ATLANTA TRANSIT (Marta, Beltline, Peachtree Streetcar, LovJoy Commuter, etc...)

[sabino86]

Originally Posted by RobMidtowner

On February 14, give your Valentine the gift of Commuter Rail.

HAHAHA

[BardSeed]

In 2006 I believe it was a suburban/metro area developer who had a couple old timey streetcars and was running them up and down Peachtree. I remember it debuting, but I don't believe I ever saw them. I'm not downtown a whole lot, but I think enough that I would notice an old timey streetcar going every half an hour.

Anyone know the story with what happened / what is happening with them?

[land234]

Maybe this has been asked before, but I'm new...

are there any TOD's planned in the near future for MARTA? Similar to Lindbergh...

how successful is Lindbergh for that matter? I dont live in town anymore (plan on coming back next year) so I havent been by it in a few years.

[Dragonheart8588]

Originally Posted by land234

Maybe this has been asked before, but I'm new...

are there any TOD's planned in the near future for MARTA? Similar to Lindbergh...

how successful is Lindbergh for that matter? I dont live in town anymore (plan on coming back next year) so I havent been by it in a few years.

I park at Lindberg 4 days out of a week to go to school. There are plenty of construction going on. I'm very excited for it. The shopping plaza on the corner of Piedmont and Sydney Marcus is very nice. However, the traffic is already bad and I don't know how this area going to handle more of it. I think what they are doing at Lindberg is great idea. People can travel somewhat without resorting to their car via MARTA.

[smArTaLlone]

Originally Posted by BardSeed

In 2006 I believe it was a suburban/metro area developer who had a couple old timey streetcars and was running them up and down Peachtree. I remember it debuting, but I don't believe I ever saw them. I'm not downtown a whole lot, but I think enough that I would notice an old timey streetcar going every half an hour.

Anyone know the story with what happened / what is happening with them?

They basically ran out of money.
It was reported in the AJC that they didn't have enough money to get their tags and once APD stopped one of the vehicles for it, they were done.
When it was running I think it was more popular than Marta "tourist Loop" which is just a regular Marta bus with a cute logo pianted on it.

[land234]

[QUOTE=Dragonheart8588;2601895]The shopping plaza on the corner of Piedmont and Sydney Marcus is very nice. QUOTE]

is that mixed use? or just shopping? last I saw it, its was just a regular strip mall!

[Dragonheart8588]

[QUOTE=land234;2601908]

Originally Posted by Dragonheart8588

The shopping plaza on the corner of Piedmont and Sydney Marcus is very nice. QUOTE]

is that mixed use? or just shopping? last I saw it, its was just a regular strip mall!

It is just a really nice looking strip mall but they are putting up condos and parking spaces on the same lot right at the corner of Piedmont and Sydney.

[BardSeed]

thanks, smartallone. i want one of those old timey trolleys.

as far as TODs around marta stations are concerned, this is what was reported in September:

"MARTA parking lots at the Avondale, Chamblee and Lakewood-Fort McPherson stations are set to be replaced by apartments, condos and retail."

"In the coming months, MARTA plans to sell land for projects at the Brookhaven, East Lake, Kensington and North Springs stations. "

i remember reading that they were going to sell the brookhaven, east lake, kensington and north springs landin the summer of 2007. i'm pretty sure i'm not making that up, but i can't find where i read it.

[land234]

I used to live in some apartments by the north spring station...I would love to see it go mixed use near there! Brookhaven would be a great sell as well.

I read an article recently that MARTA is looking to add stops between existing stops (new stations)

anyone heard anything on this?

[joey]

Originally Posted by land234

is that mixed use? or just shopping? last I saw it, its was just a regular strip mall!

Strip mall, yes. But "just a regular strip mall" no. It's one of Sembler's newer developments, so, while it accommodates big boxes and doesn't orient toward the street as well as it should, it gets halfway there.

The project generally hides parking in the center with buildings at the perimeter, along the street. None of the big boxes open to a street, but a variety of smaller stores do. In particular, a few less desirable storefronts (in size and massing) run directly along the southern border, facing the adjacent older apartment complexes. Because they are so isolated from the rest of the entrances to the complex, I believe they were designed to be accessed on foot by the immigrant population next door.

There's a sizable empty section of the lot along Piedmont that is planned for future residential development with ground-floor retail.

Sembler certainly isn't hiding its roots as a builder of big-box power centers, but it's at least getting better at helping them fit in a bit more and in orienting parking inward. If you trace their development evolution from Midtown Place (Home Depot on Ponce) to Lindbergh to Edgewood, you can see them going in a nice direction. Hopefully a few years from now, they'll have a good mixed-use plan nailed down.

[atlantaguy]

joey - I work around the corner from their new Perimeter Place development in Dunwoody. IMO, it's their best one yet.

[jason21atl]

This is a pretty good editorial from Jay Bookman in today's AJC:

Lawmakers must act soon on transit tax

Published on: 02/01/07
Metro Atlanta didn't just happen. It didn't spring up around some piece of natural infrastructure, such as New York's magnificent harbor or the mighty Mississippi that rolls past St. Louis. This is instead an artificial city, taking form around an infrastructure built solely by human beings.

An artificial city is more fragile than its organic counterparts. A harbor doesn't go away; a river rarely changes course. But if an artificial city fails to maintain and extend its infrastructure, it can lose its vigor within a generation.

History tells the tale well. Atlanta owes its existence to the Georgia General Assembly, which in 1836 voted to build the Western & Atlantic Railroad running from the Chattanooga area south to what is now Five Points. Georgia taxpayers spent more than $4 million on that 138-mile route, an astronomical sum in those days but an investment that paid off well.

Over the next century and a half, public investment continued to fuel Atlanta's prosperity. The interstate highway system, Buford Dam, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — without those projects, Atlanta would be just another midsize Southern city struggling for its place in the global economy.

Now, another major reinvestment is needed. Metro Atlanta's population and traffic have grown much more quickly than its transportation infrastructure, to the point that congestion threatens to throttle commerce and undercut the quality of life that makes this area attractive to business.

According to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Atlanta region has the country's fourth-worst traffic and is its fourth-fastest growing region. But in per capita transportation spending, Georgia is fourth lowest.

A new analysis of transportation funding by researchers at Georgia State University confirms the chamber position. Between 1980 and 2003, it reports, per capita investment in transportation fell by more than 50 percent in Georgia after adjusting for inflation.

State leaders, however, seem to be paralyzed by fear of anything that might be construed as a tax hike, and have shown precious little interest in addressing the problem. Gov. Sonny Perdue in particular rules like a regular Queen of England, a ceremonial head of state who doesn't deign to dirty His Royal Hands with the problems of his loyal subjects.

The problem is compounded by the fact that Georgia has long treated metro Atlanta as a lucrative source of revenue to be parceled out to the rest of the state, with too little reinvested in the region generating the wealth.

For example, according to the GSU research, the state's four largest metro counties — Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett — generate more than 21 percent of the state's fuel-tax revenues. But they don't get anywhere near 21 percent of state transportation funds.

To sidestep those issues, the metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce proposes to give metro counties a mechanism to tax themselves for regional transportation projects. Participating counties would draw up a list of regionwide projects, then ask metro voters to approve a 1 percent sales tax to fund those investments.

According to the GSU report, by 2015 such a tax could generate almost a billion dollars a year for transportation in metro Atlanta. That's more revenue than the statewide motor fuel taxes are expected to generate.

However, before such a proposal can be sent to county commissioners and then the voters, it would have to be approved by the state Legislature. And while chamber leaders stress the importance of getting the plan approved this year, time's awastin'.

Today is Day 13 of the 40-day session of the General Assembly. Bills that aren't approved by either the House or Senate by Day 30 will be dead for the 2007 session. That gives the metro chamber just 17 legislative days to introduce the bill, get it through committee, onto the calendar of either the House or Senate and passed.

That is possible only with strong support from the region's suburban Republican legislators. They fear that if they embrace the chamber's proposal, they risk their credentials as tax-cutters, even though the final decision would lie with voters themselves.

However, those same legislators should also be reminded that if they oppose the plan or let it die through neglect, they condemn their constituents to endure ever longer commutes. Surely the people of the Atlanta region deserve the right to decide for themselves whether to reinvest in the place they call home, or let it wither through complacency.

• Jay Bookman is the deputy editorial page editor. His column appears Thursdays and Mondays.

[Fiorenza]

I'd like to see gov't-sector subsidies for private-sector improvements = jitneys, etc.

[MrIcon85]

I saw a commercial this morning about the peachtree street streetcar, it showed a animated model of it and gave a website for it, but I can't remeber it, anybody see this?

[Newnan_Eric]

Originally Posted by joey

Strip mall, yes. But "just a regular strip mall" no. It's one of Sembler's newer developments, so, while it accommodates big boxes and doesn't orient toward the street as well as it should, it gets halfway there.

The project generally hides parking in the center with buildings at the perimeter, along the street. None of the big boxes open to a street, but a variety of smaller stores do. In particular, a few less desirable storefronts (in size and massing) run directly along the southern border, facing the adjacent older apartment complexes. Because they are so isolated from the rest of the entrances to the complex, I believe they were designed to be accessed on foot by the immigrant population next door.

There's a sizable empty section of the lot along Piedmont that is planned for future residential development with ground-floor retail.

Sembler certainly isn't hiding its roots as a builder of big-box power centers, but it's at least getting better at helping them fit in a bit more and in orienting parking inward. If you trace their development evolution from Midtown Place (Home Depot on Ponce) to Lindbergh to Edgewood, you can see them going in a nice direction. Hopefully a few years from now, they'll have a good mixed-use plan nailed down.

I agree. While Sembler's developments aren't quite first class urbanism, they are generally improvments over the typical suburban style strip centers. With the retail pushed out to the perimeter of the site and some shops with entrances facing the streets, their Lindbergh development will integrate with the other developments currently going on and the future ones.

Atlanta, with its base of car-oriented suburban style development is going to have to have some of these hyrbrid style developments to carry us through our transition to a more urban/denser city. The good news is that Sembler's developments seem to be improving with each successive project.

I think that the whole Lindbergh TOD has been succesful so far and is gaining momentum. It is not done yet - not by a long shot. It does seems to be gaining traction though. In 5 to 10 years this areas could be phenomenal.

My questions: What is happening with the former Gold Club property? Is anything planned for that spot?

Is there anything proposed on the West side of Piedmont North of the current office towers (on the site of the former Shoneys/Chinese Restaurant)?

Are there plans to redevelop the crummy apartments off of Morosgo?

The above spots seem to be the next logical places to grow this development and create critical mass in the area. Plus they are eyesores next to the new gleaming developments.

[jason21atl]

Originally Posted by MrIcon85

I saw a commercial this morning about the peachtree street streetcar, it showed a animated model of it and gave a website for it, but I can't remeber it, anybody see this?

www.atlantastreetcar.org

[smArTaLlone]

Originally Posted by jason21atl

www.atlantastreetcar.org

I believe that organization passed the torch to the Peachtree Corridor Task Force. They're supposed to complete their study in March.

They have a multimedia presentation here.

[Terminus]

Originally Posted by Newnan_Eric

Is there anything proposed on the West side of Piedmont North of the current office towers (on the site of the former Shoneys/Chinese Restaurant)?

I believe a retail and office building and a public parking deck are planned for the Shoney's site. The public parking element is an attempt to get around a parking cap for retail. Essentially, though, it means that the retail element will have a fixed number of spaces. At peak times (when the fixed number is filled) patrons will have to use the park-for-hire spaces and will have to pay to do so. Validation by the stores will not be allowed.

[Harry Cane]

Originally Posted by smArTaLlone

I believe that organization passed the torch to the Peachtree Corridor Task Force. They're supposed to complete their study in March.

They have a multimedia presentation here.

There's a blurb in Maria Saporta's column today quoting Tom Bell predicting that streetcars could be rolling down Peachtree in as little as 18 months and that a tourist loop was "on the horizon".

[Harry Cane]

Originally Posted by Terminus

I believe a retail and office building and a public parking deck are planned for the Shoney's site. The public parking element is an attempt to get around a parking cap for retail. Essentially, though, it means that the retail element will have a fixed number of spaces. At peak times (when the fixed number is filled) patrons will have to use the park-for-hire spaces and will have to pay to do so. Validation by the stores will not be allowed.

Coincidentally I was talking to someone about that old Shoney’s today. I knew it was a matter of time before that got redeveloped. What a change from when I lived in that area at the old Ambassador Apartments. That was fun. And that Shoney’s always packed them in for the breakfast buffet!