Guest Post: International City

From a former neighbor and Friend of TOD. Without further ado.

About ten years ago I went into semi-retirement and moved to Blue Ridge, GA. The "semi" part of retirement gives cause for infrequent travel, mostly out of Hartsfield. It's a haul and I usually park at North Springs and MARTA it the rest of the way as that is the most reliable way to get past the roadblock that is Atlanta. At least until yesterday.

I was coming back from the flaming hot mid-Atlantic to the cooler sunny South expecting to bypass rush hour traffic using MARTA and get home in time for an adult libation and at least Final Jeopardy. But there were clues this was not to be. I got on the train at Hartsfield on the side usually reserved for the Red Line noticing the sign was (still?) set to "Airport" which I dismissed as typical MARTA. Don't sweat the little things, right? Train pulls out, still indicating it is an "Airport Train" though it is clearly headed in the opposite direction and other than that everything seems normal. Until Five Points. At this point confusion reigns and it basically becomes clear that this train is going no further. I get out and see MARTA employees directing all riders up and out. It was at this point, and only because I asked, that I learned there had been a fire at the Peachtree Center station and there was a "bus bridge" from Five Points to North Avenue. Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot? NOW you tell me?

It gets better. After about over an hour waiting for, getting on and stand-riding to North Avenue I find myself standing with a lot of hot peeved folks waiting for the next northbound to Lindberg. That's right. There would be no Red Line at North Avenue, I would have to disembark at Lindberg and wait, again, for a Red Line train. It was at Lindberg where MARTA decided to rub salt in a now very raw wound.

A MARTA employee, with no need of a megaphone, basically told everyone to "get off the phone, be quiet and listen" and then proceeded to inform all southbound commuters what lay ahead. The fire. The bus bridge. The delays. All that. She even recommended that riders that need to make a flight might consider "alternative transportation" explicitly calling out Uber and Lyft. Wow! And just why was there not a similar, informative presentation at the Airport Station where there often are, and in this case were, people not even from this country who were completely confused by this dysfunctional goat rodeo. Was it because the City runs the airport and they're more beholding to medallion wielding cabbies than Uber or Lyft? Who knows. But if Atlanta fancies itself an International City, it must brace itself for the hard reality that this means its peer-cities are all in Third World countries.

This dark cloud came with a silver lining. I used the extra couple of hours to do some internet research. I already knew I was a 90 mile drive to the MARTA ride to Hartsfield, but what were the other options? Well, I'm only an 80 mile drive, through some of the most beautiful scenery in America, to the Chattanooga airport, conveniently located on MY side of their fair city. It's under 100 miles to the Knoxville airport, again on MY side of the city, only sightly further than my drive to MARTA. I'll never fight my way through Atlanta, MARTA or not, to get to Hartsfield. I know I will pay more, in cash anyway, and that I will be at that airport sometime in the future, but only to change planes. And if I ever visit another "International City" it will be in another country. 

Jane, You Ignorant Slut

That's pretty much what Kasim Reed said to the Meria Carstarphan when speaking after his State of the City lecture. In reaction to Carstarphan's call for the City to sign a quit-claim deed so that APS can sell a school that has been abandoned for close to forty years. Reed is holding the property ransom in hopes of forcing APS to drop their demand that Reed and his administration keep their commitment to pay APS millions of dollars pilfered to fund the Beltline. He trots out some hearsay about the former APS Superintendent somehow linking the deeds to the City's belittling (non) commitment. Surely he sang his own praises during his speech, but his actions describe a city that is a moral and financial derelict.

Reed verbally bitch-slapped Carstarphan with "I thought that one, she's new, she's inexperienced in this city and doesn't know what she's talking about." Superficially true. She ain't from round here, which was one of her key qualities--she had no history with the dysfunction that is the A-T-L. And keep in mind that Hall with the full support of City and business community was a total train wreck. As for inexperienced in this city this is really code word for "not part of the black power structure--in fact, not black at all." And that is probably what it really comes down to. Reed sees himself sitting atop that black power structure to which Carstarphan has not genuflected. Perhaps more importantly she is not black and there again Reed is also correct because if she doesn't understand the importance of being black in Atlanta she really doesn't know what she's talking about.

The Mayor continued with "I'm not the first mayor not to turn over the deeds," and it is now certain he is not going to be the first no matter what the cost to the schoolchildren of Atlanta. Perhaps he sees this as just another opportunity to perpetrate a black-on-black crime that no one will take notice of.