By Guest Columnist BRANDON SUTTON, a member of the Hulsey Yard Study Committee
2020 will no doubt be remembered as a time of unprecedented disruption to the lives and businesses of countless people throughout the country, including right here in Atlanta. In a macro sense, the world has changed dramatically. In a micro sense, the lives and daily choices of people everywhere are in a state of suspended animation.
Funding for a Complete Streets project along 5th Street in Midtown, new roads at the General Motors redevelopment site in DeKalb County, and a smart corridor installation in Gwinnett County were included in a basket of 19 mobility projects funded by the state.
Costs too much to build or too much to not build?
MARTA’s Campbellton Road expansion plan is expected to change the nature of the roadway from the Oakland City Station to I-285, a distance of about 5.7 miles. The plan for how that is to happen is to be completed within nine months.
Gwinnett County voters could get an early indication Thursday as to whether a transit tax could be added to the Nov. 3 ballot. A heavy rail line is eligible for consideration for sales tax funding, to reach from MARTA’s Doraville Station to a future facility in Norcross.
MARTA took the pulse of the public Thursday night on a few aspects of the plan to increase service along Campbellton Road. The survey was part of status report MARTA presented on a service enhancement that’s to begin service as early as 2031.
Atlanta City Councilmember Amir Farokhi’s experiment with participatory budgeting garnered almost 3,500 online votes. That means nearly 3,500 individuals responded to an offer to play a direct role in deciding how to spend $1 million in public funds for transportation.
MARTA’s potential partnership with Portman Holdings to develop the North Avenue Station could be the first in a new era of promoting transit oriented development around its rail stations.
DeKalb County has no plans to ask voters this year to raise the sales tax to pay for transit expansion, according to DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond’s office. The decision leaves unfunded projects including the one to serve the area at Emory University.
Portman Holdings has set its sights on $1 billion in development in Midtown – the $400 million remake of MARTA’s North Avenue Station, and the $600 million development a half-mile away, at the former H.M. Patterson & Son-Spring Hill site.
As Gwinnett County seeks to amend the region’s transit plan on May 27, in advance of a possible transit referendum, federal funding for transit expansion is not even mentioned in the latest pandemic relief plan pending before Congress.
Google has made public a treasure trove of never-before-seen proprietary data that could help decision makers reopen the economy safely in metro Atlanta. Google’s report shows changes in categories of places people visit – whether they’re going to work, buy groceries or walk the dog, and so forth.
Historically, affordable housing units in Atlanta have been concentrated in communities lacking in amenities like public transportation access, grocery stores and solid schools. The COVID-19 crisis has shone a glaring spotlight on the need to change that.
The economic damage dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue to put a strain on government programs that were mapped out long before the world began slipping into a recession.
Gwinnett County buses are rolling today as the private company that operates the system has reached partial agreement with drivers, who had threatened to stop work today if they did not receive personal protective equipment and hazard pay.
Gwinnett County bus drivers plan to stop operating the service on Thursday, they notified the transit operator that oversees the system. Drivers on Monday cited fear for their safety and the federal ‘right to refuse’ work during hazardous conditions. The transit operator of GCT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MARTA may be entering the phase where the question turns from, “What now?” to “What’s next?” Especially in light of MARTA’s responsibility to enable social distancing on trains and buses.
Expanded transit is a good idea … in some way, maybe. Depends who you ask.
MARTA has confirmed its first death related to COVID-19, a 53-year-old station maintainer who died Monday. His last day of work was April 10. Four co-workers at MARTA’s Decatur Station were notified and instructed to self-quarantine.
Metro Atlanta transit agencies are to receive $371 million from the federal coronavirus aid package. It’s part of a total package of $448 million in federal transit assistance headed to Georgia to help offset the economic losses related to response to the cornoavirus, according to the legislation.
