To the elected officials of Paz, GA:
As you know, Paz has always been described as just your cliché, average small town. Everyone who lives here has lived here their whole life; everybody knows everyone one way or another. The actual area of Paz is not that large either; everything is local and we only have a couple of commercial shops. Remember when we got our first Wal-Mart? Other than that, not much has changed in the past couple of decades.
Our small suburb of Atlanta, GA has always been a quiet, non-commercial section of Georgia. Atlanta, however, has been growing and more young people keep moving into the city. Since they are all moving in, young families from the city are beginning to move out of Atlanta and into our little suburb. This expansion has been great for businesses and the community! These new families are keeping their jobs in the city, which is not bad, but you, as our newly elected officials, think that something needs to change.
There is really only one route to get to the city from Paz, and that is the main highway, and without traffic, it usually takes about 35 minutes to get there. However, we can always count on having traffic because of commuters and just the daily hustle and bustle of city life. To the knowledge of the townspeople, you have a partnership with a large transportation corporation. In order to help with our new traffic problem, there is a proposal to partner with this large corporation to put a subway or train station in Paz.
There are both benefits and consequences to having this built in our community, so let us start with some of the pros to having this built. First, it will allow for temporary jobs to get the station actually built (and who knows how long that will take); it also opens up the opportunity for people to have permanent jobs working in the station. Also, building this will allow for easy access to the city and commuters will not have to deal with as much traffic going to and from work. With that, our little town will be able to expand into different communities and we will not just be in our own little world anymore. Overall, it will be able to help Paz expand and grow to thrive in this new and changing world.
However, there are some downsides to having a train station built here. The first, and most obvious, is that there is no room in Paz for a train station. That means that our already super small town will have to downsize and some houses and neighborhoods will have to be eliminated for space. These families who will have to move will either be moving away from their lifelong homes or their new homes. Also, the construction of the station will turn potential residents of Paz away from the community. As I have mentioned before, the construction of this station will create some temporary jobs—key word being temporary. Who knows where these unemployed residents will end up after working on building the station? Also, the corporation will need employees to operate the station, but we don’t know if there are already people with experience and training within the corporation who have a job; it will take the opportunity away for the people of Paz to get a job if they need one. Further, the project is expensive! We will have to pay for the project with additional taxes, and will probably be in debt to the corporation long after the station has been built and used.
Although I agree that we probably need an expansion of transportation for Paz, I do not think that having a train station is the best option. Another option that I think will be beneficial to Paz is the addition of a second highway that will connect Paz to Atlanta. I also propose that we do not jump the gun with building the train station, let’s have a town hall meeting with the residents of Paz to discuss the best option for us as a community.
Let’s try to keep the small town charm that we have, but also expand the community beyond the borders of Paz.
Sincerely,
Caroline Cerand
A lifelong resident of Paz, GA
*Note: Paz, GA is not a real community