Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens made another stop at the White House last week, this time to join dozens of mayors from around the country to discuss ways to combat the housing affordability crisis and homelessness.
The first-term mayor was part of a delegation of nearly 50 elected leaders from the United States Conference of Mayors who visited Washington, D.C. to speak with Biden administration officials about the ways federal and local governments can partner together to address the two issues.
An internal survey of the organization’s members revealed that housing and homelessness was the top concern of the country’s mayors — surpassing problems surrounding public safety and economic development.
In Atlanta, Dickens has also turned his focus to rapid rehousing initiatives, like the city’s newly opened shipping container housing project, as a way to get residents off the streets while his administration works to reach his lofty affordable housing goals.
The mayors first met with top White House officials including U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez.
The group advocated for expanding veteran eligibility for housing vouchers, increasing funding for housing choice vouchers and raising the cap of project-based vouchers. The next day, they visited Congress and met with top lawmakers like U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Dickens’ described the trip as “great and necessary,” a spokesperson for his office said Monday. The group discussed both the city’s shipping container project and the office-to-residential conversion of the 2 Peachtree building downtown as well as plans to build rental housing on top of a Midtown fire station.
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Credit: Jenn Finch
Credit: Jenn Finch
City Hall got a shake-up last week when Dickens announced a number of key cabinet changes, including new leadership over both Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and the Department of Watershed Management.
He also made some adjustments to his top staff, including the promotion of LaChandra Burks to Interim Chief Operating Officer from her previous role as Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Peter Aman, a veteran of Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration, will also join Dickens’ team in a the new position of chief strategy officer which will report directly to the mayor.
But in the weeks leading up to his big announcement, Dickens was already making some other changes. Last month, he announced Paulina Guzman as new the Director of Mayor’s Office of International and Immigrant Affairs. Guzman was previously serving as interim director for the office.
Dickens also appointed Chris Davis to serve as Commissioner of the City’s Department of Enterprise Asset Management. The department has the big job of managing the city’s facilities — including security measures — and overseeing Atlanta’s real estate portfolio.
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Credit: Courtesy of the City of Atlanta
Credit: Courtesy of the City of Atlanta
Atlanta’s pickleball players rejoiced last year when the city launched a pilot program to identify locations for new pickleball courts across the city as the sport has skyrocketed in popularity since the pandemic.
The Department of Parks and Recreation was aiming to create 14 dedicated courts and 22 shared courts across all city council districts. While the city boasts more than 180 tennis courts, the metro area doesn’t have a single court dedicated to pickleball.
Veteran pickleball player Tim Ball told City Council members during the last Community Development/Human Services meeting that, eight months into the program, the city isn’t on track with the number of courts it wanted to install.
“So far we have six dedicated pickleball courts, virtually no courts have been lined and I think there’s nothing under construction right now,” he said, and asked members to request a report from the department.
The Department of Parks and Recreation said Monday that since July of last year six new pickleball courts have been constructed across the city and that 23 pickleball courts have been lined on top of existing tennis courts.
One of the projects in the program at Grant Park is currently underway, with courts at seven other locations yet to be started. The department has also increased the number of courts to be built from 14 to 24.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
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