Edgewood Avenue task force aims to bridge gap between City Hall and small businesses

Edgewood Ave. business owners fight back on crime

It has been nearly a month since a mass shooting on Edgewood Avenue in southeast Atlanta left one person dead and ten others wounded. Now, the city is taking new steps to prevent future violence in the area and it is hoping a new public safety task force will help with that.

ATLANTA - It has been nearly a month since a mass shooting on Edgewood Avenue in southeast Atlanta left one person dead and ten others wounded.

Now, the city is taking new steps to prevent future violence in the area, and it is hoping a new public safety task force will help with that.

The backstory:

Edgewood Avenue is an area known for nightlife, culture and community, but it turned dark last month.

A string of violent incidents culminated in that mass shooting. Atlanta police say just one of four suspects has been arrested. The impact of the shooting is still being felt in the area.

What they're saying:

"There's absolutely, at least for us, been a significant drop in foot traffic," said Johnny Martinez, owner of Joystick Gamebar. "Which is, again, unfortunate because it's based on something that's an outlier."

Joystick is about two blocks from where the shooting happened on July 28th. He says crime data for the area shows Edgewood Avenue is a lot safer than years past and he wants to see that trend continue.

"My goal for Edgewood is for it to continue to become the walkable, livable, you know, vibrant street that it was always in the process of becoming," Martinez said.

What we know:

In response to the mass shooting, Atlanta created an Edgewood Corridor Public Safety Task Force and Martinez is one of its nine members. He says he’s glad to be a part of it because it features a broad group of people. He says his goal is to make sure business owners like him are heard.

"There is a disconnect, I think sometimes, at least in the past, between city hall and the small businesses on the street where we have often in the past gotten the blame for things that take place hours after we've been closed," he said.

Martinez says the task force had its first meeting this week and he believes this is a good first step. He says he hopes the task force goes beyond just safety to include things like sidewalks and other improvements that would better the area.

"Hopefully this can be an example of how the city does something for the people in the small businesses that live and work here, and not just as a way to try to get people here," he said.

What's next:

The task force will meet several more times this year as they work to create a plan to lower crime in the area.