STRICTLY FOR MY ATLiens....TSPLOST!!!

Right off the rip I knew something didn't smell right.  It is as obvious as the day is long, and days are long here in the ATL.  But, let me back up a bit on this TSPLOST business.   State Senator Vincent D. Fort came out swinging against it.  I immediatly thought to myself "what is his angle, he must be running for re-election again."  My thoughts, simply because I have a serious suspicion of politicians, be that as it may I thought he may have a point.  Soon I began to do a tiny bit of research.  Only a tiny bit because as I stated before something didn't smell right and I don't like digging around in smelly stuff.  My mother always said if you stir up sh*t it will stink, and I had no intention of dealing with what is straight out sh*t!

All of us that live in the Atlanta Metro Area know how heavy traffic can be.  In fact when I first came here I chocked it up to bad driving, I suppose that was my west coast mentality about driving.  But, I can to understand more that the heavy traffic is caused by just the culture of how people drive here.  Drivers don't like letting oncoming traffic to merge onto the freeway, as if it will slow their progress by what, a nano second? Drivers here drive slow for no apparent reason on the freeway.  If traffic is heavy, usually its because a few drivers in all lanes decide they want to move slow. Period.  Thats it.  Then there is the common fender bender that for whatever reason people will remain right in the middle of the freeway until the police show up.  No, no one hurt, they just stay there never pulling to the right for none injury accidents. Thats just the way it is here.  But, somehow passing the one or two penny tax (depends on the county you live as to how much you will be taxed) will soon lessen traffic in the "A", I don think so.

Congestion in the ATL is just a matter of life.  So many of us live so far from where we work, this is why we spend more time on the roads not really the congestion.  Kyle Wingfield writes in his July 13th article Taking a look at some Tsplost claims, notes a study by the Atlanta Regional Commissions found the projects that would be funded by Tsplost would cut congestion by 24%.  Cutting congestion in the ATL amounts to about 2.5 minutes a day.  So, lets do some math.  Spend one or two pennies every time you shop will get you less than three minutes on your daily commute, to and from work or school.  Eight billion bucks saves you less than one minute each way every day.  Ok, maybe I am not so good at math, maybe.  But, I can smell pretty well and here seems to be where it stinks the most.

Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed, CEO Burrell Ellis of Dekald County and Governor Nathan Deal are all in on pushing for Tsplost to pass.  Wait, Reed Democrat, Ellis Democrat, Deal Republican, WTH is this??? Democrats and Republicans agreeing on this issue.  This stinks.  There has to be no serious benefit for the people, the citizens of the Atlanta Metro Area.  From the very start, without ever doing any research, I knew something was not good for me and my neighbors at all.  Whenever Republicans and Democrats team up and want to work so hard to push something, it has never failed that we, the citizens come out on the short end of the stick.  They NEVER work for our good alone.  Huuummmm wonder if I can buy stock in the companies they are all invested in?????

will the next mayor of Atlanta be white?

Not all of the votes are counted, but the race is getting closer for the next mayor of Atlanta. Thirty six years of Black mayors since the ascension of Maynard Jackson to the office may end tonight. As of this post Mary Norwood is leading Kasim Reed in the runoff election to see who the city will elect.

However, the thought arises as to whether the Black citizens of Atlanta really care that tonight may end the 36 year reign of Black faces in the mayor’s office. Since the election of President Barack Obama, and the disappointment expressed by many in the president’s urgency on healthcare and his snails pace towards recovering jobs, leaves many Blacks in Atlanta that I've spoken with caring little about the ethnicity of the mayoral candidates and more interested in who will do the best job.

Polls in the “whiter” areas of Atlanta seem to suggest just the opposite. Like the fervor behind the election of Barack Obama for president, whites seem to be pouring out and voting heavily for Mary Norwood. It could be argued that whites are purely voting for Norwood on race alone since she could be considered part of the problems with the city of Atlanta. Norwood has been on the Atlanta city council for the past 11 years.

On the other hand Kasim Reed may be viewed as just another candidate being pushed by the big Democrat machine that’s running the “style over substance” game and may continue the re-gentrification of Atlanta started by the previous Black mayors. At any rate, with 72% of the votes counted at 10pm, Norwood is leading Reed 52% to 48%, tomorrow morning Atlanta will have a new mayor elect. Though I don’t live in Atlanta proper, all of us that live here know that what happens in the city of Atlanta trickles out north, south, east and west, we shall see.