Atlanta mayor pushes youth spaces after Easter weekend violence
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Mayor Andre Dickens wants the city to create more accessible spaces and programming for young people to prevent the type of violence that unfolded over Easter weekend in Piedmont Park and Oakland City.
Why it matters: Roughly 600,000 metro Atlanta students are out of school this week on spring break, Dickens said Monday, and many don't have productive spaces to spend their time.
Driving the news: Dickens said Monday that the city will invest $50,000 to help create a fun "third space" other than home and school where young people can gather safely.
- In addition, his administration has extended rec centers' operating hours and expanded youth programming.
How it works: A third space can cover everything from skateparks and roller rinks to athletic centers and other facilities often operated by a city or nonprofit that have low barriers of entry for young people.
Zoom in: Melissa Bauman-Fletcher, vice president of school-based mental health at Chris 180, told Axios that successful third spaces have holistic community buy-in, help meet young people's academic and basic needs, and reflect what youth actually want.
- "I think it's a lot more than just the space," she said. "It needs to address some of those underlying needs that we know, and research says, is potentially contributing to some of the incidents of violence that we're seeing in the community."
Zoom out: The administration plans to ask the Atlanta City Council to increase funding for youth activities, beef up the Mayor's Office of Violence Reduction, and expand the park ranger program.
- Police will step up youth curfew enforcement, which includes penalties for parents.
The big picture: Dickens noted that the city of Atlanta's population is roughly 8% of the metro region, yet it's home to magnets for young people like the Atlanta Beltline and Piedmont Park.
- "This 8% can't take care of 92% of the folks' kids," he said, adding that the whole region should use its "awesome set of tax dollars" to address young people's "need for outlets that are enjoyable, that are enriching."