Redlight The Gulch Coalition Weighs in on Norfolk Southern Ultimatum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2018
STATEMENT FROM “REDLIGHT THE GULCH COALITION”
ON NORFOLK SOUTHERN ULTIMATUM


Norfolk Southern’s CEO says that unless his company can make a big profit on its land in the Gulch, it will not consolidate staff from Norfolk, VA to Atlanta.

There is no justification for throwing a Gulch public subsidy — variously put at $1.9 billion and $1.44 billion — at an 850-job move.


The typical incentive from the City for that number of jobs is $850,000 to $2.5 million. That’s Million with an M, not Billion with a B. Some companies do not choose to extract any incentives when moving to the city.

The public cost of the Gulch scheme is on the order of one thousand times the incentive justified for the Norfolk Southern jobs.


By contrast, Blackrock announced last week that they are creating 1,000 new jobs in the city. They did not require billions in subsidy. Like Atlanta residents, they were also unfazed by the Gulch. Like all the other companies moving to and expanding in Atlanta over this decade, Blackrock is coming for our talent, our universities, our airport and our standard of living.


We also remind residents that Norfolk Southern did Atlanta no favors when they sold their stretch of the future Beltline to a developer for $25m, which forced the city to $65m — vastly more than if Norfolk had waited and sold it to the city directly.


We call upon Council Members to resist absurd last-minute arguments and bullying. The Gulch scheme would squander future revenues desperately needed to run our city and schools, and to support housing affordability.

Redlight the Gulch on November 5!

URGENT ACTION: Redlight The Gulch!

URGENT ACTION: This Monday City Council will vote to approve or deny the Gulch development plan and we need to show up in force to demand that they VOTE NO! Join us for a #RedlightTheGulch rally before the vote. Then we will pack the house at the City Council meeting and make our message clear: we must redlight the Gulch!  WEAR RED!  The proposed Gulch development would be a MAJOR loss to our communities: Mayor Bottoms wants to sell part of downtown Atlanta to billionaire developers who are known slumlords in Los Angeles. The public would lose at least $1.9 billion in taxes only to receive $100 million at most back in benefits, at most. Plus, there would be ZERO public ownership. The City has felt our pressure and made a few changes to the deal, but it's not enough. As the vote on the deal approaches, we need to apply pressure now more than ever. Learn more about the #RedlightTheGulch campaign here.

Rally FB Event Link Here

Want to take action before the vote on Monday? Call City Council members and demand they #RedlightTheGulch. Suggested Script: "Hello, I am an Atlanta resident  and I am urging you to VOTE NO on the Gulch development plan this Monday. The plan would be a HUGE loss to residents and prioritizes billionaire developers over the people of Atlanta. Thank you." The numbers to call are below: