I’ve watched the video of Adam Rosenfelt berating an Atlanta Watershed employee multiple times. 

The sound was garbled sometimes, and the images could have been clearer. But one thing that was quite clear: A powerful man, the owner of the Pullman Yards in Kirkwood and a part of the entertainment industry, ordered the employee off his private property and then followed her in his car to continue demeaning her. 

She was clearly not OK. This was not OK. It could’ve been your mother, your sister, or your daughter who found themselves on the receiving end of that tirade simply for doing their job. 

I am amazed that Rosenfelt hasn’t issued a statement seven days after this incident, much less an apology. 

A PR firm has taken over communications for Pullman Yards. The firm is a major player in the Atlanta market, with a list of clients longer than my arms. Yet rather than trying to mend fences with Pullman’s Kirkwood neighbors, the firm has tried to minimize what happened in its communications with me.

A spokesperson for the firm declined to provide additional context for Rosenfelt’s actions. If he had some bombshell evidence to turn this story on its head, now would be the time to drop it.

“In the report, it is noted that the incident was resolved by all parties within minutes,” the spokesperson for the PR firm said. “I understand you are looking for further context, but it is unclear what else can be provided, given that the incident was, in fact, resolved within minutes.”

Within minutes, y’all. I’m sure the whole thing felt eternal to the Watershed employee that Rosenfelt brought to tears with this toxic behavior. 

One of the nice things about running my own company is I don’t have to nod and smile politely when these things happen. I don’t have to do a handshake and a wink when powerful people abuse that power and when their PR firms want to ignore it. 

I can push back, and I will. What Adam Rosenfelt did, what we all saw him do, is not OK. That he can’t bring himself to publicly acknowledge that reality is something we should all consider when evaluating Pullman Yard’s relationship with its neighbors. 

The relationship between Pullman Yards and the residents of Kirkwood is not in a good place right now. Neighbors say Pullman brings events that create an inconsiderate level of traffic and noise. Is there a touch of Nimbyism at play here? From a distance, it would be easy to assume that. But then again, where you’re standing, there isn’t loud music next door keeping you awake at 2 a.m. There isn’t a line of cars impeding traffic flow and a contractor clearing trees without regard to whether it might damage your property. 

Whatever you think of the people you perceive as gentrifiers, the silly folks who want the city life without the city hassle, if you look closely at the evidence, you have to admit they have a point here. 

Much of their frustration is that Rosenfelt appears to act with relative impunity regarding the Pullman Yard property. There seems to be no requirement for a permit for the events he regularly holds there, which is a subject of some confusion at city hall. We’ll keep pulling that thread.

But one thing Rosenfelt said to the sobbing Watershed worker stood out to me. 

“I’m going to have you thrown out of the f—ng city,” Rosenfelt screamed as he advanced toward her. “Who the f— do you think you are?”

Now, I wonder why Rosenfelt thinks he has the power to do that.

And who does Adam Rosenfelt think he is? Does he think he’s entitled to terrify our public employees and ignore the valid concerns of his neighbors? Think again. This publication has no intention of pretending this didn’t happen, and any PR firm worth its salt would be working overtime to repair the damage that has been done.

The PR firm has decided on a different approach. On Tuesday, I joined my media partners at Atlanta News First for the Decatur Dish show. As you might expect, Pullman was a topic of conversation. I mentioned that the neighborhood was so ticked off they wanted to use drones to do traffic counts during SweetWater 420 Fest, to show the city the receipts, as it were.

I don’t have an opinion on using drones for this purpose—it’s not my lane. But the PR firm must be a fan of the show. A company spokesperson contacted me soon after it aired.

They wanted me to tell my sources in Kirkwood that they had concerns about “the volunteer drone operation over the event, which violates not only our fan rights and safety, but is particularly problematic regarding our agreements with artists.”

“We do not allow any drones on site as a matter of safety and security unless a licensed operator on our internal team has been cleared within our existing agreements,” the PR firm’s spokesperson continued. “Additionally, It shall be unlawful to use a drone to capture images or video of privately owned property without express consent.”

So, to review: 

1. Adam Rosenfelt did something that was not OK.

2. His PR firm’s strategy didn’t involve acknowledging that Adam Rosenfelt’s actions were not OK. 

3. The PR firm then asked Decaturish to communicate a message to the neighborhood. Presumably, because its relationship with these folks is so damaged, their concerns would fall on deaf ears.

I’m not a go-between, and I won’t do a PR firm’s job for them. I assume Rosenfelt pays them pretty well, and they can talk to the residents themselves. That they haven’t done that says a lot about Pullman Yard’s priorities. 

Being a good neighbor matters. Pullman Yards is not a good neighbor right now. 

When your neighbors hate you so much that they’re organizing drone patrols to spy on you, it might be a clue that you’ve screwed things up. The right move would be to repair the damage done so Kirkwood can move forward. The ball is in Rosenfelt’s court on that. 

In the meantime, Rosenfelt and his PR firm can rest assured that this publication will not participate in normalizing the kind of behavior we witnessed from him last Friday. 

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