ABC Newsletter: Elections Results and Festival Season kicking off
It's getting warmer outside, which means there's a festival every weekend nearby.
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In this issue, you’ll see upcoming events, a recap of the recent elections, and a preview of the upcoming Board of Commissioners meeting, which we encourage people showing up and speaking out about the proposed transit cuts.
It’s festival season! We’re firmly within the time period where each weekend is bound to have at least one if not multiple festivals or special events happening within Cobb County or its seven cities. And there’s always weekday events ranging from Food Truck Nights to Farmer’s Markets (and we’ve even got the Braves who play a few midweek baseball games here and there). These offer a good utility to witness how governments and other entities handle traffic inflow and parking to residents and visitors attending these events or merely trying to get to nearby places of business or other destinations.
See how local governments may be able to handle the influx of vehicles and people better? Take notes, and then let your elected officials and government leaders know!
Here’s what one ABC Board Member says about the parking demands for festivals:
“Today, 2 large festivals are taking place with the Taste of Marietta in Marietta and the Jonquil Festival in Smyrna. These are the peak days when parking is a nightmare and you’ll see frustrations about the lack of parking because of these events.
If we were to build parking for these events with peak demand, the empty parking lots would otherwise be additional infrastructure to maintain and a blight on our cityscapes.
What we should do instead is run shuttles connecting people to other parking lots away from the city allowing us to utilize additional existing parking space without dedicating more of our downtown space to unproductive parking lots.”
What do you think?
Upcoming events
Mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
Saturday, May 10, 10AM: Weekly Marietta Group Bike Ride
Monday, May 12, 6:30PM: Kennesaw City Council Meeting (ADUs)
Tuesday, May 13, 9AM: Cobb Board of Commissioners Meeting (preview below)
Saturday, May 17, 10AM: Weekly Marietta Group Bike Ride
Wednesday, May 21, 6PM: Kennesaw Downtown Walking Tour
Tuesday, May 27, 7PM: Cobb Board of Commissioners Meeting
Check out our events page for a live calendar.
RSVP for the walking tour on Facebook!
Cobb Board of Commissioners now at full strength following April 29 special elections
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will once again have five members on the dais Tuesday in the body’s first meeting since the April 29 special elections that determined the fate of two commission seats.
Voters in District 4 chose to keep incumbent Monique Sheffield, a Democrat, in her seat to represent southwestern Cobb. Sheffield bested Republican challenger Matthew Hardwick by taking just over 64.5% of the vote.
Joining Sheffield as a result of last month’s special elections will be Democrat Erick Allen, whom 58.6% of participating District 2 voters chose over Republican Alicia Adams in a contest to succeed Jerica Richardson, whose seat was vacated in January. Residents in Cobb Commission District 2, which portions of southeast and central Cobb, and some areas along and surrounding Interstate 75, had been without a commissioner representing them since Richardson’s seat was vacated.
Barring any unexpected changes, the Cobb Board of Commissioners will remain unchanged through at least 2026, with elections for the District 1 (northwest quadrant of Cobb) and District 3 (generally northeast portion of Cobb, minus portions surrounding Interstate 75) commission seats (held by Republicans Keli Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell, respectively) taking place during that year’s election cycle.
Allen’s and Sheffield’s terms will span through 2028 — an election year that will have their offices contested along with that of the commission’s chairwoman, Lisa Cupid.
While district commissioners are selected by voters within each district, the commission chair is on all county ballots.
(Screenshot from Cobb County Government’s Facebook page)
Cobb could cut, combine some commuter bus routes this Tuesday
After holding open houses on proposed service changes to CobbLinc’s Commuter and Green Circulator routes and the service equity analysis findings, Cobb commissioners will consider Tuesday the elimination of the free CobbLinc Green Circulator, which loops around Cumberland; and a potential merger of CobbLinc’s commuter routes 100, 101 and 102 with the ATL’s 484 Xpress Route, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.
Votes on these, along with an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority for the continuation and expansion of Xpress commuter bus service in Cobb County, will take place during the 9AM meeting Tuesday.
We recommend showing up at 8AM if you are interested in making public comment.
Check out our previous article for details about these proposed changes.
ABC’s take on the cuts to the Commuter Routes:
”Having any transit cuts are bad, but these commuter routes are low-ridership and only serve a very specific commuter community. If cut, these funds should be re-allocated to increase frequency along other existing routes including the 10 and Rapid 10 which are used by many commuters. These routes were also used as justification to build the Express TollLanes, so ending these services raises the question about how long transit operations will be supported along the upcoming top-end 285 corridor. We should be more focused on ADDING transit service, not cutting service, and this sets a dangerous precedent for future cuts.”
ABC’s take on the cuts to the Green Circulator:
”It’s appalling that we are proposing to cut transit service without a direct, immediate replacement in an area that has land use most supportive for transit. Ridership is growing significantly and we should be supporting transit service for future needs as well as current needs. This is an area where we expect to see more development in the future and comprehensive transit service is the only mobility solution that is scalable. Whether the circulator is the right solution or not, the replacement should be immediate so that the impact is minimal. Finally, transit service in this area needs to be supported and marketed better so that ridership increases”
We are hopeful that the Board of Commissioners takes these cuts seriously and continues to invest in public transit for our future.
Board of Commissioners 5/13 Preview
Here’s the preview of the upcoming Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, May 13th at 9AM. We hope to see you there and encourage speaking up about the transit changes.
• General Announcements & Proclamations (5 items)
• Public Comment (10 speakers, up to 3 minutes each on any topic)
• Consent Agenda (20 items)
-- Item 8: FY25 CMAQ Grant for CobbLinc CNG Buses
---- Approval of this authorizes a federal grant request for 18 replacement Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for CobbLinc, plus reallocation of prior funds for 10 CNG buses.
• Regular Agenda (12 items)
-- Item 28: FY25 LMIG Grant Application
---- Authorizes a request to GDOT for Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant funds for local transportation projects.
-- Item 29: Freight Cluster Plan Grant Application
---- Authorizes submission to ARC for a study of freight movement and transportation planning across Cobb.
-- Item 32: Title VI Equity Analysis – Commuter Routes 100, 101, 102
---- Approval would allow changes to CobbLinc's commuter routes per a federal equity review.
-- Item 33: Title VI Equity Analysis – Green Circulator
---- Authorizes changes to or removal of CobbLinc’s Green Circulator route based on service equity findings.
-- Item 34: IGA with ATL Transit Link Authority (ATL)
---- Allows continuation and expansion of Xpress commuter bus service in Cobb County.
• Public Comment Round 2 (10 speakers, up to 3 minutes each)
• Appointments & Announcements (3 items)
Events Recap: ABC Board meets over coffee
Above: A Better Cobb board members held our latest board meeting May 4 at Mr. Tombstone’s Coffee Emporium in Marietta. We’ve got some awesome things we’re about to announce and if you’d like to volunteer or join our board, email us at abettercobb@gmail.com and let’s get talking!
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