The Atlanta Way lives.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond on Tuesday announced an agreement that will start construction on Atlanta's embattled police and fire training center, a $90 million, 85-acre mini-city of urban landscapes, fire towers, meeting rooms and firearm shooting ranges.
The extensive training center is to be built on a wooded site in south DeKalb Country, where neighborhood opposition resulted in Dickens agreeing to Thurmond's demands for buffers from firing ranges and fire towers, preservation of wooded areas and the planting of hardwood trees. The site is part of the proposed South River Forest conservation area.
After months of violent battles between protesters and police, the agreement pushes the training center forward, the latest manifestation of the ages-old "Atlanta Way" partnership of white business leaders and black politicians.
The private, non-profit Atlanta Police Foundation is funding much of center, staunchly supported by The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Alex Taylor, the CEO of AJC owner Cox Enterprises, has raised money for the police foundation and the training center, sometimes noted in AJC articles.
A gun battle between state troopers and protesters led to the shooting death of protester Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, an avowed pacifist whom police claimed wounded a police officer who has not been named.
Police wouldn't release the wounded officer's name because of possible retribution by protesters. Yet he should be identified in the interest of transparency in the case.
Environmental activists dispute the police account. State police involved in the gunfight say they were not wearing body cameras during the battle, so the required GBI investigation will depend on conflicting eye-witness accounts and forensic evidence.
Unlike national media including The Washington Post, the AJC has not complied with Terán's preference to use the trans pronouns "they" and "them," instead of "he" and "him."
Terán's death led to a violent protest in downtown Atlanta in which Peachtree Street high-rises were damaged and a police car burned. One of the damaged buildings is the Philip Johnson-designed 191 Peachtree Tower, where the Atlanta Police Foundation's offices are located.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared an emergency, allowing for him to call out 1,000 members of the Georgia National Guard. A number of protesters have been charged with "domestic terrorism" under a constitutionally dubious Georgia law enacted in 2017.
I've been following the story through the AJC and national media, and haven't formed a clear judgment.
It sounds as if the wooded area is not as pristine as the protesters claim - one absurdly called it "the lungs of Atlanta" in a Washington Post story. Dickens said the site doesn't encompass original hard-wood trees, and is overgrown with invasive species.
The Dickens-Thurmond deal will preserve the most environmentally sensitive forest areas. The South River and a creek are seriously polluted, according to an Atlanta magazine piece by former AJC reporter Timothy Pratt, the most comprehensive article on the center conflict I've read.
Over the years, a work camp and other operations have been located at the city-owned site, originally the home of the Muscogee Indians before they were forced to leave. For years, the area served as a trash dump. The nearby predominantly black neigbhorhoods already hear gunfire from an existing police firing range.
Ryan Gravel, the originator of the Atlanta Beltline, did a comprehensive study that called for making the area an extensive nature park. The Atlanta City Council agreed to the plan, before former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms surprised residents, local officials and Gravel with plans for the training center, according to Pratt's article. The council subsequently approved allocating $30 million for the center.
Overall, the training center appears needed, but other options could be considered. The removal of trees should be limited, but thousands of trees are destroyed in the metro area each week as development relentlessly progresses.
While protesters vow to fight on to stop the training center, its building appears inevitable. That's the Atlanta Way.
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