YOUR SAY: Denial of grant will maintain Macon's historic neighborhoods

The Telegraph recently announced that Macon-Bibb's application for a $14 million U.S. Department of Transportation's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery discretionary grant was denied. This reader submitted formal comments to the Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, concerning that grant application. Prior to submitting those comments, an Environmental Justice complaint had been filed with the U.S. DOT.

Both the comments and the EJ complaint concerned the Little Richard Penniman Boulevard extension and Second Street Corridor Project and that proposal's implications for this community.

The EJ complaint asserted that the extension project would adversely and disproportionately impact a minority neighborhood, Tindall Heights, which is also a Department of Interior listed historic neighborhood. The extension of Penniman to Second Street will necessitate a huge bridge and a four-lane road which will isolate the neighborhood, adversely impact the historic streetscape up Second Street from the old railroad bridge and bring more and faster traffic to and through the area.

Second Street above the railroad is a historic gateway to south Macon and the ascent to Edgewood offers a lovely view of downtown. It was once one of Macon's most attractive streetscapes. The proposed big highway bridge together with the increase in traffic volumes and speeds will make that area much less attractive to live in and therefore eliminate any chance that that historic gateway to south Macon will ever revive.

The comment sent to Secretary Foxx and U.S. DOT asserted that the bike-pedestrian plans (envisioned for the downtown to Mercer University corridor) in Macon-Bibb's TIGER grant application would not, in truth, be accessible to most of the community. Most of Macon would not have benefited from those plans, upon which Macon-Bibb envisioned spending $7 million. With that amount of money, dedicated bike lanes, sidewalks and safe pedestrian crossings could be installed throughout the community. And it's the near and far suburbs, the neighborhoods out along the overbuilt, four or five lane roads that most need safe bike-pedestrian facilities.

It's far more dangerous to cross a four or five lane road where traffic moves at speeds in excess of 45 mph than it is to cross Cherry Street or Third Street or any other street in the area between downtown and Mercer University.

The comment also questioned the expenditure of $6 million of grant money on electric buses and charging stations. Those buses would operate in a loop between the Centreplex/Coliseum parking lot and Mercer's Five Star Stadium, really just ferrying spectators from those parking areas to the stadium, with stops at downtown watering holes in between. Those buses would not have been used/operated in an all-inclusive manner. Only a narrow segment of the community would have had real access to that form of transportation. And that narrow segment, essentially the Mercer campus and interior of the town, already has far better access to downtown and to numerous ways of getting there — good sidewalks, numerous choices of bike or pedestrian routes along moderately trafficked streets which have much slower vehicle speeds and are far safer than the overbuilt roads out from downtown.

I received a letter from Under Secretary Peter Rogoff, on behalf of Secretary Foxx. It was received the day The Telegraph announced that Macon-Bibb was denied the TIGER grant. That letter says that if the subject project were to get TIGER funding (or any Federal funding) U.S. DOT would exercise jurisdiction and "follow our environmental justice procedures, which include avoiding harm, ensuring community participation in the transportation decision-making process, and preventing the denial of benefits to minority and low-income populations."

I then addressed a Macon-Bibb Commission meeting, stating that the project will do harm to a low-income/minority community and that it will do irreparable harm to historic resources. At the commission meeting, I asserted that funding for the Penniman Extension had been shifted to local, SPLOST money in order to avoid the requirements of community participation and to avoid compliance with federal EJ guidelines and in order to proceed with a development plan which will only benefit the well-connected while harming or being inaccessible to the less fortunate.

In Macon-Bibb's Second Street plan and in its TIGER grant application, the local government notes that "the 2nd St. revitalization will build upon the state of the art pedestrian scaled street grid, generously proportioned streets and sidewalks." That is exactly what was said in the comment sent to Secretary Foxx. The area slated to receive the TIGER funds is already far better off, far safer and far more connected than are the neighborhoods further out.

Macon-Bibb's TIGER grant application acknowledged that East Macon has high poverty, high crime and much blight. That application notes that those conditions "can be directly attributed to the segmentation of the community through overbuilt roadways." That's exactly what the EJ complaint asserted will happen to Tindall Heights with the Penniman Extension. It's what is going to happen to the Jeffersonville Road area after that road is widened to five lanes, making it much more dangerous to cross on foot and much less appealing to live near. It's going to happen to Forest Hill and Zebulon Road as the residential areas along those overbuilt thoroughfares transition to ugly commercial strips as the livability declines while the hazards to pedestrians and cyclists increase. It's already happened to all residential areas out along Coliseum Drive, Emery Highway, Mercer University Drive, Log Cabin Drive, Eisenhower Parkway, Pio Nono Avenue and many more local roads. It has or will happen to every Macon-Bibb road, which has been or will be widened to three or more lanes through residential districts. It's a foolproof prescription for blight, population loss, pedestrian/bicyclist fatalities and community decline.

Michael Ryan is a resident of the College Hill Corridor and Vice-Chair of Pedestrian Fatality Review Board.

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 3:17 PM with the headline "YOUR SAY: Denial of grant will maintain Macon's historic neighborhoods ."