Dear Mayor Franklin,

I have read the original complaint filed about the Eagle on Ponce de Leon Ave. The author claims:

"The neighbors I have spoken to are scared to report anything as the bar
owner has been known to retaliate against neighbors by pointing a speakers
[sic] with sounds of men having sex and blasting it to the residential
building next to the bar."

I have lived in the "residential building next to the bar" for 11 years and
have never, ever heard anything of that sort. As a matter of fact, the bar
employees turn OFF the outside speakers on weekday evenings.

The issues my neighbors and I have with the businesses surrounding our
building have nothing to do with the Eagle. They have to do with the
abandoned "Kodak" building that was once your campaign headquarters and
serves now only as a visual blight, an open space for vagrants to
congregate, a place for drugs to be sold and a breeding ground for other
crimes of opportunity.

They have to do with the "Car Wash/Stereo Installation" business on the
opposite corner from the "Kodak" building, from which stemmed the August 8,
2009 incident in which a gun was fired from that business's parking lot at
an idling SUV, which in turn crashed into six other cars and a tree that
then fell onto two more cars.  ...

As a long-time resident of the "residential building next to the bar," I can
confidently state I have never had any trouble with the Eagle's owners or
patrons. I expect a certain amount of noise in the evenings - it's a BAR! Of
course it's noisy! I would suggest to anyone who would like to live in a
quiet environment that they not live near ANY kind of bar.

I would also suggest to the City of Atlanta that the next time a single
random and frankly quite unrealistic complaint comes across the Mayor's desk that resources other than the APD are utilized for an investigation.
Perhaps, for example, someone could simply speak with the residents of the
"residential building next to the bar" to evaluate the veracity of the
complaint before police officers are taken off the streets and sent into a
bar to see what is going on in there. Truly, if "sex parties" had been
"[spilling] out into the neighborhood" for a long period of time, don't you
think you would have received *more than just one complaint?*

Kids are getting mugged at GA Tech and GA State seemingly every night.
Cars break-ins are an epidemic throughout Midtown.
My friend's apartment on 3rd St. was broken into.
Gunshots were fired from the Car Wash lot on Ponce.
Prostitutes walk down my street.
Drug dealers stand on my street corner.
Vagrants sleep in the vacant lot across the street (and I'm willing to bet
that's not all that goes on over there).
Beggars pester residents for money almost daily.

On behalf of my neighbors, gay and straight, in my building, I would like to
request that the city spend our tax dollars on stopping the violent- and
property-crimes that are the true threat to our spectacular city, not on
stopping a bunch of guys from dancing in their underwear.

Sincerely,

The Residents of:
685 Argonne Ave.
Atlanta, Ga
Atlanta, Ga