Marietta (Georgia) Daily Journal

A Third-World country

The entrance to Marietta for drivers headed north on Powder Springs Street to the Square is not an attractive one. City Councilman Grif Chalfant described the intersection of Powder Springs and Sandtown Road as looking “like a Third-World country.”

Transients, and traffic

Dunaway says demographics and traffic are two major causes of the thoroughfare’s decline.

“Retail reflects your demographics. You can’t build a nice store and then have good people move into the neighborhood. The chicken has to definitely come before the egg is laid,” Dunaway said.

As for the day laborers, they “are a recent phenomenon,” the mayor said. “We did not have a Hispanic or day laborer problem in Marietta until 2000.”

He believes a day-laborer ordinance the city adopted a few years back has cut down on loitering.

According to the ordinance, “It is unlawful for any person or organization to pick up or hire day laborers or for any person or organization to solicit temporary employment as a day laborer except as otherwise permitted by law, on the streets, sidewalks, parking lots, public property or public rights of way within the city limits … It shall also be unlawful for any person to seek temporary employment as a day laborer except as permitted by law on the streets, sidewalks, parking lots, public property or public rights of way within the City of Marietta.” Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn said he drives through the area every day and agrees improvements are needed.

“There’s no doubt the area is a lower, socio-economic area than most of the city. There has been a heavy concentration of day laborers,” Flynn said. … MORE TRUTH HERE