Fresh Loaf

BRAVES: Trade Mark Teixeira to the Angels for 1B Casey Kotchman and a minor league relief pitcher. The move comes the same day that Murphy’s Law became a constitutional amendment for the Braves, as they learned ace Tim Hudson may be out for the year and Chipper Jones went back on the DL.

DELTA: A dead woman was found in an airplane bathroom this morning on a flight from L.A. to Atlanta.

CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO: A private consultant briefs the Chattanooga City Council on the progress of planning a high-speed rail line from that city to Atlanta. The finished report, expected by early 2010, will whittle down 24 possible alignments to six: three maglev and three VHS (very high speed).

BEER: More popular than wine by double digits again.

“MONKEY FROM MARS”: The GBI museum in Decatur has the remains of a monkey that three men tried to pass off as an alien in 1953.

SUPER GRAND REOPENING: Super Grand Buffet, the Duluth restaurant that recently made news for getting a health score of 15, has been reinspected and this time got a 100.

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In Chattanooga, they’re talking water again: The fact that they have it and we don’t.

And, of course, the speculation that Georgia wants to run a pipeline from the Tennessee River down to Atlanta to give us a boost in water supply. The Chattanooga Times Free Press says no one from Georgia has broached the idea, although Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said he and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin have talked “more or less about the fact Atlanta is very thirsty.”

But don’t expect much sympathy from our neighbors up north. The paper also includes this quote:

Fred Exum, chief executive of Krystal Co. in Chattanooga, said that piping water to Atlanta would continue “to foster the irresponsible growth that is Atlanta.”

“Drive around down there. You can tell there’s no master plan,” he said. “They just grow and grow and grow.”

Yeah, but, you know, Atlanta’s growth has nothing to do with our drought. Really and truly.

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The Chattanooga Times Free-Press explores the possibilities that Atlanta and Chattanooga might do a little horse-trading: A rapid-rail system between the two cities in exchange for a water pipe running from the Tennessee River to Atlanta to quench our thirsts.

On a typical day, the paper reports, 9 billion gallons of water flow through Chattanooga, and considering how Lake Lanier is on a slow and steady descent, Atlanta casts its thirsty eyes north.

However, there’s already one significant kink in the plan. The Tennessee Valley Authority would have to sign off on any decision to send its water to Atlanta, and the head of the TVA doesn’t have much sympathy for our situation. Reports the Times Free-Press:

TVA President Tom Kilgore, a former resident of Atlanta, said last week that he would be reluctant to give any water from the Tennessee River to the Atlanta region.

“I lived there when they were supposed to build six reservoirs around the city, and they built zero, so they’re starting with the wrong person,” Mr. Kilgore said.

Kilgore is referring to a plan that was approved when Roy Barnes was governor, then scuttled when Republicans took control of Georgia. Gov. Sonny Perdue has sought to end our drought and water problems through divine intervention, which obviously hasn’t worked.

As Mark Twain noted: Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

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In a public display that drew more journalists, agency officials and consultants than the general public, the Georgia Department of Transportation unveiled several plans for a high-speed passenger rail line connecting Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn., Tuesday at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, the first of three such presentations set to take place in Georgia and our neighbor to the north over the next two days.

It was the first step in a multiyear, $10.1 million study to determine the feasibility, impact, layout and scope of the project, which is estimated to cost $4 billion to $5 billion. If deemed worthy, construction may only begin in 2020.

More transit goodness after the jump!

(more…)

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The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that talks between Georgia and Tennessee transportation officials to determine the benefit of a 110-mile high-speed rail line between Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Chattanooga will begin next Thursday in Chattanooga, with meetings in Powder Springs Sept. 18, and Rome, Ga., Sept. 19 (details below). It is the first step in what is to be a three-year, $10.1 million engineering and environmental study. The total project, Georgia Department of Transportation estimates, could cost $4 billion if magnetic levitation technology is implemented. Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, is quoted in the article as saying he hopes public-private partnerships can help pay the bill.

The idea of a high-speed rail line between the two locales has been a hot topic as of late, praised by Sagacious Cindy at that other Atlanta paper. And with Delta’s new CEO Richard Anderson poo-pooing the idea of a second airport in Georgia, people are scratching their heads as to just how people can efficiently shuttle about.

At a time when transportation funds are hard to come by, the primary concern among officials in this early stage of the sure-to-be-expensive endeavor: Will people use the train? Say you want to compare two aquariums in one day, or maximize flight plans and book connecting flights at airports. Maybe visit your wonderful grandmother who is an adjunct professor at UT-Chattanooga, hasn’t seen you in so long, wants to cook you that pot roast you always love. Come visit already!

Would you use it?

Meeting information:

Atlanta (Powder Springs): Tues., Sept. 18, 2007, 5-7:30 p.m. McEachern High School, 2400 New Macland Road.

Rome: Wed., Sept. 19, 2007, 5-7:30 p.m. Rome Civic Center, 400 Civic Center Drive.

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There seems to be a lot more awareness of it in Chattanooga than in Atlanta, but the two cities are just one county away from merging metropolitan areas. And in Chattanooga, they want to start planning for the eventuality of “Chattlanta.”

Which is a horrible name, by the way. For one thing, Atlanta should be in the lead. How about Atlantanooga? Has a nice ring.

According to this story in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, it’s all about urban sprawl. Between 1990 and 2006, Atlanta’s metropolitan area grew from 18 to 28 counties, adding Bartow County in the northwest corner. Chattanooga’s metropolitan area essentially has stayed the same, though the new micropolitan areas of Dalton, Ga., and Rome, Ga., sometimes are included with Chattanooga.

Only one county, Gordon, is not part of a metropolitan area between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

Chick Krautler, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, told the paper that urban sprawl will eventually create an even broader region. “The bigger metropolitan area is really Raleigh to Jacksonville to Birmingham, and maybe as far as Nashville,” he said.

We can hardly wait.

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