Friday, January 12, 2007
The Burgeoning Transit-oriented Housing Trend
The Federal Transit Administration announced in 2005 that at least one-quarter of all American homeowners are likely to seek housing near transit over the next 20 years. Atlanta will be on the list of cities registering the biggest increases in demand near mass transit stops. This is predicted to be "the biggest shift in housing since Americans flocked to the suburbs after World War II".
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The latest from filthy prostitutes for road building interests, GDOT's Harold Linnekohl, David Doss and Mike Evans. Have some cajones, elected GA Dem's. It's been years since anyone in the party has shown a spine, and that means ALL OF YOU! Call them out for this idiotic idea that would cost every GA taxpayer!
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/entry.php?id=659
Road Hog lobby licks chops over tunnel bonanza
Posted by Doug Monroe at 11:52 AM on February 3, 2007
The roadbuilding lobby (http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:20401)
that has enriched itself while fighting off future transportation alternatives for metro Atlanta has a new $5-billion boondoggle:
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2007/02/05/story4.html.
State transportation leaders are embracing the idea that a toll tunnel may be the No. 1 solution to Atlanta's traffic congestion, building momentum for what could be Georgia's most ambitious transportation project since the founding of the interstate system.
Among them are state transportation board Chairman Mike Evans; Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl; and Jeff Mullis, chairman of the state Senate transportation committee.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle has a firewall, so you can't read the rest of the story. Basically, the public-private six-lane, eight-mile toll tunnel would extend from Ga. 400 to I-675 -- sort of an underground version of the old plan to ram Ga. 400 all the way through town. The plan is designed to relieve congestion on the strangled Downtown Connector.
"Tunneling is very much an viable option, and an option that will work," said [State Transportation Board member David] Doss. "There's no way you could add six lanes to the Connector for $5 billion." ...
There are downsides to the concept. Although subterranean construction would not disrupt Atlanta neighborhoods nearly as much as an above-ground road, the tunnel would require emergency exits and ventilation to the surface.
Residents in swanky Buckhead and other areas might not take kindly to large holes suddenly being cut in their yards and streets.
Not to mention the fact that you could have a comprehensive network of commuter rail for less than half that price. But, God forbid, that wouldn't line the pockets of the roadbuilders who control the state. And let's not forget Boston's Big Dig, which is horribly over budget and -- oh, yeah -- had a chunk of the ceiling fall down and kill a woman. The important thing, though, was that a lot of Yankee roadbuilders got really rich on that one.
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