Last March, the Atlanta Regional Commission convened the inaugural meeting of the Millennial Advisory Panel, which tasked a group of 135 young professional’s in their 20’s and 30’s, from the 10-county area, who represent the next generation of residents who will live and work in the region, to research discuss and formulate policy recommendations to the ARC on the following topics: world class infrastructure, innovation, economy and healthy livable communities. Over the last six months, the millennial panels were broken up into sub-groups to tackle various issues surrounding those topics and present recommendations to the members of the ARC Board and public. From hosting over 300 civic dinner parties region-wide, where their peers were engaged in conversations about regional issues, opportunities and challenges and many sub-group meetings, the ideas and recommendations began to take shape and final form. (To learn more about the Millennial Panel, click HERE)
On September 14th, the Millennial Panel unveiled their various recommendations to the Panel at large and ARC Board Members and staff. You can read a recap in the Saporta Report HERE. A sub-group that was tasked with focusing on championing a unified regional transportation system, made up of millennials from across the region, that James Touchton, Director of Policy & Government Affairs serves on presented their recommendations to the Panel on Tuesday. Committee Members Nicholas Juliano and Danielle Elkins presented the recommendations from the group (which can be viewed here) that culminated in the formation of a new coalition, AdvanceAtlanta.
Advance Atlanta is a grassroots coalition dedicated to building and maintaining support for a regional transit system within Metro Atlanta’s five core counties: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett. Advance Atlanta will bring public, business and community stakeholders together to pursue regional solutions to the transportation challenges facing the Atlanta region.
There are thousands of people across Metro Atlanta who support transit, but feel like they are in the minority. The Advance Atlanta mission is to unify those citizens and work toward a unified regional transit system that can improve the lives of millions of Atlanta residents. Seniors, Millennials, Republicans, Democrats- all have factions that support regional transit, but have been advocating in silos…until now.
Transit is more than just a mode of transport- It’s a powerful economic tool that can help shape communities. Currently, the areas of the region experiencing some of the most intense economic growth and rise in property values are prospering due to proximity to transit. For the Atlanta Region to reach its full potential we have to expand our network and provide these opportunities for economic revitalization on a greater scale.
To view the Op-Ed written by members of the AdvanceAtlanta team that was featured in the Saporta Report, Click HERE
To learn more about AdvanceAtlanta and to sign up for newsletters and ways to get involved, Click HERE