In the rink, Atlanta native Beauty “Katera” Couch is known as a pandemic skater — a new class of Gen Zers who took up the hobby for entertainment at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. “My friend kept calling me every day during the pandemic urging me to come to the rink,” Couch said. […]
Money
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City Residents Praise New Expanded Sunday Hours for Packaged Alcohol Sales
Wine lover Kristy Gomez was elated when she learned that Atlanta is expanding the hours licensed stores can sell packaged alcohol on Sunday. The change adds two more hours to the current 11-hour window when Sunday restrictions on alcohol sales are lifted. This means sales can occur from 11 a.m. to midnight on Sundays instead […]
Posted inHousing, Money
The Next Chapter in the Battle Over Historically Black Peoplestown
The former home of Summerhill and Peoplestown legend Mattie King Ansley Jackson, who died two years ago at the age of 98, is like a museum now — full of pictures and memories that put a smile on the face of her adoring daughter, Sheryl Calhoun. Calhoun inherited the house in 2020, the year her […]
Posted inBlack Biz, Money
Nuisance Ordinance That Sparked Backlash From Black Business Owners Has Stalled
It’s back to the drawing board for the proposed Atlanta ordinance to crack down on “nuisance properties.” The Public Safety and Legal Administration Committee held the controversial piece of legislation in committee at its last meeting. This means that the ordinance cannot be voted on by the City Council until it makes it out of […]
Posted inHousing, Money
Local Housing Forum to Discuss Strengthening Tenants’ Rights in Georgia
With an increasingly unaffordable market, Atlanta’s housing crisis has become a hot topic over the past year for many residents. For the Black community, the stakes have never been higher. Eviction threats, uninhabitable living conditions, and rising home prices have housing advocates and community leaders alike calling for stronger tenant protections across the metro area. […]
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Facing Eviction, Forest at Columbia Residents Meet with DeKalb Commissioner
Tenants from Forest at Columbia — the Panthersville-based apartment complex at the center of an alleged illegal eviction controversy — have gained new allies in their fight to keep their homes. DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson arranged for staffers from the county’s Community Development Department to visit Forest at Columbia on Aug. 5, less than […]
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‘An Illegal Eviction’: Forest at Columbia Residents Feel Blindsided By Ownership
Freshly packed and stacked cardboard boxes formed a pile in front of the wall-mounted television inside Cynthia Arnold’s living room. The 68-year-old grandmother had “Sanford and Son” on the tube, but it was harder than usual for her to watch with medical gauze taped over her lacerated right eye. It’s an injury Arnold said she […]
Posted inBlack Biz, Money
Nightlife Businesses Make Presence Felt at City Hall
On 26 separate occasions since late March, Our Bar ATL reached out to the Atlanta Police Department for help. The business owners were looking to hire off-duty police officers to provide safety and security for their patrons, according to Sarah Oak Kim, co-owner of the bar on Edgewood Avenue in Downtown. As Kim addressed the […]
Posted inBlack Biz, Money
A City Proposal to Fight Crime Could Hurt Black Business
When Johnny Mims first learned about the city of Atlanta’s current nuisance ordinance, he was reading a news article about the closure of Encore Hookah Lounge in Downtown. The nightlife entertainment venue had a two-year streak of violence that led to two shooting deaths, a reported aggravated assault and more than 170 incoming calls to […]
Posted inHousing, Money
A Guide to Atlanta’s NPU System
The city of Atlanta’s 2023 fiscal year budget feedback and approval process is over, but you can still have a say in how your tax dollars are spent. How, you ask? Neighborhood Planning Units, aka NPUs. NPUs are advisory councils designed to amplify the voices of city residents, giving them a way to express their […]