Help Marta Now!
Did
you know that Metro Atlanta is ranked with one of the longest and most expensive
commutes in the country with sprawl spreading 60 miles north and south of city
limits? Atlanta is the only city of its size with no state funding for public
transportation. The time is here to push for changes and the Georgia Chapter of
the Sierra Club with our Regional Action to Improve Livability (RAIL) campaign
supports the in town transit opportunities such as the BeltLine, along with the
creation of a commuter rail line from Macon to Athens through Atlanta and
expanded statewide support for transit including operating funds in addition to
capital funds.
The Atlanta region faces a major transit crisis beginning
this summer. Because of the recession, the sales tax revenues that provide most
of MARTA's funding have nosedived. As a result, MARTA faces a $100 million
operating deficit starting July 1st. Unless Governor Perdue and the Georgia
legislature take action, the result will be severe cutbacks in MARTA bus and
train service. Half of MARTA's bus routes could disappear. There would be longer
waits in between trains and buses on surviving routes. The situation is even
worse in Clayton County, where C-TRAN bus service is scheduled to shut down
March 31st.
The Georgia General Assembly is currently in session,
here's what it could to do prevent a catastrophic meltdown of the Atlanta area's
transit system:
- Remove an outmoded rule requiring MARTA to spend 50% of its tax revenue on capital projects, so that MARTA can spend more of its money on operating service.
- Give MARTA (and C-TRAN) a portion of the revenue from the state's four-cent gasoline sales tax.
- Pass Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax legislation that would allow the Atlanta area to establish a one-cent sales tax to fund transportation.
Here's what you can do:
- Contact Gov. Perdue, your state senator and your state representative. Tell them MARTA service cutbacks will devastate Georgia's economy, make impossible for many people to get to their jobs and make Georgia much less attractive to potential employers. Please click on the respective link above to find contact information.
- Join the Sierra Club RAIL Committee. Our next month meeting will be Monday, Feb. 22 at 6:45p.m. at the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter Office, 743 E. College Ave., Suite B, Decatur, GA 30030.
Quick
Link
New
Georgia Chapter Calendar! Our efforts to improve our Georgia Chapter
communications with our members and volunteers continue. We have improved our
Georgia Chapter calendar with a new interface and easier to use design. The
calendar now includes all Chapter events, committee meetings, group meetings,
and more. To learn what is happening at the Georgia Chapter please visit
here.
Sierra Club
Meetings
RAIL Committee Meeting,
Monday, February 22nd, 6:45p.m., Jim Dexter – Chair, call 678-313-2407,
jimdex@aol.com Smart Energy Team Meeting, Monday, March 1st, 6:30p.m refreshments, 7p.m. start, Colleen Kiernan - Chair, colleenkiernan@mindspring.com Fundraising Committee Meeting, Tuesday, March 9th, 7p.m., Sandy Stewart & Erin Wetty - Co-Chairs, call 404-607-1262 x 225 Wildlands & Wildlife Committee Meeting, Tuesday, March 16th, 7p.m., Phil Zinsmeister - Chair, pzinsmeister@oglethorpe.edu Executive Committee Meeting, Saturday, March 20th, 11-5p.m., call Genie Strickland 404-607-1262 x 221, genie.strickland@sierraclub.org |
Environmental Events
Marta
Pub Crawl
Saturday, February 20th, 8:30p.m. – 12:30a.m.
743 E.
College Ave., Suite B, Decatur, GA 30030
In honor of the legislative session
and transit lobby day on February 18th, hop on MARTA for a transit pub crawl
Saturday, February 20th. Plan on at least four stops ($10 on your Breeze card if
you don't have a monthly pass) and loads of fun. We’ll meet at the Sierra Club
office. For more information or questions, contact Ashley Robbins at
ashley.robbins@georgia.sierraclub.org. Don’t forget your Breeze
card!
LEED
100: Introduction to the Green & Intelligent Building
Movement
Tuesday, February 23rd, 8a.m. - 12:30p.m.
Gwinnett
Environmental & Heritage Center
Green building is part of everyday
conversation in development and construction, and a basic awareness of the
origin and principles of the movement is essential to navigating the future of
the industry. Learn about the fundamentals and evolution of sustainability,
important information behind the LEED Rating System and news trends in the
industry. For more information or to register please click
here.
LaGrange
Group Meeting
Thursday, March 4th, 6:30p.m.
207 North Greenwood
Street - St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Parish Hall
Join the LaGrange Group for
regularly scheduled monthly meetings on the first Thursday of every month in the
Parish Hall of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 207 North Greenwood St., LaGrange,
GA. Refreshments will be served at 6:30p.m. and at 7:00p.m. Chapter Chair Mark
Woodall will give an update on the Georgia Legislature. For more information
please click
here.
Centennial
Group Monthly Meeting
Thursday, March 4th, 7p.m.
1269 Barclay
Circle SE Marietta, GA 30060 – Life University
The Centennial Group of the
Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club was organized in 1992 with members from Cobb,
Cherokee and North Fulton counties. Meetings are held on the first Thursday of
each month at Life University. Joe Cook will join us to talk about the 2010
Paddle Georgia, an 82 mile, 7 day trip that benefits the Georgia River Network.
Several Sierrans have participated in this exciting trip and we hope that you
can join us this year! For more information please click
here.
Adopt-A-Stream
- Peachtree Creek
Saturday, March 6th, 10a.m.
South Fork of
Peachtree Creek
There will be biologic monitoring at the Metro Atlanta
Group’s site on South Fork of Peachtree Creek Saturday at 10a.m. Biologic
monitoring requires lots of eyes to find the macro invertebrates - bugs big
enough to be seen without a microscope. For more information, please call Nancy
Wylie at 404-256-1172 before 9a.m. on the 6th or click
here.
Metro
Atlanta Group Monthly Meeting
Tuesday, March 9th, 7p.m.
Episcopal
Church of the Epiphany
The Atlanta Group comprises the largest Sierra Club
membership in Georgia. Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month at
Church of the Epiphany, 2089 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE in Atlanta. Lee Biola, the
president of Citizens for Progressive Transit, will speak about transit plans in
Georgia. Shortly after its founding, the group developed a regional transit map
for metro Atlanta. The map includes commuter rail, heavy rail, light rail,
express buses and streetcars. For more information please click
here.
Interested
in reading more?
If you have missed an issue of Footnotes
Online you can view them online in our Footnotes Online archive by
clicking
here. You can also sign up for alerts in order to take action at times when
we need decision makers to hear from you. We
need your help! To view the newest edition of the Georgia Sierran
please click
here.