Atlanta’s unlucky #7
July 14, 2008 at 4:04 pm by Scott Henry in NewsThe Number 7 fire station at 535 W. Whitehall St. between Castleberry Hills and the West End, next to the I-20 overpass, was closed today as the most visible element of a cost-cutting plan by Mayor Shirley Franklin to shave $21.6 million off the city budget.
According to the AJC and local TV stations, about 30 local residents showed up to protest the shuttering of the station. Dating to 1910, it’s the city’s oldest, and definitely one of the most picturesque, stations. There’s been no word on what would be done with the building, but if the city decides to sell it, Station 7 could be a hot property.
The Net is ablaze, ahem, with commentary about the mayor’s decision. Kwabena Nkromo, chairman of the surrounding Neighborhood Planning Unit T, sent us an op-ed on the issue:
It is not too late for Mayor Franklin to show the courage and integrity to admit that, in this case, she is dead wrong. No matter what pressure she may be under, she has no moral or political right to tell my neighbors that we alone must bear the sacrifice of greater exposure to the risk catastrophic harm that a poorer fire response time will pose. It doesn’t take a competent fire chief to understand when a station handles an average of 20 calls per day, it is not arbitrarily dispensable. We demand that the city not close historic Fire Station #7 in favor of a budget plan that does not disproportionately impact public safety for the residents of only certain parts of the city.
We also enjoyed a posting by Firegeezer, who claims to have “The hottest fire blog on the Web!”
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