Last week: What should Atlanta do about murals on private property?
Atlanta’s controversial public art ordinance has been the center of a debate between city council and the arts community for a few years. No resolution has been found.
Earlier this year, council member Joyce Sheperd proposed an ordinance that would tighten regulations on public murals on private property. It would require private property owners to seek approval from several city departments and notify surrounding communities before painting murals on their property.
Atlanta’s art community and neighborhood residents opposed the measure. Sheperd made changes, and presented an updated measure in October. The new measure proposed applicants go through the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
The city’s Community Development and Human Resources committee unanimously approved the new measure on Oct. 28 and it was sent to the full city council for vote Nov. 3.
Council members voted against passing the measure. Instead, the council sent the law back to committee and introduced two separate proposals to set up a study group of experts to examine mural permitting across the country and establish a new Arts and Culture Advisory Council for the city.
Here’s what readers had to say:
The last thing we need is more government! Have you ever heard of freedom of speech?
— Mrs. First Amendment
I don’t want to drive past a big mural of something lewd painted in the name of art — much less have my kids subjected to it. What has this country come to?
— Taxpayer
After a public meeting last month where many residents voiced an unequivocal distaste for annexation, Decatur’s longtime city manager Peggy Merriss sympathized.
“I appreciate the passion,” she said. “And a lot of folks in Decatur are generally passionate about three things — their property, their children and their dogs.”
It’s an implacable fact that a successful annexation will increase all three.
Decatur’s commission approved an annexation master plan on Dec. 15 which the city’s school board unanimously accepted two days later.
Decatur still needs a sponsor for a bill, then a referendum and finally voters (in the annexed areas) to approve it, or as Merriss said, “We’re about one-third up the mountain with a whole lot of heavy lifting still to go.”
Can Decatur can handle the extra weight?
The city’s current population of 19,335 is only 2,000 more than what it was in 1990. But besides adding 1.5 square miles to the current 4.5, the annexation master plan would increase the population by 38 percent or a projected 7,310.
Then there’s the anticipated growth of City Schools Decatur, whose enrollment’s already at an all-time high of 4,334. It’s projected that even without annexation, by 2019-20 that figure will swell to 7,398, and annexation could add as many as 747 more.
Annexation would prove a huge boon to the city’s real estate tax digest, increasing the current ratio of 85 percent residential/15 percent commercial to 76/24.
Is this too much growth too fast? Or will Decatur lose valuable resources if it doesn’t act now?
We want to hear from you. Post your comments here or send email to communitynews@ajc.com.
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