Candidates struggle for solutions to city's $750 million challenge

By Eric Stirgus

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sally Flocks was at the intersection of Peachtree and 17^th streets one day last week when she saw a couple wondering if they should cross.

Flocks, president of a pedestrian safety group, knew the “walk” sign had been broken for a while and said it was safe to cross.

The broken signal is an example of one Atlanta issue that's rarely discussed: its infrastructure problems. Aides to Mayor Shirley Franklin estimate a whopping $750 million is needed improve its roads, bridges, sidewalks, vehicles and traffic signals.

Flocks is acutely aware of the problems. She said she fell last week walking on an uneven sidewalk.

While crime and finances have dominated the discussion among the candidates running for mayor and the City Council, the infrastructure issue has received scant interest.

“I don’t think they have a solution for it,” said Flocks, president of Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety.

The four leading mayoral candidates agree there’s little money to make a serious investment in infrastructure. City Council President Lisa Borders has suggested a “revolving loan” fund for residents to team up and take out low-interest loans from the city to make sidewalk repairs in residential areas. Councilwoman Mary Norwood says she’ll work with local and state governments to get more infrastructure dollars, saying it's unfair for city taxpayers to assume the cost themselves.

“It's not fair to burden Atlanta residents with infrastructure costs not only for their needs, but also those of daily visitors from the suburbs,” she said in a statement.

Former state lawmaker Kasim Reed supports the idea of allowing counties to join forces to create a regional sales tax to fund transportation improvements, which could pay for some of these repairs. Attorney Jesse Spikes said he’ll seek more federal funding, but offered a sobering possibility.

“Atlanta must be making plans to go it alone,” he said.

The infrastructure issue came up at City Hall last week when officials released a five-year projection on city finances. The projection came with a warning from the mayor, who leaves office in about 80 days.

“Absent a significant new source of revenue, we will not be in a position to enhance our service levels, such as replacing our fleet and making much-needed investments in our roads, bridges and sidewalks,” she wrote.

Since Franklin took office in 2002, the city has spent between $50 million and $60 million a year on capital infrastructure projects, city officials say. Mayoral aides say Atlanta should raise that annual total to about $100 million.

The city is also settling claims of others who say they were hurt or their vehicles were damaged on Atlanta’s streets. For example, the City Council voted in May to pay Kathie Miles $15,000 after she fell on a damaged sidewalk on Spring Street in March 2007. The council voted last month to pay Malcolm McBride $1,041.98 for damage sustained after driving over a pothole in July at Casanova and Funston streets.

A staff report in December found the city has 18 bridges that need to be repaired or replaced, work that city officials say will cost about $162 million. Franklin’s aides suggested a bond referendum, along with seeking state and federal grants, to fund the work. Spikes supports a bond referendum, saying he would improve the city’s credit rating to “borrow at the best rate possible” by removing waste from city finances.

The referendum idea is popular among some candidates. Another that could be more troublesome is charging people to park in the city. The mayoral candidates are reluctant to support a commuter tax, worried it will drive some businesses from Atlanta. A parking surcharge could have the same consequences, some say.

Norwood said in an interview Tuesday with reporters and editors at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she would "possibly" support the parking surcharge.

Flocks said the parking surcharge could have dual benefits. It would raise money to fund infrastructure improvements and encourage commuters who don't want to pay for parking to use public transportation.

Flocks conceded the solutions to this issue are slim.

"It's a hard problem to solve in a bad economy," she said.