Atlanta Progressive News

The recent article by APN regarding the Georgia STAND-UP Candidates’ Forum story notes a seven-plank community issues platform compiled by Alliance members. Read the platform in full below:

Good Jobs

Good Jobs includes the creation of quality jobs that are accessible to local residents that provide benefits and wages which enable families to sustain a quality livelihood in the City of Atlanta. Job policies should also be created to enhance the well-being of working families.

• Invest in a strategic green jobs program
• Provide job training and other services for ex-offenders and other services to move them into mainstream
• Enforce compliance with existing employment laws (certified payroll, first-source hiring, stiffer penalties)

Economic Development

Economic Development is the use of public funds and decisions that prioritize the creation of economic opportunities for residents. Economic Development can occur through stimulating local job growth, which in turn causes unemployed labor and land to be used and/or by shifting employed labor and land to more productive uses, for example better jobs.

• Create “Jobs for Atlanta” legislation to keep jobs in Atlanta for Atlanta residents
• Improve business incentives for hiring locally
• Make Community Benefits Agreements legally enforceable

Affordable Housing

Affordable Housing ensures that fair and safe housing opportunities are available for a wide range of incomes, especially low-income families.

• Develop affordable housing impact statements to include a definition of affordable housing and track on an annual basis
• Provide affordable housing in mixed areas (not concentrated in certain communities)
• Implement property tax freezes/moratoriums and caps on housing prices for senior citizens, disabled, single parents, or entire neighborhoods

Public Safety

Public Safety practices must be accountable and transparent to all residents of Atlanta, and policies should support community efforts to create safety.

• Strengthen the power of the Atlanta Citizens Review Board
• Provide educational programs, youth services, and re-entry programs to reduce crime
• Maintain staffing levels for police and fire personnel

Transit & Transportation

Transit and Transportation must be developed to ensure that all members of society are able to travel. Transportation systems must be accessible and distributed equitably.

• Expand transportation system
• Engage the community to help define a system that supports their needs
• Increase security/visibility around bus stops

Vacant & Abandoned Housing

Vacant and Abandoned Housing must be reduced through formalized plans and include an implementation strategy designed to reduce the number of abandoned and vacant houses.

• Create a strategy to take ownership of abandoned homes
• Renovate homes and create programs to house displaced citizens
• Increase the amount of resources for land acquisition

Public Land

Public Land uses should allow for a community engagement process to directly

• Involve constituencies in the ongoing design, planning, and management of those resources
• Create partnerships with churches, schools, NPU to support facilities
• Look at “best practices” in other cities
• Demand park equity (resources, attention, accountability)