Kamala Harris is in Atlanta again to tout the Biden administration’s investments in minority and underserved communities and support a project that would cap the Downtown Connector, Atlanta’s busiest freeway. Highlighted $158 million in infrastructure spending.
The vice president’s appearance means full-court press conferences will continue in Georgia to solidify support for the administration among Democrats, especially Black Democrats.
Harris has traveled to Atlanta multiple times since taking office, acting as one of the administration’s chief surrogates to the black community, and has emphasized Georgia’s continued influence and the waning support among African American voters. He was acutely aware that perception could be the difference between victory and defeat.
She said Harris used the visit to begin a national tour discussing economic opportunities for minority voters.
The Atlanta project, dubbed “Stitch” by local planners, would build a mixed-use building that would include parks and affordable housing, an example of the deliberate destruction of black communities by freeway construction in the 1960s. The goal is to address the issue, Harris said.
“There was a whole policy push called urban renewal,” Harris said. “It was supposed to be about making people’s lives easier…but essentially it was about making it easier for people who had the wealth and means to move to the suburbs and still have access to downtown. “The Stitch project will create an estimated 13,000 jobs and help reunite communities separated by freeways,” Harris said. He said it would be helpful.
Harris spoke Monday at the Georgia International Convention Center near the Atlanta airport, hosted by Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, hosts of the financial podcast “Earn Your Leisure.” She highlighted the work the Biden administration has done to expand access to capital for communities of color.
Black entrepreneurs don’t have access to the capital needed to launch capital-intensive companies, Bilal said. “If you look specifically at the next generation of unicorns, the billion-dollar companies, they are technology companies,” Bilal said.
That access is often about relationships that Black business owners don’t have. But federal spending can provide a foundation for companies to grow and ultimately build those relationships, Harris said. Homeownership is also important as a source of capital for startups and for building generational wealth and entrepreneurial opportunities.
“To achieve true equality, we have to have an economic agenda,” Harris said. “That agenda must mean talking about people’s economic ambitions.”
Harris’ message stands in sharp contrast to increasing Republican rhetoric denouncing diversity, equity and inclusion programs. “Despite those who want to attack DEI, we can’t truly invest in the strength of our country if we don’t pay attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Among other federal programs and spending in 2021 and beyond, Harris pointed to Stitch as an example of what the Biden administration has achieved.
After a federal court struck down a zoning law that segregated housing, Congress responded with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Large-scale highway projects, such as Atlanta’s Downtown Connector, were intentionally pushed through black neighborhoods in the name of “urban renewal.” In the case of Atlanta, the connector between Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 displaced residents and businesses around Auburn Avenue, the heart of Atlanta’s black middle class.
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Martin Luther King Jr. grew up a five-minute walk from the junction that divides today’s city, a major highway through which more than 300,000 cars pass each day. Similarly, the construction of Interstate 20 devastated the Summerhill neighborhood, once home to many of Atlanta’s black doctors. Summerhill has only recently regained its economic vitality. But even as much of the rest of Atlanta has experienced gentrification, the area around Auburn Avenue is poor.
Rep. Nikema Williams and Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff briefly addressed attendees before the main event, extolling the benefits of infrastructure investments in Georgia from the infrastructure bill. Stitch got a lot of attention with all three of his statements.
Williams is in his second term as a member of the House of Representatives representing much of Atlanta and serves on the House Transportation Committee. She and Warnock worked closely together to raise funds for the Stitch Project, which was launched eight years ago by A.J. It was just a twinkle in Robinson’s eye. Stitch design process.
“We truly are a model for the world,” Williams said, calling the Biden administration’s investment in Black communities “unprecedented.”
Mr. Warnock has a particularly high political stake in Stitch. The cap stands to transform Auburn Avenue, famous as the home of Martin Luther King Jr., and the area surrounding Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Mr. Warnock is currently senior pastor. The church is two blocks east of the Connector, a once-bustling street that fell into disrepair after its construction nearly 60 years ago.
“Let me be clear: this is a day of celebration,” Warnock said. “Because we will finally begin to repair, revitalize, and reconnect neighborhoods in the heart of Black neighborhoods that have been historically torn apart by freeway construction…This is happening in every community in America. ”
