Buckhead Reporter - January 2021

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JANUARY 2021 • VOL. 15 — NO. 1

Buckhead Reporter

FOCUS ON EDUCATION

Students find creative ways to support the community in pandemic crisis P19-30

2020IN

‘Security Plan’ unveiled as crime outrage grows

Looking back at a historic year P5

BY JOHN RUCH

ny’s formal opinion. Norfolk Southern and ABI both say they intend to collaborate on a new route, or “alignment.” ABI believes the general route concept can remain intact, project engineer Shaun Green previously said. “Norfolk Southern Corporation has been, and will continue to be, a strong supporter of the Atlanta BeltLine project,” said Jeff DeGraff, a spokesperson for the Virginia-based railroad company, which

Community outrage over a spike in shootings and some other types of crime has hit a new peak, as 2020 ended with a 7-yearold child reportedly shot while riding past Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square resorting to metal detectors and gun-sniffing dogs. A new “Buckhead Security Plan” was a major response from local officials and organizations. The plan largely calls for beefing up existing police tactics, laws and policies. It also functions as a political challenge to public safety policies of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is directly requested in the plan to publicly denounce crime -- a call that Buckhead-area City Councilmember J.P. Matzigkeit is personally echoing. Bottoms has not responded directly. Instead, she has issued orders addressing some of the local crime concerns without mentioning Buckhead or any other neighborhood, and the Mayor’s Office has not responded to questions about the changes. One recent order establishes an interdepartmental working group to come up with legislation this month to address unnamed “nuisance properties” said to be linked to killings and assaults. Another orders a plan to fill vacant 911 operator positions, an issue raised by Matzigkeit after reports of callers being put on hold or getting recordings. Less noticed amid the political heat is that the overall crime rate is down and, officials say, likely would be lower if the temporary conditions of the pandemic were not shutting down courts and causing jails to turn away low-level detainees. Maj. Andrew Senzer, the commander of Buckhead’s Zone 2 Atlanta Police Department precinct, said at a December community meeting that his of-

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See BUCKHEAD on page 14

COMMENTARY

Peering into the 2021 crystal ball

ATLANTA BELTLINE INC.

Workers install part of the Atlanta BeltLine’s Northeast Trail on a Georgia Power right of way along Ansley Golf Club earlier this year. A planned extension of the trail into nearby southern Buckhead has run into an objection from railroad operator Norfolk Southern Corporation.

P16-18

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

New Year, New Beginnings P16

The Buckhead Reporter is mail delivered to homes on selected carrier routes in ZIPs 30305, 30327 and 30342 For information: delivery@reporternewspapers.net

Railroad’s objection slows BeltLine route into southern Buckhead BY JOHN RUCH A railroad company’s objection to the announced route of the Atlanta BeltLine’s Northeast Trail through southern Buckhead surprised attendees of a Dec. 8 planning meeting. But it was no surprise to BeltLine planners, who heard Norfolk Southern Corporation’s concerns months ago after publicly releasing the route concept without securing the railroad compa-

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