Care to ride a bus shaped like a fish? Sample a new sofa on a rapid-transit train? See locally produced artworks? MARTA's marketing consultant says you might. But the system's riders just want on-time arrivals.
"Leather couches in a furniture-store sponsored train car. Free rides on MLK Jr. Day â€" 'Free at last,' get it? Bicycle carts delivering 'traffic jam' and toast to drivers stuck in gridlock, courtesy of MARTA. Pictures of reindeer plastered on trains during the Christmas season. These strange but true ideas are straight from the mind of Atlanta pitchman extraordinaire Joey Reiman and his team at BrightHouse."
"MARTA hired Reiman's company to help the transit system overhaul its public image. BrightHouse's report, issued last week, challenges MARTA's leaders to totally rethink what they do."
"It's not clear how many ideas will ever get off the drawing board. Even those deemed feasible could prove expensive to introduce, a problem for a transit system that slashed bus and rail service in recent years to balance its budget."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also weighs in on the issue with an editorial.
FULL STORY: If MARTA looked like this, would you ride it?
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California Exodus: Population Drops Below 39 Million
Never mind the 40 million that demographers predicted the Golden State would reach by 2018. The state's population dipped below 39 million to 38.965 million last July, according to Census data released in March, the lowest since 2015.
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Ohio Lawmakers Propose Incentivizing Housing Production
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Chicago Awarded $2M Reconnecting Communities Grant
Community advocates say the city’s plan may not do enough to reverse the negative impacts of a major expressway.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Town of Zionsville
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