How exactly did the "invisible hand of free market" commerce cause the urban sprawl endemic to ATL? More like the result of poor city management, corrupt leadership etc. has led the free hand of commerce to take their shit elsewhere, meaning the suburbs.
But the multitude of problems plaguing ATL are varied and go well beyond selfish corporate ownership. I mean I can't really blame Liberty Media for making a decision that they *think* is going to benefit them -- and it probably will -- but as many here have bemoaned, the traffic there is no better than the "exclamation point" at the bottom of Biff's map. As it turns out, Arthur Blank's new stadium may have a bigger, positive impact than Ted Turner ever did. But that depends on a lot of different factors, the least of which isn't the horrible public transit system in ATL. I have no idea where the money will come from to expand it though. Folks here won't even vote for a 1% increase to improve their roads because there is so much public distrust of govt. And probably rightly so given this city's history.
ATL could really benefit from some type of corporate / govt cooperation where by tax breaks and incentives help breed more development downtown. But there is a lot of money to be made elsewhere and as long as all of the suburban towns like Sandy Springs, John's Creek, Dunwoody, Brookhaven etc. continue to incorporate to fill the void created by poor county management and corruption, ATL will continue along its path of being a sprawling suburbia with pockets of prosperity that are only connected by major arteries like 285 and 400. Luckily, the overall good still outweighs the bad, but the gap is shrinking.