Friends of John A White Park - Dawn Brown Committee Chair -
alta.wessinger@gmail.comLook out for a virtual meeting in Sept. to kickoff parks & greenspace cohort of interested people who want to become friends of JAW Park. The next volunteer day will be 9/11 from 11-12noon at JAWP. Please email Dawn Brown for details.
Friends of Rev James Orange Park - Jamida Orange Committee Chair –
Orangejamida@yahoo.comIf you are interested in being a friend of RJOP please contact Jamida
Affordable Housing – Kate Little
kate_s_little@hotmail.com Proposed changes will include Up zoning to provide multi-family housing within .5 mile from MARTA Station. If it's more than 4 units, builders will then have to set aside units dedicated to affordable housing. A public hearing will take place in September. This is a way for the city to begin addressing affordable housing around MARTA stations. However, affordable is determined by using City’s 80 % AMI which is very high but, in some instances, can be as low as 30% such as in the Grove Park community. There is a discussion to start looking at parcels owned by the City and use proceeds of sale to build affordable housing through joint ventures. Properties considered do not include APS or AHA properties. Karen Babino will hold a meeting to discuss proposed zoning changes with our community.
Transportation – Alex Dileo –
01alexdileo@gmail.com Please email Alex with any questions or comments regarding Transportation. Items introduced in the last City Council Transportation committee to be considered next week includes - A resolution requesting the Atlanta Department of Transportation and Atlanta Fire Rescue Department assess the streets surrounding all existing and planned senior citizen facilities to determine the need for traffic safety measures. Please send Alex comments or questions on this matter.
Neighbors on Westmont are concerned that, with the construction on Cascade Ave their one-way street will be temporarily converted into a two-way street to allow for construction detours. This would be dangerous given the blind corner at Cascade and Beecher. Their preference would be for detour routes to point elsewhere -- a safer route with better visibility and more suited to a higher volume of car
Meeting was held to discuss Campbellton Road Overlay on August 10. Kenyetta Holmes is presenting an updated summary soon of the meetings regarding this subject.
MARTA - Campbelltton Road Corridor / Light Rail or Rapid Bus?
Open House on Saturday August 21,2021 from 10am-2pm @ Andrew Young YMCA, 2200 Campbellton Road to discuss the Campbellton Road Corridor Transit Project.
Avon/Westmont Traffic Signal Based on study findings, ATLDOT would like to test two signalization scenarios before selecting a final plan for implementation. Handled on a monthly basis, the first change will occur on August 23, September 8 and August 24. Last change October 4 includes a review by ATLDOT. See detailed email in meeting documents.
Public Safety – Put your hands together! I am excited to announce that Geno Yoscovits and Daniel Nester are our new Public Safety committee members. Please support Geno and Daniel as they get familiar with public safety issues in our community. You can email Geno at
gyoscovits@gmail.com if you would like to work on the Public Safety Committee.
National News - The Senate just passed a $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that will make a huge investment in the nation’s roads, public transit, water and broadband across the nation.
Clean Energy In previous meetings 1) We have discussed how Atlanta’s CEP will help combat global warming for everyone. 2) We have discussed that the city needs to create a budget to support the CEP. Now we need to discuss energy burdens. The top 6 energy burdened neighborhoods in the City are NPU-H, T, S, R, X & Z. NPU-H has the highest burden at 18%. NPU-S is at 9.5%. Metro Atlanta has the 7th highest energy burden in the nation. The national average is 5% of a family’s income goes to pay utility bills. If you would like to know more, please read our NPU newsletter “The Active Neighbor” linked in the chat. Also read Atlanta’s Clean Energy Plan summarized into 20 pages by NPU reps representing the most burdened NPUs in the city. Pay close attention to the map showing energy burdened neighborhoods. Notice that within NPU-s there are areas more affected than others. I attended a solar energy meeting yesterday where Tim Echols, our Ga Public Service Commissioner spoke and he had a simple explanation for this energy inequity. He blamed it on old housing stock on the southside. While it may be simple for him, we know that the answer is more complicated than that. Which is why we need to advocate for more energy audit programs and funds to help homeowners make the repairs needed to make their homes more energy efficient. Remember out self-imposed deadline is 2035! I’m going to coin a new phrase today. “Help is coming but don’t wait on it! Get a tube of caulking and seal up any drafty areas of your home. Take advantage of opportunities listed in this issue of The Active Neighbor by:
- Sign up for an energy audit
- Sign up and attend a free and online Atlanta Climate Justice Townhall meeting on 10/2/21 at 11am.
- Learn about our Youth Ambassador Program