Your Civic Association has been working hard to serve you and our neighborhood since our last newsletter!

Some examples are:

• Safety Concerns: Working with Councilmember Ide, Council President Moore, Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Murphy, and APD Zones 2 and 6 to cut down on thefts from automobiles and street racing, which have grown considerably throughout Atlanta. Zones 2 and 6 both support our neighborhood. Zone 2 has increased patrols, and the Department has formed a Task Force to fight the street racing problem. Zone 2 made a significant number of arrests, citations, and vehicle impoundments the last couple of weekends. To help prevent theft from vehicles, APD urges citizens to lock their vehicles; remove keys, guns, and visible items from those vehicles; not leave vehicles running at gas stations or convenience stores; and report all incidents to 911.
• Streets & Transportation: Continuing to work with Councilmember Ide and Atlanta Department of Transportation on the design of the intersection at Piedmont and Montgomery Ferry, and to get the new road striping painted at the Piedmont/Rock Springs intersection. These are two high-traffic intersections, and current conditions make them unsafe.
• Concrete Spillage Problems: Identifying problems with concrete spillage at the Monroe/I-85 intersection in front of Fire Station 29 and coordinating with Councilmember Ide and Department of Transportation on alleviating that problem. We identified the three cement factories on Armour Dr. as probably responsible and have asked the City to hold them accountable. That spillage endangers vehicle traffic and could impact fire response. Also working with the PiHi Alliance and Councilmember Ide to get Atlanta Watershed to hold those cement companies accountable for spillage of cement and sand that blocks drains on Armour Dr. at the MARTA underpass and creates street flooding that prevents entry and exit on the only road for the many businesses in the Armour/Ottley complex.
• Intown Suites: Working with Councilmember Ide, NPU-F, and Atlanta Police Code Enforcement to hold the owners of the former Intown Suites property at 1944 Piedmont Circle accountable to clean up that property. The owners had plans approved by the neighborhood and NPU-F to create a boutique hotel and office buildings. However, nothing has been done except letting the property decay in the two+ years the place has been abandoned.
• Flooding on Allen Road and Piedmont Way: Continuing to work with concerned neighbors, NPU-F, Councilmember Ide, Heritage School (which has offered to purchase the former Rock Spring Presbyterian Church property to use as their high school), and Hedgewood Properties to alleviate the greatly increased stormwater runoff onto Allen Road and downstream. Hedgewood diverted runoff from the old church property (particularly the parking lot) to a pipe Hedgewood put in under their development and dumped the runoff onto Allen Road causing flooding on that road and significant erosion in the ditch/stream between Piedmont Way and Allen Road. Hedgewood obviously did that to keep the water off their property, but showed utter disregard to damage their action would cause to downstream properties. We've been working this issue for some time now and will continue to do so.

The Piedmont Heights Civic Association Board of Directors is elected to serve the needs of the members of the Civic Association. In reality, though, the work we do serves every resident of the Piedmont Heights area, whether or not you are a member. While we have accomplished a lot this year, we have a lot more work to do. We could use the support of every resident of Piedmont Heights. Some of the areas we need your support are:

• We need your voices to let us know what your needs are, how we can meet those needs, what you believe the neighborhood’s priorities should be, and suggestions on paths to reach those goals.
• We need your voices to join ours in working with Neighborhood Planning Unit F and nearby neighborhoods (Morningside, Virginia Highlands, Lindridge-Martin Manor, Ansley Park, Brookwood Hills, and others) to fix common problems and advance common goals.
• We need your voices to join with ours in working with the Beltline, to make sure the Beltline is a blessing and not a curse to our neighborhood.
• We need your membership dues to help pay for our Security Patrol and possibly increase the patrol hours to better secure our neighborhood and prevent some of the thefts from autos, street racing, and other crimes that have been rising all over Atlanta.
• We need your dues to help defray the costs of maintaining our community-owned Gotham Way Park (one of the very few parks in the City of Atlanta not owned and maintained by the City).
• We need your participation to work with other Board and Committee members to bring new ideas and possible solutions to problem areas.
• We need your participation to add to our voices when we collaborate with City Councilmembers and City Departments to ensure our concerns are heard and actions taken to answer our community concerns.
• We need your participation to support our PiHi Alliance business members, the local businesses who provide much needed services to our neighborhood and Greater Atlanta.
• We need your participation in the social events we have scheduled before COVID, the ones we will have when this pandemic eases, and to suggest new social events so we can get to know each other better.

Respectfully,
Jim Hardy
President, Piedmont Heights Civic Association