Some Reasons Why Atlanta Isn't A World Class City

Y'all know I like living here.  And you understand that this blog is, at least in some small part, a fan letter to my adopted city.  But sometimes I get mad.  When you like a place and you're feeling the love, you've gotta be truthful and tell it like you see it. 

Just about every day, the news makes it clear, at least to me, why Atlanta doesn't have the cojones to become a truly World Class City, and why there's a failure of will to confront the hard issues of poverty, poor education and insufficient infrastructure.  No wonder "Brand Atlanta" was such an embarassment.

As former state Sen. Sam Zamarripa says: "We're no longer a post-Olympic city. We're a post-post-Olympic city. People have forgotten. We're back to being an ordinary global city."

And so, I give you evidence from recent headlines:

1.   Public Transportation is not moving forward -- and even though ridership is up, and cool "liveable cities" projects like the Beltline are inching along, they're actually thinking of cutting MARTA service on the weekends!

MARTA may cut service 1 day a week

MARTA tops ridership list but faces cuts

2.  Homelessness -- the city geniuses decided to put coin collection "meters" downtown to give people a way to help the homeless without actually having to be confronted by panhandlers.  The powers that be are also thinking about selling the largest homeless shelter in the city, just to raise cash, and moving the homeless out to the suburbs.  Nice. Oh, and I almost forgot the most astounding thing . . . homeless shelters in Atlanta (even the one for ladies, that runs out of my synagogue) actually close in the warm months putting folks out on the street.

Judge gives homeless shelter more time to pay water bill

Homeless meters raise little elsewhere

3.  Public education is still a mess:  An entire school district, Clayton County, has lost its accreditation.  Beverly Hall, the Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools was named "best in the nation" but we are still plagued with under-performing public schools that do not achieve Adequate Yearly Progress.

'We will regain accreditation,' new superintendent says

Cherokee may cut 304 school jobs

Atlanta schools reformer Hall wins accolades, alienates teachers

We're a one newspaper town, owned by Cox, and that paper is shrinking before our eyes.

AJC cuts staff to reduce costs

Cox Enterprises puts several newpapers up for sale