A 21st-century economy demands a contemporary transportation system, not one stuck in a 1950s model of how to move people and goods around town.
So it’s a good thing overall that the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable persevered in working through, and approving, a project list for work that would be paid for by a 1 percent, 10-year sales tax.
And our gut-meter tells us that the $6.14 billion project tally represents our best present hope to ease congestion while also investing toward future economic growth.
Even so, we’ll admit more than a bit of ambivalence toward the end result. For starters, in our view, the transportation special purpose local option sales tax project list does a better job of catching us up and patching us up, rather than leap-frogging the Atlanta region ahead. That may be the most we can accomplish right now, given current economics and the anti-tax mood common in this region and country. At best, that’s a sobering thought. A horrifying thought would be what happens if this opportunity goes down to defeat next year. We can’t let that occur.
Our attempt at constructive criticism is not intended to downplay the roundtable’s commendable leadership shown in drawing up the funding list for T-Splost proceeds. This body’s get-’er-done attitude is even more noteworthy given that it came during a time when many national political leaders continue to set new low standards for backbiting and fleeing common ground.
Still, it’s worth asking if the transportation project roster is as far outside the box of conventional thinking as Atlanta can currently jump. The answer will define in sizable measure how well we compete in coming decades for smart people, jobs, economic growth and investment capital.
We didn’t become the capital of the Southeast by being followers. This metro area rocketed into global ranks by being unafraid to bound onto the bleeding edge and make large, risky, innovative investments while other regions played it safe.
Hunkering down or resting on past accomplishments is more the hallmark of stagnating, or declining, cities than it should be for our once hard-charging home. That exercise in contrasts warrants consideration as the roundtable’s work is digested in coming months.
One admitted exception to conventional thinking is the Atlanta Beltline, a proposal that has seen its share of criticism, much of it rightly deserved. This intown transit loop is an intriguing concept, but in our view it is one pointed much more toward crafting a new urban vision for the city than shuttling the largest numbers of people between points x and y. That it made the final cut and consumes $602 million of the list’s transit funds reflects the political desire to please a large bloc of potential “yes” voters. In fairness, political concerns influenced other hard choices, such as throttling down the Cobb County rail proposal to “premium” bus service.
We would have rather seen the Beltline funding — or at least most of it — go toward a project that would efficiently transport more people longer distances between homes and job centers. Doing so could have benefited both ITP and OTP interests in true regional fashion. State Rep. Ed Setzler’s (R-Acworth) idea for commuter service along the state-owned railroad through Cobb County comes to mind as an example.
As it stands, aside from the Beltline, another intown rail or bus extension to the Emory/CDC area and proposals for enhanced suburban bus service, other large-leap transit ideas will have to wait, perhaps for decades.
The risk is that while we’re making relatively modest progress (and then, only if the T-SPLOST passes), competing regions are using large-scale transit links to accommodate anticipated needs of the future.
For now, we’ll have to view the Beltline as perhaps our largest nod toward the near-certainty that tomorrow won’t look like yesterday in how people live and commute. Have our regionwide ambitions really become that modest?
For our future’s sake, we hope not.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board
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