Council committee grills stadium advocates, stresses benefits to neighborhoods

• Dustin Chambers/CL File
• Gonna miss you!

Last week, members of an Atlanta City Council committee and the public sat through a three-hour presentation of slides, numbers, and figures about a new Atlanta Falcons stadium. Today, they got a chance to grill advocates.

Among the chief concerns voiced by members of Council's Finance and Executive Committee, some which were echoed last week by members of the public, was ensuring that residents of nearby communities get jobs building and working at the new facility. And that the estimated $1 billion stadium will benefit, not burden, surrounding neighborhoods.

"Atlanta's great at building things, but not great at building people," said Councilman Kwanza Hall, who represents a wide swath of downtown that includes part of Castleberry Hill, which could abut the new facility. Councilwoman Cleta Winslow, who also serves part of the neighborhood, said residents fear traffic and tailgating that would accompany a Falcons stadium.

Councilman Ivory Lee Young called for an assurance that 35 percent of the jobs go to minority businesses. Young, who represents the Vine City and English Avenue neighborhoods located next to the Georgia Dome, called the state's lackluster record on ensuring minority involvement in public projects "pitiful." He predicted that "many of those contractors won't have a chance of getting" contracts to work on the new stadium.