Inspired by Joe’s and Robert’s taking apart a Jim Wooten anti-MARTA AJC opinion column. Comments welcome — comments necessary, in this case….

I think that if you pinned Jim Wooten down, he would admit to you that:
– MARTA is never going to be self-sufficient
– yet MARTA is never going to go away
– government enterprises go through long boom (or smooth) periods and short busts
– when the political will is there for a bust, the faithful gov’t servant streamlines, cuts fat, and adopts efficiencies while continuing to provide the core service that is the raison d’etre of the enterprise
– the unfaithful servant reacts to the people’s political will by stalling, proposing budget plans that break the enterprise, and doing everything to foil the bill paying citizens while keeping the tax eating employees happy
– the current day of reckoning Wooten spoke of is the time to face the bust and fix systemic problems before current management breaks MARTA

I say:
– A good bust results in political capital for the enterprise, and a new long period of peace during which it can resume adding adipose tissue.
– A bad bust kicks the problem down the road, eats taxes, remains a sore spot in every kind of political relation hereabouts, and gives life to radical ideas for the next confrontation (e.g. shutdown and state take-over with new work rules and almost all new faces, or reducing the whole thing to a shadow of its former self).

Some stuff you wrote sounds wrong to me: “However, the State controls how MARTA spends it’s money. It can’t, as would any other business, decide how to allocate its resources.” And “MARTA would settle for being able to use the funds it has in the way they are needed… just like any other business.”

What do you mean by this? Why is there a large MARTA board and management structure if they aren’t making and executing their own budgets? If the state controls where MARTA’s resources are spent, why isn’t Wooten beating up the legislature for MARTA inefficiency? Please educate me on how MARTA is hamstrung from above and just wants to have its chains unbound so it can fly.

This MARTA deal is one of reasons Republicans are elected: to crank down on wasteful government enterprises. Let ‘em do it and don’t fight for the executives (you aren’t), the padded middle management, the union pay scales and work rules, and the blooming incompetence. Do fight for robust service, the bus routes that serve neighborhoods that need it, and solid ideas for expansion/connection that the market will use.

When/if the day comes that there the people living on the street are poor families and not just the current mentally ill or alcoholic hobos, I’ll vote for Democrats and their solution of more and bigger government programs to keep the poor safe. (okay, maybe I’m carried away here, but the new broom that sweeps clean is how the world really works; and it works for the good of the community as party dominance goes back and forth)

I live in near Perimeter, where MARTA rail is very convenient and some buses run, and I want to see both continue.

Unfortunately, the last five MARTA rides my family has taken (one by wife, one by cousin, and three by progeny) have all been twice as long as advertised due to unexplained service disruptions (and that one time my wife didn’t check the schedule for track maintenance on a weekend). Given that the time spent on MARTA is always longer than the time driving to begon with, no one is clamoring to ride the train at my house.

What is your good/bad ride ratio on MARTA? Mine was better than what I’ve seen latey when I commuted on MARTA rail/bus 7 years ago around the Olympics years.

Thanks for writing about Atlanta — I need to check y’all out more often.

All the best, Steve Barton

Today’s misleading Jim Wooten column was a piece of garbage. He begins with a “quote,” which I put in quotes because it’s not really a quote:You see and hear the phrase often: “MARTA is the only major transit agency in…