As Invest Atlanta voted for a new Atlanta Falcons stadium on April 4, board member Joseph Brown said success would be measured by “what does it look like across the street from the stadium” in 2017.
Brown, a co-fund manager for the New York-based Centerline Urban Partners Fund, was referring to whether Northside Drive and the communities of Vine City, English Avenue and Castleberry Hill would be significantly improved by having a new $1 billion stadium as a next door neighbor.
Two facts were not lost on those present.
After the Georgia Dome opened in 1992, it has been hard to identify any lasting positive contributions that development has made to the surrounding community.
Also, football stadiums around the country traditionally have not served as catalysts for community reinvestment and revitalization.
And yet, two strong personalities — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank — believe Atlanta can create a different outcome.
At the Invest Atlanta board meeting, Reed explained that when the Georgia Dome was being built, Atlanta’s attention already had shifted to hosting the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Also, there were three different mayors in office during that time frame.
Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young was finishing his second term when the Georgia Dome deal was being put together; Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson was then elected for a four-year term; and then he was followed by Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell who took office a couple of years before the Olympics.
“We have a unique opportunity,” said Reed, adding that if he and his colleagues on the Atlanta City Council are re-elected and if most Invest Atlanta board members continue to serve, the story will be different.
Especially if the new stadium is built on the preferred South site next to the Georgia Dome, the belief is that the development can become part of the fabric that connects downtown with the community. A fall-back option is a North site about half-mile away at Northside Drive and Ivan Allen Boulevard…
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Don't believe a word of this mess folks. What they're going to do is make the headlines and pretend they are going to do the right thing meanwhile getting all the tax breaks they can get and in the end doing NOTHING for the city itself or the people surrounding the area.
Anybody remember those same promises given when they decided to put up and restore ATLANTIC CITY? Ask those residents how wonderful they feel after they remodeled the whole city with NOTHING done to the surrounding city except…they forced the residents to leave. yeah, real nice. DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES!
Hey, I remember, as I helped appraise the parcels belonging to the Plasters Union adjacent to Frienship Baptist Church.very very hard to clean up these surrounding ares Just today a young man was shot and killed less than 50 yds. from the existing Dome. For all this to work would be to diversify the area. You cannot have all poor people in a herded area. They will prey on the more affluent people who either live or pass thruogh these affected areas. That was my gas station ,where I bought gas almost daily. Mr Russell has tried very very hard to cleanup his neighborhood. But, you cannot leave these less affluent people with out a lot of skills , addicted and some may have criminal records, to just be released back into these areas without money or the means to secure it. Training, and more training should be made a part of any deals for the Dome. If not tthere will be similar results