Morning, y’all! Kinda seems like we’re shifting a season where it’s going to storm at least once every day. Hopefully your car didn’t assume the fate of those in this DeKalb County park, and that you weren’t among the nearly 1,000 flights that were canceled Friday and Saturday.
But those are unfortunately just petty bummers compared to the big bang expected today downtown.
RIP AMC
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
This goodbye hurts.
Demolition of the Atlanta Medical Center starts today, three years after its abrupt closure.
There will be a ceremony. Among those in attendance: Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the CEO of Wellstar Health System, which still owns the land. Also the development company that’s been hired to help figure out what to build in place of the 121-year-old hospital that left a gap in the city’s health care system that has yet to be filled.
I'm concerned about where people are going to go — and where they're going now. ... Everybody can't keep going to Grady. People need a medical home.
Rewind to what happened: Wellstar purchased AMC in 2016 as part of a group of five hospitals. AMC and a hospital in East Point were less attractive, but they were locked in a package deal. By 2022, the pandemic was piling extra financial strain on hospitals and caused a severe shortage of health workers nationwide. That year, Wellstar announced the closure of both AMC and the East Point facility. It said it had tried millions in investment to no avail.
Impact: Other Atlanta hospitals were swamped with a new wave of patients. About 1,700 downtown Atlanta jobs vanished, from doctors and nurses to janitors and cafeteria workers.
Historical importance: The former medical center is within the historically Black Fourth Ward — rebranded as the Old Fourth Ward when political maps shifted in the mid-1900s — where about one-third of the population lives in poverty.
About the demolition: It’s expected to take several months, with officials saying it will be surgical rather than primarily implosions, to limit debris and dust.
So what’s next? The site is to be transformed into a community hub with parks, housing, retail shops and office space. The developer also wants the city to pitch in by improving roads and other public infrastructure.
But ... specific medical facilities — like new primary care offices or urgent care — are glaringly absent from the plan so far.
What to watch for: Longtime residents, who have waited years for investment in the community, now also fear the new development might lead to gentrification and push them out of their homes.
🔎 Read more details and hear from the people who will be impacted.
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‘HE JUST KIND OF DISAPPEARED’
It’s hard to imagine the fear of a loved one being unaccounted for 24 hours, let alone more than a week. Which is what makes this story from the AJC’s Lautaro Grinspan so heart-wrenching.
He spoke with Haralson County resident Cindy Aguilar, who has made three trips to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in downtown Atlanta in increasingly desperate attempts to locate her father-in-law, Jose Aguilar, a construction worker from Honduras.
Nobody has any kind of information. Nobody can find him. My husband hasn't even been able to sleep. Like, that's his daddy. ... We just want to know, is he OK? You know, where is he? It's hard. He came over illegally, I get that, but he's still human.
Grinspan writes that families in Florida, California, Tennessee and New Jersey have also reported difficulties trying to find loved ones in the ICE detention system, which experts are describing as increasingly overwhelmed.
PRIDE PULLBACK
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
It’s the last day of national Pride Month, and the cloud that’s covered funding from corporate America for the country’s LGBTQ community threatens the upcoming rainbow days in Atlanta.
What’s happening: The shift in support comes as the Trump administration rolls back protections for transgender people and targets programs that could be perceived as supporting diversity, equity and inclusion. Afraid to rock the boat in choppy political waters, some corporations are falling back, advocates say.
The numbers: Axios reported in May that nearly 40% of corporations this year planned to decrease their external Pride Month engagements, a sharp jump from last year when only 9% of companies said they planned to scale down their engagement.
Local impact: Atlanta Black Pride, a nonprofit dedicated to educating and supporting the region’s minority communities, has lost at least five corporate sponsors for this year’s Labor Day festival, says the group’s president and CEO. Many sponsors are returning for Atlanta Pride, the country’s largest free Pride festival in October, but there are some obvious logos currently missing, including Sandy Springs-based UPS.
🔎 From Opinion’s Editor David Plazas: I’m a married gay man. I’m worried the courts will take that from others.
📷 Photo Essay: Transgender drag performer loves what he sees in the mirror
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🚢 President Donald Trump says he is not planning to extend a 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9, when the negotiating period he set would expire, and his administration will notify countries that the trade penalties will take effect unless there are deals with the U.S.
💸 Plenty of Georgians have already received their $500 surplus tax refunds this summer. But if you haven’t received yours yet, don’t panic, writes the AJC’s David Wickert.
📱 Georgia has become the latest state where a federal judge has blocked a law requiring age verification for social media accounts.
🏛️ Debate was underway in the Senate late Sunday night, with Republicans wrestling President Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts over mounting Democratic opposition.
UNDERGROUND KING
Credit: Kat Goduco
Credit: Kat Goduco
Whether it was as a host, emcee or beatboxer, Andre “D.R.E.S. Tha Beatnik” Lett commanded his audience’s attention.
But it was his advocacy for the local arts scene and independent music communities that made him a favorite with locals, transplants and hip-hop legends.
The Atlanta-based entertainer died on June 9 at age 51 after a yearslong battle with kidney disease. His family is starting a foundation in his honor to help performers and artists get proper health care and insurance.
🙏 Take some time to read this remembrance from UATL’s Christopher A. Daniel.
NEWS BITES
Amazon robotic fulfillment center in Stone Mountain opens to public for tours
If nothing else, walking the equivalent of 14 football fields will do wonders for your steps.
Atlanta comedy troupe provides dose of ‘Mystery Science Theatre’ to the Tara
Sixteen-year-old me and all my friends will purchase every ticket.
Women-focused Atlanta coworking space seeks help to stay afloat
The ask: $200,000 to save The LOLA by covering back-rent, paying future rent and other expenses and pivoting the business model.
Meteorite hunters chase treasures after fireball streaks across Georgia
Was gonna crack a joke but, shoot, now I want a space rock.
ON THIS DATE
June 30, 1959
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
The Atlanta Journal — All Georgia hunts coolers in merciless heat wave. Cooling devices — from iced drinks to humming fans — worked overtime as the summer sun beat down on Atlanta and Georgia … Monday was Atlanta’s hottest day of 1959, with 95 degrees during the afternoon. The outlook was for more heat — high readings of 96 were expected both Tuesday and Wednesday. All Georgia was sizzling.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
ONE MORE THING
On July 18, the Senate will vote on a bill, which the House has already approved, that would defund public media outlets like NPR. Author Steve Oney, who grew up in the northern suburbs of Atlanta in the ’60s, has a new book called “On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR” that charts the highs and lows of the public media outlet’s evolution since its 1971 debut.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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