The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Inside City Hall
ATLANTA OFFICIALS WANT YOU TO WEIGH IN ON SPENDING PLAN
The Atlanta City Council is set to vote on the city’s mammoth budget later this month, and now’s your chance to voice your opinion on the city’s spending. Today, the council is holding a public property tax rate hearing at 6 p.m., quickly followed by an “interactive community budget session” at 6:15.
Residents will have a chance to ask questions or comment on the proposed budget. If you can’t make it in person, you can also email a 15-second video to budgettalk@atlantaga.gov.
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The Atlanta Police Department
has a new leader. Assistant Chief Darin Schierbaum took over as interim chief last week as former chief Rodney Bryant retired — for the second time.
Schierbaum is a 20-year APD veteran, and got rave reviews from the mayor and several council members who have worked with him.
The city is in a national search for a permanent chief, and Schierbaum is sure to be considered. Dickens told WABE on Tuesday he hopes internal candidates apply, including former chiefs who have recently left APD for other departments “that want to come back.”
”I really want someone who knows Atlanta,” Dickens said, adding that police leaders from across the country have slid into his Linkedin messages to ask about the job.
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The mayor also told
WABE the city wants to buy four homes caught within the longstanding legal dispute between the city and southeast Atlanta residents in the Peoplestown neighborhood.
When Dickens ran for mayor last year, he promised to find a way to keep the residents in their homes, while also completing the flood protection project that spurred Atlanta to use eminent domain to demolish dozens of homes in the area.
Now he says the homes are located within “a bowl” where they would not survive flooding caused by a “50-year or 100-year weather event. Dickens said the city would offer a fair value price for the homes.
Peoplestown resident Tanya Washington told us they still want to keep their homes. She’s currently planning to appeal what she calls “deceptive” attempts by the city’s attorneys to toss out her legal challenge.
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Former city councilman
and mayoral candidate Antonio Brown recently returned to City Hall as a member of the Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Board. Dickens appointed Brown and 25 other new members to the board to maximize their focus on youth engagement, arts, entertainment and culture, according to the city.
The full 50-person board is listed on the city’s website. --
The Buckhead Public Safety
Task Force recently released a 21-page summary of its analysis and action plan following a series of meetings held over a 90-day span.
City Councilwoman Mary Norwood sponsored the formation of the group in January to develop a comprehensive plan to deter crime on the Northside. Their report’s security plan includes 27 recommendations, such as lobbying for the city detention center to be used to reduce overcrowding at the Fulton County jail.
The group also supports the following actions: legislation to strengthen gang laws; a new storage facility for the Fulton County district attorney’s prosecutorial evidence; and enhancements to the police units focused on licensing, alcohol and street racing.
The full report is available on the City Council’s website. --
The Atlanta Housing Authority recently
told us Tishman Speyer has bailed on the mixed-use redevelopment plan for the Atlanta civic center.
The flip-flop surprised city officials after eight months of conversations with the company. AHA President and CEO Eugene Jones said the developers claimed the project was just “not right” for them.
AHA said the proposal included 430 units priced at or below the region’s median income, which is $96,400 for a family of four this year. The AHA wanted to add more affordable units into the plan. --
On a brighter note for
affordable housing, community leaders celebrated the opening of the “Parkside” development last week.
The 182-unit apartment complex is on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway in Bankhead, steps from a MARTA station and the Beltline’s future Westside Trail. The complex includes one- to three-bedroom units, with monthly rents priced between 50% and 70% of metro Atlanta’s median income.
With fan balloting set to begin Wednesday for MLB’S All-star teams, the Braves plan to launch a Hollywood-style campaign to drive votes and help send their players to Los Angeles for next month’s game.
The Braves’ campaign will cast players as stars in make-believe movies — such as first baseman and metro Atlanta native Matt Olson in “Coming Home,” right fielder Ronald Acuna in “Clutch,” third baseman Austin Riley in “The Bowman” and middle infielders Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson in “Turn 2’ — to try to catch the attention of the electorate.
A series of 30-second commercials supporting the Braves’ All-star nominees will be shown before real movies at more than 100 theaters in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina over the next month. A set of movie posters, ostensibly promoting the fake flicks but actually aimed at boosting All-star candidacies, will be displayed in lobbies of theaters and elsewhere.
The Braves said their get-out-the-vote campaign will extend to Bally Sports’ telecasts of games,
‘We were throwing out different ideas and making up movie titles. It was a fun brainstorming session.’
Insung Kim, Senior creative director
billboards in Atlanta and initiatives around Truist Park, including Hollywood Walk of Fame-like floor graphics and movie poster giveaways to the first 5,000 fans through the gates at each game of the Braves-pirates series Thurs- day through Sunday.
commit to putting a lot of muscle behind the AllStar game vote and making sure our great players are recognized to the best of our ability,” said Adam Zimmer- man, the Braves’ senior vice president of marketing and content. “We commit to it because our guys deserve it . ... Getting them into the All-star game is something we can influence.”
The game will be played July 19 at Dodger Stadium, baseball’s first All-star game there since 1980.
“When you think about Los Angeles, you think about the movie industry,” Zimmerman said. “That was the core creative idea (behind the campaign): What would it look like if our players starred in their own feature films?”
The Braves’ in-house creative team took it from there.
“The movie posters we cre- ated are tied into the person- alities and interests of our players,” said Insung Kim, the Braves’ senior creative director. For example, “Austin Riley is an avid bow hunter, so we made up a movie called ‘The Bowman’ about this adventurer out in the woods with his bow and arrow.
“The creative team and the marketing team sat in the conference room for about an hour and went down the list of all the position players that we want Braves fans to vote for,” Kim said. “We were throwing out different ideas and mak- ing up movie titles. It was a fun brainstorming session.”
Among other “movie” titles they came up with: “Big Bear Adventure” starring left fielder/designated hitter Marcell Ozuna; “Kids from Curacao” co-starring Albies and relief pitcher Kenley Jansen; and “Daddy d’aytrip” co-starring catcher Travis d’arnaud and outfielder Adam Duvall.
The poster for “Daddy d’aytrip” features photos of d’arnaud and Duvall on the field with their kids and anoints d’arnaud as a “best actor” nominee — a nod, Kim said, to the acting job d’arnaud did when he fell to the ground after being hit in the left arm by a 52-mph pitch from a Washington Nationals position player in a game early this season.
The poster for “Clutch” features Acuna’s affinity for cars and his “100 mph 100% of the time” style of play.
All-star voting will open at 11:59 a.m. Wednesday. The online fan vote will determine the eight position-player starters and the designated hitter on the American League and National League teams.
Voting will be divided into two phases. The first phase will run until June 30, with the top overall vote-getter in each league clinching a starting spot at his position and the two leading vote-getters at each of the other eight positions advancing to the second and final phase of voting July 5-8.
Each MLB team nominated one player at each position for the ballot earlier this year, and many teams typically wage aggressive campaigns on behalf of their candidates. The Braves’ effort “will get our baseball content into non-traditional baseball channels,” Zimmerman said.
Kim, the Braves’ creative director who also had a key role in designing the team’s popular World Series rings, envisions movie-goers entering theaters to see, say, “Top Gun: Maverick” and noticing the Braves’ posters. “They’ll see Ronald Acuna in ‘Clutch’ and may do a double-take and go, ‘Is Ronald Acuna really in a movie?’ Then they’ll start to get it and see ‘vote Braves.’
“We had a lot of fun with it,” Kim said of the campaign. “I hope the players and the fans enjoy it, too.”