November 20, 2003
The Honorable Ceasar Mitchell
Atlanta City Council, Post 1 At-Large
55 Trinity Ave
Atlanta, GA 30335
Dear Councilman Mitchell:
Thank you for your committee’s efforts studying the City’s bar closing hours, and how best to address the ongoing public safety crisis that has been receiving more attention of late. While I have already expressed my conclusion that Atlanta should move towards a 2:00 am closing time, please allow me to further explain my thoughts on the matter.
My position has been informed by my conversations with bar owners, neighborhood leaders, convention planners, and other interested parties during my campaign for Mayor. Since taking office, what I have witnessed and come to learn about the state of the City’s public safety force has only reinforced my underlying conviction that while we may all desire a 24-hour city, we simply cannot afford to continue operating as we have been. While the proposed 2004 budget, which was adopted by the City Council on Monday, will increase the size of the police force by 100 officers, we are still several hundred short of where we need to be to responsibly contemplate remaining open until 4:00 am or beyond. The costs have been too high - both in terms of dollars and lives.
The hospitality industry is indeed the City of Atlanta’s largest industry, and they are for the most part wonderful corporate citizens without whom the City would be much poorer - culturally, socially, and economically. Over the months of my term as Mayor, I have spoken with the ACVB and others in the industry, and examined closing times in comparable cities that compete with Atlanta for tourism and other business. I am convinced that in terms of marketing Atlanta as a destination we will be better served by ensuring that our visitors feel safe and secure than by continuing to stretch ourselves beyond the breaking point by allowing bars to remain open until 4:00 am. To be quite blunt, we cannot continue to try to have our cake and eat it too - at this point, we must choose between remaining open late into the night and being a safe city.
Currently, even attempting to provide police coverage for late night operations is draining our police department of human and financial resources, preventing our officers from focusing on reducing the twin plagues of guns and drugs on the streets of Atlanta, and more broadly compromising our fundamental obligation to protect our citizens from crime.
Review of closing hours in cities our size reveals that most have closing hours around 2:00 am, although some are earlier and some are later. Many other cities receive support from their respective states in terms of their general operations, including public safety, and some have other revenue streams that frankly the City of Atlanta does not possess. However, while any such comparison is informative, it also misses the central point - we are not being asked to decide what is right for other cities; we must instead decide what is right for Atlanta.
In summary, it is my firm belief that the costs to the City of Atlanta from our current operating hours outweighs whatever incremental revenue we might be gaining, and is furthermore fundamentally jeopardizing the quality of life and safety of too many of our citizens to be tolerated. In my capacity as Mayor, I implore you to move forward with the 2:00 am closing I have proposed.
Thank you for the time and effort you dedicate to serving your constituents and the City of Atlanta. If I may be of any further assistance to you, or if you have any questions, please feel free to call me at (404) 330-6845.
Yours for Atlanta,
Shirley Franklin
CC: City Council President Woolard
City Council Members