SWAN SONGS

In her fifth year heading up MARTA, Dr. Beverly Scott (here with Hartsfield-Jackson Airport GM Louis Miller) says the TSPLOST vote is her ?swan song? in an effort to invest in a rail system that is only 30% of what the original vision intended. Beverly was an esteemed panelist at last week's Bisnow Atlanta Future of Transportation event at the W Hotel in Midtown. She adds that the DC system started at the same time and is light years more developed. And on the TSPLOST (set for a vote July 31), Beverly says, ?There is a difference between spending and investment.?
 
All's certainly not been rosy for metro Atlanta in the past decade. Watch our video to hear Cousins Properties' CEO  Larry Gellerstedt saying it best (especially the part about our comparison to Detroit). But Larry was also quick to point out that Atlanta is head-and-shoulders above our  economic development  competitors. In a recent Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce study, Larry says it would ?take forever? for many of our competitor cities to get to the level of an airport that Hartsfield-Jackson does for our economy. The same thing with our higher education system. ?We can't let our weaknesses? discourage the metro psyche, he says. Passage of the penny sales tax  for transportation fixes would go toward keeping Atlanta competitive, Larry added.
 

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