ATLANTA — Mayor Andre Dickens gave his State of the City Address at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown on Wednesday night.
“The state of our city is strong!” Dickens told the crowd.
Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco was there as Dickens said Atlanta is now considered a top five city for affordable housing production after building more than 13,000 units and opening 500 rapid housing units.
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“We found jobs for over 20,000 young people and made historic investments in childhood education and youth programming,” said Dickens. “Graduation rates are the highest they’ve ever been in the City’s history!”
He said homicide is down in Atlanta by 40% and shootings are down 30%.
“We’ve made the basic operations of government work better for you. We are picking up trash on time, paving our sidewalks and roads, improving our water system, adding bike lanes and trails, including the world-famous Atlanta Beltline,” said Dickens.
He pointed out the city’s triple-A bond ratings and raising the city’s minimum wage.
He then zoned in on how that progress varies based on where you live in the city.
“Too many people are still struggling to make ends meet. Too many neighborhoods have been left behind in our City’s success,” said Dickens. “And, as a result, they are often the most impacted by violence and blight.”
He discussed eviction statistics, grocery and doctor deserts and access to transportation inequalities based on zip codes. He said it will take billions of dollars to correct that.
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“The work is harder now. Everything is more expensive now. Federal funding support has dried up,” said Dickens. “That means it’s harder to get new affordable housing developments across the finish line and it’s harder to upgrade our infrastructure.”
Rev. Dr. Willie Clyde was in the crowd. He said his neighborhood in the West End is one of those where people ranging in ages are showing up at his church for help.
“There are people that are living under bridges, people that are sleeping in vacant housing,” said Clyde. “Just one circumstance in your life, one unfortunate incident in your life, could cause you to lose your job, lose your house, lose your finances, lose your family.”
He was interested in hearing more about Mayor Dickens’ solution involving extending tax allocation districts to encourage development.
“We’re the economic capital of the South, yet inequality is still a prevailing force in Atlanta. Too many people have their opportunities defined by Which Atlanta they were born into,” said Dickens.
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