Atlanta community activists advocating on behalf of low-income Black families are raising gentrification concerns about Mayor Andre Dickens’ $5 billion neighborhood reinvestment initiative.
The program calls for the extension of existing tax allocation districts (TADs) to help pay for revamping majority-Black neighborhoods on the city’s southwest side.
TADs — also referred to as tax incremental financing — are economic tools that set aside revenue generated from property tax increases to help pay for infrastructure and private development projects in underserved, often blighted areas.
The plan Dickens unveiled during a Sept. 30 press conference calls for the extension of multiple southwest Atlanta TADs due to expire over the next five to 13 years.
Dickens wants the Atlanta City Council to approve legislation that would extend the TADs beyond 2050. His office projects that would set aside $1.9 billion to expand transit networks, $1.5 billion for trails and greenspace, $1.3 billion for affordable housing projects, and $170 million for supporting health centers, recreation, and grocery options.
An additional $88 million would be reserved for small business and commercial development, and $81 million would be spent on public infrastructure. The mayor says the plan will help close Atlanta’s economic divide and reduce long-standing inequality in one of the most unequal cities in America.
“Atlanta is a group project, and this initiative is a group project as well,” Dickens told reporters and attendees at City Hall on Sept. 30. “We intend to bring together public agencies, community residents and the private sector to serve as architects to our own future where we’re all working towards the same norm — stronger neighborhoods for all of Atlanta.”
Proponents of the strategy argue it will help bring higher-paying jobs, more affordable housing, better park services and public transit options to majority-Black neighborhoods.
They include City Council member Michael Julian Bond, who introduced legislation in October that would set Dickens’ vision in motion. Bond pointed out TADs were used to pay for the creation of Atlantic Station and the Beltline, two of the city’s most popular areas.
“I think they should support it,” Bond said Wednesday in reference to whether Black residents should be in favor of Dickens’ extension plan. “I have been waiting since the early to mid ’90s to see the expansion of TADs to the African American community in total.”
Critics contend Dickens’ plan essentially gives constituent tax revenue to wealthy developers to pay for projects without ensuring working-class Black residents, who have lived in the community for years, will reap the benefits.
Rodney Mullins, co-founder of West Atlanta Progress, an economic development nonprofit, and Sterling Johnson, just opportunity portfolio director for Partnership for Southern Equity, a social justice nonprofit, voiced their concerns about the plan to members of the City Council’s Community Development and Human Services Committee on Monday during their latest meeting.
Mullins told Capital B Atlanta on Thursday that the plan needs to spend less on parks and transportation infrastructure and more on job creation and affordable housing to ensure Black residents aren’t priced out of their own communities.
He said failure to do this in other parts of the city allowed private equity firms to develop more-expensive housing and commercial areas that forced low-income Black folks to move out.
“They need to create retention plans, mandatory housing opportunities for low-to-moderate income people,” Mullins told Capital B Atlanta.
Johnson said he and other PSE leaders don’t understand the sudden urgency to extend TADs that aren’t due to expire for years. He pointed out existing TADs in Perry Bolton, the Westside, and Campbellton Road neighborhoods haven’t created prosperity for Black residents there. And TADs in East Atlanta and along the Beltline may have contributed to gentrification.
He urged Black southwest Atlanta residents to contact city council members and let them know their concerns about the plan.
“All development isn’t good development,” Johnson said. “If you’re not prepared for what that growth looks like and not holding elected leaders accountable … the only result is going to be higher costs, the changing and shifting demographics of your neighbors.”
Council members who led Monday’s meeting declined to advance Bond’s bill, which they’re due to resume discussing at their next meeting on Nov. 25. If approved, the measure will be considered by the full City Council during its Dec. 1 meeting.
Dickens’ office didn’t respond Thursday to an emailed request for comment.
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