Black Business under attack and so is Atlanta's future

BlacIntellec Intelligence Series

Reporting What Matters to Black Atlanta

A Report by Joseph R. Hudson | Founder, BlacIntellec

Issue Title: BLACK BUSINESS IS UNDER ATTACK—AND SO IS ATLANTA'S FUTURE

Date: July 2025

Volume: Two | Issue: Three

Inside This Issue:

1. Feature Analysis – A city that markets blackness while displacing it is a call for urgent action.

2. Black Business Spotlight - Black-owned businesses in Atlanta is a daily fight for survival.

3. Strategic Insights – Numbers Don’t Lie.

4. Community Impact There is no Bright Future without a Bold Shift.

5. Opinion & Perspective – Who’s Got the Nerve?

Cover Story: From Stabilizers to Targets: How Atlanta’s Black Businesses Are Being Zoned Out, Priced Out, and Erased—And What Must Change Now

BlacIntellec Mission Statement:

BlacIntellec leverages Black intellectual and economic resources to inform, influence, and drive sustainable economic outcomes for Black businesses and communities. Through strategic intelligence, policy insights, and community-led solutions, we empower Black economic growth and self-sufficiency.

Quote of the Issue: "You can’t lead the calvary if you think you look funny on a horse.”

BlacIntellec Contact & Engagement:

• Website: www.BlacIntellec.com

• Email: jronhudson@gmail.com

Join the Movement | Build the Future | Drive Change

Report Title

BLACK BUSINESS IS UNDER ATTACK—AND SO IS ATLANTA'S FUTURE. The time to act is now. From Stabilizers to Targets: How Atlanta’s Black Businesses Are Being Zoned Out, Priced Out, and Erased—And What Must Change Now

I. Executive Summary: A City That Markets Blackness While Displacing It Is A Call for Urgent Action

Despite Atlanta’s international reputation as a “Black Mecca,” the city’s community-based Black businesses are being systematically dismantled. But slogans don't build power—and they certainly don't protect it. Pointing out and highlighting a few Black business success stories has not proven to be beneficial to but a few of the thirteen historically identified Black communities. Behind the celebration of Black culture is a violent truth: Black businesses—the very institutions that have held up Black communities—are being zoned out, priced out, disrespected, and erased. From Bankhead to Adamsville, long-standing enterprises are being displaced by rising rents, restrictive zoning, and an economic development playbook that consistently favors outside investors over legacy ownership.

What’s being lost is more than commerce. The loss is more than economic. It is cultural erasure. Civic instability. Systemic exclusion. It encompasses infrastructure, economics, culture, and civic aspects. Black businesses are not just profit-seeking entities; they are vital institutions that hold neighborhoods together. Yet, the very systems designed to grow Atlanta’s economy are squeezing them out. And if the city continues this path, it will not simply lose its soul—it will collapse the veins of its prosperity.

This report outlines the systemic barriers these businesses face, documents their erasure, and poses a challenge to the city’s business leadership: Who among you has the nerve to do something different?

I. A City at the Tipping Point

Atlanta is growing—but who is it growing for?

Development is surging, property values are skyrocketing, and corporate interest is pouring in. But in historically Black communities, the people who built these neighborhoods—and the businesses that served them—are being pushed out at a staggering pace.

The cost of inaction is clear:

• Cultural erasure

• Neighborhood destabilization

• Increased inequality

• The loss of a critical economic base

This is not just a Black problem. It is a citywide crisis with long-term economic consequences. The question is no longer what’s happening—we know. The real question is: Does anyone have the courage to change it?

This is not a crisis of resources. It is a crisis of will.

Does anyone have the nerve to do something different?

II. The Daily Fight for Survival

Black-owned businesses in Atlanta—especially those rooted in historically Black communities like Bankhead, Pittsburgh, Mechanicsville, and West End—are not merely commercial ventures. They are infrastructure:

• They stabilize neighborhoods where institutions have withdrawn.

• They employ returning citizens and at-risk youth.

• They mentor, feed, and provide.

• They carry the cultural continuity of communities under siege.

And yet, they are treated as expendable.

Denied capital.

Excluded from development decisions.

Evicted under the cover of "growth."

Replaced by coffee shops, dog spas, and luxury boutiques meant for transplants, not the people who built Atlanta's rhythm.

They are doing everyone else's job. But they're the first to go.

III. The Numbers Don't Lie

• Loan Denial Rates: Black entrepreneurs in Atlanta are twice as likely to be denied loans as their white counterparts with similar credit profiles. (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta)

• Commercial Evictions: In neighborhoods like Ashview Heights and Mozley Park, over 25% of Black-owned storefronts have vanished since 2015 due to rising rents and speculative property taxes. (City Planning Department)

• Zoning Displacement: 70% of zoning amendments in Black-majority districts from 2016–2023 benefited developers with no community ties. (Atlanta Zoning Review Panel)

• Commercial Land Ownership: Black businesses own less than 8% of commercial property in Southwest Atlanta, despite a 75% Black population. (Fulton County Tax Records, 2024)

What does this mean?

It means a city that claims Black pride is actively pushing Black ownership off the map.

IV. Case Studies: Erasure in Real Time

1. Mozley Park Mini-Mall:

Denied a simple variance to renovate, then sold to a developer. Longstanding tenants evicted. A daycare and soul food café were replaced with a kombucha bar and "urban wellness center."

2. Bankhead Auto Services:

Zoned out under a BeltLine overlay. The landlord sold. Mechanics out. Replaced with a pet spa.

3. Capitol View Beauty Supply:

Rent tripled post-BeltLine. No grant support. No credit line. Shut down. Storefront still empty.

These aren't just stories. They're evidence of how policy failure can lead to cultural extinction.

V. What's Driving the Displacement?

• Zoning as a Weapon: "Mixed-use overlays" and "redevelopment corridors" are used to invite outside capital while blocking local control.

• Capital Gatekeeping: Banks and VCs still view Black businesses as "too risky"—ignoring decades of resilience, reinvestment, and local trust.

• Philanthropic Misalignment: Foundation dollars support startups and tech hubs, while brick-and-mortar Black businesses get zero support—even as they serve as informal civic institutions.

• Token Inclusion: Black businesses are invited only after strategy is decided—used to meet participation targets, not to share in ownership, vision, or profits.

• Gentrification: The systematic displacement of longtime residents and businesses through rising costs, outside investment, and policy decisions that prioritize profit over people.

VI. Business as Usual Is the Problem

Let's stop pretending.

Atlanta's development model is not race-neutral. It's extractive.

It profits from Black culture while cutting out Black ownership.

It invites diversity but redistributes opportunity away from the people who made this city matter in the first place and the institutions that could change it.

• Black-led business groups are too often underfunded, politically cautious, or caught managing decline instead of demanding power.

• White-led business organizations still treat Black business like a social initiative, something to support in principle, but not to elevate in practice.

VII. Who's Got the Nerve to Build a Different Future?

The time for politeness is over.

We don't need more roundtables. We need reversals.

So, here's the challenge—for every economic developer, bank, real estate firm, foundation, and civic institution in Atlanta: You have the power to make a difference. Do you have the courage to stop playing optics and start sharing power?

• Do you have the courage to stop playing optics—and start sharing power?

• Will you co-own land, not just lease space?

• Will you change your risk models, not just your DEI language?

• Will you support zoning reform—not just minority hiring?

• Will you treat Black business as economic infrastructure, not an "inclusive add-on"?

This is the fork in the road.

VIII. Real Partnership, Not Pity

What we need is not charity.

What we need are structural alignment and civic will.

Here's what it looks like:

1. Zoning Protection Zones

2. Designate Black Business Legacy Districts with review power and protections from speculative displacement.

3. Community Equity Trusts

4. Fund a land-holding entity that allows Black businesses to co-own and anchor commercial space.

5. Capital and Credit Redesign

6. Underwrite loans based on community value, years of service, and reinvestment—not just credit scores.

7. Power-Sharing Boards

8. Black business leadership must hold permanent seats on TAD boards, economic agencies, and investment bodies.

9. Inclusion with Teeth

10. Tie public and philanthropic funding to absolute ownership, revenue-sharing, and long-term control—not just supplier diversity metrics.

Conclusion: There Is No Bright Future Without a Bold Shift

The health of Atlanta’s economy depends on the health of its Black business ecosystem. But that ecosystem is under assault. If we do not act now—with courage, with coordination, and with accountability—there will be nothing left to preserve.

Black businesses are not asking for them to be saved. They are asking to be valued, included, protected, and respected—as full co-authors of Atlanta’s future.

Who’s ready to step up?

Because if you’re not willing to rethink power, change policy, and rewire opportunity, then be honest: you’re not building a better Atlanta.

You’re just building a whiter, wealthier one—and calling it progress.

Let’s stop pretending we don’t know what’s happening.The only question left is: who’s got the nerve to change it?

If We Lose Black Business, We Lose Atlanta. However, if we act now, we can save not just Black businesses, but also the neighborhoods they support. We can preserve the Black community and keep Atlanta true to its roots. If Black businesses die, so do the neighborhoods they hold.

When those go, so goes the Black community.

And when that happens, Atlanta is no longer a Black Mecca—just a hollow city selling a culture it no longer owns.

Let's stop using Black business as branding—and start treating it as what it is:

The foundation of stability, self-determination, and shared prosperity.

Because this isn't just about saving Black businesses.

This is about saving Atlanta.