OCTOBER 2020 • VOL. 14 — NO. 10
reporternewspapers.net
Buckhead
Reporter
AROUND TOWN
Oglethorpe
professor
brings
ghosts
to life
P19
COMMENTARY
Presidential
campaigns
appeal to
suburban
fears
P16
WORTH KNOWING
A pastor’s
quest for
racial
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PHIL MOSIER
Ailyn Bisogno; daughter Fiorella, 4; and their dog Toddy enjoy a new, sculpture-style
swing at Mountain Way Common on Sept. 26. The swing is part of an improvement
project wrapping up this month at the 9-acre park at North Ivy Road and Mountain
Way beneath Ga. 400. The project, done by the park’s friends group and Livable
Buckhead, turns part of roadway into a multiuse path featuring decorative
panels and planters. For more information see MountainWayCommon.net.
Call for short-term rental ban
sparks talk of other rules
BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Atlanta City Councilmember Howard
Shook’s newly filed legislation to ban short
term rentals in all single-family neighbor
hoods may be short-term itself after lawyers
and fellow elected officials are through with
it. But it’s having the intended effect as a
shot across the bow, drawing reactions from
the industry giant Airbnb and reviving long-
stalled talks about a possible registration
system and tighter ban on “party houses.”
“Diplomacy is the greatest weapon here,”
said Pam O’Dell, executive director of the
Short Term Rental Owners Association of
Georgia, saying her group wants a seat at
the table with residents and officials to talk
See CALL on page 20
‘Buckhead
Blue’ private
police patrol
pitched as
solution to
crime
BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Amid an increase in shootings and qual-
ity-of-life crimes like street racing, political
momentum is building for a neighborhood
wide private police force of off-duty officers
already dubbed “Buckhead Blue.” Howev
er, the leader of two groups likely to operate
such a program is expressing caution about
it.
Envisioned as a larger version of a Mid
town program called “Midtown Blue,” the
Buckhead concept was proposed at a Sep
tember community meeting by Fulton
County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts,
who recently moved to Peachtree Road and
got an earful of street-racing noise. The idea
was greeted with interest from leaders of
neighborhood and business groups and
such elected officials as City Councilmem
ber J.P. Matzigkeit.
“We’re at war against crime and we need
to act like it,” Matzigkeit said he told attend
ees at a private Sept. 24 virtual meeting that
included interim Atlanta Police Chief Rod
ney Bryant and officials with the Atlanta
Police Foundation, the Buckhead Coalition
and the Buckhead Community Improve
ment District. “I don’t get the sense of urgen
cy... from people that I would like to get that
sense of urgency from,” he said.
Jim Durrett, who is both executive direc
tor of the Buckhead Community Improve-
See BUCKHEAD on page 30
www.Lauderhills.com
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