The snowy woes of ATL

On January 29th the car commuters of Atlanta got pummeled but monstrous snowstorm that dropped two and a half inches of snow. The snow caused all the car commuters to panic, causing traffic jams that lasted well over 12 hours.

Atlanta is one of the worst cities when it comes to traffic. In 2012, each person in the metro region deals with an average of 51 extra hours in their commute per year. That is over 2 days. The city of Atlanta has a population of 443,775 (2012) and the metro region excluding Atlanta has around 5.02 million people (2012). The MARTA, Atlanta's train system only stays near the city of Atlanta. Unfortunately, that leaves the rest of the region to drive.

On February 6th, car commuters were in a pre-panic when they saw signs on the highway that stated another storm was going to hit the metro region. These signs were viewed by millions of commuters and causing an overreaction.

There is a pretty easy solution to this. Expand the MARTA! This will relieve some traffic for those that can access a train. Unfortunatly, most of the suburbs don't want it. There is a very disturbing reason on why they will not expand.

And that is absolutely ludicrous.

No train expansion or moving closer to work, expect more of this: 

Cubs vs Rooftops

This whole Cubs vs. rooftop owners battle is nuts. The Cubs organization wants to stay in Wrigley and they know they need to renovate it. The rooftop owners want the Cubs to stay but don't want anything done to Wrigley so they can still make tons of money from the Dinner Theater Cubs. The Alderman in that area flip-flops and thinks everything is a good idea and a bad idea. Rahm Emanuel wants the Cubs to stay in Chicago because he knows how much cash flow they produce for the city. This is what is going to happen from probable to least probable:

1. Absolutely nothing for the next 5 to 10 years except small necessary projects.
2. Tom Ricketts buys all the rooftops and maybe some of the other buildings around Wrigley. In 20 years they own every building adjacent to Wrigley. 
3. Tom Ricketts cuts a deal with the rooftop owners and they walk away happily into the sunset.
4. Rahm Emanuel gets involved and installs protected bike lanes adjacent to the base path. Second base will get a photo enforced speed camera.
5. They move to one of the suburbs: Rosemont, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, Glenview, or maybe something in Du Page county and recreate Wrigleyville.

"Hey Chicago Whaddiya Say!?"

http://www.suntimes.com/news/25113883-418/wrigley-deal-fell-apart-at-stormy-session-with-cubs-rooftop-owners.html