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.
Yesterday, I wrote a post about the use of mass transit – buses specifically – and how the the Senate Banking Committee is being pressured to continue funding buses. The argument is that reducing funding would be detrimental to the national economy. The major impact would be on the the reduction in demand for the manufacture and sale of new buses.
I received a lot of great comments from yesterday’s post so I thought I would elaborate on the issue today.
Many people over the years have espoused bus transportation as the solution to air polution, vehicle trips, crowded streets, and many other issues.
However, buses cannot work as they are envisioned – just as most commuter trains cannot.
Say I live 8 miles from the Courthouse and I have a 9:00 appointment. The bus that serves my neighborhood comes at 7:30. The next bus comes at 8:30 but doesn’t get me there in time. So I to leave home nearly 2 hours before my appointment to use the bus. If I drove, I could leave 30-45 minutes before the meeting, depending on traffic.
Then, I need to return home or back to my office after an hour or two. I likely will have to wait for the next scheduled bus and could use up to another 90 minutes before arriving back at my local bus stop. Thus a one-two hour meeting could take nearly 6 hours counting bus travel. Not an efficient way to use one’s day.
If I have more than one stop in a day – which many of us do – buses don’t work because they either don’t go where we are going or don’t go when we need to be there. Then there’s always the issue of getting back again.
Making sales calls or showing homes obviously cannot be done by bus.
Since buses have such limited practical application – essentially taking people from outlying areas to the downtown in the morning and returning them at night – few cities and towns can take full advantage of buses unless nearly everyone works downtown and stays there all day.
Buses were a grand experiment that carried over from the streetcar days. They just haven’t worked and really can’t work outside the urban core. The ridership isn’t there, the routes can’t be there economically, and the schedules can’t be there due to manpower and vehicles.
Privatizing buses by useing mini-buses and vans might work on limited routes on a park and ride basis, but even that is doubtful because people will want to go when and where the buses don’t.
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Steve Hoffacker – Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist – for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.
I know Steve by way of a site where we share our blogging platforms. But this is probably the most common sense explanation of the use of buses or lack thereof I have ever read. Thanks Steve!
This article appeared in the AJC on Sunday, May 22.
A good point is made….Will Atlanta and the surrounding 10 metro counties that have to vote to approve the transportation referendum in 2012 have a clear understanding of what the money is going to do and how it’s going to help them and improve Atlanta’s quality of life as well as keep us competitive as a place to draw more people and corporate headquarters to?
Every day, Atlanta’s population more than doubles to more than 1.2 million people as workers, shoppers and entertainment seekers pour into the city in cars or via mass transit, according to city officials.
In many ways, Atlanta — where three major interstates and two major railroad networks converge — lies at the heart of the region’s traffic grid. It has always struggled to maintain and expand interstate and transit systems that link the metro counties and move their residents.
Officials in the capital city are banking on the money raised by the 2012 transportation referendum’s 1-cent tax, if the 10-county region passes it, to pump millions of dollars into the MARTA system, to fix bridges and roads, to accelerate the completion of the Atlanta Beltline. Of course, how many of Atlanta’s suggestions make it to a final project list has yet to be seen.
Other people question whether Atlanta voters who already are paying a 1-cent MARTA tax will want to spend more. Atlanta has an 8 percent sales tax, one of the highest in the state. If the referendum passes, that would jump to 9 percent.
Mark Zuckerberg’s $7 million Palo Alto home.
Photo: Alain Pinel Realtors
Mark Zuckerberg is, at age 26, on the young side for a first-time home buyer these days. But the Facebook cofounder and chief executive isn’t exactly stretching financially to make his first purchase. Valued at $13.5 billion, and with a persona made famous by the Oscar-winning film The Social Network, Zuckerberg recently plunked down a relatively paltry $7 million for his first home.
The restored historic Palo Alto, Calif. abode encompasses 5,617 square feet on a 17,100 square-foot plot. It includes five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a banquet-size dining room, a music alcove and glassed-in porch. The backyard has a saltwater pool, a spa, an outdoor gazebo with a wood-burning fireplace and a carport. The lot, located on Edgewood Drive in the Crescent Park neighborhood, is shielded from nosy neighbors and gawkers by a wall and citrus trees. Crescent Park itself is a high-end neighborhood where median single-family homes went for an average of $1.9 million in February, according to the Zillow Home Value Index.
The young billionaire’s new pad hails from an earlier structure erected by William A. Newell, a physician and politician who helped establish and govern the area in the late 19th century. It was razed and rebuilt by another physician in 1903. Since then, it changed hands roughly seven times, going through several remodelings, before being acquired by the social media entrepreneur.
The property was listed through Sherry Bucolo of Alain Pinel Realtors. Both Bucolo and Facebook declined to comment on the sale, but public records indicate the deal closed in mid-March. As with most real estate transactions involving rich and famous homebuyers, the sale was conducted through a third party LLC.
The young billionaire has long been a fan of renting and of relatively modest digs. His last two places were rentals in the College Terrace neighborhood of Palo Alto, both of which were close to Facebook’s offices and significantly smaller than the new home.
Zuckerberg, who ranks 52nd on Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires, paid $1 million more than the previously listed asking price of $5.85 million. The $7 million paid is about what the home is valued in the expensive 94301 zip code, according to Zillow.com.
That might seem like a hefty price tag to many middle Americans, but it’s pee wee league among billionaires. Yuri Milner, a venture capital billionaire and Facebook investor, shelled out $100 million for an 11 acre, 25,000 square foot estate in the area earlier this year. In April, news broke that Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s wealthiest billionaire, had snatched up a London penthouse for $221 million, the most ever paid for an apartment anywhere.
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.
Please forward to Animal Control Facility Managers, Local Government officials, FEMA operatives, and anyone else involved in the recovery operations that may have some bearing on this issue.
Share on Twitter: RT @seprr Tornado Disaster Animal Rescuers READ & SHARE B4 adopting out recovered Pets to new owners https://bit.ly/jQpHKa #tornado SE Pet Rescue Railroad, Atlanta GA April 28th, 20 Yesterday, the world witnessed an unprecedented meteorological event, characterized by some experts as Biblical in it’s proportions and intensity. There has been enormous loss of life. Once again, similar to Katrina, the Animal Rescue community is now faced withenormous amounts of displaced pets, separated from their families and homes,wounded, cold, hungry, scared, homeless, and now orphaned from beloved owners who may have been killed during the storm’s passage. When rescuing these pets, please tag/label these pets as “Held for Owner Recovery/Displaced by Tornado Disaster”. Pleasedo not make them available for adoption by the general publicuntil an adequate hold period has expired, perhaps one month at a minimum. These are beloved members of families, not cast out strays that have been neglected. Treat these Pets like you would a lost child, and return it home. Please extend Animal Control Hold Periodsto accommodate the extended time lines necessary for recovery by the owners, given the dire and extreme circumstances. When determining an appropriate Hold Period, consider: – 1,000’s of people are actually in the hospital, and will be there for an extended period. – 1 Million+ are without power today. How long will it take to restore basic access to power, much less shelter, clothing, a hot meal, employment? Who knows? – These pets must be rescued now, lest they starve, are stolen, become food for coyotes, or go feral foraging for food. I write this to ward off a repeat of what unfolded in the aftermath of Katrina, when good intentions of hard-working rescuers had an unintended effect. Many of the rescued pets were put into foster care.Instead of being returned to their original owners, they were adopted by new owners, sometimes 1000’s of miles away. Certainly, many rescuers would argue about the reasons why the pets were left behind. The fact is that the rescue movement carte-blanch, saved these animals from their plight, placed them into foster care, and also overlooked the fact their returning owners would be seeking their animals afterwards. We have seen the legal fights and the broken hearts.
This time around, let’s do whatever we can to return these pets to their owners.This time there can be no petty arguments and judgements about the intentions of the pet’s owners when it takes about 30 seconds for a tornado to rip your world apart with practically no warning at all. That is why people RUN for shelter during tornadoes. There is usually very little advance notice, unless you just happened to be tuned into the right channel at the right time to hear Emergency Broadcast Beacon. Even today, people are easily out of touch long enough to be taken by complete surprise by a tornado, much less over 100 of them of such awesome speed and intensity. There can be no argue. WE MUST ASSUME these owners want their beloved pets returned and are actively worried and seeking them as I write this letter. A solution is relatively straightforward: 1- When collecting these displaced pets,closely note where the pet was found and document the location where possible. 2-Tag these pets as Displaced and give them longer owner recovery periods, up to one month versus the normal 5 day Hold Period such as we have here in Georgia. 3-Where resources are scarce for housing the rescued pets, place them in foster care, but with the explicit understanding that these pets are Displaced Pet fostered for “Owner Recovery”. 4- Pleasedo not, under any circumstances take a Displaced Pet and put it up for adoption without a reasonable time frame for the ownerto seek, find, and secure their pet.Do not Euthanize Displaced Pets.These are loved members of families, not cast out strays that have been neglected. Treat these Pets like you would a lost child, and return it home. 5- Do not transport the Displaced Pets out of the market, away from the area where the pet was found.If they do not remain in the animal control or humane shelter nearby where they were found, there is simply no chance for the Displaced Pet to return home. SEPRR’s network is available to ALL Rescuers needing a place to promote their notices, especially for Transport! Prayers and Good Hunting during your recovery and rescue efforts. Best wishes, — Bryan “Beau” Grant, Director SE Pet Rescue Railroad Office: +1 (678) 389-9903 Fax: +1 (404) 348-4759 Mobile: +1 (404) 932-6399 https://facebook.com/seprr https://twitter.com/seprr https://twitter.com/bryangrant (sent from the web at Google Apps) Reform Companion Animal Laws – Please Sign & Share this Petition: https://ht.ly/2fDGN Please Share the word on Twitter: RT @seprr support laws in #GA to END euthanizing animalshttps://ht.ly/2fDGN#petrescue #gapolitics
Realtors For Pets
C/O Gina Carr
7550 Hinson Street # 15C
Orlando, FL 32819 USA
