Electric shuttles are good alternative to MARTA’s Beltline expansion
Instead of rolling some very expensive dice on MARTA’s Beltline expansion of a light rail system that nobody uses, why not first try something more versatile and infinitely less expensive: electric trams, also known as electric shuttles?
These shuttles are quiet, roll on tires like buses and need no overhead electric lines and no poles. Yes, they would need to be charged, but the possibility of swappable batteries makes their “refueling” possible in mere seconds. Their implementation would require a mere fraction of the investment in infrastructure that light rail requires and could be online much sooner as well.
CONNIE WEIMAR, ATLANTA
Leave Beltline alone. Keep light rail out
The Beltline is an amazing success in terms of pedestrianism, connectivity, mixed-use development and a high level of amenities. Walking the Beltline has been a delight. It is a wonderful facility as is. Don’t overdo it.
I am strongly opposed to the streetcar (light rail) on the Beltline for the following reasons: Light rail with necessary fencing would create “walls” dividing neighborhoods; pedestrians crossing light rail tracks will necessitate bridges or tunnels, and all that would be an eyesore and possibly unsafe. Also, the enormous cost of construction could go into affordable housing or public education,
Before the construction of MARTA, I worked as a subcontractor and visited and did empirical research on light and rapid rail systems in Toronto, Montreal and Cleveland. Stations at each system became catalysts for extremely high-density growth. In Toronto, visually from a tall building, one could see towering developments over each station.
With light rail, high-density, high-rise development around each station cannot be controlled. Is this what we want? No!
PAUL MULDAWER, ATLANTA
Left stays mum when Biden tries to skirt law on student debt
To those on the Left swooning over the Supreme Court’s ruling on student debt relief (aka transferring student debt to taxpayers), if you don’t like the ruling, then get Congress to pass a law.
Instead, President Biden is pursuing a different executive branch plan to pass student debt to taxpayers. There’s no need to involve Congress -- it’s only a few hundred billion dollars.
It is fascinating that the Left was terrified that President Trump would act like an autocrat, yet it is President Biden now working to make unilateral, multi-hundred-billion-dollar executive branch policy.
Where are the cries from the Left and the media about threats to democracy and the rule of law? I guess if the intentions of a policy are deemed noble, then such legal concerns quickly evaporate.
DANA R. HERMANSON, MARIETTA
GOP destroyed election integrity; now wants it restored
How rich that the Republican Party continues to posture that they are responsible for restoring integrity to the electoral process in America, “U.S. voting overhaul has Ga. kickoff” (News, July 11). After all, this is the party that continues to aid and abet Donald Trump as he lies repeatedly about the 2020 presidential election and positions himself as the prohibitive favorite to be the party’s nominee in 2024. The failure of the GOP to exhibit even a minimal amount of political courage by just telling the truth is appalling.
They are responsible for any distrust of the electoral process that arose following the 2020 election and now they want to take credit for the restoration of trust. Puhleeze!!!
KEN MOORE, SMYRNA
