Is redevelopment finally starting in Bedford Pine?
In 2005, on the day before Thanksgiving, a fire destroyed two apartment buildings in the Village of Bedford Pine and left sixty people homeless. In the eight years since, the corner lot at Boulevard and Angier where the apartments once stood has remained vacant. During that time, Wingate Companies, which owns and manages Bedford Pine, the largest Section 8 subsidized housing project in the Southeast, has talked about redeveloping that lot—and dozens of other properties it owns along the Boulevard corridor. It looks like something is finally going to happen.
TEDx Atlanta challenge in high gear
Say what you will about tech types; when they decide to do something they don't mess around. Back in March, the tech-arts-design-entreprenuerial whiz kids attending the spring TEDxAtlanta event decided to grant their inaugural "Wish" prize to the Year of Boulevard initiative and raised $6,500 in cash and $25,000 in pledges on the spot. Nice work.
A Boulevard block party
Police barricades were erected at Angier and North Avenue, blocking off a quarter-mile stretch of Boulevard on Saturday for the Year of Boulevard “Block Party,” which along with standbys like hotdogs, inflatable trampolines, balloons, and lemonade featured booths and mobile offices from a couple dozen social services agencies.
A new safety center and spiffy digs for Operation P.E.A.C.E.
On Thursday, two facilities integral to the Year of Boulevard initiative debuted. They represent opposing ends of the proverbial spectrum of challenges faced on the corridor.
Kickoff Q&A with Kwanza Hall
In early February, a few weeks after the “Year of Boulevard” initiative was announced, I sat down with city councilman Kwanza Hall to talk about the project's launch. Hall, whose parents were civil rights leaders and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, spent much of his childhood in the area. A former member of the Atlanta Public Schools board, Hall has served on Atlanta City Council since 2006. He lives in the Old Fourth Ward and represents District 2, which includes Downtown, Sweet Auburn, Inman Park, the Old Fourth Ward, and Castleberry Hill. We met in the Starbucks at the Atlanta Medical, a few yards from the future site of the Zone 6 mini precinct.
A “Living Laboratory”
A couple of months ago, the mashup of old-school and hipster entrepreneurs in the squat brick building at the corner of Howell and Irwin streets might have seemed a sign that a troubled neighborhood was turning around. The lower-level storefronts included Banna Grocery, Suhrid Das’s convenience store; Retro Razor, Mister Saffold’s barbershop (yes, Mister is his first name); and Sugar-Coated Radical, where pastry chef Taria Camerino sells confections crafted with fair-trade ingredients. Then, on the evening of February 22, a man entered Banna Grocery, one arm covering his face, the other holding a gun. He shot Das in the stomach and left him bleeding. Hours later another man broke into Camerino’s upstairs apartment, threatened her two kids, and forced the candymaker to go downstairs and empty her register. That night, Das died.
Boulevard cleanup day
The Year of Boulevard initiative will be attempting to clean up the corridor more literally than figuratively on Saturday May 19, with a massive spring-cleaning effort organized by councilmember Kwanza Hall’s office.
From drug market to dog park: the rebirth of Renaissance Park
The wooded pocket park with a picturesque downtown skyline view has been transformed into District 2’s latest amenity, an off-leash dog park with designated areas for small and large dogs—the first such facility in downtown Atlanta.
If 2012 was the “Year of Boulevard,” what happens in 2013?
Last January, city councilmember Kwanza Hall declared 2012 the “Year of Boulevard,” and outlined an ambitious plan to revitalize a blighted stretch of intown Atlanta. What's in store this year? Get ready for "Mo' Boulevard," says Hall.
A week into Year of Boulevard II, a deadly shooting
After a year of stepped-up public safety, and just days after lowered crime rates were touted at the Year of Boulevard 2013 kickoff, last night's deadly shooting underscores the complexity of the area’s problems.
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