The year was 1971.
Gwinnett County had a population of 75,000 or so the first time a vote was taken on a 1-cent sales tax to pay for MARTA.
The tally was overwhelmingly against extending transit into the county; the same scenario played out in 1990 when 200,000 or so resided in the community.
Chuck Warbington, executive director of the Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District, was an infant when that first no-vote took place. Gwinnett, like him, has grown up.
Its population tops 800,000. Farmland has given way to retail strips and subdivisions, some cookie-cutter, some chic and others somewhere in between. Traffic, generally, can be nightmarish any time of day or night.
So a county long averse to mass transit might sing a different tune come next summer. That’s when Atlanta and 10 counties decide whether to impose a new 1-cent sales tax for transportation improvements.
Elected officials will assemble a regional list of transportation projects that will constitute the $8 billion transportation referendum.
Gwinnett officials have included a total of $1.1 billion for five light rail projects and a $3.6 billion wish list.
For now, Warbington stands confident that Gwinnett residents, tired of idling in traffic, will support the measure. And my sense is that, while it may not be blanket approval, it will be enough to help get over the hump for what has been a polarizing proposition.
“The bubble is bursting now,” Warbington told me.
All I’ve ever heard about the 1971 no-vote against MARTA is that race played a role. Some residents let their minds overtake common sense and envisioned quite the scenario.
Black teens would hop a train at the East Point station, head to Gwinnett and rob and mob to their heart’s content. Then they’d take the rail back home, TVs and jewels in tow. Silly. That alleged argument didn’t hold water then. Surely it’s invalid these days, too. Criminals of every hue appear to be more brazen.
You or I could get hit in the head at the local gas station in any county practically any time of the day.
And while Gwinnett should have been more visionary in 1971, Warbington wonders aloud whether it needed mass transit back then.
“There wasn’t traffic congestion,” he said. “It was farms. In 1990 we were growing, but there wasn’t the traffic we have now with 800,000.”
A December poll of 800-plus registered Gwinnett voters found 46 percent of respondents would be more likely to favor next year’s referendum if the project list included new rail service linking the county to the rest of metro Atlanta.
And 35 percent said they would be less likely to favor the proposal if rail were included.
While we appear conflicted, Warbington seems confident.
“People are realizing you can’t pave your way out of traffic congestion. That it takes a mix of projects and that we need to give people alternatives,” he said. “Gwinnett is coming to that conclusion.”
We shall see.
Rick Badie, an Opinion columnist, is based in Gwinnett. Reach him at rbadie@ajc.com or 770-263-3875.
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