With 238 bids from states and municipalities throughout North America, Amazon’s quest for its HQ2 is as columnist Bill Torpy put it, the “economic development white whale.”
Yes, it will bring an estimated 50,000 high-paying jobs, $5 billion in construction and the cachet to attract even more big fish for the metropolitan area that lands the deal.
Several media reports have given Atlanta 2-to-1 odds with Austin, Boston and Toronto not far behind.
The expected boon to the local economy from the online retailer and entertainment company—with a $466.8 billion market cap—has been the obvious driver behind bidding interest. But how will such an influx affect regular folk?
The most recent Census figures show that nearly 100,000 people moved to the area last year. And if you ask most commuters, the influx is obvious. Can metro Atlanta handle another major population jump like that?
When was the last time you easily found a parking space downtown? Or drove along I-285 without stopping every other mile from the bottleneck in traffic? Or even attended a concert, sporting event or festival that didn’t feel overwhelming?
Is more a good thing?
On the other hand, with the influx of tax dollars much of the infrastructure, public service, educational and other quality of life issues should be taken care of, right?
Tell us what you think.
Send comments to communitynews@ajc.com. Responses may be edited for length and/or clarity and may be published in print or other platforms.
LAST WEEK: WHO OWNS DECATUR’S CONFEDERATE MONUMENT?
This past week the DeKalb County commission, like Decatur’s commission several weeks ago, passed a resolution calling for removal of the Confederate monument on Decatur’s square.
Like monuments everywhere, this one is unquestionably a symbol. We simply asked what you think it symbolizes.
Does it honor Civil War veterans or celebrate white supremacy? To contemporary minds does it represent what is happening today more than what happened 150 years ago, or 109 years ago when it was erected.
To complicate matters the county says its not sure who owns the monument or the land it sits on. Meanwhile, a state law passed in 2001 appears to prohibit local governments from removing monuments like this one in the first place. So is it also becoming a symbol of government bureaucracy?
Here’s what some of you had to say:
I’d like to make two points about the monument erected in the Decatur Square in 1908.
First, in response to the comment in the recent AJC article “For those who erected it, nearly 43 years to the day after Appomattox, the Civil War was as fresh as the earthworks still lining the city square.” That would be as if we were erecting a Vietnam Memorial today. I don’t think you could honestly say the Vietnam War is very fresh today.
Secondly what was really “freshly” going on in Georgia in 1908?
I strongly believe the monument was erected to intimidate blacks in general and by its placement at the steps of the courthouse, black voters in particular. It is long past time to remove it. — Melissa Wirsig
Those who were born and raised in Decatur and/or DeKalb County and who have ties to these men who died own the monument. Ms. Patenaude is another outsider who comes to Ga., gets an idea that they do not like something and starts an organization to get people of her age to support her. Then she has clout and can get your paper’s attention.
Alone she gets no attention. She should get her Phd, go on with her business—which most likely will be out of state—and leave the good citizens of Decatur alone. —Fred Campbell
It’s incomprehensible that the monument or land under it has no clear owner. Prior to the monument someone owned the land & when the monument was erected someone gave it to some entity. Any real records search would trace that.
I suspect there are 2 factors at play here: [1] Avoidance of paying costs for removal & whatever would follow and [2] Avoidance of the political backlash that would come from some.
As to the monument itself, the language on it marks it as a regressive memorial to the ideals of the ante-bellum culture, not just a commemoration of a battle. — Darryl Weaver
If we ever want to peacefully exist as a real, integrated community, we white southerners cannot continue to ignore the history of what our ancestors perpetrated and the unequal lives we continue to lead today. Confederate monuments are only one step on a very long road to making things right, but symbols are important. I don't think the antebellum era and the CSA were Georgia's finest moments. It's a shameful history. We should not be tacitly celebrating it. Tear it down so we can build bridges in our community instead. — Anna Murrill
The Confederate monument was installed in the Decatur Square in 1908, so it was no doubt already in the planning stage soon after the race riot of 1906, when white people lynched dozens of black people in downtown Atlanta. It was not so much a product of Civil War memories "as fresh as the earthworks still lining the city square" as it was part of the wave of terror and intimidation aimed at the black community during a period when candidates for governor of Georgia vied with each other as to who had the best plan for stripping black citizens of what voting rights they still retained (in local elections). We who wish to remove Confederate monuments are not trying to erase history, but to teach history, in place of mythology. —Barbara Joye
Bill Banks for the AJC
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