By Denise Starling, Executive Director of Livable Buckhead
For a planner like me, stories are best told in charts and graphs. That’s why each year I look forward to the session that Livable Buckhead hosts where the Atlanta Regional Commission gives us a detailed look at the latest data on local and regional growth and population trends. This year’s presentation delivered even more insights than usual, examining the pandemic’s effects on employment, wage growth and more.
Here are a few key takeaways from the ARC Analysis of ESRI Demographics, MarketNSight and Census Bureau data:
- Metro Atlanta employment is strong. Total employment has returned to pre-pandemic levels and nearly all of the major job sectors in metro Atlanta are now trending above their February 2020 levels.
- Inflation is a bigger issue in Atlanta than in comparable metro areas and it outpaces the national average as well. Our inflation is driven overwhelmingly by the cost of fuel.
- Before the pandemic, wages in Atlanta lagged the nationwide rate of increase and our region has dropped even further behind the national average during the pandemic. In fact, wage growth is below the current inflation rate and real average hourly earnings in metro Atlanta are down 5.1% since 2018.
- Housing supply is not keeping up with demand. Metro Atlanta’s permitting activity remained stable during the pandemic, but at a level that is roughly half the number of residential units permitted each year before the Great Recession.
- Buckhead is running a housing inventory deficit at all price points, but especially at the low and high ends of the spectrum – below $300,000 and above $1 million.
- The cost of housing in Atlanta is on the rise. Metro Atlanta home prices have doubled since 2012 and Atlanta experienced the most growth in rent among major metro areas in the country – 41.3% over the last five years compared to 20.5% nationally.
- Over the past 10 years the Buckhead population has increased in racial diversity by five percentage points, outpacing the City of Atlanta which remained constant, and nearly matching the increasing diversity of the 11-county region which grew by 6%.
Taken together, these data make a strong case for the employer-assisted housing program that Livable Buckhead is in the early stages of planning. Approximately 93% of the Buckhead workforce commutes into the area each day, significantly contributing to local traffic. A study we completed in 2019 showed that we could improve traffic by adding 12,000 new housing units and implementing an action plan that better links the local workforce to local housing.
Recognizing Two Outstanding Buckhead Businesses
Last week’s event was also an opportunity for Livable Buckhead to recognize two local businesses for their contributions to mobility and sustainability. QGenda, a leading innovator in enterprise healthcare workforce management, was given the Mobility Champion award for its successful commute options programs. The Shoppe@Buckhead, a small business serving the local community for 23 years, was recognized with the Triple Bottom Line award for its self-sustaining, energy-efficient building.
The Triple Bottom Line award recognizes a Buckhead company or organization that has demonstrated success in the development and implementation of programs, projects, or policies that drive sustainability forward in the community. The Shoppe@Buckhead earned the award for its owners investment in sustainability when constructing their building in 2017. Owners Mahesh and Smita Patel, with the help of their friend Vinay Bose, set out to build a self-sustaining, energy-efficient building that could use natural resources to offset energy and water costs. The Shoppe@Buckhead’s entire building is clad with solar panels, including the canopy and roof, enabling the property to produce at least 45% of the energy used by the three businesses on site: a convenience store, Dunkin’ Donuts, boutique restaurant Sumi’s Kitchen.
The Shoppe@Buckhead also captures 100% of the water that falls on its large roof and stores it in two 2,000-gallon underground storage vaults. The rainwater is harvested and used where potable water isn’t needed, such as irrigation and cleaning the parking lot. Additionally, The Shoppe@Buckhead has a soak pit with 32,000-gallon storm traps lets the excess rainwater percolate into the ground, replenishing the natural water table and sending little to no water from this property into the City’s stormwater system.
The Buckhead Mobility Champion award recognizes an employer that has demonstrated success in the development and implementation of a commute alternative program that aims to mitigate traffic congestion, reduce auto emissions and improve quality of life for their employees. For the past five years, QGenda has worked extensively to enhance its overall employee experience. From implementing Livable Buckhead’s discounted transit pass program to participating in challenges that promote walking and biking and sponsoring a park improvement project, QGenda is making an impact, not only on its employees, but the entire community.
More recently, QGenda has implemented a formal telework policy, allowing employees to continue working remotely long-term. Like many other companies, the pandemic pushed QGenda into a fully remote work environment, which worked very well for most employees. As a result, the company decided to keep teleworking in place and formalized its program by identifying which job roles were best suited for it and providing training for remote managers. Today most employees are hybrid – working remotely at least two days per week.
QGenda is expanding quickly and using their robust suite of benefits to attract and retain top talent. With 350 employees working remotely at least two days per week, the company is also helping to reduce Buckhead’s traffic congestion, taking over one million vehicle miles off the road per year and saving nearly 350 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.
