Construction of Atlanta’s $90-million public safety training center is moving forward as planned, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said, despite public pushback and an effort to put the project on the ballot for voters to decide.
Dickens estimated construction of the facility in unincorporated DeKalb County is up to 40% complete and that the city will be able to start construction of buildings by January.
“The reality is you go out there, there’s a whole sewer system, water system, there’s retention ponds, there’s a curb that being poured this week, asphalt to be poured by Thanksgiving,” he said Thursday. “We’ve got a whole public safety training center out there that’s happening.”
The first-term mayor’s comments came during a question and answer session at an event for the Buckhead Young Republicans where the crowd peppered him with mostly queries about the training center, public safety in the northern neighborhood of the city and retention of Atlanta’s police officers.
A poll conducted in March showed that 61% of Buckhead residents support the facility which the city has long argued is a necessity for police officers and firefighters who have been training in condemned buildings and vacant parking lots.
But continuing construction on the project comes with the tall task of securing the area from training center opponents. Five protesters were arrested last month after chaining themselves to equipment in an effort to halt work. Atlanta police officers are still being pulled off of their regular assignments to help secure the perimeter of the facility off of Key Road.
The project is part of Dickens’ effort to combat violent crime in the city after the 2021 mayoral race landed amid the pandemic and mass calls for police reform following the murder of George Floyd.
“The number one job of a mayor and administration is the safety of the people,” he said Thursday. “When folks stop talking about that and they start talking about other things, they are missing the point that a lot hinges on how safe we are.”
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis, homicides were down in Atlanta for the first time in four years as of halfway through the year. Dickens attributes the drop to a focus on combatting gangs, drugs and youth violence.
The mayor has also successfully thwarted an effort by some residents in the wealthy Atlanta neighborhood to secede from the city — a proposal that has been pushed by a group Republican state lawmakers the last two legislative sessions. Supporters of the idea cite concerns about the city’s lacking response to violent crime in the area.
Dickens said he’s hopeful that his administration has done enough to quash the Buckhead cityhood movement for good and that he wants to see the area expand affordable housing so that more middle class Atlantans can live there.
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