When the COVID-19 pandemic hit two years ago, metro Atlanta’s county election offices were able to deploy tens of millions of dollars in outside donations to hire extra poll workers, pay hazard stipends, and buy extra voting equipment, such as machines to process the surge in mail-in ballots. For Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett […]
Category: Atlanta Civic Circle
Posted inHousing Affordability
Land donation tees up affordable homeownership in East Lake
A two-acre land donation from the CF Foundation positions the Atlanta Land Trust (ALT) to build 40 townhomes for purchase — half deemed affordable for moderate-income Atlantans — in East Lake. Today, the site sits vacant, right behind the Glenwood Avenue Publix. But with the help of philanthropic investors and public subsidy, ALT plans to develop the Trust at […]
Posted inDemocracy
Minority undercount in census will likely lead to lower political representation, big federal funding losses
The U.S. Census Bureau undercounted Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans for the 2020 census, new government data shows – an omission likely to affect political representation and federal funding for minority communities for years to come. The national population count every 10 years is used to draw legislative maps for both state and federal elected offices in […]
Posted inDemocracy
Labor, voting rights groups aim to seize the moment
In this unprecedented time of economic and social upheaval, sparked in part by the pandemic and a former president falsely claiming election fraud, Georgia labor rights and voting rights groups are finding common cause, rooted in a shared sense of urgency. Together, they are working to mobilize people against the linked threats of labor exploitation […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Atlanta Housing wants to sell affordably priced homes at long-vacant Westside properties
Atlanta Housing (AH) leaders on Wednesday voted to add homeownership units to the development plan for the former Perry Homes site and two neighboring Westside properties, earmarking almost a third as affordable. AH aims to introduce 223 houses and townhomes for purchase — including 64 at a price-point designated affordable — to the Perry Homes […]
Posted inDemocracy
Elections directors discuss concerns, offer solutions for upcoming midterms
Georgia’s 159 county elections offices are facing myriad new challenges this year as they gear up for the all-important May primaries and midterm elections in November. Concerns over new, more restrictive election laws, along with retirements, have sent thousands of seasonal poll workers packing and prompted experienced county elections staff statewide to retire. Meanwhile, private […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Peoplestown project puts Beltline halfway to affordable housing goal, but more units needed
City leaders, developers, and investors broke ground on 250 affordable housing units in Peoplestown on Tuesday, marking the halfway point for Atlanta Beltline Inc.’s mission to produce 5,600 affordable homes around the multi-use trail — which is now widely regarded as an engine of gentrification — by 2030. The Skyline Apartments, located at 1090 Hank […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Housing authority aims to select a developer for Atlanta Civic Center next month
The Atlanta Housing (AH) board of commissioners expects to finally choose a master developer next month for the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, over four years after the housing authority bought the iconic Old Fourth Ward site, which has sat vacant for eight years. AH officials are now interviewing a shortlist of five candidates to develop […]
Posted inDemocracy
New Georgia election laws, tense political climate push local election offices into ‘new and unprecedented territory’ ahead of midterms
Georgia’s 159-county election administrators are heading into the midterm elections with deepening concerns over more restrictive legislative mandates, increased legal risks, fewer workers–and scarce resources. Their heightened anxiety follows two tumultuous years for poll workers and local election offices, who had to contend with a global COVID-19 outbreak, verbal and physical harassment, and a deluge of recounts, fueled […]
Posted inDemocracy
From Sandy Springs to Mableton: New majority-Black cities are changing the Atlanta cityhood story
Buckhead’s tumultuous bid to break away from Atlanta has been scuppered for now, but its demise in the Georgia legislature made way for four new proposed cities, all in Cobb County. Three of those proposed cities continue the established Atlanta story about who tries to incorporate and why. East Cobb, Vinings, and Lost Mountain are majority-white […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Cumbersome state zoning legislation would stymie affordable housing creation, opponents say
A bill cruising through the Georgia legislature that would add more obstacles to local rezoning initiatives could stunt efforts to ameliorate the housing crisis that has spread statewide, opponents told Atlanta Civic Circle this week. One way to create more affordable housing is to allow greater density in residential areas, but rezoning proposals generally face stiff opposition […]
Posted inDemocracy
What will it take to shake up America’s two-party political system?
Don’t get Marla Thompson-Kendall started about America’s two-party political system. “They’re both ineffective,” the Riverdale resident said of the Democratic and Republican parties. Although she’s voted for Democrats over the years, she remained open to what Republicans had to say and even came to appreciate some Republicans such as former president George W. Bush. “He […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Mayor, housing agencies meet with Forest Cove owner to hasten stalled resident relocation
Millennia Housing Management and the city of Atlanta are restarting resident relocation efforts from scratch for the Forest Cove apartments, which were condemned almost three months ago, Atlanta Civic Circle has learned. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens convened Millennia and top officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Housing identified for condemned Forest Cove’s residents “may not match the need”
The 211 families still living at Forest Cove need new homes fast, after an Atlanta judge condemned the dangerously dilapidated Section 8 complex over two months ago. For now, however, they’ll have to keep waiting. The December condemnation order gave Forest Cove’s owner, Millennia Housing Management, until March 1 to relocate the families, but the […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Court decides extended-stay hotel guests are legal residents with eviction protections
People living at extended-stay hotels won protection from informal, on-the-spot eviction this week, when the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled they should legally be recognized as residents, not guests, and, thus, are covered by landlord-tenant law. The March 7 decision found that Efficiency Lodge in south DeKalb County illegally kicked out three tenants in 2020 who […]
Posted inDemocracy
Timeline: American politics’ evolutionary march to two-party dominance
Democrats and Republicans have reigned over American politics since the 1850s and many Americans have had enough. Some 62% of American voters want the option of a third party, according to a recent Gallup Poll. The history of political parties in America is a complex and fractured one. Our political-party system has morphed at least […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Columbia Residential adds former city, state executive to accelerate affordable housing construction
Columbia Residential has hired Carmen Chubb, an experienced public-sector executive, as president to help the developer “double the size” of its affordable housing construction to meet rapidly increasing need, CEO Jim Grauley told Atlanta Civic Circle. Columbia, one of Atlanta’s best-known affordable housing developers, owns and manages more than 6,500 mixed-income and below-market-rate multifamily units inside […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
As rents spike, Atlanta mayor gears up search for a chief housing officer
The city of Atlanta could soon gain a housing chief to help the new mayor achieve his goal of producing 20,000 affordable units over the next eight years. During Wednesday’s Atlanta Regional Housing Forum, Mayor Andre Dickens committed to tapping a chief housing officer before the year’s end, saying his office is already seeking candidates for […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
What makes this era of Atlanta’s gentrification different?
The ongoing pandemic has sped up changes already occurring in the metro-Atlanta housing market, accelerating gentrification and worsening the already critical shortages in affordable housing. But this era is different for our sprawling metro region because of a shift in the demographic profile of the suburbs–and the increasingly regional effects of gentrification. That means both Atlanta and […]
Posted inDemocracy
Can a Libertarian beat America’s toughest ballot access law – and Marjorie Taylor Greene?
Chickamauga native Angela Pence wants to represent the people of her Northwest Georgia community in Congress. The only thing standing between the Libertarian candidate and the 14th Congressional District seat is a $5,220 qualifying fee, 23,000 signatures – and Marjorie Taylor Greene. But the district’s infamous, far-right Republican incumbent is the least of Pence’s concerns right […]
