BeltLine Development 4 Atlanta’s Tech Boom 7 Fight for the Forest 20

Are we prioritizing transit and affordable How the city is becoming a hub of The home front in a new era of
housing? growth for the tech industry environmental warfare

Building a City
Plans to create a more inclusive and
prosperous community in Atlanta
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SPRING 2023
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Table of Contents
Articles
2 World Cup Preparations

4 BeltLine Development

7 Atlanta’s Tech Boom

10 Sustenance & Succulents

13 Redlining in Atlanta

16 Bridging the Gap

18 Diving into Policy

20 Fight for the Forest

23 All Aboard, Georgia!

26 Gold Dome Highlights

Opinion
28 The Skyline Op-Ed

31 Fighting with Pride

Spring 2023 1
World Cup Preparations
What Atlanta has planned for the world’s greatest soccer tournament
ANOUSHKA GANDOTRA, author
GEHNA CHAUBAL, designer
Many Atlantans have fond memories of hosting
the 1996 Olympics. Children all over Georgia
hear their parents’ retellings of the games.
Downtown Atlanta’s Olympic Torch, Centennial
Olympic Park, and Georgia Tech’s own campus
hold Olympic history. For Atlanta, the ‘96
Olympics cost nearly $1.7 billion, but the
games also led to great economic benefits. Now,
over two decades later, Atlanta is set to co-host
another great event of international competition:
the 2026 World Cup.
Ever since Atlanta’s MLS soccer team, Atlanta
United FC, was founded in 2014, soccer fans
have emerged all over Georgia. In 2018, when
Atlanta United won its first MLS cup, Georgia
2017 Orlando City at Atlanta United MLS game in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium // Photo from Creative Commons
2 Spring 2023
found a resurgence in soccer pride, and the
popularity of the club increased dramatically. In
2022, Atlanta United secured the MLS record
for the highest average attendance for any team
at 47,116. With Mercedes-Benz Stadium as the
largest MLS stadium in the nation, combined
with Atlanta’s Olympics hosting experience, it
is only natural that Atlanta is one of the cities
hosting the next World Cup.
For the first time in World Cup history, the 2026
World Cup will be jointly hosted by Canada, the
United States, and Mexico. Atlanta will be one
of 16 hosting cities. According to one Boston
Consulting Group study, the estimated net
benefit to Atlanta will be $415 million. In 2022,
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said that the
estimated revenue the World Cup could bring in
is over $400 million. With its reputation on the
line, Atlanta has already begun preparations.
These preparations include developing the Gulch,
renovating MARTA stations, building new street
grids, and developing rental housing.
The Gulch is an underdeveloped area in
Downtown Atlanta that developers have
major plans for. It is at the forefront of new
development for the World Cup. In a proposal
called Centennial Yards, developers are aiming
to have over half of the Gulch hold restaurants,
apartments, shops, and anything a tourist might
want or need. Sewer lines will be renovated, and
the area will become an entertainment district.
Centennial Yards Company will be in charge of
this project and has created virtual previews of
what the city will look like after development.
The developer group that created Centennial
Yards Company, CIM Group, has also planned
to build a new street in the Gulch, though it will
not be entirely completed in 2026.

With Mercedes-
Benz Stadium as
the largest MLS
stadium in the
nation, combined
with Atlanta’s
Olympics hosting
experience, it is
only natural that
Atlanta is one of the
cities hosting the
next World Cup.
Housing will be a major factor in World Cup
preparations. Some apartment complexes are
already being built and put to use by CIM
Group, but they have plans for more complexes
and a hotel as well. Underground Atlanta, a
lively district of Downtown Atlanta, has its
own residential projects underway. While
Underground Atlanta’s residential pricing
has not been disclosed, CIM Group, as per
their deal with the city, will price 20% of its
units to be affordable for people making 80%
of the area’s median income. Many of these
projects were conceptualized prior to the World
Cup announcement, but 2026 has become
a new deadline for many developers. April
Stammer, Senior Vice President at Newport
RE LP, said that while Newport’s projects were
conceptualized prior to the World Cup co-host
announcement, they “are certainly keeping our
eye on [the World Cup] as a target, but we had
certainly planned for the next two pieces of
development to complete by then.”
Transportation is another key aspect of the
preparations. MARTA has announced a $260
million plan to renovate its Five Points Station.
The plaza, concrete canopy, and roadway designs
will become more accessible and aesthetic.
Additionally, the east-west and north-south
MARTA’s StationSoccer at Five Points // Graphic by Gehna Chaubal
platforms are currently being renovated.
MARTA is the first transit agency worldwide to
incorporate soccer fields inside train stations. In
collaboration with the nonprofit organization
Soccer in the Streets, the StationSoccer program
will continue to thrive in the renovated Five
Points Station.
If all goes to plan,
Atlanta will not
only be a more
developed city by
2026, but it will be
greener as well.
Keli Davis, director of MARTA’s Facilities
Capital Delivery Program, is confident that
MARTA will finish the renovations before the
World Cup. She says that canopy deconstruction
should start in August 2023 and that MARTA is
“looking to being done [with the renovations] at
the end of 2025.”
Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) is a non-profit
development organization that has created a
Downtown Atlanta Masterplan with input
from the city government and community
organizations. Key areas CAP focuses on while
developing include sustainability and advocacy.
The organization uses surveys, town halls, and
focus groups to create a general idea of what the
public wants. Jennifer Ball, the chief operating
officer of Central Atlanta Progress, says that
in terms of sustainability, “[CAP] has a track
record of building bike lanes and sidewalks and
rethinking our streets as multimodal corridors
and incorporating into those design elements
green infrastructure… to avoid inundation and
flooding and spillover effects.”
Trees Atlanta is one of CAP’s partners. According
to Ball, the two organizations “are working to
plant 10,000 trees in Downtown, and many
of those trees will be in place by 2026.” If all
goes according to plan, Atlanta will not only be
a more developed city by 2026, but it will be
greener as well.
Whether the goals are reached or plans fall short,
Downtown Atlanta will look vastly different in
2026 than it looks today. While this is a dream
come true for both developers and Georgia’s
soccer fans, Atlanta has the opportunity to prove
that it can once again host a major sporting
event.

Spring 2023 3
4 Spring 2023
BeltLine Development
Are we prioritizing transit and affordable housing?
MARTA WESTERSTAHL, author
ARDEN DAVIS, designer
When Ryan Gravel submitted his master’s thesis
to Georgia Tech’s School of City and Regional
Planning in 1999, he didn’t think his idea would
come to fruition. His proposal eventually led to
the BeltLine: a 22-mile loop trail connecting 45
neighborhoods around Atlanta using old, unused
rail lines. Currently, large parts of the east, west,
and southwest trails are finished, and project
completion is expected by 2030.
Originally designed to include a streetcar line
spanning the whole trail, MARTA announced
its first plan to add light rail, also referred to as
streetcars, to the trail this spring. The plan would
connect the existing downtown streetcar with the
BeltLine, adding just 1.5 miles of streetcar to the
BeltLine by 2027.
Speaking on the importance of including the
streetcar along the BeltLine, Gravel said, “if you
don’t build the transit, then guess what? It’s a
recreational trail. But the cost is, you know, all
the people that get left out of it.” As economic
growth and upscale private development around
the BeltLine surges, critics wonder where this
leaves long-time Atlantans.
Equity, diversity,
affordable housing,
and sustainability
all are related, and
the piece we’re
working on and
that common
denominator for
this is BeltLine rail.
According to Gravel, “we’re building the
BeltLine within a policy framework that doesn’t
protect people. The problem isn’t the BeltLine.
The problem is a policy framework. Whether
you’re talking about housing, affordability,
economic opportunity, you know, who benefits
and who’s left out.”
South side of the BeltLine lined by new development // Photo by Arden Davis
According to their website, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.
has made a commitment to create or preserve
5,600 units of affordable housing around the
BeltLine by 2030. However, in their reporting
they do not distinguish between newly built
housing and the preservation of existing units or
define what preservation means.
Homes are classified as affordable if they are
available to people who earn between 80% and
30% of the area median income, assuming that
a household does not spend more than 30% of
its income on rent. For the Atlanta area, the area
median income was around $82,000 in 2020
for a household with four members. However,
typical incomes in many of the communities the
BeltLine passes through are significantly lower
than the Atlanta area median. For this reason,
much of the housing around the BeltLine that is
considered “affordable” fails to meet the needs of
Atlanta’s most vulnerable communities.
A shortage of affordable housing is a widespread
issue throughout Atlanta, not just surrounding
the BeltLine, said Gravel. “Midtown was
booming [in the] last 20 years, exploding with
growth, but we haven’t asked them or Buckhead
to do 20% affordable housing.”
In 2016, Gravel left the board of the BeltLine
Partnership due to his concerns about affordable
housing. He wonders why “we don’t ask any of
our other infrastructure to address affordable
housing, equity, injustice, you know, those
kinds of things. We should, and we would make
different decisions about those infrastructures as
investments as capital investments if we did.”
According to Gravel, this means that prioritizing
public transit and affordable housing remain
larger issues plaguing Atlanta. Focusing on them
only in relation to the BeltLine limits the scope
of how to effectively tackle these issues.
Just as Atlanta has changed rapidly in the past 20
years, Gravel implored Atlantans to consider the
future. “Transit takes a long time to build, and
it’s expensive, but it’s the thing that prepares us
for the future because right now people are still
looking at the BeltLine, as what they see in front
of their eyes. What they’re not seeing is how
transformed the city will be in 20 years.”
One group, BeltLine Rail Now, imagines what
Atlanta would be like if connected by light rail.
According to the organization’s chair, Matthew
Rao, “there is an essential connection between
these other goods — social goods — that we
want. Equity, diversity, affordable housing, and
sustainability all are related, and the piece we’re
Spring 2023 5
working on and that common denominator for
this is BeltLine rail.”
Rao says that when trail construction began in
2011, many were opposed to it. “Now those
people have forgotten about it and are asking
‘why do we want anything besides a trail?’”
Rao said that while MARTA’s proposal to
connect the downtown streetcar with the
BeltLine around Ponce City Market was a step
in the right direction of expanding rail, it was
unexciting and unambitious.
Gravel put it more bluntly: “[BeltLine rail
and the downtown streetcar] are two different
projects. They have different purposes, different
goals, and wildly different conditions. And they
just don’t just stick stuff together.”
The downtown streetcar has been criticized for
its short loop and its lack of right-of-way status
resulting in the streetcar being slow and often
stuck in traffic. Many proponents of connective,
equitable transit are wary of connecting what
they consider to be an inefficient downtown
streetcar with the proposed BeltLine light rail.
Adding streetcars is now a contentious issue,
but streetcars are not a new concept to Atlanta.
In the first half of the 20th century, Atlanta had
200 miles of streetcar tracks running through the
city, which were later phased out due to the city’s
prioritization of automobiles.
on it — wouldn’t that be a beneficial asset to
the city? And we started doing some analysis
and it was pretty obvious to us that the corridor
in which the BeltLine flows through … would
not support transit — or a fixed rail transit —
operation because there just weren’t enough
people and weren’t enough destinations and
originations on that corridor to generate the
ridership that you need to make fixed rail
network work.”
With this analysis, Edwards said that the city
“quickly transitioned to what else you could
do with this corridor, and that’s where we got
this bike trail and the green space and the
parks.” This underscores the BeltlLine’s current
role today as primarily an outdoor recreation
connector rather than a transit connector.
Edwards proposes “flexible technologies that
… don’t require such big fixed investments
upfront,” such as bus rapid transit to advance
transit mobility.
Bus rapid transit is a public transit system based
on reliable and high-frequency buses with
dedicated lanes and right of way. With many
existing multi-lane roads and highways, creating
designated bus lanes across Atlanta is a relatively
low-cost solution. Bus routes are also easier to
alter when ridership patterns change due to
unforeseen circumstances, such as a pandemic.
As Atlanta continues to grow, public transit
will become increasingly important. However,
Edwards said, the BeltLine is not the optimal
location for fixed public transit. “As a singular
network, just a streetcar running around in a big
circle was not going to work.”
We’re building a
city. We’re building
a place for us to live
and it has to work.
Coupled with continuing growth both around
the BeltLine and throughout the city, a lack of
affordable housing is likely to remain critical.
Gravel reminds Atlantans that “we’re building
a city. We’re building a place for us to live and
it has to work.” This means that infrastructure
and transit solutions that champion equity
must be placed at the forefront. According to
advocates like Gravel, our debate must shift from
objections and protests against expanding transit
and affordable housing to when and how we
plan to accomplish building it.

Rao noted that “when you invest money in

certain kinds of infrastructure, they become
permanent, right? So if you build a bridge for
cars but you don’t build it to support the weight
of trains, you’re not going back and rebuilding
that bridge again, not in this decade.” For Rao,
the goal is to build the streetcar along all of the
BeltLine and ensure connections to existing
MARTA subway rail lines as soon as possible.

David Edwards, executive director of the Center

for Urban Research at Georgia Tech and a policy
advisor for neighborhoods in Atlanta’s Office
of the Mayor, has a different view. He said that
Atlanta, with a population density of 3,700 per
square mile, doesn’t get close to the threshold of
“10,000 people per square mile needed to even
have a conversation about fixed rail.”

Edwards was working under then-Atlanta

mayor Shirley Franklin when the BeltLine was
proposed. “At that point, it was purely a transit
proposal that was if we had this abandoned
corridor, whether we were to put a transit line
Map of the Beltline trails // Graphic by Arden Davis

6 Spring 2023
ATLANTA’S
ATLANTA’S
TECH
BOOM
Spring 2023 7
Atlanta’s Tech Boom
How the city is becoming a hub of growth for the tech industry
KIRAN GAREWAL, author
SAM BASKIN, designer
When Eric Muntz joined Mailchimp as its third
product engineer, the email marketing company’s
headquarters was located on Means Street near
Georgia Tech’s Campus Recreation Center.
Muntz, who later became the company’s chief
technology officer, said that at the time “hiring
engineers was pretty difficult. We would go meet
engineers at Georgia Tech, and they would go
west.”
A city founded by the railroad industry and
subsequently known as a home of industries
like filmmaking and logistics, Atlanta has more
recently become known as a growing hub of
innovation for the high tech industry. In 2022,
Atlanta ranked third on CompTIA’s “Best
Tech Cities for IT Jobs” index, up from ninth
place in 2018. Home to the headquarters of
companies like NCR and Cardlytics, as well as
growing presences of leading tech companies
like Microsoft, Google, and Cisco, Atlanta is
now broadly considered one of the top centers of
growth for the tech industry.
A city founded
by the railroad
industry and
subsequently a
home of industries
like filmmaking and
logistics, Atlanta
has more recently
become known as
a growing hub of
innovation for the
high tech industry.
According to Larry Williams, president and
CEO of the Technology Association of Georgia,
Georgia has led in attracting industry growth
due to the state’s strong and diverse talent.
According to Williams, “talent development
8 Spring 2023
CODA Building // Photo courtesy of CODA
is economic development,” and Georgia’s
universities are largely responsible.
Atlanta is home to more than 15 colleges and
universities, including two public institutions
(Georgia Tech and Georgia State University),
four historically Black colleges and universities
(Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College,
Morehouse College, and the Morehouse
School of Medicine), and several other private
universities, including Emory University and
Agnes Scott College. These institutions supply
the city with a steady flow of new graduates,
including thousands in technology-related fields.
“We got 14,000 students — that’s 14,000
students that graduate with tech-related careers
from our four year colleges and universities
… we really work hard together with all
communities to make sure that people — that
everybody has an opportunity to connect to the
great prosperity that we’re experiencing here.
And with that, it’s not just about job creation.
It’s about putting people on a path to careers and
careers that they can be proud of,” said Williams.
Greg King, Georgia Tech’s associate vice
president for economic development, echoed this
sentiment. King specifically touted the institute’s
Advanced Technology Development Center, a
state-funded technology incubator. King said the
ATDC offers programs to “provide education
to entrepreneurs,” “specializ[e] around customer
discovery,” and “connect startups to investors
and connect them with large companies.” The
incubator has focuses in financial technology,
healthcare, manufacturing, supply and logistics,
sustainability, robotics and automatics, and 5G
innovation.
Another major draw to Metro Atlanta is the
comparably low cost of living, an effect that has
been increasingly strong in the last three years
as many tech workers have been able to work
remotely.
“You’re an engineer who goes west and you
share an RV with three other people, and then
you come back to Atlanta and you look at real
estate and you’re like, ‘wow, I can have, like, a
yard and a place to take my dog and like a whole
bedroom’ … and then you know, the pandemic
hits and immediately — we already had remote
employees, remote engineers specifically, before
the pandemic, but then immediately people start
proving that they can be successful, you know,
working from home,” Muntz explained.
According to data provided by the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, the annual mean wage of a
software developer in the Atlanta metropolitan
area was about $118,000 in 2021. In the San
Francisco metropolitan area, that figure was
about $158,000. According to NerdWallet’s
cost of living calculator, San Francisco has an
85% higher cost of living than Atlanta, making
a $118,000 salary in Atlanta comparable to
$218,000 in San Francisco.
Williams also credited initiatives by the state
government to make Georgia “the number
one place to do business nine years in a row.”
The distinction comes from a ranking by a
publication called Area Development and has
been widely cited by governmental and business
leaders throughout the state.
“Government doesn’t create jobs,” said Williams.
“It creates, you know — its focus is to create an
environment where companies — private sector
— can thrive, and therefore the jobs come with
it.”
Williams named a low corporate income tax,
consistent regulatory environment, and specific
tax incentives as primary tools for attracting
private sector development in the state.
John Soper is a senior project manager at the
Georgia Department of Economic Development,
a state agency charged with spurring this
Tech companies
in Atlanta
1 Microsoft
2 Google
3 NCR
4 Cisco
5 Cardlytics
6 MailChimp
development. According to Soper, “the state
has made several strategic investments, I think,
to develop the technology workforce and to
attract technology companies.” Soper specifically
praised the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta,
which coordinates education and workforce
development for the growing cybersecurity
agency.
Soper also cited the state’s jobs tax credit, which
provides corporations with tax reductions for the
creation of jobs, and the quality jobs tax credit,
which provides a higher credit for “high-paying”
jobs (defined as 10% above the average wage
in the county). He also mentioned Georgia’s
high-technology company sales and use tax
exemption, which provides exemptions to sales
taxes on computer equipment sold to companies
that purchase more than $15 million worth of
computer equipment in a calendar year.
According to Muntz, all these factors — talent
development, cost of living, and governmental
incentives — created a positive environment
for tech companies in Atlanta, and by around
2015, Atlanta’s tech industry had entered into a
positive feedback loop. Around this “inflection
point,” he said, enough local startups like
Mailchimp had gained name recognition that
the trend of “chasing gold” westward had slowed,
1
2
3
Georgia 4
Tech
and both retaining and attracting talent has
become easier for his team. As Muntz put it,
“that sort of just created this awesome snowball
that rolled down the hill and just kept gathering
more and more snow.”
Muntz is also confident that this growth will
be sustainable. “In Atlanta, the VC money is
not just flowing as super prevalent as it is, and
has been, out in Silicon Valley, and so you get a
different type of startup here. You get a type of
startup, I mean, like Mailchimp, that never took
any investment ever, and really just focused on
building a long-term sustainable business.”
As for the future, King excitedly listed upcoming
developments in the area.
“I think I have the best job in the world because
one of the things I get to see is, if there’s
something that I’ve had a chance to work on,
I can actually — I get to see how it impacts
people, right? … You can stand at Technology
Square and see people going into new jobs at
Cisco, or at NCR, or over to Honeywell, or
over to Micron, or wherever … That’s only
going to be further accelerated with life science,
bioscience investment over in Science Square so,
you know, I’m excited about it all.”
5
6
Spring 2023 9
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10 Spring 2023
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Season 20XX X
Sustenance & Succulents
Find nourishment at the Wednesday market on Skiles Walkway
MAEVE MOBLEY, author
INIKA SHAH, designer
Pickles and edible cookie dough are just two
among the many goods sold at stalls at the
Community Market on Skiles Walkway. Vendors
come to Georgia Tech from all over Atlanta to
sell their food every Wednesday. It is probably
the highlight of my week. At the very end of
the row near the student center stands a red
tent accompanied by a lengthy line of hungry
people monitored by baby orange cones. They
patiently wait for heartwarming Moroccan food
at Marrakech Express. Across the sidewalk, one
can find stands of succulents and fairy houses
for planting. People gather around to propagate
their own plant or get a taste of whimsy for the
day at What the Succulent.

MARRAKECH EXPRESS
Chef Amal Alaoui has been surrounded by
gifted women her whole life. She grew up in a
big house in Marrakech City, Morocco, with
the cooking of her mother, grandmother, and
big sister. Alaoui started cooking as a hobby,
and then she married into a cooking family. Her
husband’s grandmother was a well-known chef
in Morocco. They lived together with Aloui’s
mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, who are all
older women who carried strong relationships
with cooking. Her husband noticed her cooking
hobby was growing and encouraged her to learn
Chef Amal Alaoui // Photo by Maeve
Mobley
Georgia Tech Community Market // Photo by Maeve Mobley
more under a professional chef, so she met Chef
Karima in Marrakech City. Chef Karima taught
her how to cook more intricate Moroccan dishes
like bastilla and chicken m’hammar for larger
events and weddings.
In 2015, Aloui and her husband moved to
Atlanta, after which Marrakech Express was
born. She got her start at We Suki Suki, a
small food court in East Atlanta Village. Her
“small stand [with] a big, big heart” quickly
gained publicity, and she began applying to
other farmers’ markets. The line at her stand
was always the longest in all seven markets she
attended, she said.
It is no different for the line at the Georgia Tech
Community Market. I used to be intimidated
when I searched for a place to direct my hunger.
The red tent gave me people I could trust. For
four years, Aloui and her team have been coming
to the Community Market at Skiles Walkway.
Like many others before me, I had the pleasure
of waiting in line for chicken shawarma with
hot sauce. I could feel my stomach progressively
getting hungrier as I moved along the line. I
announced my hunger to Aloui while she made
my plate, and she said he loves hungry people. I
felt cared for; she fed me and made me feel loved
— a specific kind of love one only receives from
the finest cooking. Aloui shared a little bit of the
connection she has with the students at Georgia
Tech.
Don’t doubt the
magic in her dishes,
she said. “It is not
normal food — it
is right from the
heart.

Spring 2023 11

Chef Amal Alaoui // Photo by Maeve Mobley
“I feel they are my children, I swear. I feel sad
when I sell out and I find the line; I feel my
children are still hungry,” Aloui said. She has
“I feel sad when I
seel out and I find
the line; I feel my
children are still
hungry.”
relationships with her customers and knows
many of them by name. When they graduate,
many students go straight to Marrakech Express
for graduation party catering. Aloui encounters
loyal customers following her and her team
Caitlin Cash // Photo by Maeve
Mobley
12 Spring 2023
around the different markets of Atlanta. She can
see the happiness her food gives others.
Don’t doubt the magic in her dishes, she said. “It
is not normal food — it is right from the heart.”
Aloui is currently searching for a permanent
restaurant space in Atlanta. Until then, students
can get in line every Wednesday (and some
Mondays) at the red tent for some delicious food
from the heart.
WHAT THE SUCCULENT
A table of petite fairy houses and potted green
plants catches one’s eye at the market. At the
table stands Caitlin Cash, owner of What the
Succulent. She attributes a lot of her success
in this venture to her family, starting with her
parents, both talented gardeners. According to
Cash, “when you got in trouble as a kid, you
had to weed the garden instead of going to your
room, and I actually liked it.” She has carried her
love of plants with her to this day.
Cash has had a unique career path. Among her
experience is 10 years in healthcare, as well as
administration and support specialist positions
at a tech company. From nonprofit work to
corporate sales — not to mention learning
from her uncles’ businesses on a fishing boat
and a mushroom farm — Cash’s variety of jobs
gave her the tools she needed to start her own
business. Working in corporate sales confirmed
Cash’s disdain for selling things that weren’t hers.
She felt stuck.
Then, a tragedy changed everything. Cash’s best
friend died in a bike accident, and she planted
his ashes in an avocado bonsai tree. She honored
her best friend’s memory by sustaining a new
life. The plant collection grew after Cash took
in all of her office’s plants over the COVID-19
lockdown. It was Cash’s father who pushed her
to start selling plants because they simply had
too many in the house, and she combined his
idea with her love of fairy houses for planters.
Cryptid Creatives was Cash’s first market in
Atlanta. The fairy house planters were a hit and
have been since. Now she is all over different
markets, with bigger things to come. Cash plans
to add a greenhouse to What the Succulent and
to begin to employ ex-convicts. She is grateful
for the support she has received from her family,
and she wants to pay it forward.
“You’re like, I did
this. I grew this.
I made this and
it’s alive because
I gave it love.”
Regarding advice for those looking to start a
small business, Cash said “don’t get discouraged,
because you’re gonna get knocked down. I’ve
had my umbrella run over [by a car] one week.
I’ve had like $7 in sales. I’ve had a whole crop
ruined by it raining and dumping water all over
my waterverse lithops … You have to have really
good discipline. Yeah. And calendars — use a lot
of calendars.”
Regarding the personal benefits of planting,
“there’s just something kind of meditative about
planting and pruning and keeping it alive,” she
said. “You’re like, I did this. I grew this. I made
this and it’s alive because I gave it love.”
Interested readers can visit her propagation
station (pay-what-you-can) every other
Wednesday on Tech Green from 10-2 and follow
@whatthesucculentatl on Instagram for more
information.
Spring 2023 13
Redlining in Atlanta
How it’s dictating our community efforts today
NATASHA PIETAK-WALSH, author
INIKA SHAH, designer
It doesn’t require much thought to have a
general understanding that the South was built
on hundreds of years of racist practices. From
racism in government, the arts, and education
(the list goes on), it tends to be the backbone of
states’ infrastructure across the Southern region.
What requires a bit more thought is how racist
environmental practices are at the end of a
metaphorical string that ties all of these aspects
together.
As defined by Princeton University,
environmental racism is “unequal access to a
clean environment and basic environmental
resources based on race.” For decades,
communities of color across the United States
have been disproportionately harmed by a
long list of environmental hazards. Through
inequitable policy and outright discrimination,
communities of color have been forced to reside
in close proximity to polluted water systems,
landfills, major intersections, roadways, sewage
systems, and other methods of transportation
that emit airborne pollution. Environmental
racism can also be seen in less direct ways, such
as schools often being in poor condition and
built using asbestos (a carcinogenic mineral that
can cause dangerous lung conditions), when the
school’s demographics are predominantly Black
and brown children. Being in these types of
environments over time is harmful, and statistics
have shown these communities are at greater risk
of having serious health concerns.
Like other types of racism, environmental racism
is deeply rooted in history. Communities that
suffer at the hand of these policies are trapped
for decades, bringing on hundreds of years of
discrimination along with a long list of health
conditions as a result. Why are white, upper-
class families found in safe neighborhoods
with clean air and water, frequent green space,
and flamboyant vegetation, whereas people of
color and lower-class families are found next
to factories, sewage dumps, and interstates?
Environmental racism isn’t a coincidence
— it’s in our policies, our history, and an
effect of decades of discriminatory practices.
Environmental racism is a choice.
Redlining is a specific type of environmental
racism in which housing is denied to applicants
in neighborhoods that have been pre-identified
as “hazardous” to investors. Let’s zoom in to one
of the most famous cities in the South, Atlanta,
and set the clock to the mid-1930s, during
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time in office.
Often recognized as Roosevelt’s most successful
project, the New Deal helped popularize the
idea of redlining and brought generations of
consequences to Atlanta’s Black and brown
communities.
The New Deal created homeownership programs
that helped stop the millions of mortgage
holders who lost their homes during the Great
Depression from becoming homeless. The plan
created the Homeowners’ Loan Corporation
and the Federal Housing Administration, which
helped millions of Americans to receive loans for
home ownership across the United States. But
this was the 1930s; the Civil Rights Movement
was brewing, as was the peak of stringent
racism across the country. This created the
tendency of the FHA to discourage banks from
investing loans in buyers near racially mixed
neighborhoods, according to the Unvarnished
project. A 1935 FHA manual instructed
underwriters: “if a neighborhood is to retain
stability properties must continue to be occupied
by the same social and racial classes.”

Environmental
racism isn’t a
coincidence — it’s
in our policies, our
history, and an
effect of decades
of discriminatory
practices.
Environmental
racism is a choice. HOLC neighborhood designations overlaid on racial majorities // Map courtesy
of Layla Bellows, Atlanta Regional Commission

14 Spring 2023
 representing Not Hispanic, White alone With redlining, not only did communities suffer
Later that year, the HOLC began to identify
individuals and pink representing Not-Hispanic, economically, but the environmental hazards
“high-risk” and “low-risk” neighborhoods across
Black alone, individuals. As we can immediately became even more consequential to health
over 200 cities, the New York Times reported,
identify upon looking at the map, those areas concerns — something especially prominent in
with majority Black neighborhoods generally
marked as “best” and “acceptable” according Atlanta today.
deemed “high-risk.” Those neighborhoods
to the HOLC are in predominantly White
recognized as high-risk were shown in red, and
neighborhoods; those marked “declining” A study done by the University of Michigan
the practice was eventually termed “redlining.”
and “hazardous” are predominantly Black identified that those living in redlined
Those who resided in redlined neighborhoods
neighborhoods. neighborhoods can have shortened life spans,
were rarely given insured mortgages, creating a
reaching up to 30 years less than those living
stagnant difference in neighborhoods of Black
Bellows also provided a similar map that outlines in non-redlined districts. Here in Atlanta, a
and brown communities. The maps were never
the similarities between unemployment rates study conducted by Professor Josh Apte at the
publicized, as they were to be kept behind closed
and HOLC descriptions. The map below depicts University of California, Berkeley, identified
doors by the federal government. Nonetheless,
neighborhoods with high unemployment in nitrogen dioxide pollution in redlined
in the late 1970s, a historian named Kenneth
the colors dark blue and bright teal, while the neighborhoods as almost twice as high as those in
Jackson discovered one of these redlining
neighborhoods with low unemployment are non-redlined neighborhoods. Nitrogen dioxide
maps created for St. Louis. He described the
highlighted as a lighter teal and pale green. The pollution is a result of vehicle emissions and
redlined neighborhoods as being those which
HOLC colors remain the same. Here, we can directly leads to lung conditions. Apte broke
had older homes, lower home values, and were
see, yet again, an undeniable similarity between down that this initial redlining discrimination
in close distance to industrial regions. The most
high unemployment neighborhoods being seen against people of color eventually developed a
important feature, though, that he discovered,
as “uninsurable.” trend: because these communities were in close
was the tendency of redlined areas to be those
proximity to pollutants and polluted industrial
where Black residents resided.
Atlanta was proudly a part of the Jim Crow centers, it became easier for similar centers to
South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, develop in the same region, causing pollution
Now let’s jump back to Atlanta. The map
enforcing racial segregation and creating means levels to increase even more over time. Our past
to the left, created by Layla Bellows of the
to continue segregation even after the passage infrastructure decisions are perpetually causing
Atlanta Regional Commission based on ESRI’s
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forced a public health crisis among Black communities
“Living Atlas of the World Data,” outlines
the desegregation of public and private facilities. across Atlanta — and we’re failing to care.
neighborhoods HOLC deemed best, acceptable,
Georgia’s government, along with those of
and uninsurable. Green represents “best,”
states across the South, constantly relied on Those same communities have less vegetation
blue is “acceptable,” yellow is “declining,”
infrastructure to create more physical divides and tree coverage, adding to the issue of heat
and red is “hazardous.” The map also outlines
between white and Black communities, which absorption: these areas of the city are reaching
general demographics, with the color orange
is obvious when we look at redlined districts. temperatures much higher than any others.
Heat waves aren’t distributed equally and aren’t
a matter of fate; there is a direct correlation
between warmer areas and poorer regions as those
regions with less green space openly provide for
hotter temperatures to thrive. And where are
the regions with less green space? Often where
poorer communities, and more people of color,
call their home. These high heat conditions have
everlasting health concerns. UrbanHeatATL, a
collaborative effort between Spelman College
and other urban climate activist groups, has been
working to map the correlation between extreme
heat risk, historical racism, and environmental
injustice. But we can’t just rely on nonprofit
organizations to help combat the impending
public health and environmental crises.

Policy is at the core of our community efforts,

and if enforced enough, is proven to be
successful. Policymakers can work towards
decreasing the damage redlining has caused in
Atlanta since the early 20th century and reinvest
funds in areas that were historically discriminated
against and prohibit housing discrimination in
the future.
HOLC neighborhood designations overlaid on unemployment rates // Map
courtesy of Layla Bellows, Atlanta Regional Commission

Spring 2023 15
Bridging the Gap
From Afghanistan to Georgia, an aid group helps refugees resettle
SARAH HARPER, author
KIRAN GAREWAL, designer
While volunteers at the American Afghan
Alliance of Georgia were still carrying in donated
coats, shoes, and a sewing machine, the family
they were bringing the items for shook out a
gold-colored tablecloth and laid it on the floor.
Before the volunteers could put the donations
down, the mother, who spoke no English,
motioned for them to sit cross-legged on the
floor, where she began serving them lunch — a
spiced egg dish and flat, round bread, sprinkled
with sesame seeds. This family had escaped
from Afghanistan just months earlier, arriving
in Atlanta with almost nothing. But their first
thought was not about the donations of shiny
American goods the volunteers had brought.
Instead, their first thought was to take care of the
volunteers — the people trying to help them.
This family had been evacuated by U.S. troops
after President Joe Biden announced on May
1, 2021, that after 20 years in Afghanistan,
U.S. troops would be withdrawing fully from
military bases there. This resulted in Taliban
forces capturing the Afghan capital, Kabul,
on August 30, 2021. Since then, thousands of
Afghan immigrants who had helped U.S. troops
or were employed by the U.S. government fled
to the U.S. to escape the Taliban. Many families
left behind not only belongings, but also their
careers, bank accounts, and family members to
rebuild their lives here in the U.S. The AAAG
supports these families through donations of
money, clothing, furniture, household goods,
and through community building to help them
get back on their feet.
When she and
Poyan saw
Afghanistan fall to
the Taliban, they
felt the urgent
need to prepare for
the large influx of
people.
16 Spring 2023
Volunteers help Afghan refugees with English literacy // Photo courtesy AAAG
The AAAG, based in Decatur, Georgia, has
helped and is still helping about 300 families
settle in Atlanta. Co-founded by Hogai Nassery
and Zack Poyan, both Afghan-born Americans,
the AAAG is a nonprofit organization providing
direct aid and other assistance to Afghan
immigrants to help them gain stability and
eventually become financially independent.
According to Nassery, when she and Poyan
saw Afghanistan fall to the Taliban, they felt
the urgent need to prepare for the large influx
of people. She said that private and public
resettlement agencies were overwhelmed by the
number of refugees arriving. The AAAG was
created to help fill the gaps where other agencies
like the International Rescue Committee and
New American Pathways were falling short of
much-needed resources.
“The resettlement agencies had been really
shrunk,” said Nassery. “They had been shrunk
down because, during the Trump years, there
were no refugees coming, and the way they get
their funding is by settling refugees and getting
grants. They weren’t getting those grants, and
they had lost most of their staff, and now all
of a sudden they were being asked to welcome
thousands of people in a very short period of
time.”
Nassery said that under normal circumstances,
resettlement agencies would be helping only two
to three families a month and would get four
weeks’ notice before a family came to them. But
after the fall of Afghanistan, agencies like New
American Pathways and Catholic Relief Services
were getting about 50 people a week — or ten
families — with only 48 hours of notification.
This is when the AAAG came in to help.
According to Sherry Ebrahimi, an AAAG board
member, the group’s main goals in the summer
of 2020 were to help refugees with basic needs.
This included getting in-kind donations from
people in the Atlanta area, like furniture,
bedding, cookware, sewing machines, clothes,
shoes, and toys.
Bicycles are crucial, according to Ebrahimi.
“One thing AAAG has done is give people bikes
with [a] partnership through Global Spokes,”
she explained. Global Spokes is a nonprofit
organization that donates bicycles to those in
need in the Atlanta community and “makes sure
bikes are safe, and people have helmets. This is
one of the big points that has helped people be
successful right away [in the U.S.] because it
takes a while to get a license and save money for
a car,” said Ebrahimi.
When families first arrive, Nassery said, many
of their needs are simple. She recalls visiting a
family with nine children. When she helped
them connect a cellphone to Wi-Fi, they all
cheered.
“The baby was wearing an outfit that was made
out of a hotel towel. The mom was saying ‘can
you get me a sewing kit so I can sew them some
clothes,’” Nassery remembers. The children all
needed shoes. “I thought this was crazy, they
came with nothing. I was sitting there like ‘Oh
my god,’ there’s so much stuff they need and it
would be so easy to provide all of this. This is just
easy stuff. They aren’t asking me ‘hey, can you do
my immigration paperwork.’ And that’s one of
the things that is so exciting about this work, is
that you can make a difference by just hooking
them up to their Wi-Fi.”

“I was sitting there

like ‘Oh my god,’
there’s so much
stuff they need and
it would be so easy
to provide all of A clothing drive hosted for Afghan refugees // Photo courtesy AAAG

this.” “And my heart fell, because I had just put her

in such an awkward position because I made an Local Businesss
assumption,” Nassery said. “And I was just so
While AAAG initially focused on these basic
needs, now, with fewer Afghan refugees coming
angry at that moment and I thought ‘How is she Owned by
going to make it here?’ And then I come to find
into the U.S., the organization is shifting its out the whole family, including the parents, are or Supporting
goals, said Ebrahimi. illiterate.”
Afghan Refugees
“The new focus is on families who have been
here, making sure they have the right English AAAG is prioritizing Refuge Coffee Company,
classes, trying to get people to get better jobs
more in line with their skill level,” she said. She
mental health, Clarkston
mentioned a man who worked at an Emory integration into the Sweet Sweet Syria,
University parking office when he first moved
to Atlanta even though he had earned a master’s community, and Decatur
degree in Afghanistan. After eight months, she
says, he was able to get a job at Accenture.
unity. Kabul Market,
The family was from a very rural part of
Decatur
Nassery explained that AAAG is prioritizing Afghanistan, Nassery explained, “where there had
mental health, integration into the community, been fighting for so long the schools weren’t even
Stone Creek Halal Plaza,
and unity. The group holds community-building in session.” She added that although the boys Lilburn
events like pumpkin painting and coffee had gone to school, “They would just recite the
meet-ups. These events, Ebrahimi and Nassery Quran, the holy book, all day. They do not know
mentioned, always need volunteers. how to read or write.”

AAAG is also following up with families it
helped previously. Nassery recalls the family with
the nine — now 10 — children. Nassery recalls
asking the oldest daughter, who was 19, to write
down the children’s shoe sizes.
Now, Nassery said, the children are in school,
and the mother is learning to read and write and
taking English classes. “Their path is still really
hard, but they were so resilient, and they’re doing
as well as they can. The process is working.”

“No no no,” the girl said, and she pulled her scarf
down.
Refuge Coffee Company //
Photo courtesy AAAG
The girl told Nassery that she was illiterate.

Spring 2023 17
Diving Into Policy
Jackets take on the State Capitol
FLETCHER MORRIS, author
KIRAN GAREWAL, designer

Every year, the Georgia General Assembly goes

through a lengthy, difficult process to pass
laws and a budget for the coming year, and
students all across the state of Georgia have the
opportunity to play a role in the process. The
legislative session lasts a total of 40 legislative
days, beginning in January and stretching until
the end of March. During the session, the state
constitutionally only has to pass a budget, but
dozens of laws are passed along with the budget
as the legislators constantly try to improve our
state. Georgia college students who participate
in the Georgia Legislative Internship Program
become involved by helping senators and
representatives with tasks throughout the session.
From simply grabbing a coffee to writing bills for
the members of the legislature, legislative aides 2023 Georgia Tech GLIP Interns // Photo courtesy of Abigail Horvath
have an important role in helping the session run
smoothly, and it is a great experience for anyone
exposure to the legislative process. Along with As a lobbyist himself, Kaplan explained how
who participates.
being a committee chairman, Miller was also a small the community is. When first beginning
floor leader for the governor at the time. A floor his work, Kaplan was surprised at how “insular
As the program is beginning, each aide is placed
leader acts as a liaison for the governor in the the world is, everyone knows everyone, and
in an office with a representative, a senator, or
legislature so the governor’s priorities are spoken being an intern is the best way to break into
in one of the various offices that contribute to
for. Kaplan is now a lobbyist at the capitol and this work.” As we spoke, Kaplan looked out and
the legislative process. Each aide goes through
has been for the past several sessions. As a young said he personally knew each one of the about
an interview process to see what segments of the
university student who originally was barely 25 lobbyists in the field of view, and this is very
legislative process interest them, and they get
interested in politics, Kaplan said he “can’t unique to the world of the Georgia capitol.
placed based on their specific interests.
imagine something else he’d do with his life.”
The GLIP aides get a unique and up-close view
Kaplan was Going into the internship program, many do
not know fully what to expect. There is so much
on the session, and being this close to Georgia’s
politics reveals things that the media will not
surprised at how intricacy to the government and its processes always show the public. Having watched lots of

“insular the world that any class or book can only scratch the
surface of what really goes on. Kaplan described
is, everyone knows how, when he first showed up to the capitol,
he didn’t know a lot about the legislature or
everyone, and government. Throughout the session, aides get to
being an intern experience firsthand what happens behind closed
doors with both lobbyists and members of the
is the best way legislature.
deliberation and discussion between senators in
the chamber, Peters noted how she was surprised
that certain issues resulted in stark party line
votes. There were very select issues that came
through this session that the majority party chose
to run as priorities, and the bills related to these
issues often went through with total support
from the majority party. These bills led to more

to break into this
work.”
A former GLIP aide, Tyler Kaplan, landed in the
office of the then-chairman of the Senate State
and Local Government Operations committee,
Butch Miller (R-Gainesville). Kaplan enjoyed
working with Miller, and he gained a lot of
For third year public policy major Abby Peters
who worked as a GLIP aide in the office of
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman
Blake Tillery (R-Vidalia), “the lobbyists were
the biggest surprise.” Peters said that during
session, lobbyists are allowed to “walk all over
the capitol,” and they have free range to talk with
any senator or representative they can get time
with.
contentious arguments and disagreements from
the minority party, but no matter how much
opposition the bills were met with, these bills
still passed with full majority party votes.
Although some major issues did result in party
line votes, a lot of the work done in the capitol
is bipartisan. Many of the bills coming through
session are very beneficial for the citizens of
Georgia, and the members focus a lot of their

18 Spring 2023
efforts on ways to serve their constituents better.
For example, Senate Majority Caucus Chair
Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas) introduced a bill
requiring schools around Georgia to come up
with plans for any students with epilepsy, and
this bill passed both the House and Senate with
no votes in opposition. The work by Anavitarte
in raising this important concern will go on to
benefit hundreds of Georgians, and work like
this helps us see that our legislators do really care
about what they are working on for Georgians.
Aside from watching Senators and
Representatives navigate all sorts of bills, students
in GLIP get a lot of exposure to the day-to-
day tasks that make our state legislature run
smoothly. Aides help write talking points for
bill presentations, get signatures on new bills
and resolutions, and sometimes even contribute
language to a new bill being presented.
Aides help write
talking points for
bill presentations,
get signatures
on new bills
and resolutions,
and sometimes
even contribute
language to a
new bill being
presented. year until a quarter past midnight. Similar to
Shree Joshi is a third year public policy major
at Georgia Tech who was assigned to the office
of the governor’s floor leaders, just like Kaplan
several sessions ago. Joshi said she “learned the
ins and outs of the political process, the effect
that stakeholders have on legislation, and how
constituent concerns are dealt with.” Being in
and around several senators and representatives
gave her a good understanding of both chambers,
especially seeing the interactions of the floor
leaders for both.
Adding onto new concepts learned from this
program, Peters emphasized how “money
talks here.” Lobbyists and other organizations
have significant influence on members of the
legislature, and where money comes from can
frequently be an influential factor in decisions.
After several years and several sessions, Kaplan
said that “it’s very easy to be mediocre in this
business. To be really great, you have to be
willing to work yourself to the bone.” This is
an important lesson that aides, lobbyists, and
members alike could use to improve their work
rate and accomplishments.
During the session, there are two major
deadlines. The first of the two is Crossover Day,
the last day for bills to be passed out of their
original chamber. If a bill is not passed out of the
chamber it was introduced in by this day, it can
be heard next year for another attempt, but it is
considered dead for the rest of this year. Every
member is attempting to pass their bills, so this
day can be quite long. The Senate and House
were both in session until almost midnight, with
only a few short breaks. With all the members
in the chamber most of the day, Joshi said that
“crossover day is hectic.” The members are
anxious about their bills but are also thinking
about the other dozens of bills on the table, and
it feels like a sprint through the nearly 16 hours
of work. Watching Crossover Day for the first
time is daunting, as many pieces are moving
around all day, and Kaplan said that for him it
“took three years to truly figure out what was
going on.” Many aides sympathize with this
because of the sheer chaos that unfolds at the
capitol, but all of the action is very unique to
watch.
The other day during the session that sticks out
is Sine Die, day 40 of session. Sine Die is the
final day in the Georgia legislative session to pass
any laws, and it is an exciting, down-to-the-wire
endeavor. Some members arrive as early as seven
in the morning, and session did not end this
Crossover Day, bills were being discussed and
The Georgia General Assembly adjourns sine die // Photo by Evan Smallwood
voted on all day, with breaks every few hours.
As midnight approached, Chairman Tillery —
Peters’ boss who oversees the Senate’s budget
deliberations — presented a final copy of the
Georgia fiscal year 2024 budget for one last
vote. Once the bill passed, the Georgia session
could now legally end for the year. After a few
more bills, the lieutenant governor, who serves
as president of the Senate, was finally ready to
call an end to the session. In eager anticipation,
senators, aides, and spectators began ripping up
pieces of paper, and in a ceremonial way, the
speaker of the House and the lieutenant governor
both struck the gavel together and called an end
to session. With the decree of adjournment sine
die, the air is littered with paper like confetti, and
members begin hugging and celebrating the good
work and long hours that are finally over. Even
though the session is a lot of work in a short
amount of time, when asked about their time
there, almost everyone — aides, door keepers,
lobbyists, and legislators — say they are excited
to come back to that special building next year.
Taking a step back from those hectic days, the
session as a whole is a one-of-a-kind experience
for any college student who gets the opportunity.
Being up close and personal with so many people
and bills, there is no better way to learn how
government truly works. According to Joshi,
“working in the Capitol shows you firsthand
what you learn in classes at Georgia Tech.”
The classes at the various Georgia colleges are
preparing students well, but there is nothing
better than real, hands-on experience to show
how the government works. Peters and Joshi
highly recommend those interested in pursuing
any form of government or lobbying work to
consider applying for GLIP next year.
Spring 2023 19
Fight for the Forest
The home front in a new era of environmental warfare
FATIMA GONZALEZ, author
GEHNA CHAUBAL, designer
On March 5th, 2023, the Woodstock South of
Woodstock music festival was in full swing in
the South River Forest. Nearly 1,000 festival-
goers had spent their weekend thus far enjoying
a free barbecue, learning about herbal care,
jumping in a bounce house, listening to various
genres of music, and laughing with friends. Even
as the sun crept below the protective canopy
of the forest, their spirits remained high with
anticipation and excitement for their favorite
musicians to take the stage. The evening’s
atmosphere suddenly shifted when police
cruisers descended upon the forest grounds,
blocking off exits and detaining those attempting
to leave. The diverse group of concert-goers,
including everyone from children to the elderly,
Forest defenders occupy trees at the
Atlanta prison farm // Photo by
Crowina / Creative Commons
20 Spring 2023
gathered and were united in chants of “stop cop
city!” and calls of “the show must go on!” Go on
it did, with artists continuing to take the stage
for more than an hour until police closed in on
the stage. After deliberation between festival
attendants and police, it was decided that the
crowd would be allowed ten minutes to clear
the area. The night ended with the remaining
festival-goers leaving the forest together and 22
participants facing charges of domestic terrorism.
The abandoned footprints on the forest floor
served as evidence of the confrontation that took
place.
The footprints left by these concert-goers in the
South River Forest were left atop memories of
those who had celebrated, toiled, played, and
labored on the same land for hundreds of years
prior.
The land that makes up the South River Forest
today was once known as the Weelaunee
Forest by the Muscogee people. At its height,
the Muscogee confederacy was composed of
multiple tribes spanning the vast regions of
the southeastern United States. The Muscogee
people inhabited the land including the
Weelaunee Forest until the 19th century, when
U.S. policy became encroaching. In the 1830s,
the U.S. Army carried out the forced removal
of more than 20,000 Muscogee people to newly
established Indian Territory.
Following forced removal, the land was privately
purchased and converted into a slave labor-
powered plantation described as “the finest
plantation” in all of DeKalb County.
In the 1910s, the land was purchased from the
plantation owners by the City of Atlanta and
began taking shape as the Atlanta Prison Farm.
The Prison Farm’s opening was met with great
anticipation from high-ranking Atlanta society
members, including then-mayor William B.
Hartsfield. This anticipation was for good
reason, as the Atlanta Prison Farm had every
intention to be the world-class symbol of the
future of imprisonment: rehabilitation. Prisoners
of the farm were “handpicked” from other
penitentiaries, the majority of whom were doing
time for public drunkenness.
The footprints left
by these concert-
goers ... were left
atop memories
of those who had
celebrated, toiled,
played, and labored
on the same land
for hundreds of
years prior.
Within years, it became clear that the Atlanta
Prison Farm was not all that it was made out to
be. Multiple cases concerning severely lacking
medical treatment within the Prison Farm
were brought to trial. Allegations of inhumane
treatment in the Prison Farm spread throughout
the surrounding community, including claims
of Black female prisoners being raped by guards
and unequal working conditions, with the most
strenuous labor exclusively assigned to Black
prisoners.
Despite the controversy, the Atlanta Prison
Farm remained in operation until the 1990s,
after which farm animals and equipment were
auctioned off.
In 2003, the Trust for Public Land awarded
136 acres of forest connected to the Atlanta
Prison Farm property by Intrenchment Creek to
DeKalb County. The park property restriction
in this deed stipulated that the land would be
utilized as a park for the public “in perpetuity.”
With the Atlanta Prison Farm out of operation,
the area encompassing the farm was abandoned
for two decades. In this time, the abandoned
territory was frequented by urban explorers and
subject to illegal dumping. In response to this
activity, the City of Atlanta tightened restrictions
to the land access.
In 2017, the Atlanta Police Foundation released
the “Vision Safe Atlanta-Public Action Plan.”
 The community response to the land swap
proposal was mixed. Some nearby residents
expressed hope that the studio expansion would
create new economic improvement and activity
in the area. On the other hand, the opposition to
the land swap has been strong.

Opponents of the plan argued that the

swap would have detrimental effects on the
environment, as the new Blackhall Studios would
be built atop the heart of Intrenchment Creek
Park, an area that is essential for South River
runoff. They also argued that the swap would
leave DeKalb County residents with clear cut
land with no ecological value and in serious
need of restoration. Opponents further raised
the moral question of trading public use land for
private development and were concerned that the
swap would set a dangerous precedent for similar
deals in the future.

Despite significant opposition, the DeKalb

At the Atlanta Prison Farm in 2013 // Photo by RJ on Flickr County Commission approved the land swap
with Blackhall Studios in 2020. The approval
Founded in 2003, the Atlanta Police Foundation commissioners. In this plan, 40 acres of came with the requirement that for every part
seeks to accomplish its mission to “make Atlanta Intrenchment Creek Park would be given of Intrenchment Creek Park that is developed, a
the safest large city in the nation” through a to Blackhall Studios. In exchange, Blackhall piece of the film studio’s land would be converted
broad array of public safety initiatives. These Studios would give DeKalb County roughly into park land. Before the swap occurred,
initiatives seek to transform policing with a 53 acres of land under its possession. The Blackhall Studios was to invest $1.6 million
community-based approach, representing the swap was presented as having major economic in park renovations, significantly less than the
future of policing in the 21st century. The APF’s improvement potential through expansion of originally offered $3.8 million.
2017 plan proposed the construction of a new the film studio, which Blackhall asserted would
150-acre public safety training facility for the create new jobs and millions of dollars in revenue Once again, the approval brought about strong
Atlanta Police Department. for the county. Through the swap, Blackhall opposition. Although the plan was approved by
Studios also offered $3.8 million for park Commissioners in 2020, it was not finalized until
Also in 2017, the Atlanta Department of City improvement efforts. 2021 while the Trust for Public Land weighed
Planning shared “Our Future City” plans,
which sought to protect Atlanta’s forests and
expand its ecological value in the face of drastic
urbanization. The department’s “Atlanta City
Design” document identified key conservation
areas designed to protect nature including plans
for the new major South River Park, which is
identified as one of the “lungs of Atlanta.” Upon
city council approval, the design was adopted
into the city charter.

The proposed creation of the South Forest Park

served as the vision for the 3,500-acre South
River Forest. The proposed park would protect
existing natural sites in Southeast Atlanta,
including areas of the city and unincorporated
DeKalb County. The Atlanta Prison Farm is
located within the proposed park.

However, these plans for nature conservation

were dashed when, in 2018, Blackhall Studios
CEO Ryan Milsap and planner Jay Scott
Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta on January 22, 2023 // Photo by Tatsoi /
pitched a land swap idea to DeKalb County
Creative Commons

Spring 2023 21
deed restrictions.
In response to the plan’s finalization, a lawsuit
was filed by the South River Forest Coalition,
the South River Watershed Alliance, and
several individuals against DeKalb County
and Blackhall Real Estate on February 12th,
2021. The complaint states that the land
exchange “violates the conditions imposed via
deed on Intrenchment Creek Park” and is “not
in accordance with the laws and regulations
concerning the use and disposal of county
property.” The Plaintiffs further argue that the
Trust for Public Land deed grants “any member
of the general public who utilizes the park the
legal right and authority to enforce the Park
Property Restriction”
In her 2021 State of the City address, then-
mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms highlighted
Atlanta’s public safety growth, including 250 new
officers, pay raises, and retention bonuses to keep
officers from leaving the force. In the address,
Bottoms also announced a collaboration with
corporate and philanthropic partners to build a
new public safety training facility for police
officers and the fire department. Bottoms said “a
top notch city should have a top-notch training
facility.”
What we all have
in common is
we want to stop
the construction
of cop city... The
movement is not
slowing down in
the slightest.
The following month, the APF released the first
renderings of the new training facility to be built
on 150 acres of the old Atlanta Prison Farm. The
renderings included classrooms, shooting ranges,
a burn building, an auditorium, and space for
explosion tests.
With plans for the training facility on the path to
realization, community opposition intensified.
Shortly after the renderings were released,
the instagram account @defendatlantaforest
was created. Defend the Forest is a grassroots
movement seeking to protect the South
River/Weelaunee Forest from demolition for
22 Spring 2023
A shrine erected in the Atlanta Forest to commemorate the killing of Tortuguita
on January 18, 2023 // Photo by Tatsoi / Creative Commons
Hollywood and police development. A unique
feature of the Defend Atlanta Forest movement Despite numerous hours of public comment
is that it is autonomous. A community organizer opposing the construction of the police training
who preferred to remain anonymous explained facility, years of community opposition, and
that that means “no one group or organization months of protests, the local government has
is leading the movement.” They further added upheld and continued plans for the land swap
that the autonomous feature of the movement and police training facility.
has “allowed people from many different
organizations, groups, and some autonomous Nevertheless, the movement to protect the South
groups of people who’ve come together to be River Forest is not slowing down. After a Georgia
plugged in and do things that feel good to them.” State Patrol officer shot and killed 26-year-old
Defend the Forest’s resistance comes in numerous Manuel Terán, known as “Tortuguita,” in January
forms, from forest tours to concerts, free
community gatherings, and forest occupation.
2023, national attention was brought to the fight
for the South River/Weelaunee forest in Atlanta.
In August 2021, the instagram account @
stopcopcity was created. Stop Cop City is also
This year, it has become clear that the fight
for the forest exceeds city, state and national
a grassroots autonomous movement composed lines. The South River Forest has become a
of multiple organizations, groups and people. battleground where movements focused on
The movement opposes the construction of “cop protecting the environment are going head-to-
city,” their name for the APF’s police training head with corporation and land development
facility which features a “mock city” for police efforts. There is no doubt that whatever is
training. decided in this fight will set a precedent for
similar conflicts in the future.
According to another anonymous community
organizer, “you have people coming into the
movement from an abolitionist perspective, and
then people who are part of the movement who
are people from the neighborhood who don’t
want to wake up to gunshots. There’s people in
this movement fighting environmental racism
and so much more … It’s hard,” they continued,
“to talk about the movement as this singular
thing because what we all have in common is we
want to stop the construction of cop city.”
All Aboard for Georgia!
THE FUTURE OF TRAIN TRAVEL IN THE STATE

Spring 2023 23
All Aboard, Georgia!
The future of rail travel in the state
EVAN SMALLWOOD, author
ANISHA SADHALE, designer
Life is a highway. Leaving on a jet plane. On the
road again.
There’s no shortage of transit-related cultural
references in American society; the idea of travel
and movement is ingrained into the national
identity. To many Americans, hitting the open
road or hopping on an airplane represents new
experiences and opportunities. It is the pinnacle
of freedom. And that cultural significance
is reflected in many tangible measures.
Transportation is a critical sector of the U.S.
economy, accounting for 8.4% of the national
GDP in 2021. Over the years, transit systems
have shaped the landscapes of cities and have
been a major driver of economic development.
Nowhere is this more evident than here in the
state of Georgia. Georgia boasts 1,253 miles of
interstate highway and the world’s busiest airport.
In terms of economic impact, the Georgia
Municipal Association reported that “$843
billion worth of goods are shipped to and from
sites in Georgia”’ every year. Another statistic,
cited by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,
reveals that “as of 2015 … transportation
and warehousing (and the related business of
wholesale trade) accounted for about 50 percent
more of metro Atlanta’s gross domestic product
(GDP) than they make up of the GDP of all
U.S. metropolitan areas combined.” It’s safe
to say that much of the state’s success hinges
on its transportation abilities and status as a
commercial hub.
Atlanta may have
not existed at all
had it not been for
Georgia’s railroad
industry.
Yet, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,
air and automobile travel have faced a growing
number of challenges in consumer accessibility
and satisfaction.
Flyers in the U.S. have experienced a rash of
24 Spring 2023
Southeast Passenger Rail Plan // Photo by GDOT
cancellations and delays, with some particularly
notable cases attracting scrutiny from both
the public and lawmakers. Reuters reported
that “flight cancellations and delays by U.S.
airlines in the first seven months of [2022] …
surpassed the comparable 2019 period,” with
cancellations in particular “up about 11% from
pre-pandemic levels.” Recent data have shown
that “nearly half (45%) of Americans rate the air
travel experience as average or below,” as noted
by The Motley Fool. And that’s not an isolated
phenomenon. A CNBC survey from 2014 found
that, at the time, “only 1 in 4 people called air
travel enjoyable” and “40 percent said being in a
packed airport is worse than standing in line to
get a new driver’s license.”
Meanwhile, automobile travel is facing its own
difficulties. Gas prices have put a strain on
consumers’ wallets, as the national average per
gallon rose from $2.39 in February 2019 to
$3.50 in February of this year. Gallup found
that 62% of Americans reported driving less
in the summer of 2022 because of these prices.
Additionally, one of the more traditional barriers
to driving still plagues American motorists:
traffic. According to an analysis cited by The
Hill, “drivers in the U.S. ‘lost’ an average of 51
hours sitting in traffic in 2022.” The same study
named Atlanta as the tenth-most congested
urban area in the nation, with drivers spending
an average of 74 hours in traffic.
These trends have the potential to damage
Georgia’s economy. They affect accessibility to
reliable and affordable transit for Georgians and
raise the question: should the state consider
diversifying its transportation options? Should
Georgia expand and improve its passenger rail
system?
The state has a long history of rail travel. In
fact, Atlanta may have not existed at all had it
not been for Georgia’s railroad industry. The
now-capital city began its history in 1837 under
the name Terminus, as it was the southern end
of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. The city
became a railroad hub not only for the state,
but for the region and nation. And while freight
rail has remained a robust part of the state’s
transportation profile, passenger rail has fallen to
the wayside. Currently, only two Amtrak routes
pass through Georgia, and these have been
criticized for being impractical in many ways.
So, what exactly could a new passenger rail
system in Georgia look like? Here are some
prospective routes:
ATHENS-ATLANTA
Nicknamed “the Brain Train,” this route was
conceived to connect some of Georgia’s top
colleges. This would include the Georgia
Institute of Technology, Emory University,
Georgia State University, and the University of
Georgia. Proponents say that this connection will
foster economic and technological developments.
A 2006 piece in the Gwinnett Daily Post touted:
“the ‘Brain Train’ will provide an incentive for
companies to locate in our emerging bioscience
research corridor.” A group called “Georgians
for the Brain Train,” helmed by former State
Representative and developer Emory Morsberger,
was established to promote this route. In 2021,
Athens was named as a potential stop on the
proposed high-speed rail line that will run
between Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina
(see Atlanta-Charlotte, North Carolina).
The ‘Brain Train’
will provide
an incentive
for companies
complete an environmental impact statement in
compliance with the National Environmental
Policy Act, although the timeline for this is not
yet established.
SAVANNAH-MACON-ATLANTA
Currently, there is no direct passenger rail line
that connects these cities, despite the fact that
Amtrak runs services through both Savannah
and Atlanta. To travel from Atlanta to Savannah
using Amtrak takes approximately 29 hours and
requires a transfer in Alexandria, Virginia. A
connection once existed between the two cities
through a passenger rail line, which operated
until 1971. In 2022, a federal spending package
passed that included $8 million in funding
for a feasibility study of high-speed rail in this
corridor, which has yet to be conducted.
ATLANTA-CHARLOTTE, NORTH
CAROLINA
Atlanta and Charlotte are currently connected
through Amrtrak’s Crescent route, which runs
from New Orleans to New York. However,
plans have been proposed to expand service
between these two cities into a high-speed rail
Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement
was published in 2021. From the three
main routes considered, one – known as the
Greenfield Corridor Alternative – was selected
as the preferred corridor. Potential stops include
Athens, Georgia; Anderson, South Carolina;
and the Greenville-Spartanburg International
Airport in South Carolina. Tier 2 of the process
will study this preferred route in more detail, but
details on timing have not been released.
ATLANTA-CHATTANOOGA, TN
According to the Georgia Department of
Transportation, “transportation demand is
outpacing existing and planned roadway
capacity between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
Currently, there are three major highways
serving the corridor: I-75, US 41, and US 27.
These highways are projected to operate at or
above capacity by the year 2025.” Despite it
not being included in the federally-designated
high-speed rail corridor, this route has been
studied for passenger rail services since 1997.
This service has also been considered viable
for high-speed ground transportation options,
including magnetic levitation technologies that
permit trains to reach speeds over 300 mph. The

to locate in connection, meaning that trains would reach

our emerging
bioscience
research corridor.
COLUMBUS-ATLANTA
This connection is still in preliminary planning.
In 2013, the Columbus Consolidated
Government (CCG) commissioned a
comprehensive feasibility study considering
five potential routes between the two cities.
The final report detailed right-of-way,
technology alternatives, economic/financial
analyses, and “system planning, assessment and
implementation.” As described in the 2013
feasibility study, “over 300 elected officials, city
and county staff, business leaders, institutions,
economic development staff, and other key
stakeholders” were identified for early outreach
efforts. A “technical advisory group” of significant
organizations with interests in the project was
established by the CCG; this included corporate,
university, and government representatives. Over
the years, the CCG has successfully lobbied city
leaders in Newnan for their support and gained
inclusion of the project in the 2021 State Rail
Plan. The next step is for the state of Georgia,
in cooperation with the city government, to
speeds of at least 110 mph. The route was added
Tier 1 Draft Environmental Impact Statement
was published in 2016, and the Tier 1 Final
to the larger, federally-designated Southeast Environmental Impact Statement was published
High-Speed Rail Corridor in 1998, which is in 2017. The preferred route alternative
intended to improve intercity rail between generally follows I-75 and has potential stops in
cities in five states and DC. In 2008, the U.S.
Department of Transportation’s Volpe National
Cartersville and Dalton. The expected cost of the
project ranges between $6 and $9 billion.
Transportation Systems Center prepared a
feasibility study for this project. In 2019,
the Georgia Department of Transportation
Plans have been
proposed to expand
service between
these two cities
into a high-speed
rail connection,
meaning that trains
would reach speeds
of at least 110 mph.
completed a Tier 1 Draft Environmental
Impact Statement to “establish the Project’s
Need and Purpose and evaluate the potential
environmental impact of three Corridor
Alternatives and a No-Build Alternative.” The

Spring 2023 25
Gold Dome Highlights
What passed and failed in the Georgia General Assembly this year
SHREE JOSHI, author
JEMMA SIEGEL, designer

HOPE Funding: “Don’t Say

PASSED Gay”
Georgia lawmakers have agreed to a state budget that would
eliminate the current two-tiered scholarship system for
SB 88:
Georgia college students. Currently, Zell Miller recipients
have their full tuition covered, and HOPE recipients receive
FAILED
up to 90% coverage. Under the new system, all scholarship Introduced by Senator
recipients would receive full tuition coverage. The budget also Carden Summers
boosts pay for all state university employees and public school (R-Cordele) SB 88
teachers. would prohibit teachers
from speaking about
gender identity and
sexual orientation with
students without parental
HB 319: Tuition Increases permission. Opponents
have compared the bill to
VETOED Prohibition Florida’s HB 1557, dubbed
“Don’t Say Gay.” The bill is
Introduced by Representative Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta), officially titled “Parents and
HB 319 would have prevented the University System of Children Protection Act
Georgia from raising tuition by more than 3% in a year without of 2023.” After concerns
the approval of the Georgia General Assembly. The bill passed were raised regarding
unanimously in the Senate and with only one no vote in the effects on private schools,
House but was vetoed by Governor Brian Kemp. According the bill was tabled by all
to Kemp, the bill would have violated the authority of the but one member of the
university system’s Board of Regents, whose members are Senate Education and Youth
appointed by the Governor. Committee.

SB 140: Gender Affirming

PASSED Care Prohibition
Introduced by Senator Carden Summers (R-Cordele), SB 140 aims to ban doctors from providing
medical treatments to help transgender youth affirm their gender identity. It blocks gender
affirming surgery and hormone replacement therapy for those under 18. Senator Clint Dixon
(R-Gwinnett) made the argument that there are certain restrictions minors face being underage
such as joining the army or buying alcohol and that this should be added to the list. Opponents of
the bill cited the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidance that doctors should provide minors
with “comprehensive gender-affirming and developmentally appropriate health care.”

26 Spring 2023
After 40 days of
deliberations and debate,
the 2023 Georgia legislative
session came to a close on
March 29th. Legislators,
lobbyists, and interest
groups all worked diligently
to get their desired
legislation pushed through.
Now that the session has
ended, we can judge who
was successful and who will
have to try again next year.
Buckhead
Cityhood
SB 114:
FAILED
Introduced by Senator
Randy Robertson
(R-Cataula), SB 114 would
place a measure on the
ballot to allow Buckhead to
secede from Atlanta and
form its own city. This was
an extremely controversial
piece of legislation.
Supporters have focused
on incidents of violent
crime and police response
times, and the hypothetical
City of Buckhead would
establish its own police
force. Opponents argued
that Buckhead’s cityhood
would cause legal issues
and raised the fact that
no representatives of
Buckhead supported the
bill. The bill failed in the
Senate on a 23-33 vote,
with Republicans split and
all Democrats opposed.
SB 93: “TikTok Ban”
PASSED
Introduced by Senate Majority Caucus Chairman Jason
Anavitarte (R-Dallas), SB 93 prohibits the use of TikTok,
Telegram, and WeChat on all state-owned devices. According
to Anavitarte, “this legislation will keep Georgia on the
forefront of this domestic security concern and proactively
block malware from sensitive state computer systems in the
future.” Other states, as well as the federal government, are
considering following suit with similar “TikTok bans.”
SB 233: Charter School
FAILED Vouchers
Introduced by Senator Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), the Georgia
Promise Scholarship Act would create a voucher program
offering parents the choice of what form of learning they want
their child to partake in. The grant would provide parents with
a $6,000 voucher for parents to use towards enrolling their
child in private or charter schools, homeschooling, or virtual
learning. Opponents raised concerns regarding shifting funds
from public schooling, and the bill failed on the House floor
with a narrow 85-89 vote. All Democrats opposed the bill with
the exception of Representative Mesha Mainor (D-Atlanta),
who represents Georgia Tech.
SB 146:
Electric Vehicle
PASSED Charging
Introduced by Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch
(R-Dahlonega), SB 146 alters the way in which electric vehicle
owners would pay for the charging of their vehicles. As part of
the state’s goal of becoming the “electric mobility capital of
the U.S.,” the bill would allow electric vehicle charging stations
to charge by the kilowatt hour rather than the amount of time
that the charge takes, similar to how we pay for gas. The bill
also applies a tax on publicly available charging stations at
a rate of 2.84 cents per kilowatt hour, aiming to balance out
decreased motor fuel tax revenues.
Spring 2023 27
 Why the skyline is a symbol
of Atlanta’s future

28 Spring 2023

The Skyline Op-Ed
A retrospective from 3484’s co-founders
SAM BASKIN, co-founder
SARAH KALLIS, co-founder
From Georgia Tech’s campus, Atlanta’s skyline
seems like a walkable urban paradise. A thick
skyline spanning over three miles, and seemingly
designed like American cities such as New York
or Chicago. The skyline seems to constantly be
growing, with several new high rises constructed
each year.
However, when you change perspectives and
look at the skyline from the North or South, it
becomes a small clump of buildings. Atlanta’s
misleading skyline follows along Peachtree Street,
with many of the city’s tallest buildings lining
the street and its parallel roads. The reality is
that Atlanta is a very sprawled and car-centric
city. Our skyline represents Atlanta. From one
perspective it shows Atlanta’s potential as a
walkable city, and from the other, it shows it still
has a long way to go.
We first started developing 3484 Magazine in
2018. Over the next five years, Atlanta changed
and grew in ways we couldn’t have expected at
the time. Seemingly small issues at the time grew
and caused mass changes in the city. One big
change has been the way we get around.
Skyline from the North
Skyline from the West
Graphic by Sam Baskin
Scooters had just been introduced to the city the
summer we started work on 3484 Magazine, and
their mass adoption would accelerate Atlanta’s
bike and micro mobility infrastructure. Several
scooter riders were killed in that first year, and
instead of outright banning rentable micro-
mobility devices, Atlanta’s leadership passed a
few safety regulations and pushed for more bike
lanes.
From Georgia
Tech’s campus,
Atlanta’s skyline
seems like a
walkable urban
paradise.
Now, rentable scooters and e-bikes flood the
streets, offering an alternative for last-mile trips
and moving Atlanta away from being a car-
centric city. Our streets have changed a lot since
OPINION
scooters arrived. One notable change for Tech
students is the Spring Street protected bike lane.
Stretching from 12th Stret to 3rd Street, it made
student housing much more accessible by bike
and scooter. At the same time, Atlanta began to
convert parking spaces into parklets. So far the
city has created 16 parklets, converting parking
spaces into seating for dining, or a place for
pedestrians to relax. Even in late March of this
year, bollards were installed on 10th and 14th
Streets.
One of the most popular places to use those
scooters is the Beltline. Since 3484 Magazine
was founded, several new paved stretches of the
trail opened, new high rise office buildings were
built along the trail, and the MARTA announced
plans to build rail on the Eastside Beltline trail.
Gentrification has increasingly become a
household phrase, and more people seem to be
noticing the displacement caused by unchecked
development on the Beltline and around Atlanta.
However, Atlanta has an incredible amount
of work to do to create the affordable housing
necessary to prevent further displacement.
Spring 2023 29
The pandemic created economic hardship for
many Americans, and in Atlanta, organizers
and unhoused people reported a huge increase
in the city’s homeless population. Fortunately,
Atlantans formed networks of support systems to
help unhoused people. Mutual aid organizations
such as Sol Underground and Free Fridge
Atlanta distributed food, provided shelter, and
overall organized to help those in need.
Youth organizing in Atlanta has boomed in the
past several years. This comes as no surprise as
Atlanta has long been a hub for young people
who want to see change. The city’s history is
intertwined with the civil rights movement.
Atlantans formed
networks of
support systems
to help unhoused
people.
Since the 2016 presidential elections, Atlantans
have continued to organize over social causes
they are passionate about. We have seen marches
to protest Georgia’s six week abortion ban in
2019 and advocate for gun control in 2018.
2020 was a turning point globally, and the effects
extended to organizing as well. As students were
sent home for the COVID-19 pandemic, social
movements started heating up, largely with the
help of social media.
The 2020 Black Lives Matter movement became
more personal to Atlantans when Rayshard
Brooks, an unarmed Black man, was shot and
killed by Atlanta police officers and video was
released of Ahmaud Arbery being killed by a
former police officer in Brunswick, Georgia.
Police reform on the scale that many had hoped
for did not come immediately. But, in the years
following, Georgia repealed the citizens arrest
law and implemented a hate crimes law.
Organizing on a hyper local level has also
gained steam, with resistance to Cop City. In
spite of consistent legislative losses, protestors
have managed to gain widespread attention and
support for their cause to protect Atlanta’s tree
canopy.
Increases in youth activism are not confined
to just Atlanta. A study from Tufts University
found that the number of young people who
have participated in a protest tripled between
2016 and 2018.
Young people are also voting at record rates.
Another Tufts University study found that there
was an 11% increase in voter participation
between the 2016 and 2020 presidential
elections.
The cover of our first issue shows buildings lit
up at dusk from miles away. When we first took
that picture, we realized that those thousands
of small specs of light showed a life being lived
simultaneously. It reminded us that millions of
Atlantans call this place home and all live unique
lives – even if in reality, most of those specs were
lights that office workers forgot to turn off before
going home.
a skyline is the best image to represent the
city, but over time we grew unsure if a collage
of developers’ vanity projects was the best
representation of the people of Atlanta. However,
we decided that instead Atlanta’s skyline is both
a declaration of what the city can become, and
what it needs to fix.
Atlanta needs to
ensure the skyline
is for everyone, and
not just wealthy
suburbanites
moving back
into the city as it
becomes a nicer
place to live.
Atlanta needs to ensure the skyline is for
everyone, and not just wealthy suburbanites
moving back into the city as it becomes a nicer
place to live. The city needs to ensure that the
pattern of displacement does not continue,
and cause more people in poverty to be pushed
out of the city, away from transit and their
communities.

Young people in Atlanta used social media to When we first launched 3484 Magazine, we
call attention to police killings of unarmed Black designed a logo consisting of Atlanta’s skyline
people and took to the streets to protest. wrapped around an orb. The idea was that

30 Spring 2023

Fighting with Pride
My queer experiences with mental health
VIKAS MADHAV NAGARAJAN,
author
MAEVE MOBLEY, designer
I almost did not write this piece. It took a lot
within me to compose my thoughts, but I think
it is important that this reaches the audience it
is intended to. I might not know who you are.
I don’t have to. The queer community is a large
family, and we don’t ever have to cross paths for
us to fight for and uplift one another. That is the
beauty of love — something people who oppose
our rights and existence will never understand.
These are difficult times we live in. We see
factions of the right calling for the “eradication”
of parts of our community from “public life.”
Georgia has criminalized offering gender-
affirming care to youth under 18, and our
Southern neighbors are doubling down on the
“Don’t Say Gay” bill that could potentially
set course to detransition trans kids. The dog
whistles blow loud throughout Republican-led
states, and some of the national rhetoric has
started to seep into campus.
The dog whistles
blow loud
throughout
Republican-led
states, and some of
the national rhetoric
has started to seep
into campus.
For a variety of reasons, I chose not to report an
instance of me being a victim of a hate crime on
campus this semester to the police or to Georgia
Tech. Thus, I will not elaborate on the incident,
except that I would urge every queer student to
be mindful of their surroundings, especially at
night. This incident, coupled with interactions
with the homophobes from the Baptist Church
(the folks with the banners who stand outside
the student center) caused a severe decline in
my mental and physical health. Georgia Tech
was supposed to be a safe space — a place I felt
2017 White House Protest // Photo by Ted Eytan
welcomed and wanted — but I did not feel safe
in these situations.
This quickly escalated into anxiety. I was
scared that my end was coming and that it was
only a matter of time before a homophobe
came to campus and shot me. As my anxiety
peaked, I fainted and started to have difficulty
in remembering events and trusting people. I
was lucky to have my best friend when I was at
my worst, who ensured I did not harm myself
during this agonizing period. Without him, I do
not think I would be here writing this piece.
Why am I sharing this? While I had a difficult
start to 2023, I did seek help. I reached out to
my department and the Georgia Tech LGBTQIA
Resource Center, both of which were very
resourceful and helpful. I was able to access
the mental health resources that I needed and
get academic considerations that helped me
transition back to normalcy.
I have also been using Georgia Tech’s counseling
services, and they have been very useful for me.
Therapy can be a hit or miss for folks. This was
my fifth try at therapy and the first time that
it worked for me. It allowed me to find the
root causes of my fear and deal with them in a
healthy manner. I am glad to report that I am no
longer afraid of dying on campus. Therapy did
cure my paranoia, and I encourage you to find a
OPINION
therapist that meets you where you are.
Talking and
empathizing with
folks who have been
in similar situations
helped me reflect
and overcome
the events that
transpired.
I reached out to friends and am incredibly
indebted to everyone who has helped me along
the way by keeping me company at the lounge
in DM Smith when I felt alone and walking me
back home at night. Being around people who
loved me and cherished spending time with me
helped me feel wanted on campus. Doing things
that made me happy like painting, birdwatching,
and cooking with them made me rediscover who
I was: a very queer and happy man. That allowed
me to be more open about what I was going
through to acquaintances and allowed me to heal
better. Talking and empathizing with folks who
have been in similar situations helped me reflect
and overcome the events that transpired.
Spring 2023 31
2022 PrideFest // Courtesy of Vikas Madhav Nagarajan
The road to recovery is not fast or easy. For
weeks, I felt my throat closing due to a high
flow of adrenaline, and I could not eat and
speak without discomfort. Even as I write
this, I can feel my throat close, thinking about
everything that happened. I occasionally have
mild palpitations and shortness of breath. During
these situations, music seems to do the trick. I
have a few playlists that I associate with happy
moments that help me combat my anxiety.
Comfort food also helped me, especially warm
food during the colder winter days. I tend to be
happier when I surround myself with folks (I am
an extrovert) since it makes me not think about
the thoughts that cause me anxiety. If you are
an introvert and find your Zen in solitude, place
your phone on do not disturb and read that book
you’ve been meaning to start all semester.
You know your body best! If physical engagement
like going on long walks or working out in the
gym helps you, do that! If you get happiness
from singing, dancing, clubbing, writing,
reading, watching a movie, or trying out your
grandmother’s old cooking recipes, do that! The
things I did were things that made me happy and
calmed me down. Some might work for you, and
others might not. It is important to find your
happiness niche and absorb it all so you don’t
32 Spring 2023
find yourself helpless when you do face difficult for their exemplary work this legislative cycle to
mental health situations. protect LGBTQ+ youth from harmful bills.
It is easy to lose hope in these trying times. If
Remember that there is anything you take from this piece —
you are not alone. whether you are queer or not — it is to recognize
when you are not okay. It is okay to not be okay.
I am here slaying You must, however, recognize it and attend
on the battlefield to it by taking any help that comes your way.
Also remember that you are not alone. I am
for folks like you, here slaying on the battlefield for folks like you,
asking you to not give up. You are worth it, and
asking you to not I promise that it will get better. One day you
give up. too will lead with a heart of courage and set the
pathway for another queer person to follow.
While there are ignorant and evil forces that are
at play against our community, remember that
there are always folks ready to stand up and fight
for you. Sometimes scrolling through some of
those positive wins help in improving your day
and feeling a sense of hope. I get my hope seeing
the Democratic state Senators filibustering the
entire Nebraska legislative session due to the
introduction of an anti-trans bill. Right here in
Georgia, student activists and queer organizations
once again defeated a “Don’t Say Gay” bill in
February 2023. I would like to particularly
recognize the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition