'I think the promise was broken.' South Atlanta residents weigh in on Beltline rail changes

Caption

Adair Park resident Matthew Garbett stands on the Southwest Beltline near two tunnel openings designed for light rail transit.

Credit: Allexa Ceballos / GPB News

Now that the Beltline has achieved some commercial success, there is still debate about whether it will ever be used for one of its original imagined purposes: a passenger rail circuit around Atlanta. 

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens recently stated there will be Beltline rail. However, he said the project will begin in a part of town yet to see a Beltline boom: Atlanta's south side.

Matt Garbett has watched the Beltline grow in Southwest Atlanta’s Adair Park neighborhood since he moved here in 2013. 

He’s a bike commuter on the Beltline. He sees the path as a utility. On a sunny afternoon full of dog walkers, joggers and baby strollers, he recognizes for most, the Beltline is more of a toy. 

“Everyone we've seen here today while we're sitting here is out here for fun on the day off,” Garbett said. "No one's using this trail to get to work besides me."

Originally, the city of Atlanta promised Southside residents the Beltline would bring more connections, jobs and, ultimately, a commuter train. Garbett said without that, his neighbors won’t use the Beltline.

“No one's going to walk from my house to Poncey-Highland; very few people are gonna bike there,” he said. “But in theory, if we actually had rail, people would take rail to do that. People do take rail. So yeah, I think the promise was broken.”

That’s why in March, Mayor Andre Dickens made a new promise to the MARTA Board. 

Atlanta will start building 4 miles of Beltline rail that will connect to a planned new MARTA station on the Southside first. This will take priority over the original plan: extending the downtown streetcar an additional two miles onto the east side Beltline.

Atlanta Chief Policy Officer Courtney English told the MARTA Board there is a quality of life divide running from northwest to southeast Atlanta. The mayor’s office wants to mend it. 

“Now, the folks below that line: It's a mixed income, but it's certainly where the concentration of poverty in the city of Atlanta resides," English said. “The folks are above that line are mostly our white neighbors, and the folks below that line are mostly African-American neighbors and are people of color.”

Maps show jobs, health care, education, and even life expectancy are lower on that side of town than further north. Dickens said starting with the south side would connect people in South Atlanta directly to the amenities of the east side.

“I'm trying to solve a generational — multi-generational — challenge of the south side getting things last and never, sometime never getting it,” Dickens said.

Matthew Rao is a longtime Atlanta resident and chair of Beltline Rail Now. He said the dividing line the mayor’s office wants to fix persists partly because places like Ponce City Market and other east side amenities don’t have rail stops yet. 

“Those three [planned] stops on that east side trail have grocery stores and the city's most important skate park," Rao said, "and a middle school and a Kroger and a Whole Foods and a Home Depot and a CVS pharmacy that's open late. It has opportunity for folks.”

One could take MARTA to those places, he said, but it’s not easy.

“It's so many transfers and buses that it's difficult to do it, and nobody would transfer three times to get where they're going,” Rao said.

Some east side Beltline business owners are opposing the project. They claim that a rail line would restrict access for walkers and cyclists and hurt small business owners. 

Dickens said avoiding those business disruptions is another reason he wants to build rail on the south side first. 

Public engagement sessions where the city will reveal more of the plan for south side rail and hear public opinions begin in June.