There are no boring news weeks in Atlanta; this past week and a half has been no exception. The city was in relative distress for six days because of several water-related outages. These outages stem from aging infrastructure, ranging from a few decades more than a century old, and are a product of decades of incompetence, neglect and structural racism all coming to a pressure point.
With the unwanted national attention brought to Atlanta, and especially to Mayor Andre Dickens, it is time for the city to ask the Biden administration to give Atlanta the funds needed to address its infrastructure.
Credit: Kurnia Kosasi
Credit: Kurnia Kosasi
The Biden administration has made a big bet on repairing infrastructure projects across the country. The president’s ambitious Build Back Better Framework has been the hallmark of his tenure. Still, Atlanta, which helped deliver the White House nearly four years ago, has been at the short end of the stick regarding financial support. The administration relied heavily on Atlanta’s coalitions and political apparatus to win but has allocated minor funding to the city.
Atlanta has seen more money flowing into smaller initiatives, including American Rescue Plan Act funds, electric vehicle charging stations, solar panels, parks and feasibility studies for high-speed rail. These are all good, but they are small steps toward the larger goal of a better Atlanta. When it comes to the significant, big-ticket needs, such as building out mass transit, funding for more affordable housing, environmental cleanups and water infrastructure needs, the city is still being left on read by the White House.
Despite being arguably the most crucial state in the 2020 election, Georgia isn’t even one of the 10 most funded by the Biden administration. Of the billions of dollars allocated to the state of Georgia, most of which is going toward the maintenance of roads and bridges, very little is going toward water infrastructure. Of those funds, $510 million goes toward clean water, and $95.5 million is for restoring water pipes statewide.
Consider that much of the damage from the water main breaks was in Black communities that were built in the Jim Crow era as deliberate flood plains for white neighborhoods and businesses. The ongoing flooding, bursting pipes and sewage overflow is a result of structural racism and intentional neglect. And despite the uptick in new residents and real estate developments, the lingering effects of these past decisions remain, hurting the city now more than ever.
Gentrification, redevelopment and new construction projects have significantly changed Atlanta’s landscape, making the need for corresponding infrastructure more pressing than ever. Atlanta is still a low-density city but it faces a future in which the core city and the region are at a much greater capacity than they are today — and that capacity that will require significant infrastructure investment to meet demand.
For an administration that wants to have its cake and eat it, too — building more, funding communities, tackling big-ticket infrastructure projects and addressing past inequalities — investing in Atlanta’s infrastructure would be a greater, more tangible show of support.
Atlanta is the region’s economic anchor, and the billions allocated to addressing contemporary issues aren’t enough. The city has allocated $1.6 billion in funds to address water issues but identifies another larger need of $8.7 billion in repairs to the system. This is in addition to other needs in the metro area. DeKalb County, Atlanta’s neighbor, is looking to increase its spending on water-related issues.
One recent estimate states that it would take $200 million a year for 30 years to repair and rebuild metro Atlanta’s water infrastructure. On a macro view, a joint pitch for additional funds for Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties could be the true infrastructure legacy of the Biden administration, doing more than any of the previous presidents and governors combined.
Considering the president’s current tepid poll numbers, instead of hosting repeated meet-and-greets in Atlanta, he could jump-start his campaign in Georgia by adequately funding the state that helped put him in the White House in the first place.
King Williams is a freelance journalist in Atlanta. He primarily writes for The Atlanta Voice, Atlanta Magazine, and Decaturish. He also has an email newsletter, The Breakdown with King Williams, which can be found at iamkingwilliams.substack.com.
