Story by: Kendall Kylls
The Committee for a Better Atlanta (CBA) is a coalition of local businesses and civic organizations dedicated to lobbying a common business and civic agenda to local politicians. Some of Atlanta’s most influential businesses are members of the CBA including Coca-Cola, Delta, Georgia Power, Home Depot and The Gathering Spot.
Every election cycle, after interviewing each candidate and hosting a candidate forum, the CBA releases a score and ranking of every candidate running for office. Scores are given based on CBA’s policy platform, which this year centers: public safety, economic recovery, affordable housing, city leadership, and transportation.
Last week, the CBA hosted it’s candidate forum, which featured candidates running for mayor and all 16 city council seats.
Clarence Blalock, a self-employed contractor running for city council in District 1, denounced the CBA at their own forum, due to their endorsement of the pending police training facility slated to open in Atlanta within the next couple of years.
“I am disgusted by CBA’s endorsement of the so-called Social Justice & Police Training Facility, which would destroy 150 acres of the largest undisturbed green space inside the perimeter,” Blalock stated during his introduction. “It is also the site of the wrongful imprisonment of men of color for decades, and to use it as a police country club is unacceptable.”
This facility is supposed to be built on the grounds of the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, a former prison in Southwest DeKalb where felons convicted of minor crimes were forced to perform unpaid agricultural labor for decades (Slavery 2.0). The prison farm was closed in 1965.
Many neighboring residents feel that the prison farm is not the best site for a massive police facility, however, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says this new academy is necessary to ensure that the city has the most well-trained officers protecting its communities. She also thinks it will improve morale and retention rates within the Atlanta Police Department, as she pushes to hire more officers.
“If you look at the police academy in the current state that it’s in now, they don’t even have lockers for the recruits to put things in,” Bottoms said at an event earlier this year. “It looks as if we don’t value public safety in the city, and so I think this is going to help with our recruitment efforts.”
If this deal goes through, 150 acres of forest will be cleared in order to build the facility. Many climate activists, including Blalock, have spoken out against cutting down so many trees that have been here for decades.
"My number one issue is the environment," Blalock said at the CBA forum. "In the city of Atlanta we have neglected the environment for far too long. Climate change is a major issue. We have lead in the westside. We have polluted creeks in our district. It needs to be a bigger issue."