The Last Democrat in Georgia
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{{"Greater Houston may be bigger than the Atlanta region; but is it better?"}}
...The Greater Houston region may be bigger than the Atlanta region, but not really by all that much with the Greater Houston region having a population of roughly 6.38 million residents to the Greater Atlanta region's population of 6.1 million residents.
As for the question of whether or not Houston is better than Atlanta...
Houston may or may not necessarily be better than Atlanta, but one would have to say that Houston most certainly has a leg up on Atlanta when it comes to making the necessary investments in its transportation infrastructure so that the area will continue to be able to compete in the 21st Century economy.
Houston's investments in its transportation infrastructure may have leaned (and continues to lean) very heavily towards roads, but at least Houston can say that it is investing heavily in keeping people moving in some way, shape or form to and from a still somewhat fast-growing number of both current and future high-paying jobs, something that Atlanta cannot necessarily currently claim by any stretch of the imagination.
Houston also seems to be expecting and planning for future population and economic growth with continued investments in its transportation infrastructure.
Cities and urban regions like Houston and Dallas seem to expect future growth in jobs and population with continuing investments in roads, transit and water infrastructure while if one were not watching carefully, one might think that the Greater Atlanta region seems to be trying to undermine its own future economic and population growth prospects with sometimes ill-advised legislation by the Georgia Legislature and by stubbornly refusing to invest in its own transportation, education and water infrastructures where necessary so as to intentionally deter and repel future economic and population growth (...something that is not necessarily the wisest thing to do in an increasingly-competitive Sunbelt region and international economy).
Atlanta may have an advantage when it comes to weather with Houston's low elevation and extremely-close location to the hurricane-prone waters of the Gulf of Mexico making its summers much more humid and steamy than Atlanta.
Atlanta also likely has a huge advantage in natural beauty and scenery with the Atlanta area being situated amongst the very heavily-wooded low rolling hills of the Piedmont and the foothills of the Blue Ridge chain of the Appalachian Mountains.
Atlanta may also have an advantage over Houston when it comes to geographical location with Atlanta's location in a South Atlantic state on the Eastern Seaboard relatively close to the cultural, educational, economic and political hubs of the Mid Atlantic and Northeastern U.S.
Atlanta may also have a cultural and social advantage over Houston with Atlanta's location at the confluence of the powerful Atlantic Coast (ACC) and Southeastern (SEC) Conferences and their robust post-secondary institutions of higher learning.
Atlanta's location at the confluence of the higher-learning institutions of the ACC and the SEC has helped Atlanta to frequently host such storied college athletic events as the SEC Football Championship Game, the ACC Mens' Basketball Tournament, the SEC Mens' and Womens' Basketball Tournaments, the NCAA Mens' Basketball Final Four, the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game (which opens up the college football season), the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl postseason college football game, and the new College Football National Semifinal game.
Here are a couple of links to a couple of other pages that give somewhat detailed information on what the state wants to do to expand Georgia 20.
http://www.dot.ga.gov/informationcenter/activeprojects/StateRoute/SR20/Pages/default.aspx
The emerging proposal to expand Georgia 20 between Canton and Cumming is part of a larger plan to expand Georgia 20 through North Georgia between Cartersville and Sugar Hill.
The larger plan to expand Georgia 20 between Cartersville and Sugar Hill actually could make the state's Georgia 20 expansion plans even more politically sensitive, particularly in regards to the section of Georgia 20 that runs through some heavily-wooded areas just north of the Lake Allatoona Managed Hunting Area and south of the Pine Log Mountain Wildlife Management Area between Cartersville and Canton.
It was the state's proposals to run the erstwhile Northern Arc through this heavily-wooded hunting and wildlife area between Cartersville and Canton that drew much intense distain from environmentalists and conservationists that played a key role in eventually leading to the political derailment of the unpopular road construction proposal over a decade ago.
{{"This focus on “context sensitive solutions” is one aspect of the Ga. 20 project that differs from the Northern Arc....The state is emphasizing the importance of local concerns, as opposed to presenting as a done-deal a planned divided highway with limited access, which is how the Northern Arc was interpreted."}}
...It is good that the State of Georgia looks like it is starting to learn from its past mistakes and is attempting to take a more delicate and better thought-out approach to transportation planning as opposed to the ham-handed and ham-fisted approach that it has often taken in the past.
If the state is to actually do anything regarding the existing Georgia 20 corridor eventually, the state is going to have to take great care to make sure that anything it presents is not viewed by the public as being a new incarnation of the controversial and unpopular Northern Arc highway.
If the "Northern Arc" tag gets applied to any proposed Georgia 20 expansion, or the public views the Georgia 20 expansion proposals as being associated with a "new Northern Arc" then things (public relations) could potentially get out of hand very quickly for GDOT the state.
{{"...the fate of the Ga. 20 project is anything but certain."}}
...That is so true as, despite the well-documented political sensitivities of the Georgia 20 corridor, the biggest impedient to the state making continued and significant improvements to the existing Georgia 20 right-of-way is an increasingly severe lack of transportation funding statewide.
The Georgia Department of Transportation itself has admitted that would likely be at least a decade before any work could begin on an expansion of the Georgia 20 corridor.
{{"Call it what you will – Ga. 20, Northern Arc, Outer Perimeter, Outer Loop – the state intends to improve east-west access across Atlanta’s far northern suburbs."}}
...Even though Georgia State Route 20 follows much the same path and runs roughly parallel to the formerly-proposed right-of-way of the erstwhile Northern Arc as Mr. Pendered mentioned, the emerging proposal to widen the current mostly 2 through lane Georgia State Route 20 roadway up to 4 through lanes between Interstate 575 near Canton and roughly Georgia 400 in Cumming should not and cannot necessarily be conflated with the Northern Arc and Outer Perimeter road construction proposals of over a decade ago.
The state's emerging proposal to widen Georgia 20 would only be an expansion of an existing at-grade roadway for about 20-25 miles or so between Canton and Cumming while the erstwhile Northern Arc and Outer Perimeter plans of old included proposals to build a new all-terrain separated-grade controlled-access multi-lane highway that would be roughly up to 70 in length at least between Georgia 316 near Dacula and Interstate 75 North near Cartersville.
Despite the obvious political sensitivities of the route (to say the least), there is a HUGE difference between the state's emerging proposal to widen between 20-25 miles of the existing Georgia 20 roadway between Canton and Cumming and the state's past highly-controversial proposal to build a 70 mile-long new all-terrain expressway between Cartersville and Dacula.
{{"Ga. 20 runs somewhat parallel to the Northern Arc’s proposed route and already has been expanded. Additional construction would enable to handle more vehicles. The state’s official position is that options range from doing nothing to doing something big."}}
...Any expansions of Georgia 20 that have taken place between Canton and Cumming have been very modest and minimal at-best as most of the Georgia 20 roadway between Canton and Cumming remains a roadway with only 2 travel lanes.
Though, in some places, the Georgia 20 roadway does have middle and left turning lanes, right turn only lanes and very-brief passing lanes, and though the Georgia 20 roadway is in the process of being expanded to include truck-climbing lanes between I-575 and the Forsyth County line, much of Georgia 20 between Canton and Cumming basically has only one travel lane in each direction.
There are sections of Georgia 20 that have truly already been expanded to at least 4 travel lanes to date for an extended length, but all of those sections are east of Cumming and mostly east of Georgia 400.
{{"“We are in some ways the blob that ate South Texas. We are 640 square miles. We have to provide services over a large area,” she said. “For a long time, we didn’t think much about mass transit. We were way behind.”"}}
{{"Politically, Parker described Houston, Dallas and Austin as “big blue islands in a red sea,” adding that “Texas is an increasingly urbanized state.”"}}
...Gee, those statements sound familiar...Where have we heard those before? Hmmm?....
Just like Houston is "the blob that ate South Texas", Atlanta is "the blob that is eating" North Georgia or seemingly all of Georgia in some cases.
Also, just like Houston, Dallas and Austin are "big blue islands in a red sea", Atlanta is an blue island, albeit likely a much-smaller blue island at this point, in a big red sea, politically.
Also, just like Houston for a long time didn't think much about mass transit, Atlanta, while having MARTA, is still at a stage where its state leadership seemingly does not think very much about or very highly of mass transit, despite Atlanta having a far more limited road network than a metro region like Houston.
Thanks for the update and the insight, Ms. Saporta.
It's not often that the Georgia Department of Transportation gets recognized for doing something right these days, but GDOT's embrace of the "Complete Streets" policy is very good news and better yet, is very good public policy.
A very-big congratulations to GDOT Commissioner Keith Golden, GDOT Chief Engineer Russell McMurry and the Georgia Department of Transportation for getting it right on this one very big issue that has a very-big impact on the area's quality-of-life.
The Georgia Department of Transportation's embrace of the "Complete Streets" policy is especially good news for the continuing redesign and eventual reconstruction of formerly-suburban but increasingly urban extremely-busy state-maintained and state-controlled thoroughfares with heavy bike and pedustrian traffic like South Cobb Drive (GA Hwy 280), Tara Boulevard (US Hwy 19-41/GA Hwy 3), Jonesboro Road (GA Hwy 54), LaVista Road (GA Hwy 236), Lawrenceville Highway (US Hwy 29/GA Hwy 8), East Main Street/Athens Highway (US Hwy 78/GA Hwy 10), Memorial Drive (GA Hwy 10), Peachtree Road (US Hwy 19/GA Hwy 9/GA Hwy 141), Peachtree Boulevard (GA Hwy 141), Roswell Road (US Hwy 19/GA Hwy 9), and Cobb Parkway (US Hwy 41/GA Hwy 3).
GDOT's embrace of the "Complete Streets" policy is PARTICULARLY good news for the continuing redesign and eventual reconstruction of the formerly-suburban but increasingly urban extremely-busy state-maintained and state-controlled thoroughfare of Buford Highway (US Hwy 23/GA Hwy 13), a road that might have more pedustrian traffic on it than any other state-controlled roadway in the state and remains in severe need of sidewalks for most of its length to accommodate that heavy amount of pedustrian traffic.
@ScottNAtlanta {{"Well...I'd say Rawlings speaks for a very vocal MINORITY of residents (of which I am one of those residents). Would I like it to be some wonderful upscale shopping district? That would be cool, but its not realistic, and the market is not there yet to support it. What you would end up with is a bunch of empty buildings which would be far worse."}}
...A bunch of empty buildings is likely just what Rawlings and that very vocal minority of residents is aiming for.
They know that a bunch of empty buildings and abandoned properties would be much easier (and much cheaper) for land spectulators and real estate developers to buy than a bunch of occupied buildings and properties full of thriving businesses because land prices for empty and abandoned properties are much lower than for occupied and thriving properties.
To those that don't like Cheshire Bridge in its current somewhat seedy, red-light district-like form, driving out the adult-themed, blue-collar and light-industrial businesses they don't like and leaving empty structures and properties in their wake would greatly speed along the process of transforming Cheshire Bridge Road into an upscale high-density mixed-use district.
{{"The metro Atlanta region must engage in an ongoing effort to meet both present and future water needs. A combination of investments in rainwater harvesting, constructing new reservoirs and use of other water conservation technologies will be needed to ensure the metro Atlanta region has an ample supply of water to meet our region’s water needs in 2035 and beyond."}}
...What Mr. Lawler said here is especially key as even with continued substantial or extreme water conservation measures, the Atlanta region (and the State of Georgia) will still have to invest in new capacity in the form of new reservoirs (preferably smaller, less environmentally-impactful reservoirs) for storage and supply and even flood control for very wet periods.
Excellently well stated, Mr. Lawler.
Another interesting statistic of note is that despite the Houston region's continued pursuit of a maximum road expansion-dominated transportation strategy, Houston's urban area has more density than Atlanta's urban area.
The Houston urban core, which is confined mostly within the 1,729 square miles of Harris County, Texas, has a population density of 2,460 persons per square mile.
That is compared to the Atlanta urban core, which is found mostly (but not completely) inside the 1,714 combined square miles of the five counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb and Gwinnett (3,500, 238 combined population) which all have a combined land area that is 15 square miles smaller than Harris County, TX (population 4,253,700), has a population density of only 2,043 persons per square mile.
(Houston's urban core population density of 2460 persons per square mile > Atlanta's urban core population density of 2043 persons per square mile)
That means that Atlanta actually sprawls more over an inadequate road network than Houston does over a much more adequate road network.
With a population density of 417 more persons per mile than Atlanta's urban core, Houston's urban core is about 10% more dense than Atlanta's urban core.
{{"Forbes has named Houston, Texas as the “coolest” city to live in the United States. Atlanta didn’t make the top 20 list."}}
Here is a link to the article that Ms. Saporta is referring to: http://homes.yahoo.com/news/america-s-10-hippest-cities.html
Cheshire Bridge Road also looks like a good candidate for a future streetcar line possibly between roughly Midtown and Doraville over the long-term (we're talking decades, not years) because of the road's long-term potential for high-density mixed-use development and the inability to further widen or expand the road's capacity to accommodate more vehicular traffic.
Mr. Pendered: {{"One vision calls for Cheshire Bridge Road to be a commercial corridor with shops that cater to surrounding neighborhoods."}}
David235: {{"In the 1980s Cheshire Bridge was a sleepy street as well as Piedmont Road. At 5pm, Piedmont Road was deserted of street traffic. I know, hard to believe today."}}
...It is because of the increased amount of traffic along Cheshire Bridge Road between Piedmont Road and I-85 and Cheshire Bridge's location on the increasingly heavily-populated Near-Northeastside of Atlanta directly between two increasingly highly-desirable urban districts in Buckhead and Midtown that Cheshire Bridge Road has become an increasingly prime piece of real estate in Metro Atlanta, which is what these conversations are REALLY about: Clearing the way for the type of development boom that has happened in Midtown and Buckhead to happen on the perfectly-situated Cheshire Bridge Road.
Increased development and re-development, likely of a much-denser and more transit-oriented nature, is coming to Cheshire Bridge Road because of its extremely-prime location, whether or not the adult businesses stay because the road's location is too prime for it not to, economic conditions permitting.
Because Cheshire Bridge Road is such a prime location for increased future development and re-development, neighborhood interests and the city don't necessarily need to use the force of law to push out the existing adult-themed and industrial businesses that they find to be undesirable because the market will eventually do it for them when those existing adult businesses are bought out and replaced with more-conventional non-adult themed businesses.
The free market process may not necessarily act as fast as the surrounding neighborhoods would like by coming in, buying out and replacing the existing adult-themed businesses overnight, but the free market will eventually act in a big way as Cheshire Bridge Road becomes more and more of a prime location with the road rising in importance as a major connecting node between I-85, Buford Highway, Buckhead and Brookhaven to the north and Midtown, Piedmont Park and Downtown to the south as those locations continue to increase in population and desirability over time.
The free market-guided redevelopment process is already well underway along the Cheshire Bridge Road corridor with the recent construction of such high-density mixed-use transit-oriented developments as the Archstone Cheshire Bridge Apartments at the north end of the corridor just south of I-85 and the continuing construction of the multi-stage high-density LaVista Walk mixed-use transit-oriented development on the southside of LaVista Road immediately just east of Cheshire Bridge Road.
Just like with neighborhood interests in other parts of the city trying to speed-up or force the redevelopment process along sections of the Atlanta Beltline where the free market is not yet ready to invest, the redevelopment process is not necessarily something that can be sped-up through force-of-law as attempting to do so may only serve to impede the redevelopment even more with costly court battles.
The free market redevelopment process is something that takes place over time as economic conditions and demographic trends dictate, which for Cheshire Bridge Road could be a process that continues over a period of 10-30 years as existing adult-themed properties are purchased by spectulators and redeveloped into higher-density mixed-use transit-oriented light-commercial/residential properties.
In any case, it is a process that surrounding neighborhood interests would be wise to be patient about as things are clearly headed in the direction they prefer but it will take time and patience as the free market will get to Cheshire Bridge Road in full force, but only when in it is ready and NOT a moment sooner.
{{"Another vision calls for Cheshire Bridge Road to be a regional destination that caters to people who want to shop at adult stores and attend strip clubs."}}
...Don't you mean "Another vision calls for Cheshire Bridge Road to REMAIN a regional destination that caters to people who want to shop at adult stores and attend strip clubs"? Since Cheshire Bridge Road is already well known to be a regional destination for people who patronize adult stores and strip clubs.
(Continued from below) Metro Atlanta at-grade surface thoroughfares that are good candidates for conversion into urban expressways and super-arteries:
-The construction of tightly-constrained urban separated-grade interchanges at congested at-grade intersections along stretches of GA Hwy 120/Dallas Highway from the US Hwy 278/GA Hwy 6 junction west of Hiram in East Paulding County to Barrett Parkway in West Cobb County and along GA 120/Roswell Road from the GA 120 Loop in East Cobb to the GA 9 junction in Roswell in North Fulton County with the consideration of a subterranean urban express tunnel the historic district within the City of Marietta to connect both ends of GA 120 within Cobb County while taking traffic off of Marietta's historic but narrow city streets (Whitlock Avenue, in particular).
(Continued from below) Metro Atlanta at-grade surface thoroughfares that are good candidates for conversion into urban expressways and super-arteries:
-The construction of very tightly-constrained urban separated-grade interchanges at congested at-grade intersections along the GA Hwy 92/Woodstock Road/Crossville Road/GA 140/Holcomb Bridge Road/Jimmy Carter corridor between I-75 Northwest near Acworth and I-85 Northeast in Norcross
-The construction of very tightly-constrained urban separated-grade interchanges at congested at-grade intersections and the partial conversion of the road to an urban expressway where applicable along GA Hwy 141/Peachtree Parkway/Medlock Bridge Road between the P'tree Industrial Blvd split in Peachtree Corners and the GA 400 interchange in Forsyth County where a flyover exit ramp from GA 400 SB to GA 141 SB would be constructed. Conversion of roadway to partial urban expressway would in conjunction with an increase in park & ride bus service along the corridor that would feed into and out of a multimodal/high-capacity passenger rail transit station in/near Downtown Norcross.
(Continued from below) Metro Atlanta at-grade surface thoroughfares that are good candidates for conversion into urban expressways and super-arteries:
-US Hwy 19-41/Tara Boulevard from I-75 in Clayton County south to Barnesville in Lamar County in conjunction with the implementation of high-capacity passenger rail transit service between Atlanta and Warner Robins by way of Macon within the paralleling Norfolk Southern rail right-of-way that has long been targeted by the state for the implementation of regional commuter rail service.
-Peachtree Industrial Boulevard from its junction with GA Hwy 141/Peachtree Parkway in the Peachtree Corners/Norcross area of Gwinnett County out to its junction with GA Hwy 347/Lanier Islands Parkway in Southern Hall County near Lake Lanier in conjunction with the implementation of high-capacity passenger rail transit between Atlanta and Clemson University in the Upstate region of South Carolina by way of Gainesville within the paralleling historic NS/Southern Railway line.
(Continued from below) Metro Atlanta at-grade surface thoroughfares that are good candidates for conversion into urban expressways and super-arteries:
-GA Hwy 6/Camp Creek Parkway/US Hwy 278/Thornton Road/C.H. James Parkway from the I-85 South interchange near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Int'l Airport out past the city of Dallas in Paulding County because of the very-heavy automobile traffic that uses the road between the Atlanta Airport and the Camp Creek Marketplace shopping area just west of the I-285/Camp Creek Pkwy interchange and because of the extremely-heavy freight truck traffic that uses the road between I-285 and the Norfolk Southern truck-to-rail/rail-to-truck Intermodal Facility in Austell. Turning GA Hwy 6 into an urban super-artery/expressway would help to eliminate some of the deadly collisions between automobiles and trucks at the numerous signalized at-grade intersections along the high-speed surface road. GA Hwy 6 could be converted into an urban super-artery/expressway in conjunction with the implementation of high-capacity passenger rail transit within the paralleling NS rail right-of-way between Atlanta and Rome by way of Austell.