Fresh Loaf

MARTA is proposing changes to more than 40 bus routes and will hold public hearings tonight and tomorrow night at 7 to discuss the plans. Four new routes will also be discussed. MARTA staff will be present an hour beforehand to answer questions from customers and stakeholders.

Monday, Sept. 10
7 p.m.
DeKalb Maloof Auditorium
1300 Commerce Drive
Decatur
Walk one block west of the Decatur rail station.

7 p.m.
North Fulton Service Center
7741 Roswell Road
Bus route 87 from the Dunwoody or North Springs rail stations.

Tuesday, Sept. 11
7 p.m.
Atlanta City Hall Council Chambers
55 Trinity Ave.
Bus routes 21, 49, 55, 97 and 100 from Five Points Station
Special Bus Shuttle will be provided from the Five Points Station.

7 p.m.
East Point City Hall Auditorium
2777 East Point St.
East Point
Walk two blocks west from East Point rail station or walk one block from bus routes 84, 182 and 320.

For a complete list of all affected routes, days their service will be modified, and exactly how the services may change, visit this page.

If you cannot attend, MARTA will accept comments by phone, e-mail and snail mail until Sept. 16. Information on how to contact the agency about the modifications is available here (second paragraph).

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The MARTA board is expected to vote today to approve Sacramento Regional Transit head Beverly Scott as new general manager. The vote — largely a “legal formality,” as the Sacramento Bee quoted MARTA board member Clara Axam in an Aug. 28 article — is a pre-emptive move by MARTA to snatch transit manager talent as other agencies around the country are hunting top talent. Scott is the only candidate under consideration and will succeed Richard McCrillis.

“Dr. Scott is one of the most highly regarded, sought-after transit professionals in the nation,” the Rev. Walter L. Kimbrough, MARTA’s board chairman, said in a released statement. “We had to demonstrate our interest right away — and we are convinced that the excellent job Richard McCrillis has done over the last year makes it possible for MARTA to attract a candidate of this caliber.”

Her new job — which comes with a $250,000 salary, according to agency officials quoted in the article — may carry many of the same challenges Scott faced in Sacramento. RT, as Sacramento’s transit authority is known, has seen its share of route reductions, layoffs, price hikes and dwindling ridership during her tenure. She leaves behind a $171,684 salary and was reportedly being wooed by several other transit agencies around the country.

Prior to her five years in California, Scott worked at the Rhode Island Public Transit District.

So how is she? Quoth the Bee…

“She is a strong transit advocate as well as a manager, and that takes a bit of balance,” Sacramento Transportation Authority Executive Director Brian Williams said. “Sacramento is the richer for having her for five years.”

But why not hear the voice of the people, as seen in the comments of the Bee article…

(more…)

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This morning, for the umpteenth time, I saw a MARTA bus driver park an in-service bus in the middle of a busy street in Decatur to go shopping at a gas station convenience store.

According to the Route 123 bus schedule, this bus was supposed to be picking up passengers at the East Lake MARTA Station.

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This morning, for the second time in as many weeks, I saw a MARTA bus driver park an in-service bus in the middle of a busy street in Decatur to go shopping at a gas station convenience store.

The image above shows a MARTA bus driver crossing West Howard Avenue on her way to a Citgo convenience store, while her bus is parked in the street.

The photo was taken at 9:03 a.m. According to MARTA’s website, this bus was supposed to be at the East Lake MARTA Station at 9:06 a.m.

It was the second time in a month I’ve seen a bus on this route park at that spot while the driver shops for refreshments at Citgo.

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Today’s news seems to all be traffic-related.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that state transportation board member Garland Pinholster has floated an idea to raise $22 billion to help address the region’s traffic. Pinholster proposes the Georgia DOT sign a contract with a single, large investment group that could put up all the money necessary to build a Northern Arc and, perhaps, help fund tunnels underneath Atlanta — and maybe a few other projects such as commuter rail and the Beltline intown-transit loop.

Pinholster’s plan comes on the heels of one offered by board member David Doss in February that would raise money through a one-cent statewide sales tax. But here’s the watch-out-Atlanta-you-may-get-screwed-again part of the Doss plan: Although about two-thirds of the money would be raised in metro Atlanta, only one-third of that money would come back here. The rest would go to rural Georgia.

Meanwhile, the Gwinnett Daily Post reports that the feds have declined to fund the proposal to create more than 28 miles of optional toll lanes on I-85 from the Perimeter to north of I-985.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says MARTA has come up with something new: sleek buses that give the appearance of rail cars and will link the Stone Mountain area and MARTA’s Kensington rail station. The buses won’t travel in dedicated lanes, but drivers will have the ultimate power trip: the ability to keep a green light from turning red.

And, finally, the New York Times reports on a story that CL broke several weeks ago: Devon Dartnell’s dream to turn forestry waste into ethanol, a car fuel. Dartnell, the biomass program manager for the Georgia Forestry Commission, says construction will begin next month on a plant in Soperton that will convert the wastes into fuel and help determine whether agricultural byproducts are an economically viable alternative power source. The money behind the plant comes from a former Apple computer executive.

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I’m outraged.

OK.

Maybe not outraged.

Perturbed.

Certainly annoyed.

If I wore panties, they’d be in a knot.

I’m going to see Morrissey tonight at Chastain.

I hate Friday traffic. I hate Chastain traffic. I hate Friday Chastain traffic times two. I don’t want to drive tonight.

MARTA No. 38 bus runs from Lindbergh to the southern tip of Chastain Park. Unfortunately, it only runs until 8:30 p.m. It’ll get me to the show, but it won’t be getting me home. Useless. What good is mass transit if it doesn’t go where people are traveling en masse?

At least I’ll have Morrissey to soothe me.

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For some strange reason people in this metro love to brag about how scared MARTA makes them. I suspect many of these people are the same ones with “No Fear” stickers on their trucks.

– Joe Winter at Joeventures.com, quoting a regular MARTA user. Joe has blogged extensively about the Peachtree Street streetcar proposal. He serves on the board of Citizens For Progressive Transit.

South Carolina’s beating us up and taking our lunch money. Not because they’re better, but because they’re thinking more progressively.

– Button Gwinnett at Liberal Lucidity, on how biofuels are far more widely available to consumers in South Carolina than they are in Georgia. According to environmental attorney Scott Hitch, there are 50 retail outlets for biofuels in South Carolina, but only three in Georgia.

Incidentally, I’ve shopped at two of the three in Georgia. Refuel Biodiesel sells biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil and is located in Cabbagetown.

S.A. White is adjacent to Dobbins AFB and sells biodiesel made from rendered chicken fat.

I think he was surprised that I recognized him, considering my line of work. He was even more surprised that I didn’t recognize his dinner companion.

“Would you like to meet Bob Gibson?” he asked, not knowing I was a huge baseball fan. It was cordial and brief, but it meant a lot to me.

– ATLMalcontent fondly remembers meeting journalist David Halberstam while working as a parking valet. Halberstam died Monday in a car accident.

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During the debate on the bill, Sen. Nan Orrock (D - Atlanta) said that the legislature was becoming a “regular mill that churns out bills to limit choice.” Sen. Orrock also said that there is an “effort across the country to put barriers in the way” of abortions being performed, and while she wanted to reduce the rate of abortions, she felt that “there is a better way” to do it.

– Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered, on state legislation that will require facilities or physicians carrying out abortions to offer patients ultrasound imaging of the fetus

but my real question is who in the world can feel good enough about marta to want to memorialize it on their body?

– James at Metroblogging Atlanta, on the MARTA rail map someone had tattooed on their hip by Liberty Tattoo. The post includes a photo of the tattoo.

So as usual, who better to trick people into giving TBN money, than a master at the game?

– Independent Conservative on Lithonia’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Bishop Eddie Long’s appearance on TBN’s Spring Praise-a-thon 2007 fundraiser.

Here’s a clip:

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After the news hit about MARTA chairman Ed Wall�s alleged romp in the bathrooms of the Hartsfield-Jackson airport, CL decided to do a bit more research.

On the popular gay website www.cruisingforsex.com, the Atlanta airport is listed as a top spot for men to have sex with other men. Consider the following comments:

“Just stand at the first set of stalls and pull your cock out. Traffic comes and goes so be discreet about it. I have jacked off with plenty of guys here.”

Or: “Cruisy toilet behind the AirTran Ticket counter.”

If the reports that Wall chose the hook-up location are true, then he could�ve benefited from this warning, posted on the site in February: “On the news at least twelve guys have been arrested there by undercover cops.”

Oops.

What�s more, a web search for Michael Pettry, the man from Indiana who allegedly gave Wall oral sex, turned up this: According to Indychoir.org, Pettry earned a “Bachelor of Music in organ performance at Ball State University.”

Organ performance. Ball State. ‘Nuff said.

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Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell has been working hard to promote MARTA’s new Peachtree Street bus Route 110, aka the Peach — even sending bus schedules to local hotel concierges — which might seem a little beyond the call of duty for the so-called “Mayor of Buckhead.” But the former Atlanta mayor explains that the Peach — the first bus route to directly connect downtown to Buckhead without a transfer — may help ease the blow of potential cutbacks in service for the buc, the free shuttle bus that runs between the Piedmont Center office complex and Phipps Plaza.

(more…)

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It looks like lax record-keeping might have cost MARTA $1.7 million. That’s the amount a Fulton County jury awarded a woman who was raped after being kidnapped from the transit agency’s Lindbergh Station parking garage, according to a Feb. 8 AJC article.

According to the article, MARTA dumped police records that would have shown how many security officers were on duty on the night in 2002 when the woman was attacked. After the verdict, one of the jurors even approached MARTA’s assistant police chief and said the agency needs to do a better job with its internal reporting, to which the assistant chief responded, “There’s nothing wrong with it.”

(more…)

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