Oh yeah…and just where IS that missing $6M going to come from to build this streetcar from Downtown to the King Center. Many already questioned the construction of the line, since it will do absolutely NOTHING to ease the grid-lock traffic that Atlanta is experiencing. I’ll be following this story for sure! ~~~Thom Abbott
$5.6 Million Meant for Atlanta’s Streetcars Already Spent
Updated: Wednesday, 01 Jun 2011, 7:33 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 01 Jun 2011, 7:33 PM EDT
ATLANTA, Ga. – The highly-anticipated downtown Atlanta streetcar project is having trouble getting off the ground. The city was supposed to come up with nearly $6 million toward the project, but that money is long gone.
Council Member Felicia Moore told FOX 5’s Aungelique Proctor that the $5.6 million that was supposed to go to the streetcar project was instead spent two years ago by former Mayor Shirley Franklin. Moore says it was used in 2009 for public safety purposes to close the budget gap.
The city is launching two investigations into how the mistake could have occurred. One is being conducted by the auditors, and another by the law department.
The federal government has already given the city $47 million in federal stimulus money for the streetcar project, and now the mayor’s office is left scrambling to find the money they need somewhere else. A representative from the mayor’s office tells FOX 5 they do have a plan, and that they hope to sell some prime real estate in midtown in order to come up with the money needed to fund their portion of the streetcar project.
The project is supposed to be completed in the summer of 2012. The planned 2.6 mile line would run from The King Center to Centennial Olympic Park, and it would bring 2,000 jobs with it.
Councilman C.T. Martin says he looks forward to finding out how the mistake was made.
Have you ever tried to navigate the Lenox Road/Buford Highway/Sidney Marcus “triangle” on any given weekday morning or afternoon?
How about the Lindbergh/LaVista/Cheshire Bridge intersection? Does the term gridlock, crazy or avoid at all costs come to mind? Then you know exactly what it’s like to try and get from I-85 Southbound to GA400 Northbound or just the opposite!
Well, help is on the way! The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) held another public meeting this past week, and the neighbors who once threatened to fight to stop this proposed exit ramps have now given their blessing. After years and years of dealing with the congested streets and cars zipping through their neighborhood trying to dodge the mess, GDOT will begin construction of the two ramps.
I had always wondered what bozo designed this intersection and left these ramps off. But having spent a bit more time learning the history of GA400 and its construction (and the fights against it slicing right through Buckhead) I now understand why they focused more on just getting the road built and not so much on these ramps. That said, I think GDOT, and any other organization, past or present, have done some lame planning on the growth of Atlanta and did not have the foresight to see this need. But, that’s water under the bridge and also the subject of another post another time.
For now, we will soon (define soon as a few years of highway construction) we will no longer have to be dancing in the streets as we will be off them and on freeway exit ramps instead. Now, they built the I-85/GA316 interchange in like record time. Ya think you could do the same here?
For more about this story, read about it at the Buckhead Patch.
