Jerry Brow points to a hot tub, or at least what remains of it. Its rickety shell, he says, has been decaying on the curb of Sizemore Avenue — a little street on Atlanta’s western edge — for weeks.
Stepping a few feet into the woods, he notes a tossed out commode, broken dressers, overturned utility buckets, old toys, and construction gear; as well as far more personal items, like a stranger’s letterhead stationery, blank checks and a BP gas card. He’s lost count of the number of tires abandoned on this road.
This is just one block in Brow’s walking tour of one of the city’s most notorious sites for illegal trash and tire dumping. Brow, a Mississippi-based builder who has bought about a dozen properties in Northwest Atlanta since 2004, says he’s spent the better part of a decade trying to get the folks at Atlanta City Hall to do more to fix the problem. But instead, he says, they’ve at times contributed to it.
He and a fellow property owner recently filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court, accusing the city of negligence when it comes to maintaining the public right of way. Even worse, he says he’s seen city crews pick up portions of trash, then sweep or push the rest onto private property, leaving homeowners responsible for its removal. When the property owners don’t, they’re vulnerable to citations and hefty fines.
“In the 10 years I’ve been out here, I’ve never seen them clean up everything,” says Brow, who shows a reporter years of photos he has collected of the problem.
“In Buckhead, you would never see that. It’s uncalled for,” he continues. “What is the mindset when you live in that all the time? Throw it out the window, no one else cares, so why should I? Ultimately, we are creating so much of a bigger burden on our society by allowing that to remain.”
The conditions have made it harder for him to rent or sell his properties, according to the legal filing. In addition to the lawsuit, Brow has filed complaints with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and launched a website, Exxposed.org, to post video of the problem.
Brow represents the frustration felt by many, including city leaders, in trying to turn around decades of blight on Atlanta’s Westside. With the nearly $1.5 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium under construction near downtown Atlanta, Mayor Kasim Reed has vowed to improve areas including English Avenue and Vine City, in part by going after slumlords.
But in order to do so, Brow says the city needs to straighten up, as well. His concerns are multi-layered. In addition to not doing enough to curb illegal dumping, Brow and associate Pablo Gill accuse Atlanta of neglecting the roads and street signage. Indeed, Brow showed a reporter multiple intersections where neither a light nor stop sign can be found. He’s also frustrated by calling 911 to report illegal dumping — as some city websites advise residents to do — only to be given a number for a pre-recorded message.
A spokeswoman for Reed declined comment on the lawsuit, but noted that the city’s Public Works Department dispatches what’s called a “Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Team” to investigate instances of illegal dumping. After the investigation, the city’s solid waste crew is expected to remove the materials. Atlantans who observe illegal dumping are advised to call the city’s 311 line — not 911, spokeswoman Jenna Garland said.
Reed also has increased the city’s code enforcement budget to combat vacant and blighted properties, she noted.
Atlanta Councilwoman Felicia Moore, who represents the district where Brow owns property, shares his frustration. She once stopped an illegal dumper, only to be told, “This is how people get shot.”
She believes her district is a target for dumping because of its myriad vacant and wooded lots. Meaningful development has come in fits and starts. Many homeowners, like Brow, bought land here a decade ago because of the proposed West Highlands development, which was to include mixed-income housing, greenspace and a golf course built on top of a landfill.
While the housing moved forward, the golf course plan was scuttled, dashing Brow’s dreams of owning prime course-front real estate.
Development has picked up again around the nearby Bellwood Quarry. Still, illegal dumping remains a regular occurrence, Moore says.
“It is a big problem, and we don’t have enough enforcement,” Moore says. “And if what he is saying is true, that you cannot call 911 to get a police officer to respond, we’ll never catch them.”
Brow says he’s now pushing for state and city officials to help install video cameras in the area to catch the bad actors. His goal is for the footage to be online for all to see.
“We want something to be live on the World Wide Web, where everyone can see what’s going on, not just internal police operations,” he says. “We want everyone to be accountable to the same law.”
He’s already seeing a positive step. Since giving his walking tour, the city has removed the hot tub.
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