[ale] [OT] cartoon on BP spill blame

[William Bagwell]

On Friday 18 June 2010, Dylan Northrup wrote:
>snips
> Too many folks in the Atlanta metropolitan area don't want mass transit
> because it would allow "the wrong element" to more easily make it out
> to the suburbs.  I'm not a masochist, but I'd use MARTA rail if it
> could get me from Marietta to Duluth and back in under 2 hours one way.
>  Sadly, the northern burbs would rather run their own transit systems
> instead of pooling resources and extend coverage to the places that
> need it.  "Can't have those thugs and lunatics able to ride out near my
> house and steal my stuff". . . . because stealing your stuff using mass
> transit is so efficient.

While this *may* be the current reason for some north metro counties 
continue to reject MARTA, I can assure you it was not the original one. 
(I say may because while I grew up in the burbs, I now live in the 
sticks) The two primary reasons Cobb rejected MARTA back in the seventies 
when it was first proposed were: Lingering bitterness over Atlanta 
killing the trolley lines and money.

I can remember a few derelict trolley stations between Marietta and Smyrna 
as a small child. Small and simple, just a roof to stand (possibly sit?) 
out of the rain and sun. The trolley was shut down in the fifties so I 
never got to ride, but my parents did. They and other middle aged to 
elderly voters with fond memories and lingering bitterness voted MARTA 
down.

On, the money aspect: Might be a tiny bit of racism here <gasp> but quite 
the opposite of what you suggest. No one I knew was afraid of who was 
going to ride the train to our neighborhood because we knew there was not 
going to *be* a train to our neighborhood. MARTA expected Cobb to join, 
pay an extra penny sales tax and not expect a rail line for at least 
twenty years. And no promises for one even then... I was not old enough 
to vote but quite sure I would been strongly in the opposition camp even 
then.

Oddly enough when MARTA and CCT first linked their bus service in the late 
eighties, I noticed a huge influx of punk rockers hanging around the 
square in downtown Marietta for the first few few days. Guess they 
figured out real quick what a boring place it was:)
-- 
William