Morning, y’all! I can’t stop thinking about this article on Bernd das Brot, a German children’s television character with personality issues and crippling ennui. It makes so much sense. Who doesn’t feel like a depressed loaf of German bread sometimes? Be honest.
OK, let’s get to it.
IT’S CROSSOVER DAY AT THE CAPITOL
Crossover Day! It sounds so intriguing. We’re more than halfway through this year’s Georgia legislative session, and today is the day we figure out which bills are moving forward in the Legislature.
How will we know? By the end of today’s session (which could last long after normal law makin’ hours), virtually any bill that has legs will have “crossed over” from the Senate to the House or vice versa.
Here’s just a few of the dozens of bills facing today’s make-or-break deadline.
HB 221: Would grant broad immunity to carpet companies accused of contaminating public water supplies with toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.
HB 313: Would require schools to display the Ten Commandments.
HB 340: Would ban student cellphones in schools, with exceptions for medical and disability needs.
HB 428: Would codify in vitro fertilization as a legal right.
HB 561, HB 562: Would prevent mining expansion near the Okefenokee Swamp.
SB 89: Would create a new child care income-tax credit.
SB 165: Would ban social media accounts for children under 14, require parental permissions for others.
SB 182: Would create the Georgia Music Office to promote music production in the state.
🔎 You can find the rest in the AJC’s handy bill tracker.
Not signed up yet? What’re you waiting for? Get A.M. ATL in your inbox each weekday morning. And keep scrolling for more news.
BUILDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING AWARENESS
While my political colleagues were prepping for Crossover Day yesterday, I watched about 200 Habitat for Humanity volunteers build a house for their first Capitol Build project in Georgia.
I talked with Jessica Gill, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Metro Atlanta, one of the 44 Habitat affiliates in Georgia. As she explained the day’s work, it became clear affordable housing is an even more complex problem than it seems.
“We have a lack of starter homes. One in seven people in this state are spending more than 30% of their income on housing,” Gill said. “We have to start stepping up. We want to be a great economic business location that everybody wants to come to. We want to say Georgia’s number one. Yes, but where are people going to live?”
Some measures Gill said could help create affordable housing in Georgia:
- Increasing the density with which freestanding homes can be built
- Creating incentives for the construction of low-cost housing*
- Finding beneficial opportunities for small businesses and orgs to contribute to builds
- Confronting stereotypes about people who experience housing insecurity
She explained there is no one face of need. “We have single mothers coming to us, bus drivers, teachers, people who work in civil service. Veterans, firefighters, senior citizens who can’t afford a safe place to live.”
*In fact, there’s a bill for that: HB 165 would provide tax exemptions for affordable housing work done by non-profits. It’s one of many running the crossover gauntlet today.
The morning began with the rhythmic sound of dozens of hammers, and ended with a full house frame standing proud beneath the Capitol Dome. As I watched people from all walks and seasons of life helping each other lift boarded panels into place, I felt a refreshing wash of positive energy.
“It always feels like this, every time,” said Kathy Ortwerth, Director of Philanthropy for Habitat’s North Central Georgia affiliate. She said it’s common for entire communities to get involved in a Habitat build, providing furnishings, electronics, lawn care and more — everything that makes a house a home.
“People just give,” she said. “This kind of work is a calling.”
ABOUT THOSE FEDERAL BUILDINGS FOR SALE ...
Speaking of real estate, hours after the General Services Administration posted more than 440 federal properties it wanted to sell, including several in Georgia, the list just ... disappeared.
The GSA had designated the buildings “not core to government operations.” Among them were the Sam Nunn Federal Center and the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building in downtown Atlanta. The project was put forward as part of ongoing government cost cuts.
The GSA released a statement Wednesday saying “the list will be republished in the near future,” citing an “overwhelming amount of interest.”
A MAJOR PEDESTRIAN DANGER
Here’s a chilling statistic for you, from a new report published by Propel ATL:
Almost half of all vehicle crashes involving pedestrians in 2023 happened within 150 feet of a MARTA bus stop.
The traffic safety advocacy group’s annual report held some other revelations.
- Pedestrian fatalities made up nearly one-third of the 344 traffic deaths across Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties — the three jurisdictions served by MARTA.
- 88% of these pedestrian fatalities happened within a quarter mile of bus stops
- 42 pedestrians were killed in DeKalb County in 2023, an increase of 40%.
How Atlanta’s addressing the issue
Last year, MARTA started making improvements to about 200 of its 9,000 bus stops through the addition of crosswalks, ramps, curb extensions and medians.
One challenge, according to a MARTA spokesperson, is that the roads along which bus stops lie weren’t originally built with public transit in mind.
RELATED: Marta train ridership rose slightly last week, with 20,000 more train trips than the same time last year. The theory? It’s all the federal workers going back into area offices.
AFTERPARTY-GRAS
Mardi Gras has come and gone, and what’s left behind requires a lot of street cleaning.
On Wednesday morning, a throng of trucks helmed by waste management crew members descended upon New Orleans streets to remove tens of thousands of pounds of beads, plastic cups, food wrappers, napkins with the phone numbers of lost soulmates, abandoned high heels, orphaned weaves, half-eaten beignets, graphic party accessories and heaven knows what else.
These folks have it down to a science, and that includes some trade secrets:
- They wet the trash so it can be more easily swept up
- They also use water to spray garbage off the sidewalks
- Big rotating bristles don’t just clean the pavement, they also get out more of those pesky beads
- The final touch? A lemony fresh solution full of bacteria-killing enzymes to remove the last traces — both physical and olfactory — of bad decisions best forgotten.
Waste management should really get a Mardi Gras parade float. Oh, it can look like one of their trucks!
NEWS BITES
A true Renaissance woman!
Bake better sweets with Irish butter
It makes such a difference ... ask any baker you know!
Do you need a fluoride treatment after a teeth cleaning? Dentists weigh in
Don’t tell your dentist you read this.
If you’re looking for a new spring wine, try a fresh vermentino
Then you can go around saying, “Oh this? Darling it’s a vermentino.”
ON THIS DATE
March 6, 1953
From the front page of the Atlanta Journal: We are the best informed nation in the world with the most primitive ideas of what to do with the knowledge.
It’s always fun to see what older generations of the past thought of their youth. According to Dr. A. Whitney Griswold, the youth of 1953 were being lost “among oxidized juke boxes and television sets and petrified bubble gum.” Woe!
ONE MORE THING
Thanks again to Jessica Gill and Kathy Ortwerth and the rest of the Habitat for Humanity folks for being so welcoming. It was a nice reminder of the power in people working together for good.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
About the Author
AJ Willingham is an National Emmy, NABJ and Webby award-winning journalist who loves talking culture, religion, sports, social justice, infrastructure and the arts. She lives in beautiful Smyrna-Mableton and went to Syracuse University.
