Chamblee54

On July 31, voters will weigh in on a traffic initiative. The idea is to raise the sales tax one percent, and use the money on a variety of transportation projects. Few will disagree that transportation in Atlanta is a disaster. In a perfect world, voting for this proposal would be a no brainer.
The first hint that something was amiss was the robocalls. A ringing telephone is an intrusive device that takes you away from what you are doing, at a time selected by the caller. When PG gets an automated sales pitch, his instinct is to hang up, and to never support the product being advertised in such a distasteful fashion. So far, PG has received two robocalls supporting the  initiative.
The second wave of phone calls uses live callers. (The fact that PG has an unlisted number makes these calls more annoying.) The live callers say they are taking a survey. There are only two questions to the survey, with none of the demographic questions that legitimate market research uses. After the questions, the first lady went into a sales pitch for the transportation initiative. There was a claim made, with no supporting data offered, that the new transportation projects would add 20,000 jobs to the metro area. PG did not believe that claim. The lady followed up by asking if there were any questions about the initiative.
That was the first live caller. When the second live caller hit, PG told her that she was turning him against the initiative. She said have a nice day and hung up.
PG considers himself a progressive, and would ordinarily support a proposal like this. The traffic in the metro area is nightmarish. For years, developers, enabled by corrupt governments, have built as if there was no tomorrow. The roads to service these new residents will be built later. This does not even consider the lack of a dependable source of water .
There is also the suspicion that the transportation program was as poorly planned as the efforts to get the initiative passed. This is perhaps unfair, since production and sales are usually two separate divisions. Still, these robocalls and “surveys” are an indication of the amount of respect that the planners have for the people. If this is how they sell the program, you can assume that the program will be operated with the same degree of arrogant disregard for the people.
This may be the last chance for the Atlanta area to improve the transportation quagmire, until the next time. While PG is not impressed by the proposed programs (and notes that almost nothing will happen in a three mile radius from his home), he wants to support this program. If he doesn’t get any more phone calls, it is possible that PG will vote yes.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.