A.M. ATL: It’s all a cycle

Morning, y’all! May today take you closer to your dreams.

Let’s get to it.

MARTA RAILCAR LAUNCH POSTPONED. AGAIN.

Members of the press and guests record the arrival of the new MARTA train at Lindbergh station in January 2025. (Miguel Martinez/AJC 2025)

Last week, we talked about unexpected delays and behind-the-scenes tension over MARTA’s new fleet of rail cars. Welp, now the launch is delayed again.

• MARTA was supposed to launch the new cars Thursday but canceled the event.
• The rollout was originally supposed to happen last year.
• The agency promised to get the new trains before the FIFA World Cup, which starts in less than two weeks.
• As of last week, none of the trains had passed critical safety tests needed for the Georgia Department of Transportation to certify the trains.
• The 224 new CQ400 rail cars are built by Swiss train manufacturer Stadler for $707 million.

One A.M. ATL reader recently sent video from an eagle-eyed family member in Orem, Utah, showing MARTA cars in transport. Our business team helpfully explained that Stadler’s U.S. headquarters is in Utah. Must have been a wild thing to see far from home.

🔎 READ MORE: What leaders are saying about the next deadline

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A NEW TURN IN ATLANTA’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING CYCLE

The redeveloped Bowen Homes public housing site in Atlanta will eventually include 2,000 apartments, townhomes and single-family houses. (Ben Hendren for the AJC)

A new affordable housing complex in Atlanta is going up on the same ground where a previous one stood from the 1960s to the early 2000s.

It’s being seen as an opportunity to get affordable housing right in a city whose previous pursuits are marked by both innovation and failure.

• The new $700 million-plus effort will occupy the site of Bowen Homes, a mixed-income community built in 1964.
• Bowen Homes was demolished in 2009 after the 650-apartment complex fell into neglect and disrepair.
• In turn, Bowen Homes was created to replace the older Buttermilk Bottom housing project in Old Fourth Ward, a mostly Black, low-income community.

A full circle

• Bowen Homes wasn’t just a lifeline for low-income residents. Several notable Atlantans like boxer Evander Holyfield and a few members of the Shop Boyz grew up in the complex.
• Gregory Williamson, a former resident, called the area “a beautiful place to live” in its heyday and says the city ignored growing problems at the site.
• Williamson is now one of the hundreds of construction workers and contractors redeveloping the site of Bowen Homes into the new affordable housing community, which will eventually have more than 2,000 dwellings.

🔎 READ MORE: How Atlanta has changed the way it approaches government-assisted housing

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

⚖️ The Georgia Supreme Court has cleared the way for the state to execute nine prisoners whose fates were delayed during the pandemic. The last inmate executed by the state was Willie James Pye in 2024.

📰 Atlanta Civic Circle, a nonprofit newsroom covering housing affordability, labor rights and local government, is shutting down. The organization says it can’t secure consistent funding amid an ever-changing, ever-challenging media landscape.

🏗️ Atlanta City Council members want to push a blight tax on the skeletal, abandoned office tower development in Midtown that was recently deemed a hazard. Besides sounding very dramatic, blight taxes can encourage redevelopment of stalled projects.

THE CAMPAIGN CASH KEEPS FLOWING

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Republican gubernatorial candidate, addresses supporters at his election night party on May 19 in Jackson. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Several state leaders vying for elected office this year have harped on a questionable state law that allows a select few candidates to rake in unlimited cash for election campaigns.

That rule is still in place, despite legal challenges, and said candidates are still benefiting.

How the law works

Georgia law caps contributions to political candidates to limit corruption or even the appearance of corruption.

• Candidates for statewide office can accept up to $8,400 from individual donors for both the primary and general elections, plus another $4,800 for runoff elections.
• In 2021, the Republican-controlled state Legislature created leadership committees that allow certain officials to bypass contribution limits.
• Only the governor, lieutenant governor, the Democratic and Republican nominees for those offices and legislative leaders of both parties can create leadership committees.

Who’s benefiting now

• Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ committee has raised $4 million since he announced his candidacy for governor in July 2025.
• Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won the Democratic nomination for governor, created a leadership committee last week, records show.
• Gov. Brian Kemp’s leadership committee was a big bone of contention during his last election cycle. He’s also used the committee to support and oppose certain candidates in the past.

🔎 READ MORE: What challenges to the rule are still alive in the courts

NEWS BITES

Welcome to Bleak Week, a film festival celebrating ‘cinema of despair’

Are things just toooo good? Skin too clear? Crops too hydrated? Mind too at ease? There’s a solution for that!

Pope Leo’s encyclical about AI went viral and now people are lovingly calling him ‘the woke Pope’

They could not prepare him for this in seminary, that’s for sure.

Advice: It’s OK to be selfish sometimes

Or, “How to stress out a people pleaser in six words.”

‘Alice in Wonderland’-themed eatertainment place is coming to The Center

I got completely distracted because the lead rendering of this (cool-looking) venue shows people playing putt putt golf while standing at a pool table. Trippy, Wonderland-themed feature or machine-based hallucination? It’s anyone’s guess.