Issue #11: Transit is on the agenda!
This issue will preview Thursday's vote on transit, the strategic plan events, and I review some of my findings from last week's election
This issue is a little later than normal because I was waiting to confirm the upcoming agenda for the Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Thursday night, which was released earlier.
Agenda Item No. 25 is the transit item we’ve been waiting for!
To authorize staff to proceed with development of a project list for a 2024 Mobility
Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax ballot referendum for November 2024.
That’s the one. You can view the more detailed one-pager at this link.
As I’ve detailed in previous issues, it’s important for this to be approved now due to the possibility that District Two Commissioner Jerica Richardson is removed from her elected office because the new District Two does not include where she lives.
Here are some links to previous topics:
This really is a no brainer for adoption and should pass 5-0 because it simply authorizes staff to proceed with preparations for a ballot referendum in 2024. There’s no commitment and minimal cost and without this, a future mobility referendum in 2024 is at risk.
Cobb 4 Transit has a lot of advocacy behind the scenes and now we are inviting you to join us at the Commissioners’ meeting. FB Event Page
Commissioners Meeting Preview
Here’s the overview of the agenda as published:
Proclamations: 4 Awards/Proclamations will be given out
No Public Hearing
Public Comment (Up to 6 people, 5 minutes each)
Consent Agenda (15 items)
The biggest highlight in the consent agenda are two items to object annexation for two large development properties into Powder Springs and Marietta.
Regular Agenda (9 items)
County Manager (2 items): Approval of 2023 Legislative Agenda & Approval of $21 million in ARPA funds for hiring and retention of public safety personnel.
Sheriff (1 item): Authorize purchase of radios
Transportation (6 items): TRANSIT!! and miscellaneous resurfacing, drainage, and other road construction projects
Public Comment (Up to 6 people, 5 minutes each)
Commissioner Presentations/Announcements
Overall, this is a pretty straightforward agenda with Transit and the Legislative Agenda being the two most noteworthy items. I’d expect a full crowd for public comment, so I’d say the meeting will last around 2 hours.
So please, come join us! You can RSVP at the Facebook page here: FB Event Page
Strategic Plan
As mentioned before, the Community Input phase of the Strategic Plan process is ongoing and will be coming to an end soon.
Join Austell, Mableton, and District 2 residents at tonight’s Strategic Plan meeting with Commissioner Monique Sheffield at the Cobb Police Training Academy on East-West Connector! Let us know if you’re joining by emailing us at abettercobb@gmail.com
Here are the other Strategic Plan meetings:
District 1 (NW Cobb): Thursday, December 8th @ 6PM at Kemp Memorial Library
District 2 (East Cobb): Thursday, December 15th @ 530PM at Boy Scouts of America Area Council
I also recommend completing the online survey if you can: Strategic Plan Survey
I received this report from Lynn W. from the District 3 Strategic Plan Meeting:
There were 22 people there and the leaders took our feedback and questions verbally. Most of the feedback and ideas were very positive and included more greenspace and parks, better road and right of way maintenance and "curb appeal," better transit (light rail, better bus routes, etc.), less clear-cutting and development instead of re-using abandoned spaces.
Hopefully the other district town halls will go well also.
Election Results!
So if you know anything about me, you know I love doing data analysis. Mapping credit goes to Jason Lathbury.
Here are some highlights:
Voters approved the formation of the city of Mableton with a 53% vote. Mableton now becomes the largest city in Cobb!
When it comes to top of the ticket, Cobb continues to have a diverging electorate. Compared to the 2018 Gubernatorial election,
Top line results for key elections in Cobb. You can see the underperformance by Abrams and a drop in turnout pretty clearly. 
The drop in turnout was more heavily pronounced in pro-Warnock/Dem precincts. 
Early Voting Turnout. Green=High, Red=Low. High turnout in West and East Cobb and proposed Mableton.
So yeah, its pretty clear that 3 things happened:
Abrams underperformed with voters at the top of the ticket
Warnock was able to get 4-5% of Kemp’s voters to shift to him
There was a turnout issue in Democratic areas (both compared to ‘20 and ‘18)
On that note, Cobb elections just approved the Early Voting for the week before the runoff on Tuesday, December 6th. Here’s the plan:
Sunday, November 27th: 6 locations (12PM-5PM)
Monday, November 28th-Friday, December 2nd (7AM-7PM)
News & Notes
KSU Gets over $2 Million for Bike/Ped, effectively removing cars from the center of its campus
Today! MARTA announced they have 3 final options for the Clifton Corridor (2 Bus, 1 Rail)
MARTA Bus Driver Coy Dumas Jr celebrates 50 (FIFTY!) years as a bus driver
Mableton becomes Cobb’s largest city
Mableton’s opponents plan next steps
Powder Springs joins other cities to halt housing developments
Great Podcast About Why It’s So Expensive to Expand Transit (I’ll dig into this later) (Here’s a supporting article about the issue)
Secretary of Defense Pete Buttigieg making to much damn sense
Great Twitter Thread from a community meeting in California about an affordable housing development
That about covers this issue. I hope to see some of you tonight at the Strategic Plan meeting and tomorrow at the Commissioners’ meeting.
Have a great week and stay warm!
-Matt