Story by Ian Milliken

The Atlanta Municipal Court held session on Friday for multiple misdemeanor offenders to make their plea decision and be sentenced for guilty parties.

Judge JaDawnya Butler oversaw the multiple arraignments, which compromised mostly of traffic violations and the occasional missed court date. Throughout the hearing, multiple communications issues and misunderstandings gave Judge Butler and her court staff a chance to use the courts resources to help members of the Atlanta community.

One such occasion occurred when Jamal Ali was asked to step up to enter a plea. Ali, a thin, Somalia-born immigrant who moved to Atlanta in hopes of finding better job options, was brought up to the bench to answer for a left-turn violation.

While it was made clear early on that Ali was attempting to enter a non-guilty plea, he did not seem to understand the steps that were necessary to find an attorney or represent himself. Instead of directly answering Judge Butler’s questions, Ali kept trying to argue the case directly, which Judge Butler insisted was pointless, as he only needed to enter a plea.

After some back and forth, Judge Butler was able to ascertain that Ali spoke English as a second language, and that the language barrier was making it difficult for her to explain the steps that Ali would need to follow. Judge Butler was able to call a Somali-to-English translator and, after a bit more frustration, set him a bench trial date for July 30.

The court had further confusion during the hearing for Laticia Boyd, who APD charged with an improper left turn. When asked by Judge Butler if she understood the nolo contendere plea she was entering, Boyd seemed rather unsure, waiting several seconds before softly answering with a yes or no. Judge Butler immediately picked up on this and began to question if the woman was okay and needed further explanation.

“I’m sensing a lot of hesitance in your voice.” said Judge Butler, who looked toward the court’s counsel to further explain the plea to Boyd before she officially entered it.

As with any other day in Atlanta Municipal Court, Judge Butler had to deal with her fair share of no-show offenders. On this occasion, Officer Gonzalez of APD was in court to meet with Judge Butler for a case in which he was victim. The offender never showed up to court that day, leading Judge Butler to suspend his license and put out a warrant for his arrest.

“I was asking the guy some questions and he suddenly lurched toward me, shoving me to the side.” says Officer Gonzalez. “He ran off as I was getting up and I was unable to find him further. We picked him up later a few streets down.”

Judge Butler got another chance to help out with a court misunderstanding with the case of Jonathan Baker. Baker had previously been arraigned for a reckless driving charge, with his sentence being to perform 24 hours of community service and to enter a safe-driving program run by the state.

Baker’s case number, however, was incorrectly entered into the system, causing him to be rejected by the program. Judge Butler immediately asked one of her court officials to reach out to the program and figure out some way to get him temporarily accepted until the mistake could be fixed. Both Baker and Judge Butler were pleased with how quickly the issue was resolved, with Baker thanking Judge Butler emphatically for her help.

Atlanta Municipal Court convenes Monday through Friday at 150 Garnett St SW in Atlanta.

By Ashley Ausburn

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            The East Roswell Economic Action Committee met Friday, June 28, to discuss the revitalization plan for the area at Roswell City Hall. The committee, formed in December of last year, aims to revitalize the east Roswell area in hopes of bringing in business and families through creating a detailed plan of action it will recommend to the City Council. This plan was detailed and discussed among the committee Friday, outlining the different target areas and specific goals the plan is to achieve.

            The committee’s plan for revitalization, presented Friday by committee member Alice Wakefield, aims to address what the committee believes to be the main issues east Roswell is currently facing: too much retail, low retail rental rates, the need to update retail structures, life span of big boxes, deliberate vacancies, crime associated with retail spaces and aging apartment complexes. In addition to discussing demographics and desires of the areas in question, the committee establishes the desired outcomes of the areas, or nodes, the revitalization plan will focus on. Three of these nodes discussed Friday include Holcomb Bridge Road, Centennial and Nesbit Ferry.

            “One thing that helps spur development is emphasis on infrastructure,” Said Wakefield. In addition to emphasis on infrastructure, Wakefield added that the plan is centered around 10 principles that help the committee decide what areas to focus on and how to approach revitalizing them.

            Each node of the project focuses on things that the surrounding area wants. For the centennial node, those priorities include a community civic center, pedestrian mobility and mixed-use paths to parks. The committee also aims to create a mixture of land use for the area including residential, office and retail.

            “What I took away was the community wanted a center where they could gather,” said Wakefield. “They wanted something more like a town square with opportunities for families and children.”

            The Holcomb Bridge Road node is focused streetscape and infrastructure improvements, multimodal transportation improvements and adjusting zoning classification to allow mixed-use office center. Better signage and ramp improvements are some of the examples the committee has come up for transportation improvements along GA 40O, and the committee said that improving design is one of their goals for this area.

            The last node discussed at the Friday meeting was the Nesbit Ferry node. With this area the committee members are planning to focus on diversity and density of housing, upscale retail and office and an activity center. In order to do this, it will require redevelopment of existing centers and redesigning housing and retail centers for different target demographics in the area.

            Trent Perry, one of the members of the EREAC, says that a lot of the recommendations the EREAC provides to the City Council have a lot to do with demographics, available market buyers, profiles and other considerations.

            “It’s obvious on the east side that we don’t have a large presence of businesses,” says Perry. “It’s important to evaluate what we do have.”

            However, the process of evaluating a business can be time-consuming. “To give you the size of a business we have to manually pull all the building permits and speak to staff,” Says Wakefield. “There’s no automatic process.”

            Amanda Reipe, vice president of Crown tenant advisers, said that in addition to the proposed plan, the EREAC should also think of new ways to revitalize the east side. Riepe suggested that the committee should explore the idea of partnering with landlords of properties in the target areas.

            “I wonder if there’s a way to partner with landlords to bring events to the communities,” says Riepe. “For example, partnering with landlords so they can say they’re going to bring the farmers market to their property like the one in crabapple. We need to make sure we’re working with the right people to spread into the east side.”

ATLANTA— Drag Queen Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker alongside Mayor Kiesha Lance-Bottoms read books to children at City Hall on Saturday, June 29 to promote diversity and inclusion during pride month.

“We know that diversity has a different look and feel in 2019 and its important that we reflect that in all that we do and all that we say and who we are,” Mayor Lance-Bottoms said.

Drag Queen Story Hour was hosted by the City of Atlanta and included a LGBTQ+ exhibit showcasing the profiles of 50 prominent LGBTQ+ community members including actors, activists and political figures. This exhibit was in celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn protests.

Mayor Lance-Bottoms, surrounded by children on the sofa, did the first reading of the book It’s Okay to be Different, which promotes diversity and acceptance. Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker read Mary had a Little Lamb and Ogilvy to children of all ages.

 “I think it’s a fantastic event and it shows children that its really okay to just be yourself, honestly,” said Devin Barnard, Board Member of For the Kid and vendor at this event.

Outside of City Hall there were Anti-LGBT protesters reading bible verses and handing out religious literature that said, “You need Jesus” to people walking into city hall to attend this event.

Counter protestors showed up holding “Jesus is love” signs and singing “My God is an Awesome God” loudly to drown out the Anti-LGBT protesters who were speaking through a megaphone.

“This isn’t something that God approves of and as a Christian it’s my job to bring people away from sin and closer to god,” Protestor Benjamin Bell said.

This event came after Drag Queen Story Time with, Gwinnett-native, Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker had been pulled from the events calendar for the Fulton County Library System in the Alpharetta Branch.

After learning of this, Mayor Lance-Bottoms reached out via Twitter to offer her invite to City Hall and remind the LGBTQ+ community that they are accepted by the City of Atlanta.

“Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker and all of our LGBTQ friends are always welcome at Atlanta City Hall. How about we host your next story hour?” Mayor Lance-Bottoms tweeted.

There were over 100 guests in attendance and there were also vendors present at the event promoting LGBTQ+ and providing activities and snacks for the attendees.

The event included appearances by the Hawk’s mascot and cheerleaders and the Falcon’s mascot. There were games for the children to play, face painting and other activities.

The event was free, but registration was required.

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