Category: Columns

A proposal to shut down the adult shops and clubs by 2018 along Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta was rejected Thursday by Atlanta’s Zoning Review Board.

The vote is not binding and doesn’t end the debate. The battle continues to the Atlanta City Council, where the area’s representative, Alex Wan, had introduced the measure with strong support from an array of neighborhood groups.

The opposition that gathered at the ZRB meeting included a mix of gays, strippers and Atlanta’s real estate interests – including Scott Selig, whose family has developed in Atlanta since 1918. Their protests centered on issues including free expression and property rights.

GRTA’s board offered a warm welcome Wednesday to Chris Tomlinson, the newest leader of metro Atlanta’s transportation system.

Tomlinson, executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority, responded with a message that emphasized themes of communication and transparency.

The message could go a long way for a state entity that wields tremendous power over Georgia’s transportation system, but operates largely out of the public spotlight. SRTA is chaired by the governor and has the power to plan, develop and build roads funded by federal and state sources – in addition to tolls.

Those who are desperately straining to see improvements in Atlanta’s local economy may want to skip Mayor Kasim Reed’s budget proposal, or at least limit their view to a few bright spots.

Reed’s budget is based on some grim predictions: Property tax revenues will decline; sales tax revenues will stagnate; lease payments for city-owned properties will decline, according to revenue overviews scattered throughout the budget book.

Bright spots include revenue from business licenses, which is forecast to rise a bit as business income increases. The hotel/motel tax is expected to rise modestly as the business and tourism trade holds on. In addition, Atlanta expects to hire rather than lay off employees, with a third of the new positions to be located in the executive offices that report directly to the mayor.

Atlanta is on pace to have 2,000 sworn police officers this year.

Atlanta now has 1,983 officers, counting 23 who were added after a police academy graduation Tuesday, according to police Chief George Turner. The recruits needed to reach the target are in the police academy or waiting to attend, Turner said. The money to pay the officers is in the budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1, which Mayor Kasim Reed released Wednesday.

While the number of officers is important, the crime rate is the number that matters to those in the city. The rate of serious crimes is 2 percent higher than at this time last year, but is 18 percent lower than in 2009, the last year reported on the police department’s website.

Georgia’s safety net can continue to address incredible needs, provided that its leaders respond creatively to reductions in government funding and evolution of the philanthropic community.

That message emerged from a two-hour panel discussion Wednesday at the Carter Center that was hosted by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute during its Spring Policy Forum.

“We have to work smarter and leverage our resources; leverage is an easy word, but it’s hard to do,” said Bill Bolling, executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration has two weeks to come up with some solid proposals to get sidewalk vendors back to work.

The apparently frustrated members of the Atlanta City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously Tuesday for a motion calling on Reed’s staff to deliver by May 14 a solid recommendation of a vending ordinance.

“We are dealing with the actual human element of people losing their livelihood because of the inaction of the city,” committee Chair Michael Julian Bond said. “I don’t believe it is difficult to resolve this issue.”

Georgia’s efforts to quench metro Atlanta’s thirst include a $1 billion proposal to pump water from one aquifer to another and then release it into the Flint River in times of drought.

On Tuesday, the board of Department of Natural Resources is to consider a request for permission to drill an experimental well near Albany to see if the plan is feasible. A committee of the board approved the proposal Monday.

Advocates contend the practice would preserve the amount of water retained in Lake Lanier, while increasing the flow in the Flint River and the river it helps form – the Apalachicola River. Critics disagree, including the Flint Riverkeeper and Georgia Rivers.