By Guest Columnist JAY MILLER, a semi-retired lawyer who lives in the Inman Park area.
The Beltline is Atlanta’s jewel. It epitomizes how a human construct can complement nature and how people from all quarters can enjoy themselves side-by-side in harmony. If there is a better example of diversity anywhere, I have yet to find it.
City officials and MARTA, however, seem headed down a path that would tarnish this jewel and do so while spending unconscionable amounts of money and degrading adjoining properties in the process. That would be the end result of their planned eastside streetcar extension running from downtown to Ponce City Market (PCM).
We need to push the pause button, have a constructive conversation with stakeholders and seek an alternative proposal for the benefit of all Atlantans. Otherwise, an irreversible tragedy could befall us.
Jay Miller is a semi-retired lawyer who lives in the Inman Park area. He previously served as Vice President and Tax Counsel at Northwestern Mutual and, before that, as a Trial Attorney for the United States Department of Justice.
Picture this — steel rails plopped down on a slab of concrete, a gaggle of overhead wires, fences topped with barbed wire on either side of the tracks to protect Beltline pedestrians from harm and streetcars whizzing by noisily several times an hour. That’s what we’re looking at.
To accomplish this, it would be necessary to destroy acres of greenspace, cut down trees, and upend the lives of nearby business owners and residents. Indeed, some residents might be forcibly displaced from their homes to make way for the streetcar.
People of all income levels, white and Black, oppose this juggernaut. And thousands more who use the Beltline will soon join the opposition once they become aware of what’s happening. And, it’s a virtual certainty that most of them don’t know right now.
Why, then, is the city proceeding with its plans? Because they claim they have the money, and…
Read the full article here
