Silence on livability and affordability when $60K-80K means you can outpurchase the existing residents in your gentrified neighborhoods

"Amazon might be bringing $100K jobs to your neighborhood, more at 11"

"All we want is economic diversity and for people already living here to not be priced out of their homes"

OH OKAY SURE.

Listen, I'm not saying we as a city don't need to tackle the problem of rising housing costs. But when we do, we should make sure that EVERYONE has a seat at the table (even low income people, i.e. those that have already been priced out of some neighborhoods). It just seems disingenuous that so many people are suddenly against 50,000 new jobs coming to the city when they hear whispers that these new jobs might also mean the displacers will become the displaced.

Fighting against Amazon is not the way to secure your home against the future. Lobbying mayoral candidates and council members to ensure they know that affordability should be a central tenet of their platform is. There could not be a better time to use your voice to affect change. This race really is perfect in its timing. We are already beginning to tackle the issues of affordability here, but far, far more needs to be done, especially if Amazon is coming to town.

I am so excited at the possibility of Amazon coming to Atlanta. This is the kind of thing that changes a city for the better. A much larger tax base, increased density, likely huge improvements in infrastructure, becoming a leader in a booming sector of the economy, etc. This would be transformational in the best of ways. But let us also ensure that we put in place safeguards against disrupting the lives of current Atliens and making sure this boon for the city helps rather than hurts us (hopefully even retroactively righting some of those we've wronged insofar as poor people without a voice being priced out by 'acceptable' gentrification).