The Beltline Unbuckled

Atlanta to Macon SouthLine Rail 

THE BELTLINE UNBUCKLED: WHY THE SOUTHLINE FROM ATLANTA TO MACON IS JUST AS SIGNIFICANT AS THE INTOWN BELTLINE

By now many are familiar with the BeltLine, the 22 mile Intown trail and transit loop poised to transform the core of Atlanta. The BeltLine has gained amazing traction in the public and private realms this past year, and for good reason, with it's promise of community connectivity, brownfield redevelopment, and auto independence. James Langford, Director of the Trust for Public Land, Georgia says "the possibility that the old loop of railways could serve as a multiuse transit corridor with parks anchoring future redevelopment is an opportunity unmatched in America." [Source: ajc.com:: Bold Belt Line/park plan would break new ground].

Mr. Langford's statement should help us to envision the potential inherent in the coming Atlanta - Lovejoy Commuter Rail Line, slated to begin service in the Fall of 2006. Although originally intended to reach all the way to Macon while passing through several Southside cities, the Governor said the budget simply wouldn't allow for the $350 million (year 2003 dollars) price tag. However, a consortium of Mayors and Movers-and-Shakers from East Point, Forest Park, Morrow, Jonesboro, and LoveJoy, convinced that the rail should no longer be delayed, approached the Governor with an offer he couldn't refuse: They would commit portions of their local budgets to absorb any shortfall in revenues from ridership against operating expenses if he would simply commit the federal funds already allocated.

Although the available $106 million only reaches to LoveJoy, it's a start. Click here for a detailed GDOT report on this initiative.

From a budget stance, there should be no argument about taking the line all the way to Macon, when you consider that the total expenditure of $350 million gets us 103 miles of track, stations and rolling stock carrying 7200 trips a day versus just 9 miles of intown HOV with no significant relief in gridlock and a further decrease in air quality.

Equally compelling is the realization that, just as the BeltLine passes through such cherished landscape as Piedmont Park, Westview Cemetery, Ansley Golf Club, and Zoo Atlanta, the SouthLine passes through towns ripe with potential like Hampton, Barnesville, and Griffin. These towns were thriving centers of commerce when rail was relevant to their economies with many rail passengers making connections from their stations to points north and south on a daily basis. With it's built-in infrastructure as a rail-centric city, one can imagine a new Griffin rising, like the mythical bird, from the ashes of it's previous glory days with a new Intercity Rail Station and a strategic postion on a world class alternative transportion corridor. One can visualize Hampton residents able to walk or bike to and from the station without the use of their cars and a town better able to accommodate the huge influx of visitors to the Atlanta Motor Speedway every year. Just as significant as the highly touted brownfield redevelopment potential of land in proximity to the BeltLine, these towns possess acres and acres of resurrectable residential and retail opportunities within the pedestrian shed of their proposed station sites.

Most importantly, the SouthLine strand would connect 12 municipal "jewels", not only to Atlanta and each other, but to the BeltLine itself. While the BeltLine is a loop opportunity and the Southline is a linear opportunity, they are simply different expressions of the same solution. We would be so bold as to suggest the SouthLine and the BeltLine be seen as a single entity -- the BeltLine Unbuckled, if you will -- and viewed as a 125 mile alternative transportation venue. To view the SouthLine as only ferrying commuter traffic into Atlanta in the mornings and back in the evenings is, we believe, short-sighted. When you start to visualize intercity rail traffic throughout the day, then you begin to grasp the real potential of the SouthLine.

In addition, the opportunities for accommodating the coming population growth cannot be overemphasized. With the region speculated to grow in the millions within the next 20 years, progressive and creative governments and policy makers along the SouthLine have within their grasp an unprecedented mechanism for controlling the growth by employing Smart Growth principles around the rail nodes. By changing the local zoning and ordinances to accommodate mixed-use development and allow for transit villages to organically grow along the SouthLine, and by encouraging and incenting infill development around the rail nodes, we can hope to grow less chaotically and significantly reduce the effects of sprawl and traffic congestion, simply by giving a portion of the incoming population a choice not presently offered.

The reality is that passengers will travel the SouthLine long before any do the BeltLine. This work must begin now and in earnest in order to seize the opportunity. These towns cannot afford to be in denial about the fact that they are positioned to soon be swept into the ever expanding orbit of the fastest growing human settlement in the history of Planet Earth. With foresight, creativity, and passionate action, cities on the SouthLine can be the architects of opportunities unmatched in America.

Burke Sisco
Chairman
Trail + Rail Action Coalition [TRAC]
Hampton, Georgia
www.trailrail.org

"FORWARD TO THE PAST" - A VISION FOR HAMPTON'S FUTURE

The Vision

One of the most endearing elements of the Back to the Future film trilogy was the town of Hill Valley. Exciting stuff took place in the quaint town square with one of the buildings even playing a "starring" role (remember the courthouse with the clock tower?). A sense of nostalgia was created as the town remained relatively unchanged across historical nodes ranging from 1885 to 2015. We were entertained as we watched the favorite mode of urban transportation evolve from skateboards to futuristic hoverboards, while the backdrop of Hill Valley remained familiar and established, maintaining a sense of place; a place worth protecting and preserving. We rooted for Marty McFly as he employed the technology of time travel to move back and forth along the time line in order to thwart the evil Biff's greedy and self-serving efforts at transforming Hill Valley into a web of casinos and pleasure palaces.

Those popular movies provide us with the perfect metaphor for our vision and goals for Hampton, Georgia. "Forward to the Past" describes perfectly where we want to go. Sometimes progress means admitting that what we thought was progress was really moving in the wrong direction. Outlawing zoning that allowed for more compact, mixed-used neighborhoods and towns was a bad way to go. Disallowing a shop-keeper the right to live above her shop has deprived many of a practical and logical way to live and do business. Modern zoning and city planning has ushered in the age of the "Big Box" retail giants with scores of small towns dying in the process. Our communities have become so disconnected that children rarely walk or bike to school. The end result is urban sprawl, an unhealthy dependency on the automobile and oil consumption, alienation from our neighbors, and a loss of community. We can't say it any better than is already stated in Reconnecting America's Mission Statement. Our goal is to see Hampton embrace these proven concepts for smart growth as soon as possible.

You say you want a railvolution?

Our definition of New Urbanism is really just the old urbanism or sub-urbanism of livable villages or towns built around a railroad depot. A town built on a scale that allows its citizens to live within walking distance of the station and every other modern need or convenience that they might have. We combine the revolutions of New Urbanism and the national rail renaissance and see Hampton, which currently sits on the coming Atlanta-to-Macon Commuter Rail Line, evolve into a Transit Town of the 21st Century.

How about a velorution?

But we propose a third component that will truly make Hampton unique in metro Atlanta Transit-Oriented Towns (TOT): Weave into the fabric of the town a system of paths and trails that make the growing use of alternative transportation an easy option for the residents. Until hoverboards are available, your child could scooter to school, your spouse could bike to the bakery, and you could Segway to the Station or tool around town in a cycle car. We want to put Hampton at the crossroads of three synergistic American revolutions (New Urbanism, transit lines, and bicycle/pedestrian paths) and see a town develop that is the perfect and logical blending of these positive social movements.

HOT for TOT

This vision won't be realized without leadership. A newly formed group of Hampton citizens has formed a grass-roots political action group called H.O.T. (Hampton's Our Town). We've adopted the motto for Hampton, "The little town that CAN!". Our goal is to get wise and visionary officials elected to office that can help steer our village into a prosperous future while effectively managing the tsunami of growth soon to wash over us.

We believe we've got a setting in Hampton in which we can reverse the trend of unsustainable and undesirable growth in the metro Atlanta area and move in a new, and yet established and familiar direction.

Join us for the trip. We can't offer you transportation in a time-traveling DeLorean but with the right leadership and a lot of hard work, the city of Hampton can become a place that inspires people everywhere to return to classic elements of city planning and design that echo the quality-of-life of an earlier era and one that so many yearn for today.

And so, with anticipation and a sense of adventure, we say: "Forward to the Past".

Burke Sisco
404.421.9968
burke@burkesisco.com

"The Roman Emperor Hadrian insightfully observed: 'This luxury of speed destroys its own aim; a pedestrian makes more headway than a hundred conveyances jammed end-to-end along the twists and turns of the Sacred Way.' To the best of our knowledge, this stands as the first traffic report."

- Sean Hayes, "Autobiography: An Alternative History of the Car" in "Beyond the Car: Essays on the Auto Culture," 1995

59% of Georgians are obese, DHR study says

Atlanta (GA) – The Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR) announced today the release of Overweight and Obesity in Georgia 2005, a report focusing on the health risks and costs of obesity. The report confirms what officials have known for years: Obesity is one of the top public health problems in Georgia.

According to the report, an estimated 6,700 Georgians die each year because they are overweight or obese. Overweight and obesity are associated with a number of conditions, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and osteoarthritis as well as depression, menstrual irregularities, and sleep apnea. Recent statistics indicate that 59% of adults in Georgia are overweight or obese.

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Binge on the BeltLine, the world class ATL Trail + Rail Initiative...

Source: stacks.ajc.com