Gun violence, gentrification, and new legislation are squeezing Atlanta’s Black-owned clubs. KillerMike and 2chainz are pushing back.
But Render and Epps, who both own businesses on Atlanta’s lively Edgewood Avenue, weren’t there to debate the finer points of the legislation. They were drawing a line in the sand. Black entrepreneurs running small businesses created the Atlanta music scene. The city attacks them at its peril.
But violence has been a growing problem on the Atlanta streets and within the city’s music industry. Atlanta’s homicide rate spiked during the pandemic, with the fourth-highest increase of large cities. Atlanta has more violence per capita than Chicago today. That violence has disproportionately emanated from club beefs and feuds among aspiring rappers. And many of the most high-profile incidents have taken place downtown, in the heart of the city’s tourist district.
The law as it stands right now allows for the city to start going after a business after even a single incident of violence. The new legislation is intended to clarify the process, better define what constitutes a qualifying act of violence, and explain what steps a property owner can take to keep a place from being declared a public nuisance.
The fear of Felder and others in the industry here is that nightclubs — generally small businesses with local owners — will be forced to spend more money than they can afford on security requirements created by the city’s legislation. Those businesses will then fold and be replaced by national chains like the glitzy, touristy Margaritaville restaurant and hotel that opened across from Centennial Olympic Park in July.
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