Southwest Atlanta neighborhoods want city to ‘fight the blight’
Really tackling eyesore houses that become magnets for crime will take cash, advocates say
embed-1
A group of Southwest Atlanta residents want to clean up the city’s blighted properties, and they’re calling for Atlanta officials to show support for ridding some communities of boarded-up eyesores.
So as Mayor Kasim Reed and his aides tweak the next fiscal year’s budget, 11 neighborhood organizations, led by self-proclaimed “Blight Fighter” Alan Holmes, have requested the city allocate more cash to raze the dilapidated buildings.
The budget request calls for more than $8 million, $7 million of which would be specifically earmarked for leveling the abandoned blots on Atlanta’s landscape.
Holmes, who serves on the city’s code enforcement commission and is part of Blyght, a tech group advocating for the cleanup of dilapidated properties, says he plans on pressing local politicians to support the anti-blight campaign. But some councilmembers, he says, might be hesitant to support spending for an issue that’s seen mostly in neighborhoods that have supported Holmes’ push, such as Capitol View Manor, Westview, and Holmes’ neighborhood, Oakland City.
“I expect that councilmembers representing wealthier parts of the city may be a little harder to convince in regards to supporting the effort,” he says. “Their areas don’t experience blight, so it doesn’t necessarily hit home to them. I also plan on aggressively lobbying councilmembers who may run for mayor next year.”
Blyght flew a drone over some afflicted areas to give people a better understanding of the issue.
But to address the 15,000 abandoned buildings in Atlanta — 2,500 of which, Immergluck says, need to be razed — the rate of demolition needs a drastic uptick. Backers of the proposal say that can’t be done with the $2 million allocated for blight demo last year.
“The city is currently only demolishing on the order of 100 properties a year, which is basically treading water, as some additional properties become distressed and vacant each year,” Immergluck says.
So it’s imperative, the professor says, that these toppled buildings don’t just become vacant lots of forgotten rubble. “If some resources can be devoted to greening them and making them a positive amenity to the neighborhood, they can actually have a positive impact on nearby property values.”
If Holmes’ proposal is accepted, $622,000 would be used to beef up the city’s code enforcement budget, adding 20 new researchers to evaluate the parcels before deciding each building’s fate.
About $90,000 would be used to roll out 200 spiffy new trash cans for neighborhoods in need. And the last $570,000 of the proposal would be spent hiring 15 new public works officers to sweep up the streets and cite litterbugs.
But Immergluck says this effort, albeit a “major, needed step” in the right direction, will need to carry on for years if Atlanta wants to see eyesore houses totally wiped off the map.