Mastodawn

RE: https://mastodon.social/@RealJournalism/116336708108848365

It seems that the big division over the beltline is whether it should be a park or a street. I was not impressed by the vision presented by the BAT representatives in this GPB story. I don't know if it's a good representation of their arguments, but don't see anything better on their website.

If we want more nature in the city (as they claim), we need to make space by reducing car dependence. Mass transit makes sense when embedded in pedestrian-centered pathways; it's near useless when embedded in car-centric areas. In this view, the beltline serves as an example of how streets can be structured and creates flexibility by reducing car traffic on neighboring streets.

If these guys want to see transit bringing people to the beltline, we need to build out several other pedestrian-centered destinations that are worth connecting to, and reallocate car space to mass transit, without first changing street usage patterns by building beltline rail.

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Michael H 2d ago

@DecaturNature *cracks knuckles* BAT is an astroturfed group of [mostly business] property owners that formed for the sole purpose of giving the local media an "opposing side", so that a make-believe debate could occur.

What grinds my gears is that we, the voters, voted for this - along with More MARTA. And, yes, a self-interested group of assholes parachutes in and wants to ignore our community's collective decision.

The key quote in the article is:

"If people are going to have to come from Southwest Atlanta to the east side in order to go to a Kroger, that's a problem that should be solved by something other than having to travel that far,” [BAT's Rader] said."

Not to be crude, but fuck him. What a dog-whistling racist. He's saying that folks in SW Atlanta are too poor or black to go to the Eastside other than to get groceries. There's a Kroger on Cascade in SW, but, I guess that fact is ignored.

Sorry to get so intense about this, but it really pisses me off when we have elections, and then decision-makers decide to ignore the results.

This is precisely why we need MARTA, and perhaps even Beltline, Board members elected instead of appointed by monied interests.

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DecaturNature 2d ago

@michael seriously, that was the weakest argument in the piece. At best it's a straw man, and at worst just saying "we want those people to stay over there". Nobody is proposing that the main reason for beltline rail is so that people can get groceries on the other side of the city, and anyway, If someone wants to do that it's not my place to oppose it- people travel across the city every day for all types of reasons.

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Michael H

@DecaturNature Their brains are living in a different time - a shittier and more segregated time in Atlanta. They are appealing to people's worst impulses for their own self-interest.

And the problem in Atlanta is that, if you get a few of the wealthier money people agreeing with you, then the Atlanta Way takes over and then projects that people want and need get canceled or ignored.

They dehumanize people who live in other parts of the City, not treating them as fellow Atlantans who deserve the same opportunities, including access to jobs and transportation, that they do.