Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens recently gave a shoutout to the White House during a national media call last week.
Dickens said the Biden administration worked with Congressman Raphael Warnock to pass legislation that will cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 beginning next month. Dickens also said Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law provided $6.9 million to Georgia for pollution cleanup.
“I’ve been using those funds to incentivize developers to go into sites they would have had to spend their own capital in cleaning up before they even started doing the site development work,” Dickens said. “They would have looked past these sites, which means Black and brown communities would not have seen development that we need.”
Dickens also thanked said President Joe Biden for investing into the city’s efforts to bolster crime intervention, small businesses, and internet access.
That said, it remains to be seen if Biden will successfully cancel student debt.
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Credit: Family photos
Credit: Family photos
Atlanta’s Public Safety Commission is convening Tuesday to gather public input on how Atlanta can combat youth violence. The special meeting was clearly called because Zyion Charles, 12, and Cameron Jackson, 15, were fatally shot in Midtown on Thanksgiving weekend. Four other minors also were injured that Saturday. The meeting will occur at City Hall at 6:30 p.m.
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Quote of the week: “We are the hands that feed Fulton County and the hands that feed this county are saying keep your hands off of PAD,” said local organizer Devin Barrington-Ward.
Dozens of supporters for the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative flooded last week’s Fulton County Board of Commissioners meeting to urge Fulton to maintain or increase its PAD funding. Commissioner Bob Ellis discussed cuts to PAD’s $400,000 budget from Fulton last month, but Fulton officials told the crowd that Fulton wouldn’t take action on PAD funding.
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Atlanta City Council OK’d plans to give Rubio and Sons Interiors Inc. $512,345 in additional funding for the construction of the $5 million Center for Diversion Services at Atlanta’s detention center. The council also OK’d plans to use $900,000 in federal funding for a study of “The Stitch” — a proposed three-quarter mile platform spanning the I-75/I-85 Downtown Atlanta Connector between Ted Turner Drive and Piedmont Avenue.
Additionally, the council approved plans to seek federal funds for low-income households with past due water bills, and to put $1.7 million in federal funds into homeless assistance and prevention activities. And the city is moving forward with an application for federal funding that would put $10 million into infrastructure and other projects in the city over eight years.
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Atlanta City Council is considering a new study group for the creation of an electric bicycle rebate program for residents. The council also wants the mayor’s Office of Violence Reduction to create a biennial crime reduction plan.
Meanwhile, City Councilman Dustin Hillis wants to assess the state of Atlanta’s Municipal Court from 2018 to present. He’s asking City Auditor Amanda Noble to review the court’s budget, staffing, case load and bench time per judge.
But that’s not all, Hillis is also seeking info on the number of failures to appear, number of failure to appear warrants signed, an estimate of associated revenue losses from unresolved failures to appear, and the utilization of pre-trial intervention for each case type.
Send us tips and feedback at Wilborn.Nobles@ajc.com.
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