"SoNo" held back by shelter? (Atlanta: foreclose, lenders)

[CityFan]

^Where are the cops? Should they take care of this problem and crack down on the crime in that area too?

[south-to-west]

Originally Posted by CityFan

^Where are the cops? Should they take care of this problem and crack down on the crime in that area too?

Good question. You would think so, but the police department is undermanned at this point and I think that as long as the problem is concentrated in one area, it's no sweat off their brow. Like other cities, police presence is somewhat dependent on the "squeaky wheel" theory, and there aren't enough residents, nor has their been enough investment in the area for a "squeaky wheel". The biggest impediment in that area to new investment or new residents is the shelter. Drive down Piedmont or Juniper at night and you'll see what I mean.

[WorldChamp]

I actually did some more research and found an aritcle on the AJC that mayor Franklin was trying to shut down the shelter, but the shelter refused and made a point that "they would be here a while", and are going to renovate to prove the point. Its sad because this area does have so much potential, and the only way downtown will get to where it needs to be is if "SoNo" (I kind of like the corny invented name) leads the way. As the "Midtown-ness" moved down Peachtree into SoNo, it would continue down Peachtree, eventually hitting downtown and bringing more residences in. But development is not going to jump from Midtown to Downtown. It HAS to go through SoNo, and the only way that will happen is if they get the shelter out of there.

[Dignan]

An interesting question to me is, if the shelter must go, where must it go to?

No neighborhood wants a shelter around the corner, but shelters have to exist somewhere. Is the solution to sacrifice one small area of town and put ALL of the shelters in a very small area, thereby allowing one area to become worse than hell but allowing other areas to flourish? If so, which area should be sacrificed?

Because, short of committing massive resources to alleviating the homeless problem (which is unlikely to ever happen), there will always be shelters, and those shelters will always be a barrier to development of the surrounding area.

So where is an acceptable place for shelters to be located in Atlanta?

[MMANN]

They should set up a huge hospital-like building in Mechanicsville or Pittsburgh. These areas are probably never going to see gentrification, at least not in our lifetime. These neighborhoods need to be sacrificed for the betterment of Atlanta.

In regards to shipping our homeless elsewhere, we did do that in Winter '95-'96, in preperation for the Olympics. We shipped them to Birmingham. It seems it didnt have much of a long term effect, although who knows for sure.

It annoys me when people are opposed to moving the shelter off Peachtree, citing the 'social cause' of preventing homelessness. The fact is, these people do not have a constitutional or god-given right to live on Peachtree. If I cant afford to live on Peachtree, why should they get to?

Mechanicsville and Pittsburgh are already so bad, I doubt people would even notice if a shelter plopped up in thier nieghborhood. If they did notice, im sure they are not the type to sit down and write a letter to city hall...

[SoBuKev]

Folks this shelter is horribly run...they need to just shut it down as opposed to moving it somewhere. There are other well run shelters in the area.

[south-to-west]

Originally Posted by SoBuKev

Folks this shelter is horribly run...they need to just shut it down as opposed to moving it somewhere. There are other well run shelters in the area.

Exactly. The question isn't about whether this shelter should move. Rather, it should be about how the shelter is horribly run and if it should be shut down. Sadly in this case it should be shut down because it ceases being a positive asset to the community when it contributes substantial negative impact for a large area that is important to the future vitality of the city.

[MMANN]

Originally Posted by SoBuKev

Folks this shelter is horribly run...they need to just shut it down as opposed to moving it somewhere. There are other well run shelters in the area.

Where are the other ones?

[CityFan]

Originally Posted by MMANN

It annoys me when people are opposed to moving the shelter off Peachtree, citing the 'social cause' of preventing homelessness. The fact is, these people do not have a constitutional or god-given right to live on Peachtree. If I cant afford to live on Peachtree, why should they get to?

Mechanicsville and Pittsburgh are already so bad, I doubt people would even notice if a shelter plopped up in thier nieghborhood. If they did notice, im sure they are not the type to sit down and write a letter to city hall...

Well, I think there are a couple of ways that city can impose on the propery owner and force them to move out. One is tax code imposed on the property which requires more cops, other is building code to be in comformity with other nice buildings on peachtree street. The building department can turn down their remodeling permits if it doesn't comform with code.
As to relocate into other areas, the city can give them some incentives.

[gumboula]

Originally Posted by CityFan

On one forum, somebody mentioned that other states might transport homeless people to Altanta and drop them off, so Atlanta is the recipent of homeless people. Is that true? Why can't Atlanta do the same thing to other states and transport back to them the homeless people? It sounds funny if that is true.

Hahaha! Very old urban legend. I used to work for someone who was involved in the development of the national Healthcare for the Homeless program. He had a great story about meeting with the mayor of Birmingham who told him that all of the homeless in the city were shipped in from Nashville. A few weeks later he met with the mayor of Nashville, who without prompting told him that all of their homeless were shipped in from Birmingham. Very funny!