In 2022, Atlanta voters backed what city officials hailed as the biggest infrastructure investment in history when residents approved $750 million to fund improvements to public safety facilities, parks and recreation spaces and transportation projects.
The initiative had widespread support: the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax passed easily with 69% approval and the two bond referendums at more than 80%.
But a recently released audit of the program found that in the past three years, only $47 million — about 10% — of those funds have been spent.
What is known as the Moving Atlanta Forward infrastructure bond package utilizes $350 million from T-SPLOST sales tax and a separate $400 million revenue bond. The city’s sweeping to-do list includes projects from major road resurfacing and sidewalk improvements to 911 call center and fire station upgrades.
Atlanta’s departments for transportation, Enterprise Asset Management and Parks and Recreation are tasked with executing the program, which was scheduled to be performed in five phases that finish in 2028.
The audit found that slow project progress had lead to inequities in delivery across the city, “as the districts with the least spending have higher poverty levels,” the report says. The program budget was split among the city’s 12 council districts, but actual spending has some far outpacing others in upgrades.
Of the projects that have gotten off the ground, most are still in the first phase of construction and, if the remainder of the funding authorized by voters isn’t allocated, some promised projects may be in jeopardy.
If earlier projects go over budget, the audit says, than the city may have to slash its project list. And if spending doesn’t spread equally across council districts, later projects may be impacted.
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Credit: Google Earth
Credit: Google Earth
Atlanta’s historic Sweet Auburn and Centennial Yards neighborhoods are in for a federal funding boost.
U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock announced earlier this month that $2.8 million — doled out through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program — will go toward increasing connectivity in those areas of the city.
Many of Atlanta’s freeways that were built in the 1950s and 1960s run through or around Black neighborhoods, where land was cheaper and there was a lack of political capital. In the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, the Downtown Connector towers over the historic district.
“I am proud to secure this federal funding to help connect communities that have been historically divided,” Warnock said in a statement.
The reconnecting communities program created under the sweeping bipartisan infrastructure law that passed during the Biden administration earmarks $1 billion in funds to boost mobility across the country.
Centennial Yards Complete Streets Project is also getting $2 million from the initiative to go toward engineering design and environmental studies. The project includes a pedestrian and bicycle bridge and park in downtown to improve connectivity to The Gulch.
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Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
The city of Atlanta saw an influx of 100,000 visitors over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend that coincided with the College Football Playoff national championship game held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
According to officials, MARTA shuttled more than 12,000 riders to the stadium for the game while Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport screened 408,000 passengers and accommodated 13 additional flights for football fans.
The city touted a weekend without any major incidents even as 77,000 people descended on downtown for the game. The Dickens administration announced after the fact that there was no significant increase in 911 or 311 calls over the weekend.
Atlanta’s leaders do have something to celebrate. The city also weathered not just one but two historic winter snowstorms at the same time as it geared up for major events.
But its success was marred by the death of Cornelius Taylor, a resident experiencing homelessness who was crushed inside his tent while Department of Public Works crews cleared an encampment just blocks from Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Dickens announced in a late Friday night social media post that he supports a freeze on encampment clearing and voiced a need to “reevaluate and reassess our city’s policies concerning homeless encampments.”
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Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
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