The Athens-Clarke County Commission will vote next month on installing concrete barriers to separate Prince Avenue bike lanes from cars, and although some residents feared the current iteration of the commission would reverse course and return Prince to its four-lane configuration, the permanent barriers appear likely to pass.
“It was a terrifying experience before this road diet, this road right-sizing happened,” Commissioner Melissa Link, who represents Boulevard and Normaltown, said at the Nov. 19 agenda-setting meeting. “Now you don’t have to fear for your life when you cross the road.”
Concern about the Prince Avenue vote spread after the commission voted 8–1 earlier this month to keep North Avenue five lanes. County staff had proposed using a $25 million federal grant to remove a southbound car lane and replace it with bike lanes or a multi-use path, among other improvements. Some safe-streets advocates, like members of the Athens in Motion Commission, an advisory board to the mayor and commission, had wanted to go further and shrink North Avenue to three lanes.
“I wish this had come up for a vote before we had our vote on the North Avenue right-sizing,” said Link, who voted for the five-lane plan. “I think we might have had other considerations if we had heard testimony from people who actually experienced this kind of transformation.”
Jesse Houle, the lone commissioner to vote in favor of a road diet for North Avenue, urged other commissioners to reconsider at their December voting meeting.
Dozens of people spoke in favor of the Prince Avenue plan, with many also speaking in favor of a resolution declaring Athens a “safe haven” for the LGBTQIA+ community, and a few supporters of ranked choice voting sprinkled in.
“It’s nice to have people lined up to talk for hours and hours about something we’re doing right for once,” Link said.
One of the speakers was Tony Eubanks, who spearheaded efforts to calm traffic on Prince more than 20 years ago. “It’s night and day, from angry or hostile to friendly,” he said of the change.
Several speakers referenced how patrons at restaurants and coffee shops along Prince feel much safer sitting outside. Tim Moore, who works at The Globe, noted that the downtown bar was recently hit by a pickup truck driver. “It happens to people,” he said. “It happens to businesses, too.”
But the vote is not a certainty. While no commissioner spoke against making the current infrastructure permanent, four of them—Tiffany Taylor, Carol Myers, Ovita Thornton and Mike Hamby—were not present for the discussion. (Thornton attended the meeting but left during a break and did not return for half an hour.)
Link wanted to place the item on the consent agenda—a list of noncontroversial items the commission passes with one vote—but Commissioner John Culpepper blocked the move. “I’m for it, I don’t have any questions about it, but without having the full commission here, I think we ought to take it off consent and let them comment on it,” Culpepper said.
The initial Prince Avenue road diet and bike lanes passed unanimously, but in the past two years the commission has shifted to the right. Since then Culpepper, Taylor and Dexter Fisher have replaced three more left-leaning commissioners. In addition, Wright and Thornton missed the vote to make the bike lanes permanent after a 60-day pilot project using plastic “zippers” as barriers between Pulaski Street and Milledge Avenue in the fall of 2022.
Some speakers tied together the Prince Avenue infrastructure vote and the LGBTQIA+ resolution. “I think both of them speak to the kind of city we want to be in Athens, which is a city of safety where people feel welcome and can be part of the community,” Abby Bennett said.
Surprisingly, the LGBTQIA+ resolution proved more controversial than Prince Avenue bike lanes, which had been a hot-button issue for two decades. Culpepper questioned why the resolution is necessary when it has no teeth, and the local government already has a Department of People and Belonging (formerly the Inclusion Office).
The resolution states that national political groups spent more than $40 million on anti-trans advertising in the most recent election, and that Georgia legislators proposed 14 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills during the 2024 legislative session.
Fisher spoke about his experiences with racism as a Black man. “If we’re going to do a resolution, include all protected groups,” he said.
Commissioner Patrick Davenport, who is also Black, responded that if African American groups also want a resolution, he would support it, but that it should not stop them from passing the LGBTQIA+ resolution. “I want everybody to feel safe in this community,” he said. “Passing a resolution is a great way to show that this body—10 commissioners and the mayor—supports those individuals.”
Mayor Kelly Girtz reminded commissioners that the board passed a resolution in support of Black Lives Matter in 2020 and a resolution in support of immigrants in 2019. The latter became controversial five years after the fact, when Athens college student Laken Riley was murdered by an undocumented immigrant. Conservatives falsely claimed that the resolution—which is an expression of opinion and not a law or policy—made Athens a sanctuary city.
Houle echoed Davenport’s comments. “I think it would be useful to show some solidarity here,” they said.
Thornton—using the wrong pronoun to refer to Houle—said she was blindsided by the resolution, which Houle had a hand in writing, although Girtz said it had been in the works for months. “I’m not saying I won’t support it,” Thornton said, but “I’m OK with pulling it” off the agenda.
A clearly frustrated Houle reminded their colleagues that “my pronouns are they/them.” Houle identifies as queer and nonbinary.
“I don’t think we need to get into petty arguments about whose identity matters more,” they said. “I think we need to stand up for each other, because all of our identities matter. What it means to support diversity is to support each others’ differences.”
Another resolution urges the state legislature to legalize ranked-choice voters, a system where voters rank their options instead of choosing just one candidate. When there are more than two candidates, this eliminates the need for runoffs, which cost money and often see a steep decline in turnout.
The article has been updated to reflect that Commissioner Mike Hamby was present at the 2022 meeting when the Prince Avenue bike lanes were initially approved and voted in favor of them.
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