The streetcar is great, and is leaps and bounds better than a bus. We need more streetcars, alongside more HRT, BRT, and commuter rail on the freight lines (or right of ways). We need it all. Anything less is not a serious discussion. The development spurred by the beltline, which has always been envisioned as a transit corridor, has been tremendous. The streetcar downtown has amped up development downtown as well. People want the option of transit. Huge numbers of Atlantans could ride MARTA every day, they just choose not to. Their choice not to untilize transit available to them (like people do in all of the cities people on this forum fantasize about) should not prohibit the expansion of a system that hundreds of thousands of people use every day with ease. I am sure many of you are better traveled than I, but having utilized transit systems in 33 countries I can attest to the need for more MARTA, as well as how good of a system MARTA already is. Yeah I said it. It is a good system. It doesn't go everywhere, but neither do the systems in NYC, Seoul, or Shanghai, and they are comparatively massive. I ride MARTA every day, as does my wife. We ride it to work, to our "country house" in East Point, to shop, to buy groceries, and to take bikes to Piedmont Park/Beltline for a Saturday or Sunday ride. The cars are much smoother, quieter, and roomier than the largest and newest rail cars in NYC and CHI. What are we complaining about? The proposed measure requires a half a penny tax. That is $0.50 on your $100 grocery bill. Will you miss it? We moved deeper into the city to get away from the CAVE people (citizens against virtually everything) that seem to run rampant around metro ATL. If we can't pass this transit tax we don't deserve to have the city we can have. Anyway, enough ranting, and on to some development (and nostalgia) pics:
Walgreens at Woodruff Park is coming along nicely.
Atlantans enjoying the Jacob's Pharmacy recreation
A large contraption of some sort being placed on top of (I believe) 200 Peachtree.