By Guest Columnist MANDY MAHONEY. U.S. program director of the Regulatory Assistance Project
The South has long been defined by its heat and humidity, so much so that bragging about the heat has even become something of a punch line in certain circles. … As the global climate warms, extreme heat is growing more common in the South, and that is putting low-income people and communities of color at the highest risk of heat-related illness and even death.
By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, Georgia Tech professor of practice and former Atlanta planning commissioner
Over the last couple of years, housing costs have shot up in Atlanta. Already rising before, it is now difficult for households earning below median incomes to find decent housing in a stable neighborhood. Rentals are outpacing homeowners in the market, spawning more build-to-rent activity.
As the pandemic crisis passes, the new orders of life provide opportunities to improve conditions in terms of sustainability, racial equity in placemaking, and more just development practices. These are among the views expressed by the head of the U.N., a national author who examines Atlanta in an upcoming book, and a longtime urban planner now teaching at Georgia Tech.
By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, a professor of the practice of planning at Georgia Tech’s College of Design and and a longtime advocate for housing affordability
The city is making constructive strides toward addressing its ever-growing affordable housing needs. Researchers are pretty much in agreement that a stable, safe, and affordable home provides the fundamental and essential grounding for families to make their way into better education, improved health, higher incomes, and a quality of life that holds out hope.
Atlanta city councilmembers are citing Atlanta’s Olympic Games in their emerging effort to ensure that city residents are hired for at least 30 percent of jobs, and that other community benefits be provided, if city voters in November approve two referenda totaling $2.8 billion for transportation projects.
