Fresh Loaf

Atlanta mayoral candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed and Jesse Spikes will sit down on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at All Saints Episcopal Church on West Peachtree Street to give their views on the Beltline, the $2.8 billion 22-mile loop of parks, trails and (hopefully) transit.

The Beltline, which has made considerable traction in the last year, also faces difficult hurdles. Its main funding source, a tax allocation district, relies on increased development along the loop. As we all know, there’s not a whole lot of that going on at the moment. There are also neighborhood-level debates over density and concerns about equitable funding and transparency. The next mayor will sit on the Beltline board and have to weigh in on those discussions.

The forum, which is sponsored by the Atlanta Preservation Center, BeltLine Network, Citizens for Progressive Transit, Park Pride and PEDS, will be moderated by former Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard. Woolard, who’s now with humanitarian organization CARE, was the public-works project’s biggest cheerleader while at City Hall.

The two-hour event begins at 6 p.m. For directions to All Saints Episcopal Church, go here.

(Courtesy Atlanta Beltline Inc.)

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The most depressing (and eye-opening) video of the day comes courtesy of Citizens for Progressive Transit, the metro region’s biggest advocate for getting residents out of their cars.

Atlanta was first among such peer cities as Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle to build a transit system. But then its expansion came to a screeching halt. And as you can see below, it’s now got a lot of catching up to do.

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Better transit in Atlanta? Hell yes! More bike lanes? You bet! Safe sidewalks and shorter city blocks that would encourage people to walk instead of drive? Man, that sounds fantastic.

But how are we gonna pay for it?

That was the conundrum Tuesday night at a mayoral candidate forum hosted by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, Citizens for Progressive Transit and PEDS at the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Seated before a packed and transit-savvy audience, mayoral candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed and Jesse Spikes outlined their positions on how people could move around Atlanta without having to use their cars — and what they would do, if elected, to make it happen.

First, the question we’re sure a lot of people are probably asking: How do the candidates feel about Georgia gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine’s idea of “talking” about a possible asphalt artery that would cut through East Atlanta?

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Governor Perdue takes questions from reporters after speaking on the floor of the House Friday night.

From the AJC’s Gold Dome Live:

Gov. Sonny Perdue told reporters that his staff met with MARTA officials Tuesday morning in hopes of coming up with a solution to the transit system’s funding problems.

However, it doesn’t sound like he will go along with MARTA’s call for a special session to pass legislation to help the system.

…

The governor mentioned several times that MARTA made no effort to get him involved in passing legislation that would have freed up funding for the system. The bill failed.

“It’s always unfortunate when people who depend on MARTA have their service cut, and I hope they (MARTA) can find a way …. to make it through the end of the year,” the governor said.

In the meantime, Citizens for Progressive Transit, a local grassroots group, is asking its members and other mobility-minded residents to contact Perdue’s office.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Citizens for Progressive Transit, a grassroots advocacy group, is holding its annual lobbying day at the state Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 17.

Members and non-members who want to speak with Georgia lawmakers about the need for more transit, cleaner air and less auto-dependent options are urged to meet with the group at the Central Presbyterian Church across the street from the Capitol on Tuesday morning. There, you’ll receive a briefing and then make your way to the Gold Dome to advocate the cause.

Full details are after the jump.

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RAIL RALLY Beltline supporters say Amtrak, GDOT's plans jeopardize Beltline

When it comes to the future of public transit in Atlanta, there’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news: After decades of bowing at the throne of roadbuilders, the Georgia Department of Transportation says it’s finally taking off the kneepads and getting serious about train service that would connect Atlanta to other cities in the Southeast.

The bad news: Thanks to an unexpected tiff between GDOT and city of Atlanta officials, the Beltline — the transformative 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit that would one day circle the city — might be in jeopardy. That’s because the train service that GDOT is suddenly embracing would have to run on or near the proposed Beltline tracks. What’s more, Piedmont Park, the city’s most iconic greenspace, might have to be severed by a heavy-rail route in order to accommodate GDOT’s vision.

Last week, CL first reported that GDOT — working in tandem with Amtrak — threw a wrench in Beltline officials’ plans for light-rail, trails and additional green space near Piedmont Park. Just as Norfolk Southern, the current owner of the tracks in question, was about to surrender them to the city, GDOT and Amtrak stepped in and halted the proceedings. Those two agencies now say the tracks in dispute are vital to their own vision for commuter rail.

“Simply put, because of GDOT’s boorish behavior and AMTRAK’s willingness to play along, the future of the city of Atlanta is at stake,” Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote in an urgent letter to U.S. Congressman John Lewis to seek his assistance.

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A transit plan designed to make mobility in metro Atlanta more than just cars, cars and cars inched forward today.

The Atlanta Regional Commission this afternoon approved Concept 3, a regional transit plan that advocates are calling “the most far-reaching transit expansion plan in decades.” Designed by the Transit Planning Board, Concept 3 includes heavy rail, express buses, light rail and streetcars. Included in the design are the Beltline and portions of the Brain Train.

“If we actually build the projects in Concept 3, it will transform metro Atlanta in the 21st century just as assuredly as the railroads did in the 19th Century and the Airport and highways did in the 20th Century,” Lee Biola, president of Citizens for Progressive Transit, said in a press release.

To be clear, the commission’s seal of approval doesn’t mean we’ll be riding light-rail to Roswell in a year, it just makes it eligible to be added to a future regional transportation plan, or RTP — a necessary step if the plan hopes to compete for sorely-needed federal funding. A commission spokeswoman says transportation projects in the RTP fall under one of two designations  — one for plans whose funding has been identified, and another for those the commission “aspires” to see come to fruition. Concept 3 would be considered the latter, she says.

A little wonkish, yes, but stick with me here. As I reported last week, there’s a movement underway — yet again — to find more funding for transportation projects. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has pledged — scout’s honor — to re-introduce a regional sales tax to pay for transportation fixes. (It failed by three votes in the lieutenant governor’s chamber last session.) Dick Anderson, executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, says he’s been examining a number of new funding mechanisms, including the oh-so controversial public-private partnership.

So while today’s news might not be like breaking ground to lay rails, it’s a start.

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It’s still two weeks away, but now’s a great time to let you know about Citizens for Progressive Transit’s “Toast to Concept3″ at Shout on Dec. 2. Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m.

The local grassroots organization that has done a lot of commendable — and breathtaking — work when it comes to encouraging public transit in metro Atlanta will host light-rail lovers and present speakers who’ll give you an update and summary of Concept3 (warning: PDF), a mobility-boosting vision conceived by the Transit Planning Board and slated for the region.

Anyone and everyone is welcome. And CfPT even provides you with directions on MARTA and a link to its A-TRAIN trip planner. If you guzzle too much, you can just ride the train on home. Genius, people!

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An Atlanta-based transit group has posted results of a survey in which legislative candidates were asked whether they support funding for a bunch of different transit stuff.

Most of the candidates gave the same answer to most of the questions. Some of them offered insightful explanations of their answers, including: “We MUST have this rail system in place SOON.” Of course, considering that the group behind the survey is called Citizens for Progressive Transit, the candidates might have been more liberal with their use of ALL CAPS. The more enthusiasm for progressive transit, the better.

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Google Transit, the online Goliath’s maps-merged-with-mobility program, now includes MARTA routes. Now if they’d step on it and start videotaping every inch of our sprawling region and integrating it into maps, we’d truly show people what’s real about city life. Like observing drug deals. And flashers. Or people falling off bicycles. Step on it, oi!

Citizens for Progressive Transit has its own homegrown online transit tool, too, and it’s a little easier on the eyes than Google’s. The A-TRAIN Trip Planner tells you how to get to the nearest bus stop or rail station, how long it’ll take you, what route to take, and even let you enter in how fast you want to walk or bike to get there.

(Thanks to the folks at the CfPT message board for catching this.)

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Transit advocates had high hopes for SR 845, the constitutional amendment that would’ve allowed voters in a region to levy a local option sales tax to generate funding for transportation projects. Backed by a variety of diverse and influential interests, it was tagged as an innovative approach to financing projects and a shoo-in to pass.

Only, it didn’t. The House approved it, but the funding strategy failed the Senate three votes shy of a necessary majority. And with that disappointment now behind them, so begins the Monday-morning chagrin of advocates who pushed for the bill.

From Citizens for Progressive Transit, an Atlanta-based grassroots advocacy group whose members viewed the resolution as a fresh way to bolster the region’s lackluster transit system and invest in its future expansion.

Atlanta, GA – Citizens for Progressive Transit expressed disappointment over the Georgia Senate’s failure to achieve a two-thirds majority on a new transportation funding measure, but also expressed confidence that transit expansion plans will continue.

“This is a setback, but while we did not get two-thirds in the Senate, we still won overwhelming majorities in both chambers,” said Lee Biola, president of the transit advocacy group. “This is proof there is broad consensus about how to resolve our transportation problems.”

Biola credited hard work and good faith negotiations between members of the business community, county commissioners, transportation contractors, engineers, environmental organizations, and transit advocates that got as close as possible to a solution that would give Georgians a way out of traffic and rising gas prices.

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FUND TRANSIT State Rep. Dubose Porter, D-Dublin, stands alongside mass-transit supporters Monday and voiced the need for more cash for more options.

It’s become a mantra of passionate rail and bus supporters during the current legislative session: Do something, anything, to kick start the state’s static transit situation.

On Monday afternoon, the message was echoed. Members of Citizens for Progressive Transit, Georgia Public Interest Research Group, the Sierra Club, Mothers and Others for Clean Air and Georgia Brain Train Group, among others, rallied for legislators to pass a proposal that would generate cash to expand bus and rail services.

Advocates say their movement has momentum this year in the form of a state Senate resolution that was nipped and tucked last week by the House. State Rep. Dubose Porter appeared alongside the groups yesterday and said it’s time to start thinking about moving people by rail.

“We cannot pave our way out of gridlock,” Porter said. “This is someone from rural Georgia talking… The bill that is moving through [the General Assembly] is about allowing regions to determine their future.”

Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, supports the need for more transit funding, but told InsiderAdvantage’s Dick Pettys that the current form of the Senate’s proposal reads like an “Atlanta bill.” That could be a problem. Porter said that can be changed if the House dedicates the remaining penny of the motor-fuel tax that’s traditionally gone to the state’s general fund to instead fall under the care of the state DOT. For rural regions which lack the density upon which transit thrives, the generated revenues could go toward road projects.

Also on Monday’s agenda: Release findings of a study they say shows using public transit saves money and gas and lessens our impact on the environment. Rob Thompson of Georgia PIRG presented a study that concluded metro Atlanta transit agencies reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 662,036 metric tons per year and save consumers $228 million in gasoline expenses. (Ariel Hart of That Other Paper has a report questioning some of the study’s findings.) View the agency-by-agency data after the jump.

(Photo by Thomas Wheatley)

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Harsh, but the truth hurts. After just a week on the job, DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham has come to Gov. Sonny Perdue with a confused look on her face and wondered just what the hell kind of a mess she inherited. Abraham, a successful woman with a reputation for efficiency, rose up through the ranks in public service and the construction industry and has been spotlighted as a person who can possibly shake the agency’s inertia.

Here are just some of the problems: When asked how many projects DOT currently has on its books, Abraham was told 1,100. After a couple of updates from staff, she says it appears the total now hovers around 9,211. The 1,553 lawsuits the agency faces are not being managed properly. The accounting operations at DOT, she discovered, don’t even communicate. And while agency honchos told InsiderAdvantage and That Other Paper they honestly don’t believe there to be any chicanery going on, they think a wider gap needs to exist between planners and private industry chums. These are problems with the process, and not the people, they said. And there’s gonna have to be some ch-ch-changes.

Lee Biola, president of Citizens for Progressive Transit, says he hopes the agency can learn some lessons from Abraham’s report. “Before we even knew of problems with the projects, we knew [DOT's] larger aims were out of touch with much of Georgia,” he says. “We know they’ve been resistant to the idea of commuter rail. Very often they do their projects with very little sensitivity to community. Like on 14th Street, they’ve already taken out several restaurants, are impacting pedestrian access and making it a high-speed area for cars. It’s time for them not to be just efficient, but more sensitive.”

Abraham’s findings may be echoed during the upcoming General Assembly when legislators may discuss if taxpayers, especially after all this was revealed, will be able to trust DOT with their tax dollars. Groups such as CFPT — which supports a regional sales tax for transportation projects — say that the best planning decisions are made at the local level and should be paid for by those directly affected by them. If a region has the cash to pursue a transportation project, why should DOT even be involved?

That Other Paper describes DOT as being in “disarray,” but I’ll label it crony-influenced malaise perpetuated by hand-shakery and look-the-other-way-ism. It’s a rare disease that affects certain sedentary members of political bodies. Rarely found in community organizations or jobs where people don’t have the luxury of catching Fat Cat fever, it is usually only treated by moving on to private industry or consulting work. Usually the disease is terminal at that point.

Jay Bookman eloquently outlines the crony culture that has been a mainstay at the state’s transportation agency for decades, as well as the political squabbling that both went on before Abraham’s appointment and appears to be continuing as motorists sit in gridlock.

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Want to use public transit but are confused about how you’ll get to the station or stop? Give A-TRAIN a try before you throw up your hands in disgust and resort back to using your car. The new tool, developed by grassroots transportation advocacy group Citizens for Progressive Transit, evaluates routes for you based on where you’re going and how you’d like to get there. Say you want to walk to the Five Points station at 4 p.m. at a brisk pace and then take the train uptown? Or maybe you’d rather pedal like a maniac to the station? This tool will give you the best route either way. It’s a great tool from the same group that gave Atlanta the most wonderful piece of eye candy — and hope for a less auto-dependent urban lifestyle — this transit-deprived city has ever seen.

To educate folks interested in using the tool, CfPT will be conducting free A-TRAIN workshops from noon-1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28, at Peachtree Center Mall adjacent to the Peachtree Center MARTA station.

And when you’re done with work, head to Shout at 1197 Peachtree St. at 6 p.m. for the A-TRAIN’s launch party. Go ahead and join ‘em. They said you could come. Just don’t embarrass us and wear a shirt that says, “I HATE LIGHT-RAIL AND MULTIMODAL TRANSIT.”

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Citizens for Progressive Transit, an Atlanta-based transit-advocacy group, unveiled a helpful tool Saturday to plan car-free trips by using public transit, biking or walking. To see how you can make it to work without burning up gas and cash — and maybe even getting some exercise from it — click here.

The group is always putting out interesting work — check out its grand vision for a transit system that could actually inspire me move to Douglasville.

Also on tap this week for the group: Happy Hour on Tuesday at the Raging Burrito in Decatur and a Peachtree Corridor Task Force presentation Wednesday at the Fulton County Public Library’s Central Branch. Click on the links for times and other info.

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