming. The key word here has been patience.

Kelman is optimistic that the city’s new zoning codes will insure that all future development will be more pedestrian-friendly with wider sidewalks and street-level storefronts.

While sometimes there seems to be a “project-de-jour” mentality, what is most needed is persistence.

In the past year, CAP has installed elegant sidewalk kiosks to get away from the sloppy vendor look that has plagued downtown.

“There’s not enough follow-through,” Kelman said. “The new kiosks – that took years. It took 15 years to get our way-finding signs done.”

Also Kelman has seen Atlanta lose momentum, certainly when it comes to transit.

“We were way ahead of the game for a time with the visions for MARTA,” Kelman said. “Now suddenly we’re lagging.”

Kelman said a major turning point for downtown occurred when Gov. Roy Barnes was not re-elected in 2002.

“So much of Barnes’ agenda would have benefitted downtown Atlanta — commuter rail and transit for the metro area,” Kelman said. “We basically lost eight years. North Carolina, Texas and Florida won billions of dollars from the federal government. We never followed through on what had been a very promising start.”

Kelman said creating a partnership between the city and the state is critically important going forward.

“If the city and state had a more cooperative relationship to get things down, that would be outstanding,” he said. “The city and state have such a dramatic stake in downtown. I hate to see politics get in the way of doing the right thing.”

Looking forward, Kelman believes it’s only a matter a time before downtown and Midtown will grow together and become the true central business district of the Atlanta region — a trend that has been underway for the past decade.

As to his own future, Kelman intends to travel with his wife and spend more time at their second home in Ashville. He also takes great pride in having mentored about 50 interns at CAP, many of whom have become leaders of their own organizations and “making their mark on the world.”

But his passion for downtowns — especially downtown Atlanta — will never fade.

And if he had a magic wand for downtown, what would he wish more?

“More people living down here,” Kelman answered. “If we had the opportunity to double or triple our residential population, that’s No. 1 on our list. That would do more to reinvigorate the city than anything else. We definitely are not finished building housing downtown. It will just take a little longer.”

By Maria Saporta

The magic number on Saturday was 2.5.

Jim and Sarah Kennedy donated $2.5 million to the Atlanta Beltline.

Kaiser-Permanente also donated $2.5 million to the Atlanta Beltline.

And their combined $5 million gift will build 2.5 miles of a multi-purpose trail stretching from Monroe Drive at Piedmont Park to DeKalb Avenue.

On Saturday, there was a celebration to announce both gifts and the latest development plans for the Beltline — a 22-mile corridor that will lasso intown Atlanta.

The long term vision for the Beltline calls for green space with miles of bicycle and pedestrian trails, a transit line and new multi-use development along the mostly-unused rail corridor.

The announcement of the “East Side” trail gave the couple hundred people present (a large portion of which were Kaiser-Permanente employees) a reason to celebrate.

“We can’t miss moments like this,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said while thanking all the donors to the Beltline. “This is the beginning of another exciting project — the East Side trail.”

The trail should be completed a year from now. It is a joint project of Atlanta Beltline Inc. and the PATH Foundation, which in 2011 will celebrate 20 years of building multiple bicycle and pedestrian corridors throughout the region.

“None of them are more important than the trail we’re standing on,” said Ed McBrayer, PATH’s executive director. “We are going to help build 33 miles of trails around Atlanta. It will be a way for Atlantans to get around the city. I think this is about as important event we can have in Atlanta, and I’m proud to be part of it.”

For many in town, it’s been a long time coming.

The Kennedys had put a deadline on their gift to guarantee that the trail project moved ahead after years of plans and discussion. And yet among some Beltline advocates, there was concern that the project was being rushed.

In many ways, both views are true.

The Beltline project was first proposed in 2002 by then Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard and Georgia Tech graduate student Ryan Gravel. The idea gained momentum in 2005 when consultants determined the 22-mile project could be built out in 25 years and could generate $1.4 billion in property taxes during that period.

Since then, portions of the Atlanta Beltline has been planned and re-planned multiple times.

First, the Northeast corridor of the Beltline (where the new trail is being built) was first bought by Gwinnett developer Wayne Mason from Norfolk Southern railroad. Mason, and his politically well-connected team, completed fairly detailed plans of how the corridor could accommodate trails, transit and new development.

But his development plans also included two residential towers — up to 40 stories — right at the corner of 10th and Monroe streets adjacent to Piedmont Park. His plans were passionately opposed by surrounding neighborhoods, and Mason ended up selling the property making a significant profit. The land eventually was acquired by the city.

Since the Mason plans, there have been a series of other planning efforts for the northeast corridor.

The city’s planning department had completed fairly extensive plans for most of the Beltline corridor. Then those plans were put on the back-burner when Atlanta Beltline Inc. was established, creating a whole new bureaucracy. The ABI also hired a host of consultants to design plans in different sections of the corridor.

The most recent development was in February when the official team was selected — Perkins+Will, including Leo Alvarez, John Threadgill and Gravel; and the firm of James Corner Field Operations, which recently completed the design of the High Line in New York City.

Members of the design team have not yet completed the plans on how the corridor could best accommodate the alignment of the proposed transit line with the PATH trail.

The thought among some is that it’s better to wait until those plans are finalized before building out the trail. The hope has been to avoid having to rip out and rebuild parts of the trail when the transit portion is built out — which could happen in another five to 10 years.

While there is merit to that argument, there also is merit to those who believe there’s been enough planning and talking, and that now it’s time to start building out parts of the Beltline.

Mayor Reed, who inherited the project from former Mayor Shirley Franklin, has been quite vocal in his interest in accelerating the Beltline project. Without a doubt, there is pent up demand to actually see projects built along the corridor after years of discussion and debate.

In this case, there has been added pressure from the private donors who have been waiting for years for the development of a trail that connecting Piedmont Park with Freedom Park with plans to extend the trail to Grant Park.

The Beltline Partnership, which is the private sector group raising non-government money for the project, has raised $35.2 million towards its $60 million fundraising goal.

The two most recent gifts are viewed as a catalyst for getting the project moving.

Peter Andruszkiewicz, president of Kaiser Permanente of Georgia Inc., said the gift for the trail is being made to “help Atlantans live well and thrive” by providing more opportunities for exercise.

“It fits our mission perfectly in giving back to the community,” Andruszkiewicz said. “It’s the confluence of all those things — connecting communities with healthy living.”

As the City of Atlanta progresses in the planning and implementation of the Beltline, it must strike a delicate balance between moving forward and developing the best design possible and moving forward in a reasonable timeframe.

As Mayor Reed said, the Beltline has captured the attention of top federal officials, including Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Reed said that on a recent trip to Atlanta, Donovan toured the Beltline and thought it was “one of the most comprehensive developments” in the country. Certainly the Beltline project fits in well with the priorities of the Obama administration — to combine land-use, transportation and environmental policies in a way that promotes vibrant cities and communities.

During his talk along the Beltline this past Saturday, Mayor Reed told the dozens gathered in the hot sun: “I thank you so much for believing in the Atlanta Beltline and making Atlanta a truly world-class city.”

Maybe the second time will be the charm.

The City of Atlanta hopes the federal government will give its streetcar plan a green light during the second round of TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grants.

City leaders are presenting their revised streetcar proposal to the Atlanta City Council this week and need the full council’s approval before July 16 when pre-applications are to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Atlanta and Georgia did not fare well during the first round of TIGER grants — when $1.5 billion were distributed to transportation projects across the nation. In the first round, the federal government was offering 100 percent of the funding.

This round is not quite as generous. Only $600 million will be allocated in this round, and all projects will require at least a 20 percent local match to secure 80 percent in federal funds.

But the City of Atlanta is not deterred.

In the current application, the city is proposing a 2.6 mile East-West loop that would have 13 stops between Centennial Olympic Park and the historic district along Edgewood and Auburn avenues, going as far as the King Center.

The total project cost $72.1 million, and the city plans to apply for $52 million in federal funding and provide $20 million in local funding, according to Luz Borrero, deputy chief operating officer for the City of Atlanta.

By comparison, in the first round of TIGER grants, the city applied for nearly $300 million for 9.2 miles — including the East-West loop as well as building out the first phase of a streetcar on Peachtree Street going up towards Brookwood Station.

“We learned from the first time around what the U.S. DOT wanted,” Borrero said, adding that federal officials wanted to projects to serve as many people as possible and that they wanted to see “local enthusiasm” for projects. “I was told: ‘We really want to see more skin in the game.’”

As part of this application, the city is proposing to invest $10 million in general obligation bonds and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District will provide the other $10 million.

The streetcar proposal has the strong backing of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who has been promoting the project whenever he’s had meetings with federal officials.

This time the mayor also can point to the recent passage of a transportation bill in the Georgia legislature — a bill that will permit regions around the state to vote on a 1-cent sales tax in 2012.

The city’s application, however, doesn’t anticipate revenue from that tax or from the state for this round of TIGER grants.

It is estimated that the East-West loop will cost about $2.2 million a year to operate. The city is proposing to provide $1 million in annual operating funds would come from hotel-motel taxes and car-rental taxes. The remaining $1.2 million in operating funds would come from fares, and possible revenues from advertising, concessions as well as from tourist venues.

Because this phase of the streetcar project is only located in downtown Atlanta, the Midtown Alliance and the Buckhead community are not currently involved. But it is anticipated they would join in when the city is able to develop/expand the streetcar up and down Peachtree Street.

Ultimately, the idea would be to have a streetcar running North-South from Fort McPherson to Brookhaven as well as the East-West loop.

If the Atlanta City Council approves the project and the city submits its pre-application proposal on July 16, then the formal application will be due August 23. The federal government is expected to decide by the end of the year which communities will receive the TIGER II grants.

“I think it’s going to be as competitive as the previous round,” Borrero said. “I don’t think it’s going to be any less difficult to compete for these funds.”

Hundreds of communities applied for TIGER grants in the first round. Georgia ended up with nothing. The same was true with high speed rail grant dollars. Although several neighboring states won substantial grants, Georgia received only a few planning dollars.

Unfortunately, Georgia is at a political disadvantage in getting federal funds. All of the top state leaders are Republican, including the governor, the lieutenant governor, speaker of the house and the two U.S. senators. That means state leaders have limited access to key members of President Barack Obama’s administration.

Interestingly enough, these TIGER grants will be announced after the November election when there is an even chance that Georgia voters will elect a Democratic governor.

Of course, it’s too early to know what impact the November elections would have on Atlanta’s streetcar grant.

At least Atlanta has not given up on the idea of developing streetcars as a way to round out its transit network — complementing its MARTA rail and bus system.

“To me this project is a generational project,” Borrero said. “This will create a complete transformation in downtown and the overall Edgewood corridor.”

Perhaps Atlanta’s fortunes will improve during this round of grants. If the U.S. DOT endorses the streetcar project, then Georgia will finally be able to re-enter the transit game.

A transit evolution is underway in metro Atlanta.

But what form it will take is still a mystery.

What key regional leaders do know — the status quo is no longer acceptable.

The incremental progress for transit is literally running on parallel tracks.

On one track is the state legislature and the state government. After several years of inaction, the state legislature passed a transportation bill that will permit regions to vote on a penny sales tax two years from now.

The bill was flawed, however, because it singled out MARTA — stipulating that none of those sales tax revenues could go to existing MARTA operations. The bill also mandated a new governance structure for the MARTA board and established a transit subcommittee to review how the region will invest in transit and who will make those decisions.

On the second track is the multi-year effort to create a regional transit plan and governance body — a process driven by leaders from the Atlanta region.

That effort, currently known as the Regional Transit Committee of the Atlanta Regional Commission, held a daylong retreat on June 2 when several ground-breaking developments occurred that could have a major impact on where we go as a region.

The goal for the retreat was to come up with a governance structure for transit in the region and to elect a chairman and vice chairman.

But perhaps the most significant development that occurred at the retreat was when MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott and Kirk Fjelstul, interim director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority urged the group to be bold.

Up until now, the consensus has been to create a new regional transit oversight committee enabling each of the operators — MARTA, Cobb County Transit, GRTA Xpress buses and others — to keep their autonomy.

In short, under this model, there would be no consolidation of individual transit operations and therefore limited opportunities for operational cost savings. That means each entity would continue to have its own human resources, legal, finance, security departments.

“We have got a real opportunity and a platform to really consider transit governance,” Fjelstul said. “We want to make sure that with the transit funding we have, the public needs to have confidence that we will spend it well.”

Scott said this was an opportunity to truly integrate regional transit.

Tad Leithead, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, admitted that the reason the umbrella model had been proposed was because there was “a certain amount of comfort” to keep each entity intact.

But with GRTA and MARTA leaders urging for greater consolidation, Leithead said it was time to revisit the issue.

“If those two most significant agencies would like to do something more bold, more aggressive and more significant, we can do that in this room,” Leithead said at the retreat.

Although proposing a consolidated metro transit agency wasn’t on the agenda of the Regional Transit Committee work session, the idea and the opportunity is real.

And now the metro leadership to help mold the future for transit in the region is in place.

At the retreat, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was elected chairman of the transit effort, and Gwinnett County Chairman Charles Bannister was elected vice chairman. The balance was both symbolic and significant. A mayor and a county chairman. A MARTA jurisdiction and a suburban county. Two localities that have transit and need more.

And both Reed and Bannister, who served together in the legislature, acknowledge that the transportation bill just signed by the governor did not do enough for MARTA and transit.

In an earlier conversation before he was elected chairman, Reed was asked whether he agreed with critics who believe MARTA was shortchanged in the transportation bill.

“I think the criticism is fair,” Reed said, adding that the bill is helping MARTA in the near-term by removing the restriction that half of its sales tax revenue must go to capital and half to operating for three years.

“We now have the opportunity to move the conversation around MARTA, and in subsequent years improve the legislation,” Reed said. “In another legislative session, you will continue to improve the bill.”

After the retreat, Reed said: “I’m just ready to go to work. I think this is a strong partnership, and I want to be a strong partner to the region.”

Bannister said it was “time to get something done.” The region has spent years talking about transit, and Bannister said that “I would like to pick it up a notch and move forward.”

Specifically, Bannister said the transportation bill needed to be improved. “Certainly we’ve got to do more for transit in another bill,” he said.

The retreat also agreed on a governance structure for a new transit agency — even though this proposal did not take into account what a consolidated transit system could look like.

The group agreed that the 20 counties that are included in the “Concept 3” regional transit plan would be eligible to be part of the new governance structure.

But to have voting rights, all representatives on the new board would have to have to meet some “pay to play” standard For example, a county would have to have put in place some kind of funding for transit to have a vote on the board.

The group also decided that each participating county would select a mayor from that county to serve on the board. Plus, the mayor of Atlanta automatically would be on that board.

Lastly, the board would include an appointee by the governor, the lt. governor and the speaker of the house. There was some discussion about whether the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation would have a seat on the board.

The sensitivity on this issue is that the State of Georgia, with the exception of GRTA buses, has not provided regular financial support to the region’s transit operations, particularly MARTA.

The RTC group also is studying how to design a weighted voting system so that the more populated counties that contribute the most to transit will have a proportional voice on the board.

At the same time this work is going on, the legislature also has its transit governance subcommittee, and it is unknown how much coordination there will be between the legislative efforts and the Atlanta region’s efforts.

But Leithead he sees both efforts melding into one rather than ending up in a head-on collision.

“The Regional Transit Committee and the legislative Transit Subcommittee will collaborate because there’s so much overlap,” Leithead said.

But the real opportunity that is unfolding is that the Atlanta region is starting to think about consolidating all our disparate transit agencies into one integrated system — fulfilling the original vision of four decades ago when MARTA was supposed to be a five-county transit agency.

“I think there will be a commitment to have a fully integrated transit system,” Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker said after the work session. “I think there will be a commitment to do this, but there will need to be a transition plan.”

At least now we have a courageous goal to work on — creating a regional Atlanta transit system once and for all.

What’s a socially- and environmentally-conscious consumer supposed to do?

I haven’t bought gas at an Exxon station since 1989 following the disastrous oil spill of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit a reef in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989.

It was a matter of principle. Exxon’s response to the oil spill was slow, defensive and insensitive. All these years, I have not wanted to spend my money on a company like Exxon.

On the other hand, I truly believed BP was worthy of my money.

I really got to see what BP was made of back in 2000 when I was working on a column about our upcoming smog season.

At the time, the state of Georgia had passed requirements for gasoline companies to sell cleaner low-sulfur fuel by May 1, 2003 in metro Atlanta in time to meet federal clean-fuel standards that were being phased in between 2004 and 2006.

Every gasoline company said there was no way they would be able to meet the demand for low-sulfur fuel by 2003. All but one — BP Amoco.

Instead of fighting the new standards, BP Amoco had started selling low-sulfur gas in 1999 and was able to sell the cleaner premium fuel at its 400 stations in the 25-county metro area for the smog season of 2000.

At the time, BP officials said it was not a matter of meeting state or federal requirements, it was a matter of the company’s corporate philosophy to be an environmental leader.

Over the years, I followed BP’s environmental policies from afar. Sir John Browne (who later became Lord John Browne), who was CEO of the company until 2007, declared that BP was not an oil company but an energy company. In fact, its advertising line became “BP – Beyond Petroleum.”

The company joined the Business Environmental Leadership Council; it supported the Kyoto accord; and Bowne echoed precautions about global warming as far back as 1997; and in 1998, Browne committed to reducing the company’s CO2 emissions by 10 percent by 2010.

That wasn’t all. BP began transforming its gas stations — installing solar panels to reduce its use of fossil fuels. It even redesigned its logo to look like a sun with green, yellow and white rays.

Former Morehouse College President Walter Massey served on BP’s board, and chaired the company’s Ethics and Environment Assurance Committee before retiring from the board in 2008. He and I had had several conversations about how BP was different from other petroleum companies.

And in BP’s mission statement, one of its values is to carry on its “business in an environmentally responsible manner, and develop cleaner energy and renewable energy sources.” The mission went on to say that BP was “committed to the responsible treatment of the planet’s resources and to the development of sources of lower-carbon energy.”

Because of those tangible and intangible environmental policies, I always felt good about buying gas from BP stations. I even didn’t mind spending a few extra pennies per gallon when there would be a competing gas stations offering a cheaper price.

And then came the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 (ironically Hitler’s birthday).

As much as I would like to give BP the benefit of the doubt, it has been distressing to see how unprepared the company and its partners were to deal with such a catastrophe.

Also, from my perspective, it seemed as though BP kept minimizing the problem — underestimating how many barrels of oil were spilling every day in the gulf — floating to Louisiana’s shores.

And BP’s efforts to try to stop the leak could be called a comedy of errors if the situation wasn’t so tragic.

There’s such a feeling of helplessness when one witnesses disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti; or man-made catastrophes like the oil spill in the gulf on the oil spill in Alaska.

So when I decide where or where not to spend my money, it makes me feel as though I’m doing something — as small as it might be.

But now I’m at a loss. I certainly don’t plan to start buying gas from Exxon, but I will think twice before I buy gas from BP.

What is a socially- and environmentally-conscious consumer supposed to do?

The only answer I can think of is to try to reduce the amount of gas I use, thereby spending as little money as possible contributing to the profits and sins of oil companies.

Something was wrong.

Walking along Auburn Avenue during the Sweet Auburn Festival, we stopped by the crypts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King — one of the most sacred spots in Atlanta.

We sat next to the eternal flame and realized that the coals were cold and the eternal flame had been extinguished.

How could that be? Wasn’t an eternal flame supposed to burn forever?

Underneath the flame, there was a plaque saying that the eternal flame had recently been refurbished by the Atlanta Gas Light Co., the keeper of our city’s Shining Light Awards.

So sitting there, I sent an email to John Somerhalder, CEO of AGL Resources, the parent company of Atlanta Gas Light. I thought he would want to know that the eternal flame was not lit.

Somerhalder sent me back an email that evening saying he was out of town, but that he would look into it.

All sorts of thoughts entered my twisted head. What if the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change not been able to pay its gas bill? Or was the flame under the purview of the National Park Service? And if so, did federal budget cuts blow out the eternal flame?

Then I researched the internet to see if there had been any reports of the flame being out.

In the frequently-asked-questions page on Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, one of the questions was: “Why is the eternal flame not lit?”

The answer on the website was: “The flame is always lit. Sometimes it is difficult to see during the day.”

But when we had sat by the flame, the sun was setting and the flame definitely wasn’t lit.

I then decided to email my friend Isaac Farris, who has served as the King Center’s president for the past five years.

He emailed me back to let me know that the eternal flame was indeed the responsibility of the King Center.

“As you may know, the current flame is a result of an upgrade done a year-and-a-half ago, but the technology is new and Atlanta Gas Light is still working through the glitches,” Farris said.

So I shared that info with Somerhalder. The ball was back in his court.

A few days later, I got a voicemail from Eric Greenwood, Atlanta Gas Light’s regional manager for most of Fulton and DeKalb counties.

“Our flame is back glowing wonderfully at the King Center,” Greenwood said, adding that he would be happy to talk about what happened.

Finally, this past Friday, we connected.

Greenwood said the first eternal flame for MLK was installed in the 1980s, and that over the years, that technology had become a bit antiquated. Last year, Atlanta Gas Light and the King Center had “an opportunity to do something a little more worthy.”

They studied other flame designs, and picked a bigger caldron that would be more dramatic and respectful of the memories of Mr. and Mrs. King.

“We picked one people could see from the street,” Greenwood said. “There’s an electric ignition so the flame will reignite itself.”

The new flame was dedicated on April 4, 2009 on the 41st anniversary of MLK’s death. Greenwood found it especially touching talking to out-of-town visitors who were obviously moved by seeing the crypt, the reflecting pool and the eternal flame.

After hearing that the flame was out, the gas company checked it out and realized that a pilot line needed to be replaced. Efforts were made to reach the vendor, but the company had gone out of business.

“We ordered that part and fixed it,” Greenwood said. “We continue to do daily monitoring.”

He also said the Atlanta Gas Light does cleaning and maintenance on the flame on a quarterly basis.

Then Greenwood said: “We take great pride in the eternal flame.”

And that’s the way it should be.

Shine on.

If Atlanta feels a bit more flush with lofy ideas this week, credit the Congress for the New Urbanism.

The 18th annual meeting of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU18) will bring more than 1,000 architects, planners and related professionals to Atlanta from Wednesday through Saturday.

The theme of CNU18 is “New Urbanism: Rx for Healthy Places.”

Two of Atlanta’s bright lights — Georgia Tech professor Ellen Dunham-Jones and architect Laura Heery Prozes — have been the local organizers of CNU18. They have explored every avenue to find ways for the Atlanta region to benefit from this influx of urban leaders.

They are partnering with a host of local organizations — from Central Atlanta Progress, the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Regional Commission, Southface, the Beltline, PATH to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — as a way to connect with the professionals who will be Atlanta for three exciting days.

“It’s an opportunity for Atlantans to learn more about sustainable urban design practices and for us to leverage the talent coming to town to advance better design and policies here,” Dunham-Jones wrote me in Atlanta.

She also added that the organization will try to answer the question of how can Atlanta better position itself to receive federal funding.

As part of CNU18, there will be a series of “urban labs,” when attendees will help metro Atlantans advance their thinking on how to make downtown more water-efficient; how to connect downtown with the Beltline and the Cumberland Community Improvement District by bicycle; how to help rejuvenate towns along the route of the Athens-Atlanta-Macon passenger rail line, Dunham-Jones said.

Several dignataries also will be involved with the program.

On Wednesday evening, David Byrne, the frontman of Talking Heads, will be the keynote speaker at the Tabernacle. But instead of singing about Psycho Killers, Byrne will be talking about cities and bicycles.

Another keynote speaker will be U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan. On Friday morning, he will talk about “Partnering to Support Sustainable Communities.”

One of the founders of the Congress, architect Andres Duany, also will be part of the program. Innovative architect and planner Peter Calthrope of California also will be part of the program.

Dunham-Hones said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell, developers, designers, public health officials, architects and planners all will participate in the program.

There will be programs on transit-oriented-developments with MARTA officials. And Dunham-Jones will speak about her expertise — Retrofitting Suburbia.

In addition to her session, Dunham-Jones said there will be breakout meetings on implementation and finance, sustainable transportation, green design, code reform, affordability and aging, planning for water stewardship, public policy, public places, and social equity with public health issues woven throughout.”

For more the complete schedule, click on www.cnu.org/cnu18. http://www.cnu.org/cnu18/

Dunham-Jones said that within CNU18, there will be an all-day “Next Gen” conference, which is a free event and does not require any registration. It is targeted to people who are in their 20s and 30s, but it’s open to everyone. Next Gen will be held at the downtown Hilton on May 20. That will be followed by a Thursday night pub crawl. Clicke here for more info. to http://cnunextgen.org/

There also will be another free workshop on Wednesday, May 19 on “Building safer streets for healthier neighborhoods. That session will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the downtown Atlanta Hilton in Salon C.

In short, the Congress for the New Urbanism is a wonderful opportunity for Atlanta to broaden its thinking about the links between good urban design, healthier communities and a high quality of life.

Welcome to town CNU18.