Atlanta Forward readers responded to this past week’s columns by David Edwards (driverless cars), Shirley Franklin (East Lake Meadows) and Rep. Jan Jones (Medicaid expansion). Some select comments follow:
Bob Peppel: David Edwards makes some good points, and cars that talk to each other may be very beneficial, but all the talking in the world won't be much good when they are sliding sideways. One advantage of transit is that vehicles on flanged steel wheels riding on steel rails don't slide sideways, and they don't jackknife. Do you suppose that if we had spent as much on transit as we have on roads, sprawl would be greatly reduced, and those people that couldn't get home for 12 hours might have been able to walk home in much less time?
Should we really wait for "soon"? Certainly the promise of autonomous cars is great, but these autos are still vulnerable to the same kinds of threats that crippled Atlanta a few weeks ago. Before we invest billions upon billions in super-intelligent roadway networks, let's start investing in choices: The choice to live, shop and work in walkable neighborhoods; the choice to get around by bicycle, train or foot, and the choice of lifestyles that aren't defined by our commutes.
Dusty: Perhaps Shirley Franklin should tell us more about how East Lake was transformed. For instance, who provided the better housing, better schools and jobs and pushed crime out of the neighborhood? It must have taken quite a bit of money. I, too, would love for all neighborhoods everywhere to be ideal or even ordinarily good, but I am neither a millionaire nor a money-loaded tooth fairy. It has to be the government, and our government already seems to be overloaded with debt. Private enterprise? Has to be profitable! Charity? Trying, but limited. I would love to be optimistic, but I do remember those well-known words: "The poor you have with you always!" And with them comes poor neighborhoods. I hope we can change the definitiveness of that statement.
Henrietta: The comment regarding crime being down in East Atlanta – yep, it just shifted to another neighborhood. Crime is not down, it just changed location.
Matt P.: Jan Jones just served up an excellent example of misdirection and hand-waving, It's worth looking at in detail, starting with the first sentence, where she says Georgia "governments dig deep." Really? How? Not expanding Medicaid because of the cost is the opposite of digging deep. And look at how numbers are twisted and presented without any meaningful basis for comparison.
Eltombo: Have not seen this written anywhere, but consider this: The Republican leadership seems to think there is an outside chance Jason Carter will defeat Nathan Deal for governor. Now they know a Gov. Carter will approve a Medicaid expansion, so they take the authority to do so out of the governor's hands.
