New Urban Planning is Unsustainable

The fad in the US for the past decade came from UN Agenda 21 ICLEI pipe dreams.  The dream is to have employees living within walking distance to their jobs, living in an urban setting that includes all of their recreational needs. 

What you need is jobs concentrated in one place that offer long term employment.  Transit rail works in Washington DC, where all of the jobs are government jobs, but its subsidies are unsustainable. Transit hasn’t worked in Atlanta for commuters. 

Atlanta was built to require cars.  People don’t use a bike to get their groceries.  Public transit takes too long and doesn’t go where you need to go.  Public transit train expansion cost is suicidal.  Public transit buses are not well utilized.  Public transit doesn’t go where you need to go.

The latest MARTA expansion proposal gives taxpayers the opportunity to invest $8 billion to expand MARTA trains in order to lose $200 million a year in operating and maintenance costs and pension plans for union transit workers.  Public transit is unsustainable.

Jobs are scattered all over town and companies move in and out.  Employees need to be able to cope with the job turnover and need to be able to get to jobs wherever they can find them.  This requires a car.

Jobs can be concentrated and they are, but their employees live all over town.  This requires a car. 

New apartment and condo complexes can locate next to new office complexes, but the new apartments and condos are normally too expensive for the employees who work in the office complexes. Cheaper housing is further out in the exurbs and spotted around in older apartments and condos. This requires a car.

Atlanta doesn’t have a highway grid to allow easy East-West commutes. I-285 is a circle and is packed with local and interstate traffic. The top end of I-285 needs to double in size to relieve the current gridlock. Development at the top end of I-285 needs to stop.  A viable interstate traffic Atlanta by-pass is need to off-load interstate traffic away from Atlanta. 

Timing for expansion is awful.  The global economy is flat-lined and heading for recession.  Most developed Western governments are technically bankrupt due to social welfare costs and “green” mal-investments. Our Big Banks are facing a $300 trillion derivative bubble. The Fed has printed 450% more dollars. Private debt is too high with student loan debt going over $1 trillion. The stock market is trying to find its bottom. Global companies are implementing layoffs and planning for more layoffs. More US manufacturing is going off-shore. US job-killing excessive immigration and suicidal regulations continue unabated.  

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody Ga Tea Party Leader