Fall 2020 - 1736 Magazine

wonderful. That’s revitalization,” Johnson said. “Gentrification
happens when there's a lack of policy that protects people from
rising tax increases and rising rent prices. So, for instance, if you
bring a luxury development to a neighborhood that isn’t necessarily
up to speed with that income, that development is going
to raise taxes in that area tremendously. Well, what about Miss
Barbara who lives a couple of roads down and is in her 80s? She's
lived there all her life. She raised her children there. And now she
can't afford living there anymore. So what typically happens is
Miss Barbara has to move – she has to be bought out.”
To minimize income-based displacement, Johnson supports
the concept of “incusionary zoning,” a planning concept
in which the government mandates that a specific share of
new construction be affordable to low- to moderate-income
households.
Such a policy likely would be met with resistance from real
estate developers, who contend downtown Augusta’s comparatively
low rents already pose return-on-investment challenges
to new residential construction.
But Johnson, who spent part of his youth living in public housing,
is adamant that the urban core — especially predominantly
African-American neighborhoods — remain affordable to lower
income families.
“What (inclusionary zoning) does is it gives the people who are
living in an area the same opportunity to enjoy the amenities that
someone who is coming in town would be able to enjoy,” he said.
“That doesn't change the fabric of someone’s neighborhood.
That doesn't change the landscape of that neighborhood. That’s
inclusionary. That’s diverse. That’s what we should want.”
Johnson said he believes widespread gentrification has not yet
occurred in Augusta’s urban core, so the time is right for policy
discussions to occur.
“I had a guy tell me, ‘When a Starbucks replaces the barber
shop, you know you've got a problem,’ ” he said. “So we're not
there yet.”
EVERYBODY’S NEIGHBORHOOD
The character of Johnson’s own East View neighborhood
largely remains the same working-class neighborhood it was
when he was a child. The majority of its elderly residents, he
said, are original homeowners who retired from area manufacturing
plants, service-sector jobs and the military.
“It’s still that old, homey neighborhood that I grew up in,”
Johnson said.
He said he does not want inclusionary zoning to scare off
new development in the urban core, which is home to the city’s
vibrant medical district, its up-and-coming central business
district and a host of resurgent residential neighborhoods. And
Johnson acknowledges the district’s overall quality-of-life can’t
improve without the influx of higher-income households.
“We lack a grocery store in this district,” he said. “If you want
a grocery store, you've got to get the income in the area up. We
have got to have more money in our tax base to address some of
the issues that urban core has.”
Johnson said he admires the work of all District 1 predecessors,
but that he considers the late Lee Beard — who represented the
district in the late 1990s and early 2000s — his “political idol.”
He said he has spent the past several months getting the lay of
the political and economic landscape by reaching out to district
residents, large property owners, and downtown agencies and
organizations, such as the Augusta Downtown Development
Authority and the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce.
He believes one of his biggest challenges will be convincing
city residents — and city leaders — that resources allocated to
District 1 are “investments” that will benefit the entire region.
“Is there a geopolitical battle? I would say so, and that's
natural. I'm going to fight for District 1 as much as the other
commissioners fight for their districts,” Johnson said. “There
has been a push over the last eight years to really develop south
Augusta — which is absolutely necessary, completely necessary.
But I think we also have to focus on the heart of the city.”
He said what makes District 1 unique, and ultimately an
asset to the entire city, is that downtown is everybody’s
neighborhood.
“Building up your downtown, your heart muscle, is going to be
very instrumental in pushing dollars elsewhere across this area,”
Johnson said.
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