The Atlanta region’s 28th LINK trip will be headed to the Greater Washington D.C. area, beginning on Aug. 20 through Aug. 23.
The focus this year will be on the suburban communities outside Washington D.C. in Maryland and Virginia.
The suburban-focused trip is a stark contrast to the 2024 LINK trip that was held in New York City, where the prevailing theme was for Atlanta to “Think Big” about creating a thriving urban area.
By comparison, the 2025 LINK trip, called DMV for D.C., Maryland and Virginia, will showcase the complexities of multi-governmental jurisdictions and the need for regional cooperation.
“The DMV area is a tri-state region between D.C., Maryland and Virginia,” said Melissa Roberts, who organizes the LINK trips on behalf of the Atlanta Regional Commission. “The range of suburban communities, cities and counties really does have a lot of similarities to the makeup of the range of suburban communities within metro Atlanta.”
About 130 government, business and civic leaders will be on the DMV LINK trip, which will explore several key issues, including “attainable” housing (how the region describes affordable housing), infrastructure, data centers and a technology-driven environment.
“Much like Atlanta, the DMV is an innovative, thriving area that offers great insight and inspiration for metro regions across the country,” said Anna Roach, ARC’s executive director and CEO, in a release. “I look forward to having meaningful conversations with DMV leaders about many of the challenges and opportunities that our two communities share and using that collaboration to inform and inspire continued success for our great region.”
The trip will begin with a visit to Amazon’s HQ2 facilities in Arlington, Va. Atlanta and the D.C. area were in a fierce competition to attract Amazon’s second headquarters. Although some of the more flamboyant plans and designs for the headquarters have been put on hold, Amazon has said it eventually will build out its grand vision.
On Wednesday, the LINK delegation will look at how the multi-jurisdictions collaborate, and it will hear from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, D.C.’s counterpart to ARC.
It will also hear perspectives from the mayors of suburban cities in Virginia, in a discussion moderated by Michael Caldwell, mayor of the Georgia city of Woodstock.
The LINK delegation will be staying in the suburban center of Tysons. And the opening night dinner will be held in Arlington. Unlike most LINK trips, there will not be a keynote speaker. Instead, attendees will hear from the key sponsors of the LINK trip — Cox Enterprises, HNTB, Partnership Gwinnett and Georgia Sky Mobility.
The Thursday itinerary will take place in Maryland, where the group will hear about strategies for housing affordability and how best to serve the unhoused.
Transportation will be the focus of a panel called: DMV Moves, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA, also known as the Metro). Jennifer Ide, chair of Atlanta’s MARTA, will moderate the discussion, which will include Randy Clarke, general manager and CEO of WMATA. Clarke spoke to the LINK delegation in 2022, when he was the CEO of the Austin transit system and talked about the robust plans to expand transit in the Texas capital.
Maryland is also working on expanding its transit system by building the Purple Line, a light rail project that is expected to open in 2027. The public-private partnership will connect to the Metro’s Red, Green and Orange lines as well as Amtrak.
It is not the only recent rail project the LINK delegation will see on the trip. The Tysons Corner Station near the headquarters hotel opened in 2022, and it is part of Metro’s heavy rail Silver Line, which is also being extended.
Once again, the metro Atlanta LINK delegation will be visiting a city where there is ongoing investment in rail transit. By comparison, Atlanta has not expanded its rail system since 2000.
In the afternoon, the LINK delegation will be split up into six groups for special tours, called the LINK Mobile Labs in Maryland. The six tours will be: Black & Forth, Bethesda Urban Partnership, Purple Line, the Station at Riverdale Park, Takoma Park Greene Infrastructure and Amazon HQ2.
The next day, the delegation will focus on the northern Virginia area, with another six Mobile Labs that morning.
Those six tours will include: VA Tech Innovation Campus, Northern Virginia Community College Data Center Program, Data Center — QTS, Data Center — Equinix, Regional BRT small group discussion, and the Arlington County Multi-Modal Tour.
A major theme for Friday will be on data centers. Virginia has the greatest concentration of data centers in the country, and it is known as Data Center Alley.
Leaders from Virginia’s economic development community will discuss the pros and cons of data centers — an issue that is increasingly relevant to metro Atlanta, which is experiencing a tremendous growth of the big technology boxes that use a great amount of energy and water. They are also viewed as essential to serving the technological needs of a society that is rapidly moving to AI technology.
Chattahoochee Hills Mayor Tom Reed will moderate the discussion with Virginia’s data center experts about what communities need to do to prepare for those centers in their community.
Roberts said that although data centers have provided tax revenue to fund government services in Loudoun County, Va., permitting lower tax rates for residents, “they are still contentious in many ways.”
The experts on the panel have indicated that they are willing to talk about the pushback on data centers in the Virginia area.
During lunch, the LINK delegation will hear from Brandon Beach, a former state legislator from Georgia who has attended multiple LINK trips over the years. Beach was appointed by the Trump administration to serve as the U.S. treasurer.
The afternoon will also have sessions on economic development, workforce investments and managed lanes.
There will be 20 minutes for LINK delegates to “debrief” on what they’ve seen during the three-day trip before they end the day with a river cruise and reception on the Potomac River.
The 2025 LINK trip is a stark contrast from when LINK visited Washington, D.C. in 2012. At the time, the Atlanta region was trying very hard to pass a T-SPLOST for the 10 counties, which would have funded a tremendous investment in transportation. But the metro Atlanta T-SPLOST did not pass that November.
Another difference in the 2025 LINK trip is that Bill Bolling, the only person who has attended every single LINK trip up to this year, will not be attending due to health challenges.
Also, for the first time ever, there will not be a single journalist on the LINK trip. Ben Young, the editor of Georgia Trend who has been attending, has not signed up for the trip.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who is ARC’s board chair, will lead the delegation. The county chairs of DeKalb, Cobb, Henry, Gwinnett, Douglas, Forsyth and Rockdale also are expected to attend.
Mayor Andre Dickens was the biggest disappointment. He affirmed building the Atlanta Streetcar, but dragged the process through “one feasibility study to another, including wasting time and resources” only to kill it in favor of “pods.” Boring and lack of vision is understatement. He’s reelection is now due – hence, he is dangling “big visions” clearly to be reelected.
Mayor Kasim Reed was severely attacked unfairly by people such as NAACP, but he truly changed the image of Atlanta for the better, because he simply DELIVERED RESULTS and defended himself from leaders who opposed his plans but offered ZERO alternatives. Kasim meticulously planned, structured, traveled within and abroad for jobs. He brought in the biggest and several companies to Atlanta. He’s approach to affordable housing was very well balanced due to jobs creation. Most importantly, he did not tolerate crime. Once he targeted an area to rid of crime, wrongdoers knew what not to do. Just he’s tone of voice was enough to send a message. He once said “we all come from poverty. If people want help getting jobs and a second chance, I’m totally opened and willing to help; but, one thing I will not tolerate is people who create chaos and insecurity to all of us in the name of poverty.” I just can find he’s last video interview during he’s campaign, I believe the podcast was called “Big Facts ?!”
Just 3 months after Kasim left, I literally witnessed the degradation of same areas Reed had cleaned and made it safe. That has been much more aggravated with the current mayor to where there is no safe zone for some kind of violence.
Unlike Kasim Reed who was doing ground breaking on weekly basis for jobs creating companies, the current mayor prides himself in groundbreaking for affordable housing – w zero crime prevention measures that come with it and almost zero or lackluster job creation. I wish Kasim would come back.
are we paying for the Anna/Andre D.C. hookup? PS. sir, Kasim didn’t meticulously plan squat. he was a con artist in a tailored suit
Wasting more money… these link trips gave me hope years ago. Results have since revealed the truth: cool photo ops, no action.
Facts about DC Metro vs MARTA: Metro rail service began in 1976, MARTA 1979. METRO has dedicated STATE funding, MARTA does not. METRO has 148 miles of track and currently building more, MARTA has 48, with NO PLANS to add more.
Both systems started roughly the same time. One system has the advantage of state support and chose to ignore regional racism. The other has no state support and allowed racism to define where trains would be built (while Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta).
The short sighted train continues to roll…
All well and good, but if they want to understand Atlanta, those folks in DC should know people in Woodstock don’t want to go to Atlanta. No one in the region wants to go to Atlanta except the new arrivals before they see the new woodstocks built all over the outside of the town. Facts.