EDITORIAL: Finding nostalgia in all the wrong places
It's with some disappointment that Macon-Bibb County lost out on its bid to capture $14 million in U.S. Department of Transportation grant money to assist in efforts to support the Second Street Corridor. The money would have been used for electric buses, bike paths and sidewalks. The denial was not, as Michael Ryan (Page 4C) might contend, due to his efforts to stop the grant because of environmental justice concerns, but because of competition.
There were 639 applications, and only 39 received grants. However, Ryan asserts that this project would "adversely and disproportionately impact a minority neighborhood, Tindall Heights ..."
It is instructive to look at the Little Richard Penniman Boulevard area and how it is being transformed. Mercer University's development just east of Interstate 75 and on the south side of Little Richard Penniman will breathe new life into an area that has seen little development in the past three decades. Couple that with the Macon Housing Authority's plans to demolish Tindall Heights and replace it with a modern, less dense housing development and you do have a dramatic transformation — for the better.
How anyone can look at the old railroad bridge on Second Street — a bridge that's more akin to a launching pad — with misty-eyed nostalgia is beyond our understanding. And the thought that a wider highway into the center of the city would make the area less attractive to live in is astounding.
Macon-Bibb County is on the cutting edge when it comes to seeking ways to provide more efficient public transportation. If it can accomplish that, the net beneficiaries are members of the community who depend on transit to travel to work and back. This is not about which side of town needs what kinds of services more. All of our roads need bike lanes, and more areas than not need sidewalks, too.
Ryan charges that widening roads to three or more lanes is a "foolproof prescription for blight, population/bicyclist fatalities and community decline." Of course, that's just hyperbole. All of that has come about even in neighborhoods with two-lane roads. What we need to do in order to improve our various neighborhoods cannot be measured just in the width of a road. Roads play a part, but the issues we face are far more complex than whether a street needs a turning lane.
This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 3:17 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: Finding nostalgia in all the wrong places ."