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Concerned Black Clergy responds to Beltline Redevelopment Proposal

ethelware — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:19:14 +0100

SUBJECT: Proposed Beltline Redevelopment Plan and Tax Allocation District Legislation.
Honorable Lisa M. Borders                              Honorable Ceasar C. Mitchell, Chair Atlanta City Council President                         Community Development COPY :Reverend Darrell D. Elligan, PresidentConcerned Black Clergy, Metro Atlanta, Inc.
Concerned Black Clergy Metro Atlanta, Inc (CBC) is in support of the Proposed Beltline Redevelopment Plan and Tax Allocation District Legislation. The following three (3) concerns validate CBC support:
The United States and State of Georgia lack of energy conservation coupled with International oil companies greed is finally creating a chance for Atlanta to function as an adjoined city of diverse communities, businesses, and public services. Additionally, this innovated enterprise of collaborated planning and/or joint ventures will cause existing fragmented operations noted in current transportation modes to be unified in a system where people are able to move in harmonious connections.
Atlanta City Council taking immediate action to pass the Tax
Allocation District (TAD) should enable this innovative plan to remain an “Atlanta Grassroots Initiative"
Although Concerned Black Clergy Metro Atlanta, Inc (CBC) is in support of the Proposed Beltline Redevelopment Plan and Tax Allocation District Legislation. The following three (3) concerns must be considered:
HOUSING. Affordable housing should be explained in term price and availability for people living in the affected areas. This means that the stated percentage of house should be presented in terms of:(1) Market – housing priced at what the market should bring. (2) Adequate – what a person can afford without public assistance. (3) Affordable – what a person can afford with public assistance.
COMMUNITY/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Jobs empower the driving force for winning support of affected areas. Developers are noted for importing people from other areas to do work that people living in the affected areas can do. People living in the affected areas will feel that they have ownership when they are able to work in the community where they live. Jobs availability also raise other concerns:(1) How will the affected areas be impacted by meaningful jobs with livable wages?(2) Since the Beltline is connecting many neighborhoods, folks must be educated to jobs being available in the areas where they live.(3) Although the public has been given ample opportunities to voice their concerns, efforts must be made to continuously educate and/or stay connected to Atlanta’ 24 Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs)
TRANSIT.   The transportation portion of the Beltline Plan must embody the following concerns, whereas, fragmented transportation projects must be considered as “A System” from existing transportation arrangements. Three (3) observations are presented:(1) Other urban transit services, in the metro counties, surrounding Atlanta, circumvent the original plans for establishing MARTA as the visionary transit HUB. Public funding is being appropriated for these new systems while MARTA financial concerns are being ignored. The Beltline initiative has the chance for providing Atlanta and Georgia with “Bold and Daring” possibilities that would create a “State of the Art” MARTA transit system that would work in partnership with other transit systems in the surrounding metro counties. Developing such comprehensive initiatives, Atlanta has the opportunity to facilitate a huge economic impact on the Atlanta region and other connecting communities. (2) The State of Georgia currently provides funds for rural transit services as well as start up funds for new services. However, it has failed to render necessary funding support so that local and rural services are collaborated in an efficient and cost effective partnership, whereby, local and rural Georgia citizens would greatly benefit. (3) Atlanta is the crossroad for all of Georgia! Georgia is an international state where people from all over this world are planning business ventures with jobs and economic development. We must act and work together to ensure that Georgia becomes the best transit system in this nation fully supported by state funding. The Proposed Beltline Redevelopment Plan can set the tone for making this happen. I look forward to working with your team efforts to formulate a Beltline Redevelopment Plan that should be a “win win” for all of Atlanta citizens. Atlanta is an International City and Georgia is an International State. We must perform the best public service that will create a welcome environment for all people. Dr. Richard H. Cobble, Vice President for Mission

Les Squires — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 19:53:27 +0100

An interesting if longish article on faith and the environment.

Religious groups, like those with MassReleaf Ministry bring a unique perspective, and a history of hands-on successes, to the movement to care for the Earth.

http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/magazine/archives/2005summer/feature1_1.php

Alan Jenkins Presbytery of Greater Atlanta’s Caring for Creation Committee

Les Squires — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 08:52:32 +0100

One recent Monday afternoon, a new friend invited me to join her for a run through the winding, tree-lined trails of Sweetwater Creek State Park. I jumped at the opportunity as quickly as her dog Pete pounced into the car. We were off--off to witness an awesomely dangerous event of biblical proportions.

We headed West on I-20 from downtown Atlanta toward this h(e)aven of green space, just an exit or two past God’s Chattahoochee River. With light traffic - only a 20-minute drive. Given that I “don’t do Mondays” very well, this was a great way to greet the beginning of the week. Yes, even Mondays are days ‘The Lord hath made.’ Amen!

Once out of the car, we were onto the trail and following the tail of an exhilarated and liberated Pete. But before long our “run” turned into something more like a jog. Well, OK. A walk. My friend confessed that her stomach started to hurt. “Too much Cappuccino today,” she reckoned. As I now finally sit to write this article, I cannot help but wonder if she was sensing something more deeply unsettling.

Before we even made it down to the bank of Sweetwater “Creek,” we could hear the rumbling. Unlike other occasions when I had hauled my kayak down there for a leisurely paddle through light rapids, I could hear the ominous sound – torrential, angrily reverberating rapids. The flooding waters roared up to us through at least 200 yards of long leaf pines, sycamore and sweet gum trees.
Pete didn’t seem to be bothered. His tail proclaimed, “This is the day . . . Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” He disappeared over the rushing feeder creek and on up through a thicket of mountain laurel. Pete did not know what we knew: Dennis was leaving its mark on North America.

After a trip from Africa across the warmer than usual Atlantic Ocean, this category four hurricane ripped through the Caribbean, picking up speed into the Gulf of Mexico. Never mind its being the earliest storm of such magnitude of any previously recorded hurricane season. Of more immediate concern was what Pete’s pondering paws had been telling him since day one of his city life: “Too much concrete around Atlanta doesn’t well receive my feet or a heavy rain.” Indeed, God’s soft, miraculous soil, which turns dead organic matter into life and wisely receives rain water to be securely stored underground, is shut off from doing its graceful and essential work. And over the last decade, the problem has only exacerbated: we in the 16-county metro area paved and covered about 28 acres a day over the last decade. Hence, when any significant rain comes to the Atlanta area, there’s a flooding problem.

So once Pete, my friend, and I finally arrived at Sweetwater’s banks, we saw intense, raging rapids, five-foot standing waves, and death dealing rapids. The wake of Dennis’ 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours translated into unparalleled flooding and human experience.

I learned later that night on the news of others’ more visceral experience of the flood. Some mothers and fathers cried as they secured their children and looked back at the water rising up through their front doors. Others stood back on high ground, shaking their heads in disbelief. “I’ve lived here for 20 years, and I never seen anything like this before.” The camera swung over to two teenage neighbors, grasping precious family pictures in one hand while securing the little flat-bottom boat in the other.

In their eyes, I could hear them pleading, “How can God let this happen to us? God said ‘never again shall there be a flood . . .’” And in my mind, I can only wonder, “Have we broken God’s covenant handed to Noah? A covenant handed to us and with all living creatures of the land?”

With these deep and unprecedented questions in mind, I add a question mark to the title of this article. For those not familiar with this church hymn, it is one of angelic vision and affirming beauty. It need not be an otherworldly dream but rather a nurturing reality in our own time. Nonetheless, in light of Sweetwater’s flooding that day, perhaps we should fear for our safety and wonder, “Shall we really gather at the river?”

We shall! As faith communities drawn to the sacredness of this, the Creator’s life-sustaining, grace-filled gift, we shall gather at the river. And not only the river (the ‘Hooch!). We shall gather around all of God’s flowing, life-giving waters abounding through the rolling hills in and around Metro Atlanta: Sweetwater Creek, Proctor Creek, Peachtree Creek, Camp Creek Lullwater Creek, Nancy Creek . . . We shall gather there to be nourished by God’s grace. We shall gather there to protect and heal the banks. We shall return to practice wise use of the rain-receiving soil and learn ways to reduce our paving over it.

Yes, we’ll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river.
Gather with the saints at the River that flows by the throne of God.
--Robert Lowry, 1864