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Atlanta, GA

Atlanta city leaders consider use of city funds to buy blighted properties

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Atlanta city leaders consider use of city funds to buy blighted properties


In an ongoing effort to clean up Atlanta’s streets, city leaders are now considering plans to purchase blighted properties from owners who’ve failed to upkeep them over the years.

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Last week, council members approved a “blight tax” that would penalize those property owners. The other idea that came up was using city funds to take the abandoned properties off their hands completely.

“There are a lot of options on the table for the city when it comes to property development,” Atlanta City Member of council Michael Bond said.

Bond says first responders being called to emergencies at abandoned properties is a common and costly occurrence.

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“Responding to vagrants on the property, responding to fires, responding to illegal dumping…that’s a real cost to the city of Atlanta,” he explained.

That’s why he and other members of the city council are considering buying those properties back from neglectful owners.

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“What has been discussed is that the city of Atlanta will make an offer to these property owners just to do a general transaction…if someone is not able or willing to maintain their property to keep it in a productive use, the City of Atlanta would try to acquire that property,” Bond said.

Atlanta’s blight tax on properties passes | What you need to know

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Bond says it could save the city millions of dollars in the long term and give lower income residents more options for housing that’s within their means.

“Depending on the shape of the property and how much it might cost to rehab…that might be a site we could use for the development of more affordable housing throughout our city,” he stated.

One potential plan is to place the properties in the possession of urban housing authorities or go through the bidding process to select private developers.

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Bond says the city cannot use eminent domain to take the old housing properties and redevelop them into new housing because of Georgia state code. City leaders will continue discussions about this at their next meeting.



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Atlanta, GA

8 St. Paddy’s Day things to do in Atlanta that don’t involve green beer

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8 St. Paddy’s Day things to do in Atlanta that don’t involve green beer


Things to do

Watch dance, listen to music, eat and enjoy Irish contributions to American life.

Atlanta Irish Dance performers will appear at several locations on St. Patrick’s Day, including Marlay House Irish Pub in Decatur and Glover Park Brewery in Marietta. (Courtesy of Atlanta Irish Dance)

By Felicia Feaster – For the AJC

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2 hours ago

Sure, you could spend your St. Patrick’s Day drinking Guinness and Jameson and spend the next day feeling like a torn stocking. But this St. Patrick’s Day in Atlanta, there are a number of other ways to celebrate on the days leading up to, and on, the March 17 holiday with Irish music and dance, authentic stews and puddings, an Irish-accented cemetery stroll and even a charitable event in the mix.

Enjoy a beverage and Irish dancing

Atlanta Irish Dance performers participate in the Atlanta St. Patrick’s Day parade the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day. But dancers will also get their jig on at several locations on St. Patrick’s Day, Atlanta Irish Dance co-founder Emma Burke said, including area retirement homes, Marlay House Irish Pub in Decatur and Glover Park Brewery in Marietta.

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Play golf in the Shamrock Scramble

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Watch wrestling at an Irish pub

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Experience a day of Irish music

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Visitors to historic Oakland Cemetery can check out the Hibernian Benevolent Society area to appreciate the history of Irish people in Atlanta. (Arvin Temkar / AJC)

Visitors to historic Oakland Cemetery can check out the Hibernian Benevolent Society area to appreciate the history of Irish people in Atlanta. (Arvin Temkar / AJC)

Visit notable Irish Atlantans at Oakland Cemetery

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Watch the Atlanta St. Patrick’s Parade

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Murphy's owners Matt McCarthy, executive chef, and his father, Gregg, former chef at the restaurant. The Virginia Highland eatery will serve authentic Irish favorites on St. Paddy's Day. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

Murphy’s owners Matt McCarthy, executive chef, and his father, Gregg, former chef at the restaurant. The Virginia Highland eatery will serve authentic Irish favorites on St. Paddy’s Day. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

Enjoy an Irish family meal

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St. Baldrick’s at Fadó Irish Pub — Buckhead

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Atlanta, GA

Cancellations, delays continue at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

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Cancellations, delays continue at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport


ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — The trouble for travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport continued Sunday as rain persisted in metro Atlanta.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, 487 flights have been delayed and 124 have been canceled.

TSA wait times have also ballooned; passengers going through the main checkpoint should expect to wait upwards of an hour, and those going through the north checkpoint should expect to wait more than 30 minutes.

The airport said, “The delays are the result of residual impacts from two ground stops issued on Friday, which created a temporary backlog in passenger volumes, combined with current TSA staffing constraints.”

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The delays added to a disastrous weekend for Hartsfield-Jackson. Travelers on Saturday described hourslong tarmac waits, missed connections and overnight strandings after storms triggered mass cancellations and delays.

The Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines received the bulk of travelers’ frustration. The airline released a statement to Atlanta News First addressing the tarmac delays.

“We apologize to our customers, as we know that a delay on the tarmac waiting for an arrival gate is frustrating. Delta people worked through severe weather challenges in ATL that drove gating constraints overnight,” the company said. “The safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority.”



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Atlanta, GA

Youth, served: Real Salt Lake pulls past Atlanta United to keep fast start

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Youth, served: Real Salt Lake pulls past Atlanta United to keep fast start


SANDY — Three games into the 2026 campaign and Real Salt Lake has a formula for success.

Spoiler alert: the kids are (still) all right.

Aiden Hezarkhani scored a goal for the second-straight week, rookie Sergi Solans added his first professional, and Real Salt Lake served its youth again en route to a 3-2 win over Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Fellow teenager Zavier Gozo also scored for Real Salt Lake, the Utah native’s first of the season after his breakout four-goal, three-assist campaign last year to help his home side improve to 2-1-0.

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Aleksei Miranchuk had a brace for Atlanta, which fell to 0-3 while being outscored 7-2 a year after struggling to a 5-16-13 campaign.

“It was a shootout,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “This was one of those games that was super exciting. It’s a real credit to the group on both sides of the ball. I thought we were really deliberate … and defensively, we were great against a top attacking group.

“We knew it was going to be difficult. But the guys weathered the storm … and we challenged the group to dig deep, to defend our box, and manage the game the right way.”

Salt Lake, meanwhile, has won two of its first three matches — even with a shorthanded roster. The club lost Diego Luna (knee) and Victor Olatunji (eye) to injuries during the same training session before the season opener in Vancouver, and former U.S. international fullback DeAndre Yedlin picked up a hamstring injury last week.

But if adversity spawns opportunity, Real Salt Lake’s rising generation is taking advantage of either — or both. Give credit, too, to the veteran players for bringing along the youth that also include 17-year-old Luca Moisa — and not skip a beat.

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“It’s like a brotherhood,” Mastroeni said. “There’s no guy that’s bigger than the team.”

Gozo and Morgan Guilavogui nearly connected for a goal just 49 seconds into the match, but the newly signed Designated Player making his first start saw his shot tipped over the cross bar.

Instead, Guilavogui gave the visitors the early lead midway through the first half, slipping a brilliant through ball behind the defense to Solans for the clinical finish in the 23rd minute.

Solans was selected with the 30th overall pick of the 2025 MLS SuperDraft by Salt Lake, who traded $50,000 in general allocation money to the LA Galaxy in select the Spanish native.

But instead of signing forthright with the club, Solans elected to return to collect for one more year and the 22-year-old alumnus of Spain’s Girona FC academy returned to UCLA and scored a team-high 16 goals with six assists in 19 matches en route to All-American second-team honors and a program record-breaking third hat trick in the Big Ten Tournament final.

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“Sergi doesn’t necessarily have top-end speed,” Mastroeni said, “but he has top-end timing. When you threaten the back line, you don’t have to have the fastest speed. But you do have to have the right timing.

“You’ve got to make plays — and that’s what making plays looks like.”

Hezarkhani doubled the lead in the 27th minute, gaining possession of the ball in the final third with his chest off an angled touch from Solans before sliding a right-footed shot from the center of the box that put Salt Lake up 2-0.

It’s the second goal in as many matches for Hezarkhani, the 18-year-old academy alumnus who had six goals with four assists in 21 matches (19 starts) for Salt Lake’s third-division affiliate Real Monarchs a year ago.

Miranchuk pulled one back for the home side in the 38th minute, scoring Atlanta’s first goal of 2026 with one touch from Elias Baez from the center of the box to cut the deficit to 2-1.

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But Gozo finished a counter initiated by Philip Quinton and Justen Glad with his left less than two minutes later to push Salt Lake back in front 3-1 at halftime.

After a series of second-half introductions including the halftime debut of Utah native and former Corner Canyon High standout Griffin Dillon for RSL, Miranchuk added another for Atlanta in the 74th minute to cut the deficit to 3-2.

But Rafael Cabral made two saves on 16 shots faced to help the visitors hold on for their second straight win.

Real Salt Lake returns home next Saturday, March 14 to host Austin FC (7:30 p.m. MDT, Apple TV) before a road trip to San Diego FC.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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