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Atlanta mayor's message to nuisance businesses: 'Time's up'
Mayor Andre Dickens said addressing the issues with businesses that continue to see crime is a key to his plan to reduce crime in the city. One hookah lounge is fighting a city complaint after a security guard was killed by a patron.
ATLANTA - Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens promised to be laser-focused on fighting crime his first hundred days in office. Targeting nuisance businesses is part of that effort.
"To those businesses that violate protocol time and time again times up," Mayor Dickens told FOX 5's Deidra Dukes.
Atlanta claims Encore Hookah Lounge is one of those businesses and is going to court to try to shut down the establishment.
The city filed a complaint last week, asking a judge to declare the business a "public nuisance," after more than 100 reported cases of violent criminal activity at the Luckie Street location since February 2020.
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Atlanta mayor, police chief full public safety press conference
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta Police Department Chief Rodney Bryant provided methods with which the city is combating different issues related to crime in the city.
Police say a security guard was killed by a club patron just last month. The club is across the street from the Georgia Aquarium.
SUSPECT IN SECURITY GUARD'S KILLING ARRESTED
In court filings, attorneys stated several stray bullets from a shooting in 2021 entered the aquarium's dolphin enclosure. The building was reportedly struck again just last month when someone fired a gun outside the lounge following an argument.
Mayor Dickens says his administrations contacted clubs, restaurants, bars, apartment associations and others with concerning crime and nuisance issues, putting them on notice to clean up their act or face possible repercussions.
"As it relates specifically to Encore," said Dickens, "they've received these notices and are already in the process that we've put forward, to make sure they don't operate in these conditions any longer."
Habif Properties manages the property and is one of the defendants named in the lawsuit.
In a written statement a company spokesman told FOX 5 Atlanta, "We are continuing our legal efforts to evict Encore Lounge from the property and will fully comply with the City of Atlanta in our shared goal of removing this tenant as soon as permitted by law. "
The mayor says his administration is using every resource available to address crime.
"What we are trying to do is take a holistic approach," said Dickens. "Working with the courts, and the judges, and also the district attorney's office to crack down on this crime."
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