Mayor Andre Dickens’ proposed 2024 city of Atlanta general fund budget made headlines for its hefty $790 million price tag—the largest in city history.
But some officials and transit advocates are alarmed at what appears to be missing from Dickens’ menu: a bigger operating budget for the Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT), which was created in 2019. Instead, the draft budget calls for only $50.4 million for ATLDOT—a $7.1 million cut from the current fiscal year.
“When I saw [that figure], I said, ‘Hey, wait a minute,’ and I circled it,” said Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman. “There are a lot of residents who want to see things happen on the ground this year. They’ve voted multiple times to tax themselves and to see projects happen.”
Meanwhile, Propel ATL executive director Rebecca Serna told Atlanta Civic Circle that Atlanta’s bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group has also flagged the cut in transit funding with Dickens’ office. “We have the largest budget in city history and a huge surplus, and this is a department that the mayor himself created,” said Serna, referring to Dickens’ tenure as a city councilmember before becoming mayor in 2022. “We think [transit] needs a pretty substantial increase, not a decrease.”
DeJon Tebought, who chairs the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association’s transportation committee, said the city should address a significant backlog of vital street improvement projects downtown, which include transforming Peachtree Street between Alabama Street and Trinity Street with wider sidewalks, plantings, seating and accessibility ramps, and converting Baker Street to a two-way street from Piedmont Avenue south to Centennial Olympic Park Drive, plus more general sidewalk repairs and bike lane additions.
“We want to make sure we’re getting…
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