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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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In a recent op-ed for the AJC, Harry West Professor of City and Regional Planning Catherine Ross, who directs the Georgia Tech College of Architecture's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, discusses the importance of the state in continued regional cooperation to facilitate improved and expanded transit. "The state sets planning requirements, builds and manages many major roads that connect our region, and can change political boundaries," she writes. "The state establishes the rules that either incentivize or dis-incentivize regional cooperation."
Ross outlines several milestones that, in part, were initiated because of efforts on the state level. She empasizes the need for continued action within the Legislature and state agencies for biding the region together.
"Since the political environment at the state and local levels will dictate the viability of regionalism in metro Atlanta, we need to engage with it. Letting your city, county, and state officials know that the strength of the entire region matters can help make it a priority. Otherwise, local and state issues can easily eclipse our regional health."
