Development needs adequate planning
The goal of the City Springs development to provide Sandy Springs a “town center” is admirable. Development on this site without a plan for Roswell Road is short-sighted and will only increase traffic woes in the area. Roswell Road is busy at all hours of the day and already suffers from congestion with drivers attempting to get in and out of the numerous shopping centers that line the road. What is the city’s plan to make sure City Springs doesn’t further disrupt traffic? Where will everyone who will live in the 275 flats and 19 townhomes park, or those who attend a performance at the newly created performing arts center? In this respect, Sandy Springs is like its neighbors and the city of Atlanta which find themselves hamstrung by inadequate traffic infrastructure.
COURTNEY ENRIGHT, CHAMBLEE
Working class slowly being forced out
Fulton County decided to freeze property taxes recently, after an outcry from property owners because of an astronomical increase in assessed property values from 2016-2017. Local politicians like Fulton County Tax Commissioner R.J. Morris are patting themselves on the back and pretending to be populists, although such relief would never have been granted if areas with multimillion-dollar homes had not objected. Folks want to be in the middle of Atlanta’s boom; they want the benefit of increased property value, but they don’t want to pay the taxes that go along with that, which is why Atlanta’s sewers, roads and schools are so underfunded.
Meanwhile, what have these populist politicians done to protect Atlanta renters from increased housing costs associated with the Atlanta boom, where rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Midtown has gone from about $700 to $1,500 since 2010? Jack squat.
Forget gentrification. Atlanta is on the road to urban genocide, where the wealthy get welfare and the working class is eliminated from intown residency.
RYAN LEE, VINE CITY
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