Poll: How important is a transit component for the Atlanta Beltline’s future?

Always taking the longview, Beltline mastermind Ryan Gravel has a bone to pick with Atlanta’s TSPLOST priorities, as the city is faced with, in Gravel’s words, “a tsunami of growth” in coming years.

A robust transit network in the Beltline corridor, Gravel argues, will be essential to mitigating traffic nightmares and the city’s affordable housing squeeze as Atlanta packs on an expected influx of millions of residents. Transit, Gravel notes, has been integral to the Beltline vision he’s been pitching (alongside the likes of John Lewis and Jane Fonda) for 15 years.

Curbed Atlanta

Yet, in a call-to-action column on his website that’s generating headlines, Gravel posits that city leaders have done very little to push forward Beltline transit since voters overwhelmingly approved additional sales taxes for MARTA expansion and other transportation enhancements in 2016. He writes:

“... a year and a half has passed and we’re still waiting for news on [Beltline] transit. In addition to the line to Emory, our money is being committed to projects that have not had a single public meeting. And rumors are swirling that Beltline transit may not even make it into the plan—at least not much of it. If that’s true, it’s fair to wonder if MARTA and other decision makers have been listening all these years. Or maybe they don’t remember. Or maybe they weren’t here at the time. Or maybe they don’t care.”

Yowza.

After the column published, MARTA chair Robbie Ashe assured the AJC that Beltline transit is a high priority but didn’t elaborate.

Gravel, an urban planner who conceived of the Beltline as a Georgia Tech grad student, hasn’t been skittish about speaking his mind on Beltline issues. He resigned in 2016 from the Atlanta Beltline Partnership due to what he called a lack of emphasis on affordability and equality.

That theme continues at the conclusion of his column:

“We know intuitively that without urgent investment in transit, the Beltline will become what everyone fears—a beautiful greenway flanked by gentrified neighborhoods for people who can afford the luxury of that choice. That’s not what we wanted. That’s not what we voted for.”

So that’s Gravel’s take, but now it’s time to hear from you, ye citizens of Atlanta and patrons of its fabled Beltline.

Will it be crucial, in your view, for Atlantans to have the ability catch a light-rail train or some version of a streetcar/trolley on the Beltline one day? Would transit cash be better spent elsewhere? Does the city need a Beltline public-transport loop at all?

Let’s hear how you feel.

• Gravel > A new threat to Beltline transit. [site]
• Beltline’s godfather worries about transit-less future for project [AJC]