Atlanta wants to sieze "Abandoned" Tracks for "Green Space"

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Atlanta Looks to Abandoned Railroad Tracks

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA - The sprawling metropolis always has given park proponents a headache. Founded as a railroad hub, the city has no ocean, no mountains and no major body of water to serve as a built-in foundation for a park system.

One of the only opportunities for adding green space is manmade — the mostly unused railroad tracks that ring the city, dotted with rundown warehouses and abandoned depots.

It is precisely those tracks that city planners and green groups propose to use in an ambitious $2.1 billion plan to build a 22-mile verdant loop of parks, paths and transit around the city that would link 45 neighborhoods.

“Atlanta, which was for many years known as the poster-child for sprawl, is becoming a national leader in demonstrating there are cost-effective, profitable alternatives,” said Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow of the Urban Land Institute.

Dubbed the Beltline Project, the plan could propel Atlanta from the bottom of the pack of major cities in green space to square in the middle, while at the same time generating economic development by linking together affluent and struggling, isolated neighborhoods.

Urban planning experts are closely watching how the project plays out, saying it could serve as a blueprint for so-called smart growth developments across the country.

The Atlanta project comes as other urban centers champion efforts to turn out-of-use railway lines into parks.

New York’s High Line project would turn an abandoned 1.45-mile stretch of elevated rail line in Manhattan into a towering trail. A similar proposal in Chicago would convert a 20-foot-high freight railroad line into an oasis for walkers and bike riders. Both projects seem to be inspired by a world-renowned project in Paris in the 1990s that turned a rail viaduct into a lush 3-mile pedestrian walkway.

More than

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(1) In my best Bill Clinton, “DEFINE abandoned”…
(2) “sieze” is not in the article.
(3) Hopefully Alanta does not repeat the same mistakes that NYC did on the the High Line and New York Cross Harbor operation. (other examples at Kent, WA Lees Summit, MO, and other places can be sited as well.
(4) I can think of a lot better use for $2.1 Billion and think there might be a taxpayer revolt if people get rubbed the wrong way.
(5) The convervation folks, politicians, tree-huggers, (lack of) planners and fellow clueless members of the public are generally totally uninformed as to what constitutes abandonment -it’s more than just an opinion. (And as Mookie and Joe can tell you, when they try to throw their political weight around, they generally come out with a severe beating)
(6) Has anyone approached the railroads? (Betcha they neglected to think about that one…Fire - Ready - Aim?) For that matter, have they talked to the Georgia PUC/ Railroad Commisioner?

[banghead][banghead][banghead]

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Got to remember we are dealing with polititions (misspelling intended).

FIRE FIRE What??? Ready??? Please define “aim”?

BTW - what happened at Kent and Lees Summit? I am not recalling. You can answer to my e-mail.

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“Linking together affluent and struggling neighborhoods” is not the way to generate economic activity. That’s the same kind of addled thinking that brought us school bussing and all the attendant social woes that came with it. I like parks and greenery as well as anyone and this may turn out well for Atlanta, but lets leave out the social engineering that seems to attract the wingnuts that flock to this kind of project.

And doesn’t it seem a little odd that they want to confiscate this abandoned (?) rail property and then put in “trains or trolleys?” This whole thing sounds like what you get when a committee builds a horse.

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Because it fits with the thread:

Kent, WA: STB FD-33200, FD-32974…BNSF buys and rehabs the Stampede Pass line of the former Washington Central. Kent & Auburn’s NIMBY’s say BNSF cannot re-open the embargoed line because it’s abandoned. They lose the argument and BNSF is running the ex-NP line as a relief valve …Kent tries several other really stupid legal maneuvers based on emotion, loses again and again, major waste of taxpayer $$$$

Lee’s Summit, MO - (STB FD-33508) Embargoed ex -CRIP/SSW line is confiscated by crooked county and city officials in a sham tax sale that allows developer in cahoots with politicians to redevelop station grounds at Lee’s Summit as a commercial subdivision. Process is stopped, politicians given the boot, developer & councilman threatened with jail sentence for fraud (never heard the final result)

Mookies Favorite: Lincoln Lumber Case (We (city) railroad steal land from rail served business to build storm sewer on the cheap and help engineering consultant out of jam caused by absolute lack of foresight and no grasp on realiity - sewer never built, Lumber company saved by STB)

Joe: Adverse presciption of railroad crossing by City of Napoleon. OH trying to rip out railroad to build new US-24 intersection which would have cut shortline railroad in half (ex - NKP maiin line)

Creede Colorado (NIMBY ), Yakima, WA , Yuba City, CA ( Attack by town fathers w/ no brains), and on and on and on…(STB website is full of the stuff)

[V][V][V]

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They almost didn’t mention that the main piece of the project is a light rail line ringing the city. They make is sound like the primary purpose is a park. It isn’t. It’s a transit project that happens to include a park with trails.

ROW ownership issues are small compared to getting the project approved. A good chunk of the land needed to do the first phase is already owned by a RE developer who will “give” some of it to the city in exchange for some rezoning.

Funding will come from set-aside future real estate taxes. (a way of leveraging land value appreciation because of the investment)

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2.1 BILLION? Oh well. I guess you have to applaud Atlanta on this one. They’ve eliminated hunger,poverty,substandard housing,crime, and every other thing that needs funding in the city. How else could they justify throwing 2.1 billion dollars at this project?[}:)]

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It’s “later” money, not “now” money. It’s easy to spend money you’ll have (maybe) tomorrow than to spend money you don’t have today. Atlanta’s biggest issue is sewers. That’s eating up a lot of the “now” money.

In order to spend the money on the belt, they have to get approval of the City of Atlanta, Fulton Co., Dekalb Co. and the Atlanta city school board.

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Ah, yes. I recall that now. Wasn’t sure if that was what you were referring to.

I presume the line is still embargoed.

Only in America [D)]

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So while there at it…Why not a Commuter Train System or Light Rail Desail and a bike trail and green space next to the tracks?

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All of these are good points, I just wanted to add one more.

How can any school system actually afford to fund something like this? I don’t know how well the school system is doing at their own industry (teaching brats to be useful members of society), but I can’t believe that they don’t have anything else to spend money on than to help someone else fund something that isn’t going to help with the education of kids.

James