In a pair of dueling press conferences Monday morning, activists, public officials, and mayoral candidates clashed over the best recourse for the Peoplestown residents whose lives have been upended by years of flooding and a remediation effort that threatens to force them out of their homes.
In 2014, then Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration proposed dedicating tens of millions of dollars to developing a retention pond where households were feeling the brunt of severe flooding. The city purchased more than 20 properties from people living in or near the floodplain.
Some homeowners refused to leave, however, so city officials attempted to leverage eminent domain to secure the properties. The legal saga over whether those folks can stay in their homes has now become a flashpoint in an already heated mayoral race.
Why don’t Mayor Bottoms ask Kimberly Scott whether we should stay in our homes or not she was the project manager at this time she was the person who had to sign off on the project to put a park and pond to stop the flooding. She said there was no need to take the entire block because there’s not enough data to prove the taking of any of the homes.