At last year’s inaugural Atlanta Way Day, a crowd of civic leaders asked a major question: Why is Atlanta ranked last in economic mobility, and how can it improve?
The data from a 2024 study by Raj Chetty’s research group Opportunity Insights caused worry among local leaders. Atlanta ranked dead last out of the top 50 metro areas when it came to upward economic mobility.
In 2025, nonprofit and regional leaders said Metro Atlanta had to change policies and systems that “got us here.” At Atlanta Way Day in 2026, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens echoed the sentiment.
“We can study a problem forever, we can produce beautiful reports, we can do fireside chat after fireside chat with no fires, we can do panel after panel,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at the second annual Atlanta Way Day. “The question is, what are we willing to do together?”
The event is hosted by local nonprofit Atlanta Way 2.0, created by SaportaReport’s founder Maria Saporta and led by a roster of local leaders from all corners of the city’s landscape.
Dickens and other regional leaders arrived at the second annual event with answers – including an update on the mayor’s major city initiative to boost development in underserved neighborhoods.
“Atlanta is growing,” Dickens said. “We don’t have a growth problem; our problem is balanced growth. It’s been that way for decades.”
Dickens first announced the ambitious Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative in late 2025, with plans to invest over $5 billion in long-neglected neighborhoods across Atlanta and end the “tale of two cities” with unbalanced growth and investment.
The city plans to pay for the investments through a mix of philanthropic and tax dollars. In June, Atlanta City Council voted to extend six of the eight Tax Allocation Districts for the next 30 years. The TAD dollars will help pay for part of the plan.
Now, Dickens said the city has secured some major philanthropic investments.
“Last night, Delta Airlines and UPS announced philanthropic gifts in support of (Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative,” Dickens said at the Oct. 1 event.
He also said The Coca-Cola Company and UPS made contributions, too. The multi-million dollar commitments represent a major milestone for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, or NRI.
National nonprofit Blue Meridian Partners and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation plan to invest $50 million into the NRI, with one caveat: The city must match the funding with another $50 million in philanthropic donations.
Previously, Dickens has said he felt confident the donor funds would come through. Now he’s closer to meeting the match number and collecting $100 million in philanthropic funding.
According to Megan Sparks, Senior Advisor to Mayor Andre Dickens, Blue Meridian also wants “long-term infrastructure” to support the initiative well past the Dickens administration.
“Think about not just what difference we can make right now, but what difference people in 30 years will look back and see,” Sparks said.
There are still several major steps needed for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative. In the coming weeks, the city plans to announce the NRI Executive Director to lead its newly formed Backbone Organization. Dickens will continue to source philanthropic funding for the $50 million match.
At a Sept. 18 exclusive sit-down interview with SaportaReport after the Atlanta Committee for Progress meeting, the mayor said the city is also “getting down to the crafting of some key performance indicators and outcomes, and how that aligns with the 20-year vision of the city we’re putting together.”
If enacted, the initiative will fund housing, education, economic opportunity, food access and neighborhood stability – all issues the regional leaders pointed to at Atlanta Way Day.
But each leader from nonprofits, cities and regional agencies agreed that repairing the fundamental issues could raise Atlanta’s economic mobility ranking up from last place.
“The Metro Atlanta Chamber or the Georgia Department of Economic Development do not close their doors when Georgia is named number one city for business,” Maria Saporta said. “It’s part of the ongoing focus of the community, and we need to view economic mobility as just that — economic mobility is economic development.
Saporta continued, “Let’s figure out a way to really incorporate that in everything that we do.”
“Atlanta is growing,” Dickens said. “We don’t have a growth problem; our problem is balanced growth. It’s been that way for decades.”
You have really a very major problem – your best places are aging out and people are not reinvesting but instead bolting. Cobb, Dekalb and so on.
He may be trying to save East Atlanta but that tiny speck won’t pay this kind of a metro’s bills. And hence the flight to Texas and NC and so on by business and now long timers. Good luck.