Fresh Loaf

Have you been wondering which city candidates were most likely to be anointed by powerful northside CEOs? Well, wonder no more, because the Buckhead Coalition has spoken — by putting a not-inconsiderable sum of money where its mouth is.

Like the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Coalition doesn’t do direct endorsements. Unlike the Chamber’s questionnaire process, the Coalition makes its picks known with sizable campaign contributions through a PAC.

So here’s who got the cash:

• In Council races where an incumbent faces opposition, the Coalition gave the incumbent the $2,400 maximum contribution.
• In contested races without an incumbent, the $2,400 max went to Yolanda Adrean for District 8, Michael Bond for at-large Post 1 and Ceasar Mitchell for President. For reasons not made clear, the Coalition made no contributions in the races for District 6, District 11 and at-large Post 2.
• The Coalition split its donations in the mayor’s race, giving Mary Norwood $1,344 (56%), Kasim Reed $528 (22%), and Lisa Borders $528 (22%).

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It shouldn’t be shocking news to anybody, including her opponents, that Council President Lisa Borders has received the highest candidate evaluation score from the Committee for a Better Atlanta.

As a protege of uber-developer Tom Cousins, Borders is certainly the favorite of Atlanta business community. But the Metro Atlanta Chamber decided a while back to keep its favoritism at arm’s length by creating the CBA to rate candidates by how they score on a questionnaire and in a face-to-face interview.

Today those scores were released (PDF) and, no surprise, Borders came out on top, with a 95 percent. Frankly, the only real surprise was that state Sen. Kasim Reed scored so closely behind her, with a 93.

For the Council president’s race, Council members Ceasar Mitchell and Clair Muller tied with 92.

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On April 16, President Barack Obama gave rail lovers some long-awaited good news: As part of the president’s stimulus plan, he offered $8 billion to begin linking major U.S. cities with high-speed rail lines — and an additional $5 billion more to improve rail service over the next four years.

“We need high-speed rail,” Obama said. “It’s happening right now. It’s been happening for decades. The problem is, it’s been happening elsewhere, not here.”

By “elsewhere,” the president was referring to Europe and Asia. But he could just as easily have been talking about Southeastern states other than Georgia. Thanks to a lack of vision, little to no funding, and an almost cartoonish addiction to roads, the Peach State’s far behind many of its neighbors when it comes to rail.

Transit and transportation advocates say if the state’s leadership doesn’t work to catch up, Georgia could miss out on a nationwide rail renaissance.

Click here to continue reading this story.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Those who came to City Hall on Monday hoping to hear a revealing, or perhaps even forward-looking, State of the City address likely were disappointed. Firstly, the mayor read only a brief portion of her speech at the top of the Council meeting. But a full transcript of the speech, available online, isn’t much more satisfying or illuminating.

Watching Franklin over the past year has been interesting. At the beginning of her tenure, she seemed self-effacing and upbeat. But ever since the city budget troubles were revealed last January, she has used about half her time at the podium to defend her administration’s legacy.

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The departure of Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders from the Atlanta mayor’s race earlier this week has, by political strategists’ calculation, left behind a large window of opportunity for the right candidate.

Specifically, we mean someone backed by the Atlanta business community – anointed by the Chamber of Commerce, as it were. Borders, a protege of mega-developer Tom Cousins, had been that person, but now she’s out.

Therefore, the buzz of the moment has concentrated on a well-known and universally respected chief executive, a man of unique achievement who’s arguably done more than anyone since Ted Turner to restore the vibrancy of Atlanta’s downtown business district.

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Decades of myopia and road-building fever are catching up with metro Atlanta. We’re not alone in that mess, but we seem to be one of the few metro regions not doing anything about it.

Neil Peirce of the Washington Post writes that in light of gridlock and arm-and-a-leg gas prices, metro areas as far west as Seattle and as near as Charlotte are finding innovative ways to alleviate their transportation problems.

Georgia, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, is still scratching lotto tickets and wishing for cash rather than getting creative.

What really struck my eye in Peirce’s column was this gem:

The good news: only few other regions — metro Detroit, for example — are as stalemated as Atlanta. Indeed, just check what’s happening elsewhere:

He then goes on to list a bunch of other regions across the country and their projects. It’s a sobering read with some great quotes from Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. The business group has been the leading voice in calling for the General Assembly to take some kind of action to address the sorely needed transportation solutions in the state.

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It was the loudest and most powerful player in the push for transportation funding during the last legislative session but it still wasn’t able to convince lawmakers to act on transportation.

But yesterday Get Georgia Moving, the coalition of more than 50 organizations ranging from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to the Sierra Club, announced Terry Chastain as its new executive director. That’s a sign the state’s powerplayers still have a little faith in our elected officials to do something next year.

Chastain is the chamber’s vice president of government affairs and was a familiar face at the Gold Dome this year. The chamber says he’ll be a loaned executive to the coalition.

“It’s humbling to represent so many respected organizations on such an important public policy issue,” Chastain said in a released statement. “With all of these groups working together and with the support of so many in the legislature, I am very confident we will be successful in our efforts.”

Earlier this year the coalition rallied for a funding mechanism that would’ve injected cash into the $7 billion budget the DOT is facing. The best bet was SR 845 — that would’ve allowed regions to levy a sales tax to raise cash for transportation projects. We all know how that ended.

Well, there’s always next year. And the year after that.

Text of the announcement after the jump.

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A hearing yesterday on building a commuter rail system that connects Atlanta with its outlying suburbs demonstrated both the need for it, and the reasons why it probably won’t get built in our lifetime.

According to the Gwinnett Daily Post, Atlanta is one of three of the 13 largest cities in the country without commuter rail. “Not only does it affect the quality of life in the region, but it affects our ability to attract jobs,” Michael Robison, co-chair of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s transit committee, told the Georgia DOT’s intermodal committee. “We’re falling behind.”

The system’s price tag is estimated to be $1.5 billion and members of the DOT committee responded that the state just doesn’t have that much money to devote to commuter rail. After all, there are miles and miles of roads to be built and expanded, etc., etc.

And, according to one committee member, not everybody wants to get to Atlanta:

Rep. Steve Davis, a member of the transportation committee, said he does not think it makes sense to spend more than a billion dollars on a transportation method such a small portion of the population will use. Davis, R-McDonough, described the projects more as economic development tools than travel tools.

“It will have a much broader impact than just transportation,” Davis said. “They want to force the entire region onto becoming the urban core. I do not want to live in Atlanta; I do not want to live in the urban core.”

Can we say “short-sighted leadership”?

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A report released Monday by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce says that connecting seven intercity rail lines in Georgia is not only feasible, but that the ridership is there to use it.

Conducted by D.C.-based R.L. Burns and Associates Inc., the study evaluated the estimated ridership and cost of implementing and maintaining the different rail lines that would connect Atlanta to cities such as Athens, Augusta, Savannah and Chattanooga, among others. The group concluded that the ridership for the lines would be comparable to other cities that operate commuter rail systems. The Athens-Atlanta link, for example, would serve an estimated 3,000-3,7000 people every day. The downside — as there always is a downside — is that it’ll cost $471 million to start and $15 million to operate annually. The study also says that as gas prices continue to rise, more and more commuters would consider the alternative means of transportation desirable. As the legislative session teeters to its annual opening, maybe the state will finally heed the call from not only public-transit advocates, but the business community as well, that roads have served their purpose in the region and other modes of transportation need to be explored.

Interesting side note: Out of the 13 most populated regions in the United States — such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — only three are without a commuter rail system. Yes, Atlanta’s one of those.

I tried to upload the PowerPoint presentation of the study, but alas it’s too large. However, you can view or download it at the Georgia Association of Rail Passengers website. Click on “Press Room,” scroll down to “MACOC – Commuter Rail Plan Update Summary (Large),” click, and enjoy.

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Maybe it was just me, but it seemed that, just below the surface of the usual boosterish rhetoric at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s annual luncheon earlier today was a definite message to the state’s top elected officials to shape up and start showing some real leadership.

In listing the major issues facing the metro area, chamber President Sam Williams told the audience of business leaders gathered in an Omni ballroom that the state had taken a good first step in tackling traffic by forming the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, but more work needs to be done to save the region from suffocating gridlock.

Similarly, he said, Georgia had done well to create 16 water-planning districts across the state, but needs fast action to deal with the ongoing drought.

Williams also praised Georgia for getting rid of a state flag that, with its offensive Confederate battle emblem, “threatened to divide the state.”

In each case, the change he touted was the result of an initiative by Georgia’s previous governor, Roy Barnes. The subtext seemed to be: Sonny, get off your ass and do something — starting with Grady. Both Williams and outgoing chamber Chairman Dick Anderson cited the salvation of the ailing public hospital as a top priority for the metro area.

“If we don’t address this problem,” Williams warned, “the consequences could be extreme for the region.”

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