Today
residents with the Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition delivered apetition to Carter Development urging the developer to sit with long term
residents to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement. The petition delivery
was organized as a result of Carter’s CEO, Scott Taylor’s refusal to meet with
the coalition. The coalition, which is comprised over 30 organizations in the
community has been trying to have open communication with Carter and GSU ever
since the sales process begun. To date the only residents Carter and GSU have
been willing to meet with are homeowners in Summerhill more interested in their
own property values.
“We want
development in our community, we just ask to be included as there’s a history
of broken promises in our communities. We want to know that development in our
community works for both new and long-term residents, a binding Community
Benefits Agreement (CBA) is a huge step in that direction.” Stated long term
resident and coalition member Alison Johnson.
Once
residents showed up to Cater Development's office to deliver the petition they were met with
extremely aggressive building representatives that threatened to have them
arrested immediately. Some staff even put hands on residents who simply
intended to deliver a petition to Scott Taylor.
Residents decided to kneel down and pray for their community but
building staff seemed set on yelling over clergy’s prayer, yelling, “Get out
now!”, as Imam Furqan A Muhammad with the Masjid Al Muminun Mosque, which is in
Peoplestown, led the group in prayer.
Today what
could have been a simple petition delivery urging a conversation with residents
ended up highlighting the extreme disrespect and disdain that both Carter
Development, GSU, and some city officials have demonstrated through the whole
Turner Field sale process. If Atlanta is going to be a city that works for
everyone then this unsustainable, backroom deal approach to mega developments
must change.
Carter and
GSU along with our city officials did not plan with the communities. This was a
backdoor deal which as stated above, is full of conflicts of interest. They disrespected the democratic process used
to create the CBA and they ignored the communities and refused to allow them a
seat at table. They took the alternate route and bypassed the people, because
they decided the people don’t matter.
Many residents are disappointed and scared of
what this may mean for their community. “This is a hostile takeover of our
communities for profit. This is ethnic cleansing.” These back door deals happen
because low-income, minority communities and long-term residents are not valued
as stakeholders and partners. “Instead we are looked upon as outsiders by
insiders.”
For fifty
years, the communities surrounding Turner Field have been neglected, an almost
forgotten footnote in Atlanta’s race to prove it is the “city too busy to
hate.”
Once
thriving neighborhoods fell victim to the economic priorities of others: busy
interstates divided communities and families; stadiums rose and fell, flooding
communities with crime and raw sewage; local schools were neglected and
underfunded; and promises for positive development were as empty as the scores
of parking lots that litter the area.
Now, there
is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change all this.
It’s called
the Turner Field Community Benefit Agreement (CBA). A Community Benefits
Agreement is a legally-binding contract with the developer that describes
mutually-agreed and enforceable goals for the development project. This
agreement is driven by local residents and the over 40 community organizations
that make up the Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition.
What would a
CBA mean for our communities? A world of difference–for everyone. A well
implemented CBA could alleviate flooding; improve transportation and create new
public space; provide jobs for residents and create opportunities for training,
education and services for people of all ages; create housing for people of all
incomes and prevent displacement of existing residents; and make our streets
and communities safer and cleaner, while providing places to shop for people in
the neighborhood.
