News Roundup

The presidential primary has been rescheduled to May 19 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Atlanta special’s election seeking to renew a 1 percent sales tax for water and sewer projects was also put off until May 19.

MARTA embarked on a $133.5 million track renovation project in March with work on the Green Line and some service interruption at the Inman Park/ Reynoldstown and Edgewood/Candler Park stations. Restoring the heavy rail lines is part of the MARTA’s ongoing “State of Good Repair” work and systemwide upgrades.

The Atlanta City Council approved legislation in March establishing a building and rezoning moratorium near Westside Park on the heels of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ executive order on the matter. The ordinance is aimed at assessing how development trends are impacting neighborhoods near the site, which will be Atlanta’s largest greenspace once completed.

Around 250 surveillance cameras in the Atlanta Police Department’s “Operation Shield” crime-fighting network were dead for months starting last fall, with some still down in early February, after a maintenance contract blunder.

The City of Atlanta has a website at atlcounts2020.org to provide information about how to participate in the 2020 Census. Residents started receiving their questionnaire packets in mid-March.