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| Residents Marched to Turner Filed and set up a tent city on April 1st |
Press conference with community
leaders and elected officials supporting a real, binding Community Benefits
agreement to be held Wednesday April 26th at #TentCityATL, 755 Hank Aaron drive
at 10:30am.
GSU and Carter, doing business as Panther Holdings LLC
prematurely and in bad faith released the terms of a deal it crafted with a
selected group of community members and organizations to the exclusion of the
Turner Field Benefits Coalition. It
highlights the heart of Atlanta’s gentrification problem.
In December of 2016 the City of Atlanta and Atlanta Fulton
County Recreation Authority released an RFP for the sale of Turner Field and
surrounding parking lots. Panther Holdings was created and awarded a sweetheart
deal - for $30 million they got $300 million worth of real estate and tax
abatements, too.
From the time of the sale of the Braves the Turner Field
Community Benefits Coalition - a democratically elected body of residents,
community organizations, small businesses and churches - have been actively
engaged in developing a community driven Community Benefits Agreement to
counter gentrification and prevent displacement of residents.
Nearly two years ago a politically connected faction of the
coalition led by Suzanne Mitchell broke away and began private negotiations
with Panthers Holding. Mitchell is the sister-in-law of council president
Ceasar Mitchell, who curries the favor of the developers Carter and GSU
repeatedly stating she "could just pick up the phone and call them."
Access denied to the democratically empowered Coalition representing broad
stakeholders across five impacted neighborhoods.
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| Day 12 of #TentCityATL |
Just an hour or so before news began to spread that a deal
had been reached, Carla Smith, GSU, Oakwood and Carter presented a plan it
developed with the selected group of individuals and organizations and without
input from the community at-large. Council president Cesar Mitchell along with
Council members Felicia Moore, Michael Julian Bond, and Deborah Scott with Partnership for Working Families Founding member & VP
National CBA Network participated in the meeting.
The Coalition and its advisor, Maya Dillard Smith, former
Executive Director of the ACLU of Georgia, were allowed to see documents
memorializing this "deal" for the first time. There are actually two
deals - one with GSU and one with Cater.
The Coalition requested time to review these documents and a
follow-up meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 1, 2017. The conversation
centered on the importance of transparency, accountability, inclusion and
honesty, which has been missing from the negotiations to date.
Sherise Brown, a long term resident of Peoplestown and core
member of the coalition attended yesterday's meeting today and stated, “Although I think our meeting today with
panthers holding LLC was productive and moving in the right direction, we have
not received a commitment from them for a Community Benefits Agreement. We are
looking forward to our follow up meeting with GSU and the developers. At this
point we are beginning to build a partnership with Panthers holding LLC. We
have not, I repeat we have not, reached any agreement. We are still in
discussions.”
GSU student leader Asma Elhuni, who also attended the
meeting stated, “Our meeting with Scott
Taylor from Carter Developers, Bharath Parthasarathy from Georgia State
University, Council members, and the Turner Field Benefits Coalition was
productive with promises that the Developers will meet with the Turner field
Benefits Coalition. It was made clear to GSU that the University foundation is
allowed to sign a CBA. As a student, I am eager to see this happen in the near
future so that we hold not only my University accountable to its promises, but
also the developers.”
One might imagine The
Coalitions surprise upon reading the AJC headline, “GSU-Turner Field
Neighborhoods Strike Community Benefits Agreement”.
Tremendous
misinformation has been miscommunicated by GSU and Carter in an already
confusing environment of alternative facts.
Here are the facts:
1. The
Coalition was funded by the Casey Foundation, the Coalition worked with
consultants and legal counsel paid for by Casey with a grant it provided of
$90,000. Most of the money received went to consultants. Coalition members did
not receive any money, and they participated in good faith to draft CBA
defining investments, outcomes and protocols benefiting Peoplestown,
Summerhill, Mechanicsville, and Pittsburgh. These neighborhoods were selected
given the immediate and surrounding impact of the project in alignment with the
Living Centers Initiative.
2. As soon as
the deal was inked (Purchase/”Closing” took place), Casey pulled its funding.
Unbeknownst to the Coalition at the time, Casey provided its $90,000 in
services to the coalition, it was simultaneously funding hundreds of thousands
in donations to Georgia State University. A clear conflict of interest for an
organization which says it's dedicated to neighborhood change. Change, the
Casey foundation will benefit from as it owns 14 acres in the affected area of
the Turner field project.
3.
Council member Carla Smith received the maximum political contribution of
$2500 from Scott Taylor of Carter the day after the deal closed for the sale of
Turner Field. She also received
donations from Carter development.
4. Suzanne
Mitchell is negotiating with GSU and Carter in her individual capacity and as a
relative of the City Council President, Caesar Mitchell. She is no longer the president of (ONS)
Organized Neighbors of Summerhill.
5. Mayoral
candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms served on the City Council while also serving as
the chairperson of the Fulton County Recreation Authority. This represented a clear conflict of interest
and the closing documents directed Bottoms to receive 5% of the sale price of
Turner Field ($600,000).
The deal and its participants are ripe with conflicts and
yet the Coalition continues to show up and engage in good faith. We ask only
that the other people at the table do the same.
