In addition to our normal news coverage, What Now Atlanta is tracking ways Atlanta’s businesses are adapting to the novel coronavirus and the challenges it brings to brick-and-mortars.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday via a digital press conference responded to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s Wednesday Executive Order that struck down her mask mandate saying “the city still has appropriate standing to mandate masks.”
If she has to, the Mayor said she is willing to go to court over Kemp’s order which “suspended” Bottoms’ mask mandate. “State, county, or municipal law, order, ordinance, rule, or regulation that requires persons to wear face coverings, masks, face shields, or any other Personal Protective Equipment while in places of public accommodation or on public property are suspended to the extent that they are more restrictive than this Executive Order,” Kemp wrote in Wednesday’s order.
Kemp’s office on Thursday did not immediately respond to What Now Atlanta’s (WNA) request for comment.
“You all know I love to quote Audre Lorde, she says, ‘I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.’ So I am not afraid of the city being sued and I’ll put our policies up against anyone’s any day of the week,” Bottoms said in the press conference.
It’s unclear how the City of Atlanta plans on enforcing the mask mandate. The Mayor’s office has not responded to multiple requests for comment by WNA regarding the matter.
[Editor’s note: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is rapidly evolving as is its effect on Atlanta, and the City’s businesses and its residents. Click here for What Now Atlanta’s ongoing coverage of the crisis. For guidance and updates on the pandemic, please visit the C.D.C. website.]
