Mara Shalhoup, Scott Henry and Thomas Wheatley sit down to discuss their picks for this year’s Endorsement Issue.
Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.
Subscribe to the Air Loaf RSS feed to download each new episode automatically
Clair Muller
Pity the candidates for City Council president.
As a non-voting cat herder whose only mandated duties are running Council meetings and making committee appointments, the job of Council prez hardly seems worth the time, effort and expense it takes to win it.
Still, we have a hard-fought race between two councilmembers — one young and ambitious, the other a veteran who sees the post as way to leverage her accumulated experience.
An at-large councilman for the past eight years, Ceasar Mitchell is bursting with ideas. He wants the city to adopt zero-based budgeting. He’d like to allow private sanitation companies to compete with city trash collectors. Mitchell even suggests that pumping desalinated water in from the coast might be a way to solve the region’s water issues.
State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta
State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, is leaning against running for Atlanta City Council President, a source very close to the lawmaker tells CL. He’s expected to make a decision tomorrow.
If Fort opts not to run, that leaves Atlanta City Councilmembers Clair Muller and Ceasar Mitchell vying for the top spot. As of right now, at least.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Atlanta City Council clarified its current recycling program and passed an ordinance Monday requiring owners of multifamily complexes — defined as those consisting of six or more living units, such as apartment complexes, condominiums, townhouses and public housing — to provide larger containers to residents for recyclables. Under the new ordinance, according to a statement released by the council, recycling containers should be “capable of holding an adequate amount of recyclable waste and no less than three gallons multiplied by the number of living units in the development.”
The city lists recycling’s many benefits, such as its conservation of energy and natural resources and role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and pollution. The dwindling amount of space available in landfills and the cost of herding trash there also was an impetus for the tightened requirements. “More and more landfills are being closed and both the city and state of Georgia could ultimately run out of economical and logistically feasible places to dispose of its solid waste,” the city said in a statement.
The city, by law, is required to reduce 25 percent of its waste stream.
“Recycling should be made easy and convenient for all residents of multifamily dwellings, and citizens and residents of these dwellings especially in our high-rises, have expressed a strong desire and a need to recycle,” said District 8 City Councilwoman Clair Muller, the legislation’s sponsor, in a statement. “We all must do our part for the sake of our environment.”
Owners of a multifamily dwelling or neighborhood association will also be required to submit an annual report documenting the amount and type of recyclables collected, the frequency of their collection, and the size and average number of recycling containers located on their property.
Mayor Shirley Franklin and other officials took a much-need step Tuesday in announcing that over the next 13 months they’ll assemble a comprehensive transportation plan for the city. With a heavy investment in citizen involvement in formulating the plan, it should have more durability than many such pie-in-the-sky schemes. Even when Franklin finishes her tenure, the next mayor won’t scrap something that is the product of mass citizen input and visionary planning.
Beyond that, however, is the growing realization that state officials aren’t going to help, and likely will impede progress in Atlanta. City Councilwoman Clair Muller, chairwoman of the council’s transportation committee, declared: “It’s time to focus on just ourselves.”
Bravo.
She’s not the only one. A recent cover story in CL urged (with a slight bit of tongue in cheek) that Atlanta dump the rest of the state and go it alone.
