Wrong for so long, it’s pretty much been forgotten: Oakland City MARTA station still does not have an elevator, 33 years later
33 years?? I’m 35 years old. This is practically something being promised to me when I was born, and still not delivered after over three decades. It’s no secret to how inept MARTA is, but for something to not be solved in 33 years, that could very well be among its longest-lasting fuck ups in organizational history.
I mean Keith Parker went gangbusters on MARTA improvements; it’s hard to imagine that something like installing a single elevator could actually slip under his radar. But given the fact that Parker himself is somewhere in his 40s, I’d guess it’s not difficult to miss something that’s been a problem when it was already neglected into being the norm when he was still in high school.
Regardless, this story is still ironically hilarious in only the manner in which MARTA could make ineptitude funny. I think the best part is the fact that they don’t have an elevator, but they have space saved for one, and the shaft already ready for the installation of one. It’s just the fact that over the last three decades, MARTA has just failed to actually put an elevator into the space, alienating the handicapped and those with strollers and/or luggage from being able to traverse from one floor to the next.
It’s like a car person buying a car to restore from the ground up, meticulously constructing and putting it together, but then not installing an engine into it, and then letting it sit for 33 years.
