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Originally Posted by Atlanta3000
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No doubt. I was thinking about that very thing as I typed my rebuttal. And I think time will tell about Nashville. But I don't think it is doing growth very well. Remember, the OP referred to "boring". I think Nashville has been lucky in many ways to have the downtown it has. I will not defend the defeat of the transit plan, which I voted for yesterday. And if Nashville does not come up with a solution the whole county can support then that will go down as a major fail.
Regarding Atlanta's voting for MARTA in 1968, it gets major props for doing so. And also points for utilizing existing tracks through the city. Little known fact is the state of Georgia owned those tracks. So they could be used as the basis for the urban rail system. However, even that system has its major shortcomings. It's a difficult proposition to lay tracks in suburban areas "after the fact". Northeastern cities have suburbs that grew up around the rail lines unlike Southern cities NOW trying to put in rail. At least Atlanta had some tracks to utilize. Nashville doesn't even have that because the state does not own those lines. Dallas showed that it can be done, but they were mostly new rail lines with some exceptions. Keep in mind that it's easier to build rail in a flat prairie than in the hillier rockier topography of the Southeast.
Before this post gets misinterpreted, I'm not saying Atlanta never laid new track. They did, starting with the line to Hartsfield in '83. Remember the old billboards "Whoooooosh!" I was 8, but still remember those. That was a nice idea in concept, but even today airport to downtown passengers has never lived up to expectation. Atlanta gets major props for its tunneling and stations downtown. Those did not exist before MARTA. As I mentioned, it's unfortunate that the ballpark pre-existed the concept of MARTA, and a major fail that a station was never built as either a side-track or spur to the park. The Mercedes has at longlast remedied that problem, but not after the Braves were sent packing. Another FAIL by Atlanta: while it was building MARTA, it was also expanding its expressway system, and still is. Making it easier to live farther out.
Will Nashville learn from Atlanta's lessons? Doubtful. It has luxury of not growing as fast. But it's certainly NOT boring. And as long as its downtown and midtown stay compact, it will actually have opportunities to become a more lively urban core than Atlanta. That's what I call being lucky despite themselves. The failure of transit yesterday is an example. But they will find a solution. Will it be slick and expensive like MARTA? Doubtful. But they will sooner or later have to deal with it.