As my eight-year run as mayor of Brookhaven comes to an end, I look back in amazement at the area’s transformation since officially becoming a city a little more than 10 years ago.
Located just outside of the City of Atlanta, Brookhaven shines as a wellspring of diversity where technology and innovation converge to meet community needs. We watch our citizens come together, supporting each other and this place we call home. This is all a direct result of Brookhaven’s transition to city status.
And believe it or not, I had originally voted against it.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
That opinion came after listening to many discussions about how the balkanization of metro Atlanta would bring about negative consequences. I assumed a bundle of individual cities would be a resounding chorus of “no, no, no” to larger, regional issues, halting any true sense of progress, and increasing our taxes. Additionally, I thought Brookhaven’s cityhood wouldn’t benefit our already underserved Hispanic population, furthering racial divides.
However, I knew at the core that good government still exists, which led me to change my mind, run for mayor and attempt to do something about it. Soon after entering office, my previous opinion proved wrong as myself and other local mayors united as a communal think tank to come up with solutions to challenges facing the greater region.
In Brookhaven proper, we were able to quickly build a city government that listens to the desires of the population and fosters change for all, while keeping the lowest millage rate in the county.
Among the items at the top of the list were public spaces and infrastructure. We have reimagined and sustained our historic and beautiful parks, including Ashford Park and the Peachtree Creek Greenway. The latter is a multimodal path that currently stretches 1.3 miles from North Druid Hills Road to Briarwood Road, and it will eventually connect Atlanta, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Unincorporated DeKalb County, and Doraville.
Our crowning achievement will be the Brookhaven City Hall/City Centre project, which broke ground in early October and will serve as the anchor of our municipality. A state of the art city hall will be the centerpiece, housing government offices and extensive space for public meetings, gatherings and special events. Master plans for the City Centre concepts include mixed-use, retail, and residential development, a large public green space and additional paths and multiuse trails leading to the site, all funded without residential taxes.
The City Hall/City Centre district will take Brookhaven’s already robust community engagement to new heights while turbocharging our economy. Currently, our Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival is one of the larger music festivals in the state, with approximately 45,000 guests in 2023. We recently debuted our inaugural Brookhaven International Festival, celebrating the breadth of cultures in our city, and our Light Up Brookhaven holiday event was earlier this month. These and other special events overflow the city calendar, nurturing local spirit.
And my former self would be amazed at the tax cuts we have been able to provide homesteaded property owners over the past four years while continuing to deliver efficient city services and purchasing more than 41% more parks and greenspaces, all financed without residential taxpayer funds through innovative funding mechanisms, like allowing the state-mandated hotel/motel tax to be used for building the Peachtree Creek Greenway.
Enhancing and increasing public safety measures in Brookhaven was paramount throughout my tenure as mayor. One of our successes continues to be the license plate reader program. Brookhaven blazed a trail with this initiative, becoming the first city in the state to implement license plate readers throughout. Each time a vehicle enters and exits certain parts of the city, the license plate is identified, which totals nearly 4 million license plates per month.
Prior to utilizing license plate readers, we would recover approximately three stolen vehicles per year. In the first month of use, we recovered 12 vehicles and those numbers remain impressive.
Due to the fact many criminals steal cars to commit other crimes, we’re literally stopping crime before it happens. On top of that, the technology allows us to squash sex offenders, identify stalkers, respond to Amber Alerts and more.
Brookhaven’s live 911 call program is another resource amping up our city policing. When 911 dispatch receives a call, it also goes directly to a police officer patrolling the area where the call originates. At that point, the officer can determine if the call demands immediate action. This often results in negative response times with officers arriving on the scene less than a minute after a call comes in. Everything from bank fraud to burglary to murder has been stopped in its tracks thanks to live 911 calls. This will soon be bolstered by our drone program, which will be able to send a police drone to any part of the city within 45 seconds.
While the end of my two terms as mayor of Brookhaven personally proves to be bittersweet, I’m proud to say the foundation for the city has been set. I’m eagerly looking forward to experiencing and enjoying all Brookhaven has and will become. Most importantly, I hope to use it as an opportunity to remind others to challenge their assumptions and be the change they want to see.
John Ernst is Brookhaven’s mayor.
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