Morning, y’all! May today take you closer to your dreams.
Let’s get to it.
MARTA RAILCAR LAUNCH POSTPONED. AGAIN.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Last week, we talked about unexpected delays and behind-the-scenes tension over MARTA’s new fleet of rail cars. Welp, now the launch is delayed again.
- MARTA was supposed to launch the new cars Thursday but canceled the event.
- The rollout was originally supposed to happen last year.
- The agency promised to get the new trains before the FIFA World Cup, which starts in less than two weeks.
- As of last week, none of the trains had passed critical safety tests needed for the Georgia Department of Transportation to certify the trains.
- The 224 new CQ400 rail cars are built by Swiss train manufacturer Stadler for $707 million.
One A.M. ATL reader recently sent video from an eagle-eyed family member in Orem, Utah, showing MARTA cars in transport. Our business team helpfully explained that Stadler’s U.S. headquarters is in Utah. Must have been a wild thing to see far from home.
🔎 READ MORE: What leaders are saying about the next deadline
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A NEW TURN IN ATLANTA’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING CYCLE
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
A new affordable housing complex in Atlanta is going up on the same ground where a previous one stood from the 1960s to the early 2000s.
It’s being seen as an opportunity to get affordable housing right in a city whose previous pursuits are marked by both innovation and failure.
- The new $700 million-plus effort will occupy the site of Bowen Homes, a mixed-income community built in 1964.
- Bowen Homes was demolished in 2009 after the 650-apartment complex fell into neglect and disrepair.
- In turn, Bowen Homes was created to replace the older Buttermilk Bottom housing project in Old Fourth Ward, a mostly Black, low-income community.
A full circle
- Bowen Homes wasn’t just a lifeline for low-income residents. Several notable Atlantans like boxer Evander Holyfield and a few members of the Shop Boyz grew up in the complex.
- Gregory Williamson, a former resident, called the area “a beautiful place to live” in its heyday and says the city ignored growing problems at the site.
- Williamson is now one of the hundreds of construction workers and contractors redeveloping the site of Bowen Homes into the new affordable housing community, which will eventually have more than 2,000 dwellings.
🔎 READ MORE: How Atlanta has changed the way it approaches government-assisted housing
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
⚖️ The Georgia Supreme Court has cleared the way for the state to execute nine prisoners whose fates were delayed during the pandemic. The last inmate executed by the state was Willie James Pye in 2024.
📰 Atlanta Civic Circle, a nonprofit newsroom covering housing affordability, labor rights and local government, is shutting down. The organization says it can’t secure consistent funding amid an ever-changing, ever-challenging media landscape.
🏗️ Atlanta City Council members want to push a blight tax on the skeletal, abandoned office tower development in Midtown that was recently deemed a hazard. Besides sounding very dramatic, blight taxes can encourage redevelopment of stalled projects.
THE CAMPAIGN CASH KEEPS FLOWING
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Several state leaders vying for elected office this year have harped on a questionable state law that allows a select few candidates to rake in unlimited cash for election campaigns.
That rule is still in place, despite legal challenges, and said candidates are still benefiting.
How the law works
Georgia law caps contributions to political candidates to limit corruption or even the appearance of corruption.
- Candidates for statewide office can accept up to $8,400 from individual donors for both the primary and general elections, plus another $4,800 for runoff elections.
- In 2021, the Republican-controlled state Legislature created leadership committees that allow certain officials to bypass contribution limits.
- Only the governor, lieutenant governor, the Democratic and Republican nominees for those offices and legislative leaders of both parties can create leadership committees.
Who’s benefiting now
- Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ committee has raised $4 million since he announced his candidacy for governor in July 2025.
- Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won the Democratic nomination for governor, created a leadership committee last week, records show.
- Gov. Brian Kemp’s leadership committee was a big bone of contention during his last election cycle. He’s also used the committee to support and oppose certain candidates in the past.
🔎 READ MORE: What challenges to the rule are still alive in the courts
NEWS BITES
Welcome to Bleak Week, a film festival celebrating ‘cinema of despair’
Are things just toooo good? Skin too clear? Crops too hydrated? Mind too at ease? There’s a solution for that!
Pope Leo’s encyclical about AI went viral and now people are lovingly calling him ‘the woke Pope’
They could not prepare him for this in seminary, that’s for sure.
Advice: It’s OK to be selfish sometimes
Or, “How to stress out a people pleaser in six words.”
‘Alice in Wonderland’-themed eatertainment place is coming to The Center
I got completely distracted because the lead rendering of this (cool-looking) venue shows people playing putt putt golf while standing at a pool table. Trippy, Wonderland-themed feature or machine-based hallucination? It’s anyone’s guess.
ON THIS DATE
June 3, 1953
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Queen crowned in splendor of old, envisions new glories for empire; Prince awe-stricken as mom is crowned. It was a busy and exciting day today for little Prince Charles, 4 1/2 -year-old heir apparent to the British throne. He was taken to Westminster Abbey to watch his mother being crowned. From a window of Buckingham Palace, he saw the splendid procession that brought Queen Elizabeth II back from her triumphal ride through the heart of the capital.
As Tracy Lawrence sings,
South moves north, North moves south. A star is born, a star burns out.
The only thing that stays the same is: Everything changes, everything changes.
ONE MORE THING
Credit: AJ Willingham
Credit: AJ Willingham
Get thee to a Dream game! Seriously, it is so much fun. Gateway Center Arena was vibrating on a cosmic level last night as the Atlanta Dream beat the Connecticut Sun. (There was nothing but love in the house for current Sun/former Dream star Brittney Griner, too, which was sweet to see.) Their next home game is June 6 against the Washington Mystics.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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