The origin story of the Atlanta Beltline is well known … the people of Atlanta fell in love with a vision that was better than what they saw through their car windshields, we pulled together, did the hard work, and brought this big, shared vision to life.

That’s as true today as it was when Ryan Gravel made these comments, taken from a July 17, 2018 blog post and very lightly edited for clarity.

People fell in love with the Atlanta BeltLine for all kinds of reasons. 

People like Juanita Abernathy connected a vision for Atlanta’s future directly to its past – to the city’s identity of economic, social, and cultural inclusion, to the long legacy of Mayor Jackson and his message of community empowerment.

Transit remained central to the concept, however, because it was the thing that made the Beltline for everyone. For communities experiencing growth, transit offered traffic-free access to the MARTA rail network – north, south, east, and west. And for lower-income communities, that network would provide access to jobs across the region. The support of such a wide variety of people provided the political clout needed for both public funding measures and private donations to move the project forward. Literally, we would not be building any of it today – not the trail or any new parks – without that commitment to transit.

That commitment was formalized in various ways, including the City’s Beltline Redevelopment Plan in 2005, which set land use and density proposals, and the MARTA Board’s decision in 2007 that the Beltline should be built with (light) rail transit along the entire loop. In those and every other study, the funding for transit may not have been fully identified, but the commitment to transit was clear – allowing this remarkable story to unfold in Atlanta through one of the most highly-engaged and democratic planning efforts in the city’s history.

The enthusiasm and love for Atlanta that fueled our story were real. 

Both physically and metaphorically, the BeltLine connects this divided city back together – north and south; east and west; young and old; rich and poor; every race, income, religion, and creed – offering a vision for equity back before that was a buzzword.

That way of thinking defined our early movement. Our expanding vision allowed the Atlanta Beltline to be more than a transit line – it became an equitable and sustainable vision for our future made possible by this transit investment. And while there are reasons that transit has been delayed, its absence has challenged our ability to achieve that big vision. We’re only building other aspects of the project and as a result, we’re seeing uneven outcomes. Trails are great, but we won’t see the benefits promised by transit if we don’t build transit. And without those benefits, the people that were promised them will be gone. Displaced, driven away, or relocated to more affordable, more accessible places to live.

“Do not neglect the moral responsibility” to implement transit on the Beltline – especially on the south and west sides of the city, implored Reverend Gerald Durley.  Durley, who was pastor of Providence Missionary Baptist Church at the time, described MARTA’s “moral imperative” to follow through on the Beltline’s promise – to build transit that can help communities struggling with gentrification.

Doing the right thing will feel good. Cities all over the world are beginning to think this way about transit – as an integrated part of a larger, shared vision for our lives. If we do it, the Atlanta Beltline will be a global model for transit investment. We can include its challenges for affordable housing, workforce development, and economic opportunity in Beltline communities and also challenge ourselves to demand the same for any other project we build. Every investment on the MoreMARTA list should contribute directly toward a beautiful, inclusive, expansive, integrated, and equitable vision for our lives.

We agree with our new mayor, who said during the 2021 campaign that he wants the MARTA Board to prioritize rail transit for the full loop in the MoreMARTA plan and build it before 2031. 

Mayor Andre Dickens brings a unique perspective on achieving what, at first, might seem impossible. We’re nearly there, Atlanta. If any city can do this – we can. 

The original post:  https://ryangravel.com/2018/07/17/gravel-our-moral-imperative