ATLANTA — Summerhill residents have Mayor Andre Dickens’ support in the fight to keep the 1996 Olympic cauldron in the neighborhood where it has stood for 30 years.
What’s happening: Dickens sent an Aug. 13 letter opposing Georgia State University’s plan to move the cauldron to Centennial Olympic Park. “The voices of these communities should be heard. A city’s greatest moments should belong to its people first,” Dickens wrote.
The plan: Georgia State announced in June it wants to remove the cauldron, which is the top of the 120-foot Olympic Flame Tower. The tower and the bridge bearing the Olympic rings would remain in Summerhill.
Why the mayor objects: Dickens said Summerhill, Peoplestown and Mechanicsville faced new construction, rising housing costs and the loss of longtime residents after Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympics. He said the cauldron “should remain in the neighborhood it has called home for the past 30 years — just as thousands of residents have.”
The path forward: The Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which controls Centennial Olympic Park, has agreed to receive and maintain the cauldron. Dickens said Atlanta is ready to care for the cauldron and the public space around it if it stays in Summerhill.
B.T. Clark is the Publisher of The Georgia Sun and author of Principles Are Like Pants… You Ought to Have Some. Over two decades in journalism, he has served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc., earning multiple awards along the way. His work has appeared in newspapers across the state, including The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal.
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
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