Is Mayor Dickens doing a 180? We’ll continue moving straightforward

Are you as gobsmacked as we are by the mayor’s latest interview?!? Then come out and march to support BeltLine Rail!

Really? Really. Just days after the mayor’s exciting announcement of four new infill transit stations on the Atlanta BeltLine, Mayor Dickens appears to be waffling on his support for BeltLine rail in a new interview with Atlanta News First. The interview took place even as noted design and engineering firm HDR is taking the Streetcar East Extension to final design under their $12.5 million contract. This plan was approved unanimously last July by the MARTA Board, including by the mayor’s three board appointees. Now the mayor brings up alternatives that have already been discredited, including the idea of no BeltLine transit at all? Atlanta seems fixated on blowing our best opportunity in a generation to expand transit access across our city. Other major cities would kill for the miles of right-of-way Atlanta has set aside for light rail. Other major cities are moving forward with new transit lines, including light rail, and taking advantage of the huge federal transit funding opportunities made available by the Biden administration. While here in Atlanta, we have fallen behind.

One of Mayor Dickens’ promises was to support BeltLine rail, noting during his mayoral campaign that “Beltline rail isn’t just about getting people to a destination today, it's actually about getting them to greater opportunities in life. Giving southside communities access to jobs across the city.”(Beltline Rail Now 2021 Candidate Scorecard)

Addressing the scourge of food deserts, Mayor Dickens stated, ¨The Atlanta BeltLine is a transformative tool for income equality, health outcomes, transportation solutions, and more — and I will be intentional about ensuring that we all realize those benefits as Atlanta’s next mayor.” (Beltline Rail Now 2021 Candidate Scorecard). And he continued to support BeltLine rail after his election, saying in his inaugural speech as Atlanta’s 61st mayor that he would build rail on the Beltline. 

At the State of the BeltLine breakfast last October, Mayor Dickens reiterated his support, noting “The promise of transit will serve to integrate with and not discard what Atlantans have already fallen in love with on the BeltLine.” BeltLine CEO Clyde Higgs rightfully notes that low-capacity micromobility options are not a viable alternative. “If we’re growing like we think we’re growing, we’re going to have to have high-capacity vehicles,” says Higgs. “The math is really that simple.” 

It is safe to say that after this new interview with our mayor, the people of Atlanta are confused and disappointed. We had a MoreMARTA plan that now seems to just be collecting dust. We elected a mayor who ran on a promise of providing the equity and opportunity that BeltLine rail transit would certainly bring. We have had numerous studies showing rail on the BeltLine is the best path forward. It has been the chosen alternative every time it has been studied. And yet, in what one might define as a new “Atlanta Way,” there is a call for more plans and more studies, while we fail to execute the plans we have already spent hardworking Atlantans’ tax dollars on. We fail to execute the plans built on years of outreach, years of neighbors spending time away from their families to attend public meetings to give their support and input. The hesitancy and doubt that this mayor is expressing in his appeasement is harming, not helping. The needless rehashing of the City’s and MARTA’s plans makes delivering actual operational transit take longer and cost more.

The only thing that seems to have changed is a group of wealthy, connected individuals in Atlanta who do not want transit expanded near them and who are leveraging their power to put the brakes on a transformative project that Atlantans voted to tax themselves for. The alternative is millions of dollars spent with no transit improvements, leading to more sprawl, more traffic, and building less affordable and market-rate housing in the City of Atlanta. Opposition to transit projects runs counter to the mayor’s own affordable housing goals. We can all agree that affordable housing is essential to keep Atlanta an inclusive and vibrant city. 

We call on the mayor to uphold the promises he has made. To build rail as quickly as possible on the BeltLine and to prioritize rail on the Southside. For once, let’s turn our wonderful plans into reality and become the world-class city we all deserve. 

As Fred Smith, a law professor at Emory University, said at the March 22 BeltLine Rail Now rally on the steps of Atlanta City Hall, “Equity without a commitment to ensuring that people have a path to upward mobility is no equity at all.”

We must end the cycle of rich Atlantans convincing the powers they financially support to do away with the will of the people. 

Take action to show your support for BeltLine rail! Come out and march with us in the Inman Festival Parade or join us at our table!

And get your BeltLine Rail Now yard signs here!