Connectivity Can Save our City - If We Demand It
Atlanta will never have a better shot at addressing its inequality crisis.
A ‘Rail Writers’ Entry
by George Chidi
The Atlanta Beltline has become the single best symbol for Atlanta's raging inequality crisis, but there’s still time to fix it. BeltLine Rail Now prefers to light a lamp, instead of cursing the darkness.
The BeltLine was initially designed as a unifying force for the city, allowing an easier way to connect undervalued parts of the city to its more vibrant areas, making all of it better. It was meant to be a tool for equality, with affordable housing built along the route. So far, it has failed to deliver all but a tiny fraction of what was promised.
In other ways, it's a huge success. Glen Iris was a place to squat in abandoned property ten years ago. Ponce City Market was an empty building. Now the Beltline has quirky frozen yogurt shops and townhouses starting at $600,000. But the project, which has received a mountain of tax funds so far, has done next to nothing to lift anyone out of poverty, or support middle-class people of color who have largely been driven out of its path.
The one thing that might save it is a streetcar that sparks denser, more affordable development and enables people who live in Atlanta’s poorest communities to jobs and businesses popping up in Midtown, the westside and future developments. Connectivity can save this city from the kind of inequality that threatens to eventually leave Atlanta burned to the ground if it is not addressed.
Black people have been promised train service here and there for 30 years around Atlanta, and it never seems to materialize. Telling people that rail will be built on the Beltline 20 years from now is as good as telling them that it will never happen. There's a credibility gap borne of bad-faith overtures.
Atlanta's new congresswoman, Nikema Williams, is on the transportation committee. Our two new U.S. senators are the Democratic margin of control. The chairwoman of the new MARTOC board is a Democrat. The federal government wants to spend money on infrastructure, and there are few ways to win more strategic political value than money spent here. Atlanta will never have a better shot at getting this right.
Before it’s too late, we have to make it clear what we expect from our elected and appointed officials.
George Chidi is the Georgia correspondent for the investigative news publication The Intercept. He's also a columnist for the local Atlanta-area publication Decaturish and contributes commentary to Fox 5 Atlanta, with publications in Inc. Magazine, VICE NEWS, The Guardian and others. An Army veteran and former city councilman for a small town in metro Atlanta, George has moved between journalism and civic activism on issues of crime, poverty, homelessness, racial justice and economic inequality over a 25-year career. George holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MBA from Georgia Tech. His Substack newsletter can be found at TheAtlantaObjective.Substack.com.