dammit.

it’s finally here. the consequences of the state legislature’s failure to act to secure additional funding from marta are finally here. i do very much hope this is not the beginning of a death-spiral where decreased service leads to decreased ridership leading to decreased revenue and repeat.

also, i dream of a day when our leaders realize vibrant public transportation is a key component of a truly world class city, and by extension a prosperous georgia, and that is should exist as a public good not a money-making endeavor and fund it appropriately.

sigh, okay /soapbox.

anyway, marta service cuts are scheduled to begin this saturday, tomorrow, including the elmination of a the #23 and #182 bus routes and cuts in frequency to many bus routes and train service. especially hit will be off-peak train service.

you can check here to see what routes are affected and how.

fortunately for me at least, both of my main bus routes have survived intact for now.

take this, o’hare, heathrow, frankfurt, jfk and other assorted mega-hubs.

monday morning i showed up atlanta’s hartsfield airport to catch a flight to florida. the security line was backed up all the way to through the atrium. but, the top-notch outfit that is atlanta’s tsa squad had every xray machine open, at least a dozen id check stations and we got through the whole thing in TEN MINUTES.

seriously.

the tsa is something i should roll my eyes at and most places i do, but here in atl, they do incredibel work.

can we lay off the complaining about our airport please?

well, i do reserve the right to complain about the cops ;-)

the ajc reports on the response of yours an my elected leaders on the financial crisis at marta.

for his part the governor just seems torqued that nobody asked for his help, which makes sense seeing as he and his staff are so effective at getting legislation passed (sarcasm intended.) he then said, “It’s always unfortunate when people who depend on MARTA have their service cut, and I hope they (MARTA) can find a way …. to make it through the end of the year.”

translation – sorry, losers without cars. hope someone figures this out, but don’t ask me. not my gig.

thanks sonny. we appreciate your concern.

the lite governor, well he is a little more concerned.

cagle, pressed about marta cutting a day of service apparently said, “that could be hurtful.”

really?

he went on to add, “MARTA is a vital part of what gets done in metro Atlanta, particularly with tourism and the convention business.”

no word on whether the lieutenant governor thinks the 100,000 plus people that ride marta to work every day are a vital part of what gets done in metro atlanta or not.

still no word from the dunce from dallas.

clowns. all of you.

keep up the phone calls.

governor perdue – 404-656-1776
lieutenant governor cagle – 404-656-5030
speaker richardson – 404-don’t-waste-your-breath.

dear georgia republican party,

f you.

i am about the last guy you could have afforded to piss off. well maybe not exactly, but i am an rnc donor, volunteered for mccain, voted for sonny and casey a few years ago.

i believe in limited government and lower taxes. i believe charity is best left to private sector. i believe that government ought to stick to functions where there is a societal need and the market isn’t capable of providing a competing service. in short, i am your voter.

let’s go back to that last piece though. one of the places where it has been proven, over and over again, that government is needed is municipal mass transit. a strong mass transit system relies on government funding and is necessary to a good urban quality of life. and yet, despite this , the jokers in the georgia republican party that run this state decided to say fu to public transport.

so as a marta commuter, i say fu right back.

the funny thing is marta wasn’t even asking for new money. all they were asking for was to be able to use all of the money that is collected through sales tax in fulton and dekalb for operations. read that, not a state sales tax, a sales tax in two counties.

for those of you who don’t know about this, marta is forced by it’s absurd enabling law to put aside 50 percent of it’s sales tax regulation into a captial fund. no other transit system has to do this. just marta. why you ask? simple, the legislators at the time wanted to keep marta poor so it couldn’t offer free rides. that’s it. no other reason.

and despite all that, you couldn’t find a way to release this money so marta can keep operating. i ride marta every day. how many members of the martoc, including it’s inept chairwoman, jill chambers, can say the same? i ride it and more than 100,000 other people depend on it to get to work. and you are letting it starve.

why? i really don’t know. i don’t understand the legislative chicanery that led to this, but i know that there should have been a way to get it done. and you failed.

there is no telling what marta is going to have to do now. close bathrooms, eliminate weekend service, cut back bus routes? who knows. you could had prevented it, and you didn’t.

so screw you.

in my opinion you have no proven that you are completely incompetent to run this state. i will continue to vote for republicans at the national level, but next time i see a georgia office i am voting for the libertarian.

hope you got a few votes out of butts county out of this, because you lost one in fulton.

sincerely,

james hervey

things are bad at marta right now. really bad.

the ajc is reporting that marta’s budget shortfall is growing every day as the economic crisis worsens. no before you go all crazy on marta, you have to know that marta gets the bulk of it’s funding from a sales tax in fulton and dekalb. if people don’t buy, marta doesn’t get money.

some of the measures being considered are drastic to say the least. eliminating weekend service, cutting bus routes, raising fares.

i also know that most of you don’t ride marta and you probably could care less, but consider this, if marta eliminates my bus route, i might just be back on the streets with you trying to get to work, as will all these other people on the bus with me right now (yup, i am writing this from the bus.) some of them may not be able to even commute to their jobs.

if you live in atlanta, a strong public transportation system helps you big time, whether you ride or not.

and don’t start to bitch about how marta’s problems are of their own making. for the crap funding they get, they do a pretty damn awesome job. you can get anywhere in fulton or dekalb, safely with (most of the time) a smile. marta has done a lot to clean up it’s act too. our own ben did a good job of making this case here.

the state can help. they can give marta money, or at least ease the restriction that forces marta to tie so much money up in a captial reserve. either would help.

jill chambers, who most of you have never heard or, heads the marta oversight board. please contact her and tell her that marta is good for all georgians and the state NEEDS to step in.

you can find her info here.