With in-town transportation (not to mention suburban transportation) being nightmarish at best, any solid proposal -- including the Beltline -- are ones that deserve looking at.
Everything I've seen on the Beltline so far, is on the up and up.
Now, as long as the Atlanta City Council can keep their grubby little paws out of the coffers (yeah, right!) then this will probably roll on the way it ought to.
This AP article sets forth its own agenda, making this erroneously sound like some greenspace project. It's mainly a light rail, and is near downtown, not through the suburbs like the article implies.
I agree that this is worth looking at. My main conern is that it serves areas that are already not that far away from existing MARTA stations and bus lines.
BTW, I like Atlanta's sprawl. Sprawl is just a way of saying that citizens have another option for their living and working environment. Planners (and AP reporters) who want to eliminate sprawl are no friends of freedom.