Newspaper Page Text
M News Roundllp
The city has received a federal grant
to develop a Historic Context
Statement for LGBTQ historic
resources and preservation. The
$25,000 award represents the efforts
of Historic Atlanta, Inc., Midtown
Neighbors Association, National
Trust for Historic Preservation,
Mailchimp, Georgia Trust for Historic
Preservation and individual donors.
The Atlanta City
Council approved
legislation in July for
the city’s purchase of a
dozen new fire engines
and ladder trucks
for the Atlanta Fire
Department over the
next two years.
A ribbon cutting ceremony
was held in July for Rodney
Cook Sr. Park in Vine
City. Filled with fountains,
walkways, playgrounds,
and basketball courts, the
park will also feature statues
and plaques dedicated to
peacemakers like the late
John Lewis.
The Atlanta-Region
Transit Link Authority
was awarded $5.47
million in federal
funding for 10 battery-
electric commuter
coaches and 11 chargers
for the region’s Xpress
Commuter Service.
Continued from page 7
Housing
isa
Human?
RIGHTn
F ESJ&ll
Atlanta police made arrests and cleared
pi ulcolci j cai i i|_/u ly act-iiy nan, ai iuci my
activists. (Photo courtesy ACC)
Electrifying
Design A Century
of Lighting
. % #
This exhibition
PREMIER EXHIBITION
PREMIER EXHIBITION
BENEFACTOR EXHIBITION
is organized by
SERIES SPONSOR
SERIES SUPPORTERS
SERIES SUPPORTERS
the Museum of
ADELTA
Sarah and Jim Kennedy
Anne Cox Chambers
Fine Arts, Houston.
Dr. Joan H. Weens Estate
Foundation
wish
Robin and Hilton Howell
AMBASSADOR EXHIBITION
SERIES SUPPORTERS
The Antinori Foundation
Corporate Environments
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot
Elizabeth and Chris Willett
CONTRIBUTING EXHIBITION SERIES SUPPORTERS Farideh and Al Azadi, Sandra and Dan Baldwin, Lucinda W. Bunnen, Marcia and John Donnell, Helen C. Griffith, Mrs.
Fay S. Howell/The Howell Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, The Arthur R. and Ruth D. Lautz Charitable Foundation, Joel Knox and Joan Marmo, Dr. Joe B. Massey, Margot
and Danny McCaul, The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust, Wade Rakes and Nicholas Miller, The Fred and Rita Richman Fund, In Memory of Elizabeth B. Stephens, USI
Insurance Services, and Mrs. Harriet H. Warren GENEROUS SUPPORT IS ALSO PROVIDED BY Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers
Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and
Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser-Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition
Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition
Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund.
Super Lamp, designed 1978, made ca. 1981-1988, fiberglass, e
Milano (Italian, active 1981-1988), manufacturer, The Museum i
by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
amel, steel, rubber, and 40-watt incandescent bulbs, Martine Bedin (French, born 1957), designer; Memphis
f Fine Arts, Houston, museum purchase funded by the Design Council, 2020. © 1981 Martine Bedin. Photo
HIGH MUSEUM OF ART ATLANTA | THROUGH SEPTEMBER 26 | HIGH.ORG
according to
Tammy Hughes,
ADID’s social
impact director.
On Monday, she
said, ADID’s
homeless outreach
team ASIST and
Atlanta police
officers “spent
three hours
offering to help
the individuals
with shelter
placement.”
“Of the 16
people on the
sidewalk that day, 12 accepted assistance
and were relocated to nearby shelters,”
Hughes added. Then, “ADID’s Clean
Team cleared the remaining tents and
belongings from the sidewalk.”
In addition to being upset that their
effects were confiscated, many Atlanta
Homeless Union activists are adamant
about avoiding shelter placement —
something they consider dehumanizing.
Fleetwood Robinson, an activist
who is experiencing homelessness, said,
“We don’t like going through that.” He
likened urging people to crowd into
shelters to “a hate crime, if you look at it
more from our shoes.”
In response, location managers with
Blacklight Studios, the production
company that had plans to film in the
area where people were camped out,
helped book six nights in a hotel for 40
of the people who activists said were
“displaced,” provided MARTA cards
for those people “so they can still get
from the hotel to work or tend to their
business,” replaced the seized tents
and arranged to have food delivered
to the hotel “on the three nights they
are filming,” according to an Atlanta
Homeless Union press release.
These events follow a recent spate
of clashes between the group’s activists
and officials with the Atlanta Police
Department (APD), ADID and Partners
for HOME, the City of Atlanta’s
homeless outreach partner.
A week before the studio got
involved, police arrested nine Atlanta
Homeless Union activists who had
pitched tents outside city hall as part
of a protest of the city’s treatment
of its homeless population. That
demonstration and the ensuing actions
accompany a demand for “housing,
healthcare and a seat at the table,” the
group has said.
Partners for HOME executive
director Cathryn Marchman, however,
said that officials have provided ample
opportunities for activists to have their
voices heard. “We held a [Continuum of
Care] meeting yesterday with over 120
attendees,” she said on July 14. “I invited
[Atlanta Homeless Union members] to
attend and offered them agenda time,
and I do not believe anyone showed.”
Additionally, Marchman said,
the Atlanta Homeless Union’s list of
demands can’t be fulfilled overnight.
“Getting people into housing — while
it is our number one goal — is not done
immediately or the same day ... which
is why we use shelters as a temporary
option, only for those who want it,” she
said. “There were several folks there that
day who eagerly accepted shelter.”
Still, Alfred “Shivy” Brooks, an
activist and Atlanta City Council
candidate, said the fact that Blacklight
Studios felt inclined to step in and help
out is indicative of problematic city
systems that don’t do enough to help the
homeless. “I think the city of Atlanta
has an obligation to make sure that all
of our citizens have a safe place to sleep
and food on the table,” he said in an
interview with Atlanta Civic Circle.
Atlanta Homeless Union organizers
said that their fight is far from over, and
that they’ll continue protesting what
they consider unfair treatment of the
city’s most marginalized people.
“We hope this is an inspiration to
unhoused people across the country
to show the power we have when we
organize and work together,” a group
said in a statement, later adding, “We
will continue building political power
among the unhoused residents of our
city until our ultimate demands are
met and homelessness is eradicated in
Atlanta.” QD
8 AUGUST 2021 | HU
AtlantalntownPaper.com