It’s not a wasted risk in my opinion, because if we can’t absolutely get rail, then we have the other option, BRT or light rail. “The contract doesn’t guarantee (rail),” Turner says, “but there are some risks in everything that you do. (Edmondson declined to comment for this article.)īut rail is the dream for pro-transit Claytonians. The county’s contract with MARTA doesn’t guarantee rail, a fact that Commissioner Michael Edmondson cited when he cast the lone dissenting vote against the referendum. With voter approval, the watch will be on for whether MARTA can find a way to bring heavy rail to Clayton, or make do with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). “They really don’t want to get the cart before the horse,” Turner says. And they have had preliminary conversations about locations for MARTA facilities in Clayton (police precincts, etc.), if the referendum is approved. The transit agency, he says, is interested in holding job fairs to find potential employees needed for the expansion and other positions. Turner says he has not heard much from MARTA at this point. And if we make that jump, let’s make sure we invest our money in Clayton County.” There are 45 counties in the state that are at 8 percent. I think a lot of the citizens get it we have to reinvest. But for growth and prosperity’s sake, sometimes you have to make an investment. “We’re going to be at 8 cents, the equivalent of what the city of Atlanta is. He doesn’t take an impending sales-tax hike lightly, though. “We all know that in Clayton County, we have been underdeveloped over the years,” Turner says.” “This is a great opportunity for us to bring in new development. He’s talked with organizations - Partnership for Southern Equity, Friends of Clayton County Transit, the Sierra Club - that want to educate voters on the benefits of transit, including enchanced mobility and economic development. Now that the ballot is primed to allow that to happen, he’s not taking any chances. There’s no transit system.”Ī former Clayton County police chief, Turner ran for chairman on a platform that included the return of transit. Many of them are not blessed enough to have cars. “Now you ask yourself, with Clayton County having the airport in our county with thousands of jobs, why is our unemployment rate so high? One of the reasons is because we can’t get our citizens to the airport to get the jobs. “We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the state in Clayton County,” Turner says. He heard from workers who could no longer get to work at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He heard from students who couldn’t get to Clayton StateUniversity. Turner says he heard from seniors who couldn’t get to doctors’ appointments and hospitals once the county shut down its C-TRAN bus system in 2010 (before Turner was elected).
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