Racism, Gwinnett, and MARTA: A Never-ending Tale

What a welcoming sign into Gwinnett County from DeKalb! 

This blog post is going to be a very local one. (Sorry to all my non-Atlantan readers, but some of what you read may resonate with you too!) It covers the relationship between MARTA and Gwinnett county. I am going to split up the post into three sections: 1) some facts, 2) some sobering history, and 3) the current situation. If you find my opinions to be scathing or hard, then hopefully your eyes will have been opened to how bad the current situation is.

First some facts:

• 56% of Gwinnettians are willing to pay more for public transportation
• Half of likely voters in Gwinnett support a 1% tax increase to join MARTA
• Gwinnett is the second most populous county in Georgia
• Within the next fifteen years, the population will top one million residents
• The county is under-served by its transit system: Gwinnett County Transit
• The county has a minority-majority populace but its commissioners are all white, all Republican
• CAR OWNERSHIP IS A PRIVILEGE
• ACCESS TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT

County Commissioner seats... I wonder how the gerrymandering works here to ensure Republicans maintain control of all seats, not even allowing Democrats to have a seat at the table!

Now, I will recount a long (and  racist) history between MARTA and Gwinnett County:

• In 1971, Gwinnett voters rejected joining MARTA. At the time, MARTA was being created to bring mass transit service across the Atlanta area. Voters in DeKalb and Fulton Counties voted to join the authority while Clayton, Cobb, and Gwinnett voters voted against the expanding authority. There were multiple reasons for this split: large costs, low densities, small populations, a tax increase, and a rural setting. Decidedly though, the large black populations of Fulton and DeKalb Counties deterred white voters of these bedroom communities into voting against the MARTA system.
• In 1990, there was a referendum in Gwinnett about joining MARTA. Again, the vote failed. This decision though was more pure. By 1990, Gwinnett was growing rapidly. It was becoming more urban and less rural. People were told to expect a massive population boom in the coming decade according to growth models. So why the denial of public transit despite the stronger need for it? Racism. White Gwinnettians didn't want black people in Atlanta to have access to their community.  
• In 2001, 2002, express and then local bus service began by Gwinnett County Transit (GCT). A little too late though, as the county had already become the fastest growing county in the country at this time. Notably, local bus service primarily services middle or low-income communities, not the wealthy neighborhoods to the north and east.  



Sorry to curse, but what the actual fuck is this kind of service? How does this adequately serve Gwinnett? Someone ask Charlotte Nash for me because I'd love to know!

• Since then: the recession has cut local bus service (essential to those who can't afford a car) while express service has been expanded to serve the Atlanta commuters. The county has continued to grow resulting in worse traffic. Bad traffic creates unhealthy smog that hurts asthmatics during the year. In addition, the county has diversified. People hold different backgrounds and different opinions than those of 1990 or 1971. It has become distinctly urban with the only remaining agricultural uses at the fringes of the county away from the major highways. Additionally, surveys and polls show Gwinnettians support expanded public transit and/or MARTA expansion. 

The current situation:

• Charlotte Nash, county commissioner and chairwoman, on MARTA expansion: "It's an uphill battle... Its about feeling like they don't have control of the county's transit system." 
• Translation: 'Uphill battle' = her political career, she's unwillingly to jeopardize her political future by allowing a referendum, literally a decision made by the public, to go forward. 'Don't  have control of the county's transit system' = don't have control of preventing poor people from moving northward. Currently, GCT is limited to local bus service in certain disadvantaged areas in the west and center of the county. Joining MARTA would mean robust local bus service for the whole county since MARTA has the funds available for this. The only problem in that is she and her cronies would no longer have a say in preventing bus service to her affluent areas. Apparently providing public transit to her constituents isn't critical as long as the rich don't have to encounter a bloody bus allowing people to get to work. 
• John Heard, county commissioner: "I believe that if we put it on the ballet, a local transit SPLOST will pass -- for Gwinnett County only. Nobody wants to send our money down to the City of Atlanta."  
• Translation: 'for Gwinnett County only' = he's only interested in helping the affluent Atlanta commuter, not the average Gwinnettian (or Atlantan for that matter) without a car. 'Nobody wants to send our money down to the City of Atlanta' = Democrats/black people aren't taking our money. This might sound like a harsh translation, but it's not. He is being explicitly racist in what he is saying here. If Gwinnett joined MARTA, all taxes raised would go toward the expansion of MARTA in Gwinnett. He is lying to his constituents or he is being naive. He for sure is being racist in showing his distaste towards allowing a transit service use funds to provide robust transit that will directly allow better mobility for people of color.  

So here is what is actually going on. Our county commissioners are misleading the public by already throwing out incorrect facts about MARTA. MARTA, by no means, is a perfect transit system, but if Gwinnett joins it, we aren't losing control of where are money goes, how it is used, and how we are serviced. Ask Clayton County. They recently joined MARTA, now have robust bus service across the whole county, and will soon be discussing how to provide a commuter train to its communities. Gwinnett, on the other hand, recently lost NCR and its 3,000+ jobs because of a lack of transit access. Gwinnett has no plans moving forward on how to deal with its traffic problem. In fact, all Gwinnett is doing is sitting in traffic wasting time and money behind the wheel. Charlotte Nash and her Republican controlled commission are unfairly using their power to prevent democracy. They are preventing the county from moving forward by not allowing a referendum on MARTA. They are clinging onto power in a time when Gwinnett needs strong leadership and real change. Business as usual is failing. Growth and the economy is moving elsewhere but for some reason, everyone is sitting in traffic in denial about this.

Dacula, on the right, in relation to the rest of the county

What should you do? Demand your referendum! Charlotte Nash doesn't live along the 85 corridor; she lives all the way out in Dacula. She doesn't have to sit through an hour of traffic a day to get to a well-paying job that happens to be outside of the county. She doesn't grasp how bad it is. She and her fellow commissioners also don't grasp what it means to be apart of a region. Gwinnett is great, success does live here, but it is great because it relies on the greater Atlanta region. Gwinnett needs to be a part of its transportation system if it hopes to stay competitive in the future. Ask your neighbor what they would think of getting MARTA service. Chances are they wouldn't mind it! 

Remember these water towers? A moto we need to continue to live by! 

Our leaders are playing politics. It doesn't take much to read between the lines of their statements and see where their true opinions lie. Luckily, that doesn't mean we can't sway them. If enough of us raise a racket, we will get our referendum and the congestion relief and public transit that WE DESPERATELY NEED. 

*A lot of this article references David Wickert's reporting from the AJC. I encourage you to read his reports of the state of transportation in the AJC. http://commuting.blog.ajc.com/2017/10/27/will-gwinnett-county-join-marta-not-likely-officials-say/        

What Seattle and Gwinnett Have In Common? Voting No, Apparently

Seattle Traffic

Today, I read an article in the Seattle Times about a decision their citizens made in the 1970's. The journalists wrote about how a referendum that would subsidize heavy rail by the federal government failed due to lack of support by the people of Seattle. He then compared Seattle's decision to Atlanta's decision in which we DID support the same referendum. The result was Atlanta was given millions of federal dollars to design, implement, and run MARTA. About 50 miles of heavy rail line was laid out throughout the city, connecting major business hubs with the CBD and the airport. Seattle on the other hand was forced to let sprawl become king in King County because its citizen choose to not invest in long term mass transportation options. In 2015, both Seattle and Atlanta have suffered from the effects of urban sprawl with long commute times, smog, and few alternatives to using a car. The difference, according to the journalist, is that in Atlanta we have the option to use an efficient and well laid out subway/heavy rail system when in Seattle, they are confined to their less efficient, slower light rail and commuter rail system (this of course is very debatable but he's not from Atlanta, so we can't blame him).

Looking across Metro Atlanta today, you can see a changing opinion of what the region needs in terms of transportation needs. Within the Atlanta city limits, the people are all gung-ho for more transit where there is strong support the expansion of the Atlanta Streetcar and the Atlanta Beltline. In DeKalb County, residents support a light rail line through the Clifton Corridor connecting Lenox with Avondale MARTA stations. In North Fulton and Alpharetta, residents are starting to come around to the idea of using MARTA to enhance the Connect 400 Initiative. In Clayton County, residents saw MARTA bus service begin limited service to parts of the county, after they voted yes on a referendum asking whether the county wanted to join the system. Even in Cobb County, county commissioners will vote on a budget tonight that earmarks money for a referendum on a bus rapid transit line. (YES, you heard me right, Cobb County!) And in Gwinnett, their Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey on whether residents would support expanding MARTA to the county, and 63% said they would support an expansion. But when the Gwinnett County Commission was asked about an expansion, she says the county needs to have a "comprehensive discussion about transportation in the county" before making any rash decisions (No offense Mrs. Nash, but WTF have you seen our commute times?)

Gwinnett County Municipalities and Main Thoroughfares

As a resident of Gwinnett County, its pretty obvious to me that not only do we need to have a discussion about transportation, but we also need to act on it because rush hour is actually "let's sit on 85 and do nothing" hour in Gwinnett. As a transit enthusiast, I do not understand why the pro-business commissioner is hesitating on supporting transit: expanding mass transit create jobs in several industries, stimulates economic growth, stimulates real estate around transit-oriented developments, provides more access to our businesses, allows for greater tourism with more access to Gwinnett amenities, and is a great investment in the future success of the area. Yes, we would be taking on a large and costly investment, but the benefits are too good to pass on and the alternative would mean stunted economic growth for the county.

And when you look at the county as a whole, there is also greater reason to question the commissioner's hesitancy. Gwinnett is the second largest county in the state with over a half-a-million people living there. It is diversifying faster than any other county in that state and will soon be a majority-minority county. It is a middle class heaven where homes are affordable, the schools are incredible, but the cars and transportation costs are expensive (even with the low price of gas currently). While the Great Recession really hurt the local economy, strong leadership by our commissioners and county government prevented our budget from going awry and unlike other counties, Gwinnett fared better with less layoffs and budget cuts during the recession. To me, Gwinnett's current demographics and stable budget are all the more reason, we should be like Atlanta and be gung-ho for making a major investment in mass transportation.

What Bus Rapid Transit or Light Rail Transit could look like on Satellite Boulevard

But one difference between Chairman Nash and me is where we live. She lives in the less populated eastern side of the county where its more rural than urban. I live in the middle of the I-85 corridor where the demographic shifts, worse traffic, and increased densification is more obvious and has had a greater impact on the quality of life. This means that throughout the county different areas have very different wants and needs. My neighbors and I need access to a BRT or LRT line that can ease the flow of traffic on I-85 and provide more commute option between our neighborhoods and the major business hubs. But residents of Dacula and Grayson have no interest in using or more importantly paying for a transit line along the I-85 corridor when they live and work elsewhere. So when this comprehensive conversation about transportation begins in Gwinnett, I hope this demographic difference is noted.

One way to bridge the gap between the disconnect between the different areas of Gwinnett is to create more Community Improvement Districts along the I-85 Corridor and elsewhere. CID's would allow citizens in Unincorporated Gwinnett to have more of a voice of what goes on in their communities. It would also allow citizens to address their most immediate needs in their respective regions. Around the Gwinnett Arena, a CID would focus on smart growth, transportation needs, and traffic easement while other CID might focus more on safety or environmental needs.

Jimmy Carter Boulevard Diverging Diamond Bridge Rendering

Already in Gwinnett, the Gwinnett Village and Gwinnett Place Community Improvement Districts have  already made huge impacts on their respective communities and have partnered together to outline the need for a light rail line on Satellite Boulevard. Their work has created diverging diamonds on the Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Pleasant Hill Road bridges and has beautified and cleaned up the public spaces and sidewalks. Without their CID titles none of this work would've been done, and they do not create the expensive bureaucracies that municipalities such as Norcross or Lawrenceville need.

In addition to using the CID's for more localized issues, in about two-three years time when the county government will be ready to present and allow residents to vote on a transportation referendum, allowing CID's to vote on the referendum as units would better help the county. For instance, CID's along I-85 could vote "Yes" and receive the much needed public transportation investments they desire, while other parts of the county could choose to vote "No" and spend their taxpayer money elsewhere without impacting the needs of another part of the county.

My idea may be a little too extravagant and complicated, but the point is that in Gwinnett, one size does not fit all. So when the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce and the county leaders take the initiative to make transportation a priority, I hope we can make a real impact on focusing on localized areas rather than the diverse county as a whole.