Residents Bring Concerns About Turner Field Development to Mayor Reed

Yesterday American Friends Service Committee joined the TurnerField Community Benefits Coalition at city hall to hold a press conference and deliver a letter to Mayor Reed. Over sixty residents from the neighborhoods surrounding Turner Field showed up on Tuesday morning to send a clear message to the Mayor and city official. One of the residents, Doristine Samuel who’s lived in Mechanicsville since 1957 stated, “We used to have a beautiful community. We had everything we needed. Big development has destroyed our neighborhoods, from the highway to the Olympic stadium, to Turner Field. We need development done right, with community members involved. We know the Mayor wants a legacy, but it must be a legacy we can live with.”

The letter asks the Mayor to make a public commitment to completing the Turner Field Livable Centers Initiative Planning Study (LCI) process before negotiating any development deal. It requests that Mayor Reed use the recommendations from this study to initiate a competitive bidding process for the massive redevelopment project. “Our communities have suffered long enough as a result of top-down development,” says Summerhill resident John A. Colabelli. “We don’t want a quick fix solution. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore the surrounding neighborhoods and reconnect downtown to the entire south side of Atlanta.” The LCI Planning Study grant was awarded to the City of Atlanta in February 2015 and represents the largest LCI grant ever-awarded by the Atlanta Regional Commission. The study is due to be completed by July 31, 2016.

After delivering the letter to the Mayor’s office in mass the group split up into teams and made sure every city council member, every county commissioner, and every Atlanta County recreation authority representative had a hand delivered letter by the end of lunch.

American Friends Service Committee is excited to continue to support this important coalition work. We are informed by the idea that communities should be controlled by those that live in them. We can no longer afford to have a few well connected folks who already live in overabundance make massive profits off public-private development deals while the surrounding communities fall into decay. We have the coalition effort can turn the tide of bad development deals in Atlanta and encourage all to get involved!

The Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition is a coalition of 42 neighborhood associations and advocacy groups representing thousands of residents in the communities surrounding Turner Field. The Coalition seeks community participation in decisions related to the redevelopment of the Turner Field Stadium area.

Vist the Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition's press page to check out all the press coverage from the letter delivery!

Training for Change

American Friends Service Committee has been excited to be a part of the Turner Field Benefits Coalition. Our belief that communities should be controlled by those that live in them has informed and guided our participation in the communities around Turner Field over the last four years.

Last night we were excited to team up with Rise-Up Georgia to facilitate a social media training that focused on how to use social media to build public pressure and win campaigns. Building a movement takes time and lots of training when you're in it to win it. We're super excited to have partners like Rise-Up Georgia stepping up to make dynamic trainings like this happen. We look forward to supporting more trainings for residents in the coalition over the summer.

In the spirit of the training we encourage all of you to like the Turner Field Benefits Coalition on facebook and Twitter!

Organizing to Win in Peoplestown

We were well represented at the launch of the coalition

So I wanted to update folks on all the exciting work going down in and around the Peoplestown community. Some of you might be aware that last year we partnered with residents and community organizations to facilitate a listening project in Peoplestown. After looking at the results it was clear that Peoplestown residents cared deeply for their community and have deep concerns about it's futures. On the top of the list of concerns was the lack of affordable house, access to good food, and trash in the community.

Canvassing Team Gets Ready to Knock on Doors

Residents Participate in Free Tenant Rights Legal Clinic

Since the listening project I'm excited to report that we have worked with Peoplestown residents to develop and anti-displacement campaign and a series of housing justice training's. One of the exciting developments has been a strong effort to organize tenant associations in the communities surrounding Turner Field. We also launched a weekly free tenants rights legal clinic with Attorney Joshua Davis. It's already been announced that the Braves will be leaving Turner Field in 2017 and all that land will be up for grabs for developers. Fighting mass displacement means pushing for a process that includes long term residents and ultimately benefits the surrounding neighborhoods. If history teaches us anything it's that development comes with lots of promises to the community but usually ends up hurting and displacing long term residents. In order the fight for a process and result that lifts up those that have been holding down the community long before it was cool or profitable to buy property here residents have realized now is the time to organize people around a platform insure residents aren't displaced, real jobs are created, and that those that live here have a say in what happens to the land.

Residents Stand Outside Boynton Village Demanding Fair Treatment

One exciting development is that in the effort to organize a tenants association at Boynton Village tenants have won a huge victory. The owners of Boynton Village, the Woda group, have agreed to sign a new agreement with HUD to keep the complex affordable for the next 20 years. This is a big win considering other apartment complexes will consider converting to market rate as the price of rent in this area continues to increase with each passing month. This may not have happened if residents hadn't organized together, holding meetings, launching petitions, and demanding face to face negotiation with the Woda group. That work has been a launching point to meet with other tenant leaders in the Peoplestown area.

Tommy Moore Trains a New Generation of Gardeners in Pittsburgh

Responding to the lack of  good food in the community we have been working with Pittsburgh(right next door to Peoplestown) resident Tommy Moore to help him raise funds to develop community gardens. Tommy is a miracle worker in the garden and has used the resources to develop multiple gardens sights, teach young people to grow food, and feed the neighborhood free of charge. We're so excited to to able to work with Tommy are currently working with him to break ground on a new garden this month.

Spellman Students Help Facilitate Community Clean-up

We have organized to big trash clean up days with college students focusing on the peoples town community.

During Housing Justice 101 Training

We have joined and put energy into building and strengthening the Turner Field Benefits Coalition, with is a coalition of over 40 groups, mostly based in the neighborhoods surrounding Turner Field. At this point the coalition is fighting to insure that those that live in the neighborhood will have a real voice and an impact on what happens to the land the Braves used after they leave. Sadly up to this point it seems as if community members have not been given space at the table. It's a cruel irony that many of the things the neighbor hood wants did used to exist. Fifty years ago Peoples town, Summerhill, Mechanicsville, Pittsburgh, Adair Park were considered more a part of downtown than Midtown is today. You had everything you needed to survive in the community. From grocery stores to theaters, to doctors offices, and local business. The highway came through, the Olympic stadium, Turner Field, all came with the promise of positive development for the community, all ended up hurting more than helping. We are excited to be a part of a coalition aimed at challenging the model of development that displaces long term residents and treats the neighborhood like a giant ATM.