WILL HOME-GROWN WORKFORCE  HELP BUILD GEORGIA DOME?

Now that the huge, ambitious new project of constructing an expensive, retractable roofed arena on Atlanta's Westside is underway, we must consider the many implications of this mega structure's far-reaching tentacles.  Like it or not like it, the success of this project will have impacts on, not only Vine City, English Avenue, Historic Westin Heights/Bankhead and Washington Park neighborhoods largely because Atlanta is viewed through the World's microscope as the cradle of the Civil Rights movement.   

Georgia, can we, and will we build capacity to use homegrown employees from Atlanta's Westside neighborhoods to help build the Georgia Dome?  Will we (can we) help drug addicts, ex-prisoners, old and sick people as well as persons who are so far down in the pit of poverty and despair that they have no way of climbing out?  Well.  I have a dream that we can, and we must, inspire hope through a system of well-connected programs that provide education, training, drug rehabilitation, mental health counseling, as well as programs that develop CLEAN neighborhoods and promote economic development.  This network of programs must have access to real livable wage jobs to insure sustainable neighborhood stability. 

The creative use of homegrown employees and small businesses can builds capacity for self-determination and neighborhood empowerment throughout the City.  The economic and social step up for a few individuals and small businesses potentially can become a beginning to the end of Atlanta’s polarized racial and economic disparity.