Last Tuesday was the legislative breakfast held by the Georgia League of Conservation Voters, at the Blue Room in the Freight Depot. I was there representing the Sierra Club, of course. There were three speakers, all of whom I adore, April to discuss water conservation, Joe to tell us about interbasin water transfers, and Lee to press on us the transit issue. I was lucky that I sat with Senator Doug Stoner, a transit advocate, my former rep, and the author of SB120. Highlights of the breakfast: April telling me that she reads the blog (hi April!) and getting to talk to Sen. Stoner about the likelihood of SPLOSTs passing. While most folks were concerned about Dekalb and Fulton going along with potentially passing additional taxes on themselves, I'm more concerned with Cobb passing the SPLOST, which is where Sen. Stoner hails from. Let's face it, Cobb has the only economically viable transit system in the state, which this year created new routes and bought buses, while other transit systems are facing cuts. Why would they buy into a tax to support MARTA? Sen. Stoner said that Cobb would love to give up the responsibility of having it's own transit system and join in with a larger one, which helped calm my fears some. I guess Cobb is too stuck up to be proud of their own transit system.
Thursday was the Transit Lobby Day, starting off with a breakfast at the Freight Depot. The Sierra Club purchased a table there, along with some other environmental groups. After breakfast we went to the Gold Dome to talk to our reps - that was a total fail. The place was a zoo with all the folks, most of them from ACT, trying to get in touch with their legislators. Hardly anyone actually got to speak with any elected official, it was such a zoo. It makes me think that being there on your own is more effective. But don't head down to the capitol for a couple of weeks, they're in recess to save money?
Here are some photos of the day:
A southbound MARTA train as viewed from the Freight Depot.
The bus display. Supposedly this was so the legislators could ride a bus in a safe, un-intimdating environment. Too bad only 7 legislators attended the breakfast.
The mad house of the Gold Dome - all these people are waiting to talk to their representatives.
More chaos.
