How does this come about? By voting yes on the Regional Transportation Referendum. Cobb County has a great deal at stake — $980 million in large transportation projects, to be exact. We have an opportunity to seize on a large share of the 200,000 jobs the Regional Transportation Referendum will create or sustain. It’s an opportunity to create new wealth and new businesses for citizens, as the investment in transportation will generate $19 billion in new income.
One example from the project list is the $75 million to rebuild the Windy Hill Road / I-75 / I-285 interchange and unclog one of Cobb County’s most congested corridors. Cobb’s local governments will also receive an additional $170 million in local funds to be used for senior transportation, better pedestrian facilities and repaving old roads.
Additionally, Cobb will receive $689 million to build a bus rapid transit system that will run from the northernmost part of Cobb County to the Arts Center Station in Midtown Atlanta. This BRT line will provide new choices for a consistent commute, help alleviate congestion on our major thoroughfares including I-75 and 41 and provide a way to work for those who currently do not have transportation options.
Cobb will also utilize $30 million of its funding to widen Macland Road from Lost Mountain Road all the way to Paulding County, relieving the commutes of thousands who commute east into Cobb to work.
As the president of a company that is based in Cobb and employs over 150 people here, I empathize with all residents and businesses who are working through the hardships that come with high unemployment rates, high gasoline prices and plummeting home values. But Cobb stands to gain an investment of more than $1 billion if the Regional Transportation Referendum is approved.
In the final analysis, however, this isn’t about just Cobb County; this is about coming together as a region to make the investments necessary to keep the businesses we already have and to attract new ones that will create more jobs and prosperity. These are investments we are making not just for ourselves, but for our children and their children. It’s time for metro Atlanta to move beyond parochial concerns and county borders and come together to solve its biggest challenges that can make our region strong and competitive.
We cannot move forward as a region without making these critical investments. Lost productivity and wasted fuel from being stuck in traffic is costing our region billions of dollars a year. The state of Georgia has given the region an unprecedented opportunity to overcome this tremendous barrier to growth. It’s an opportunity that may not present itself again. We need to take advantage of it by voting Yes on July 31 for more jobs and enhanced mobility for everyone in metro Atlanta.
Kevin Greiner is president and CEO of Gas South.
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Urban planners try to pretend, for the sake of their own self worth, it is actually professional discipline of some sort.
I guess that explains why we are in the mess we are in!!!
It's the same ole' fabricated, unsubstantiated BS that has been circulated for months now and only the brainwashed believe it.
The Chamber probably threatened to raise his membership dues if he didn't sign it and send it in to the MDJ.
If they truly wanted to bypass Atlanta, they could have.
A polite explanation of your in depth, (but quite incorrect knowledge), would have been much more appreciated than your drivel.
Thank you!
"Six interstate highways—I-20, I-75, I-85, I-285, I-575, and I-675—help metropolitan Atlanta residents get where they need to go.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development
Interstate Highway System
Since their construction in the 1960s and 1970s, Atlanta's interstate highways have helped fuel urban sprawl, first around the northern I-285 perimeter and Interstates 75 and 85 north of the city in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. In the 1980s and 1990s, growth moved toward the southern part of the perimeter, following I-20 both east and west, as well as I-75 and I-85 south. This sprawl in turn fueled growth in traffic volume that prompted the interstate highway expansion and rebuilding projects that continue to this day. "
They are just passing through Cobb. We are eating the burden of outward counties' developers, as the worker commute through Cobb on their way to Atlanta.
It is short sighted "leader" like you who put I-285 so afr south . Then as soon as Atlanta grew a little, 285 backed up traffic through Cobb. If our leaders are so darned smart , why was 285 not routed in Bartow county??
I bet if you had asked the voters in Cobb and Bartow back in those days , things would be a lot better today.
Further , why are you business leaders so high on growth--more customers??, Which means more money, more profits, but no interest in quality and lifestyle being changed.
I-285 opened in 1969 as a 4 lane Highway around the City of Atlanta.
At the time even Cobb County was all Cow pastures so you know what Farm Country Bartow would have been.
The the leg of I-75 connecting Cobb and Bartow Counties was not completed until December of 1977.
Perhaps that sheds a little historical light for you. Now, knowing this, why in the world would they have put 285 in Bartow County?
So you employ 150 people in Cobb? Exactly how many of them will be helped by this T-SPLOST since the majority live in Cobb?
You, sir, must think we are idiots.
We ald=so know that "forward" has a new meaning since Obama came into power.
The legitimacy of both the jobs number and the regional character of TSPLOST projects is completely dubious, if not flat out wrong. By the way, where have I heard "create or save/sustain" before? Was it in some totally cooked-up justification for the massively FAILED, nearly $1 Trillion Obama/Pelosi/Reid Stimulus idea?
As for "regional", just take a look at the actual Region 3 project list, then tell me this is a regional plan. 29% of the money is for bailing out MARTA, gluing it back together, and even expanding it, after decades of mismanagement. Yes, over $2 billion in maintenance and some expansion, but still serving only Fulton and Dekalb counties, but paid for by all of us.
Although I could write volumes more on this, one more thing that really stinks is the use of a consumption tax to fund the interests of political cronies. The only regional thing here is the sucking of money from the entire region to primarily pay for totally non-regional projects - and this is just plain wrong. It is a scam of the highest order.
Do not be persuaded by Mr. Greiner's position here, nor by any of the crazy promises being made by TSPLOST proponents. VOTE NO ! Don't let this shameful tax pass. Many better alternatives exist....but you won't hear about them because the good ol' boys won't make money on them.