A.M. ATL: A roundabout way

Morning, y’all! One of today’s stories introduced a new (to me) phrase I cannot get out of my head. I’m giddy with knowledge. I hope you enjoy it, too. No, this is not a ploy to get you to read the whole newsletter. Or is it?

Let’s get to it.

GEORGIA FAMILIES SUE META OVER DATA CENTER

Beverly and Jeff Morris say their well water has been compromised ever since a Meta data center was built across the road from their rural Mansfield home. (Ben Gray/AJC)

Four families living near Meta’s Newton County data center are suing the tech giant, claiming the massive facility taints their drinking water and disrupts their daily lives.

• They say construction of the $1 billion campus disturbed the area’s underground aquifer, polluting their well water with silt and sediment that clogged water lines and damaged appliances.
• One family says they have to fill up bottles and jugs at a neighbor’s house to keep a reliable supply of clean water. An AJC reporter witnessed the taps in their house emit murky, muddy water.
• The data center also required extensive tree clearing, and the families say bright lights from the facility shine on their properties day and night. The complaint also mentions air pollution and noise.
• One of the families was also at the center of viral testimony from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who brought a jar of what she said was their muddy tap water to a congressional hearing.

🔎 READ MORE: Meta’s response, and other parties involved in the suit

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FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS PAID A VISIT TO MARTA

MARTA officials played host to U.S. Department of Transportation officials last week as part of a federal investigation into MARTA’s safety and security.

The Trump administration launched the investigation after several high-profile incidents over the summer, including a fatal stabbing.

What investigators want to know

• Federal officials asked MARTA what it does to prevent crime and requested information about MARTA’s budget for passenger and employee safety.

Is MARTA more dangerous than other transit systems?

Yes, according to the numbers.

• The Federal Transit Administration says violent crimes requiring medical attention, or resulting in death, happened on MARTA nearly twice as often as the national average since October 2023.
• An AJC analysis found such crimes occurred once for every 1.9 million trips on a MARTA train or bus. Across all transit systems nationwide, the rate is about once in every 3.5 million trips.

While those figures beg some answers, the statistical risk to an average commuter is still extremely small.

🔎 READ MORE: What investigators will do next

LET’S BE REAL: COULD HOCKEY ACTUALLY COME BACK TO ATL?

A rendering of the redevelopment design for North Point Mall is inspected before a recent public hearing. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

The city of Alpharetta recently greenlit a massive redevelopment at the site of North Point Mall, but only if the NHL grants Atlanta an expansion team.

That’s a huge “if,” and as fun as it is to dream about the resurgence of pro hockey in the city, one must be realistic. Could it happen?

• Alpharetta tested the waters with a $150,000 study commissioned last year. It painted an optimistic picture of nearly 1.2 million annual visitors and billions of dollars in economic activity.
• However, economists who talked to the AJC didn’t mince words about the reliability of such research. “That kind of puffy-chested analysis just doesn’t make sense with the dollars and cents,” said Tom Smith, an economist at Emory University.
• There are also a lot of unanswered questions about, say, public transit improvement and other infrastructure work that would be needed to support this puck fantasy.

Tick, tock: The city changed zoning laws to allow the development, but if Atlanta doesn’t attract an NHL team within five years, the laws will revert, and North Point Mall will turn into a pumpkin.

🔎 READ MORE: What other economists say, and what other issues are at play

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🗳️ U.S. Rep. Everton Blair was sworn into office, making him Georgia’s first openly gay congressman. Blair won the special election to finish out the term of U.S. Rep. David Scott, who died in April.

📍 Recent polls show a toss-up between Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson in the Georgia governor’s race. Here are the seven counties that could be game-changers on Election Day.

ROUNDABOUTS: AN AMERICAN ALLERGY

There's a 50% chance the drivers in this photo are screaming. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Americans are famously wary of roundabouts. Even among the worldliest of us, an unexpected roundabout can trigger a fireworks-and-bald-eagles display of patriotic rage.

🇺🇸 🦅 SKREE! THAT’S NOT HOW WE DO IT HERE 🦅🇺🇸

A friend who grew up in suburban Arkansas told me, when she was a child, adults still grumbled about a roundabout that cropped up in the town a whole decade before. To this day, people there still don’t use it correctly. A generational hatred of roundabouts: That’s the American way.

The fact is, roundabouts do have a measurably positive effect on traffic safety, and they’re easier to maintain than lights. That’s why the Georgia Department of Transportation is going all in on them.

• GDOT is opting for roundabouts at hundreds of interstate interchanges and other high-traffic intersections across the state.
• That includes areas of rapid growth like Savannah, and areas around newly opened industrial sites where changing traffic patterns can snarl existing commutes.
• GDOT recently built five multi-lane roundabouts in a barely half-mile stretch of U.S. 280. The design includes the state’s first ... wait for it ... traffic peanut. You guessed it — it’s two roundabouts looped together.

If you think GDOT doesn’t know how nervous people get about roundabouts, they do. They really, really do.

“At open houses whenever roundabouts are proposed, GDOT staff will literally tape off a roundabout shape on the floor and walk people through the circle to show them how it works,” Adam Van Brimmer writes.

⭕ TODAY’S MUST-READ: The most enjoyable and informative article you’ll ever read on roundabouts