Where we go from here remains uncertain, but there’s something comforting and promising about the prospect of an APD officer ditching their riot shield and gas mask and tear gas grenades to wield instead a picket sign emblazoned with “Black Lives Matter.” Until then, though, the morbid song of squad car sirens and clicking handcuffs shall ring too loud.
Tag: Keisha Lance Bottoms
Posted inLatest News
Former Mayor Shirley Franklin says planned housing bond on hold; others differ
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said the city’s planned housing bond is dead in the water, a casualty of revenue shortfalls anticipated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At least two members of the Atlanta City Council may beg to differ.
Posted inLatest News
Georgia’s shelter-in-place order ending for most
Governor expects compliance with social distancing and sanitation rules.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta’s proposed $200 million debt for affordable housing resembles balloon mortgage
Terms of Atlanta’s plan to borrow $200 million to fund affordable housing resemble a balloon loan on a residence – interest-only payments for the first two years, plus a higher interest rate than other types of debt and the ability to stretch the loan out to 50 years to lower the payment due each year.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta’s public housing residents affected by coronavirus can apply for rent relief
A new program launched by the City of Atlanta and its housing authority allows residents in local public housing units to receive rent relief if they’ve lost income due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Posted inColumns
Citizens’ letters question Atlanta’s proposed tree protection ordinance
Frustration among Atlanta tree advocates over the two-year process of writing even the draft version of a tree protection ordinance is bubbling up amid the coronavirus-related shutdown of public conversation – and the clock is ticking toward a final vote on a new city code.
Posted inLatest News
Affordable housing advocates appeal to city for more rent payment assistance during pandemic
The escalating coronavirus crisis has amplified the need for affordable housing in Atlanta and beyond, experts have said.
Posted inColumns
By rejecting Integral settlement, AHA will spend money on lawyers instead of housing
Update: The Atlanta Housing Authority met on Feb. 26 after this column had been published, and it voted unanimously to approve an amended settlement with Integral and its partners. After the vote, AHA Chair Chris Edwards said: “Hopefully we’ll get out of the lawsuit business. It stops millions of dollars currently being spent on expensive litigation.”
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta mayor calls for $100 million in bonds to boost affordable housing stock
On Monday, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for another $100 million investment aimed at boosting the city’s affordable housing stock.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta’s new affordable housing tracker: More than 3,500 units created, preserved since 2018
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms appears to be about 18 percent of the way toward accomplishing her campaign goal of producing and preserving 20,000 affordable housing units by 2026.
Posted inLatest News
Herndon Square groundbreaking: Pledges that it’s a new day for housing in Atlanta
City leaders heralded Tuesday’s official ground-breaking of Herndon Square on Northside Drive as the start of a new day for Atlanta Housing and affordable housing developments.
But not everyone at the ceremony was convinced.
Posted inLatest News
After delays, Atlanta Housing set to break ground on affordable apartments for seniors
On Tuesday, a long-stalled affordable housing project in English Avenue is slated to finally begin construction.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta mayor: City could deposit first $4.6 million into affordable housing trust fund in December
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Friday that the first cash injection for a potentially $28 million citywide affordable housing trust fund could be made next month.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta mayor names transportation department leader, publishes three-year plan
Atlanta’s mayor announced a new department, a new leader and a new plan to make it easier and safer to get around Atlanta.
Posted inMaggie Lee
Two months after announcing it, Fort Mac board votes to approve building sale for FDA
An announcement from Fort Mac in June was clear: the agency was making a $17 million building sale. Federal scientists and staff would move into a disused command building.
That sale has just now gotten the 10-1 approval, with one abstention, of the board of the McPherson Implementing Local Redevelopment Authority.
But the board still has yet to take any action on the question of a developer who has in sight the bulk of the roughly 144 acres of the former fort.
Posted inLatest News
Criticism bubbles up under Atlanta’s policy to curtail cash bail
At public appearances, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms regularly celebrates the city’s moves to close the city jail and get rid of cash bail, but one member of City Council is using the word “failure” for how bail waivers are being implemented.
Posted inLatest News
96 students to start Atlanta Tech program backed by corporations in a city that needs them
A total 96 students this fall are going to join a new Atlanta Technical College program backed by some of the city’s biggest employers. And if the school’s statistics hold, graduates will be in great professional demand soon.
Posted inLatest News
Shorthanded city trust task force meets; mayor says it’s a challenge to enlist folks generally
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said people are second-guessing their decisions to work with Atlanta, and called on the media to do more good news.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta races ahead of consultant’s advice in proposed Transportation Department
Atlanta’s proposal to create a freestanding Department of Transportation – reporting exclusively to the mayor – was part of the long-term plan suggested by the city’s management consultant, but only after a slow transition to a new department. The Atlanta City Council begins its deliberations on April 22.
Posted inLatest News
Police, potholes, paving dominate mayor’s town hall in Cascade
The mayor of Atlanta sat with her top staff and something near 100 written questions heavy on potholes and paving, received from attendees at a Cascade town hall Tuesday night. But the first question was in the form of a chant from protesters, demanding justice in the case of Jimmy Atchison, shot dead by a city police officer who’s now under investigation.
