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Historic Westside Gardens: The case to establish food security along with affordable housing

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist GIL FRANK, co-founder and executive director of Historic Westside Gardens

In the affordable housing crisis that brews in Atlanta, lower-income people and marginalized populations suffer most.

Historic Westside Gardens focuses on food justice, primarily on the Westside, where it is essential to note at the outset that around 70 percent of residents are lower-income renters. … Historic Westside Gardens chose to focus on the lack of food access, the “food desert” problem, while recognizing that people do not live their life in a silo. HWG is aware that, for residents, food access is not, today, their priority. Housing is their priority. How to link these two rights?

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Funding Kinship Care: Saving children, saving money, doing the right thing

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnists STEVE GOTTLIEB and BILL BOLLING, executive director, board member (respectively) of Atlanta Legal Aid

Children in foster care throughout Georgia – and those of us fighting on their behalf to improve their lives – have received some good news about an important program.

As chair of the Judicial Council Budget Committee, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Michael Boggs made the case to the state Senate Appropriations Committee to recommend $375,000 in additional funding to expand Kinship Care, a program created by Atlanta Legal Aid, to the rest of the state.

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Westside Park, surrounding communities at a critical juncture, deserve ‘complete’ leadership

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist NICK STEPHENS, an Atlanta writer and parks advocate

Earlier this year, over 15 years after it was first proposed, construction on the Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry finally began. The promise of the huge greenspace has been spurring private development nearby. As the area prepares to undergo dramatic rapid change, community activists have been raising concerns, with one major project recently arousing controversy.

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Grassroots soccer at the intersection of transit, equity, social infrastructure

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist SANJAY PATEL, director of special projects at Soccer in the Streets

It’s Saturday morning in late August and a soccer team from the Garden Hills neighborhood is aboard a MARTA train heading southbound. As the youngsters approach their destination, the recorded announcement on the speaker system exclaims, “Welcome to West End Station, exit here for StationSoccer….”

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Alternative Baseball promotes life skills for adults with autism, special needs

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist TAYLOR DUNCAN, founding commissioner/director of the Alternative Baseball organization

Hello everyone! My name is Taylor Duncan! I am 23 years of age from Dallas, and was diagnosed on the autism spectrum at the age of 4 years. … As I grew older, I faced a lot of social stigma and preconceived ideas from several coaches. … The sport of baseball has indirectly contributed and helped me become more of an independent person today.

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A bolder path forward: Reflections on accelerating Milestones progress

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist ED CHANG, founding executive director of redefinED atlanta

Editor’s note: A full statement from the author on the decision by the Atlanta Board of Education to not renew the contract of Superintendent Meria Carstarphen was added to the bottom of the column shortly after the decision was announced.

Like so many of you, the back to school season is one of reflection for me. As a former teacher and principal, it has been a time to hold a mirror to myself to applaud past successes while also acknowledging failure and contemplating growth opportunities and future action.

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Saving the Atlanta BeltLine: A shift from transit to micromobility

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist KEVIN H. POSEY, who writes about transportation and has served on related boards in the Washington region. He moved to Atlanta in 2017.

Atlanta’s BeltLine is perhaps the city’s best-known landmark. As with New York’s High Line, travel writers point it out as a key stop for those visiting Atlanta. However, that popularity poses a threat to its viability as a usable transportation corridor.

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Government-imposed design requirements cost Georgia home buyers

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist AUSTIN HACKNEY, government affairs director, Home Builders Association of Georgia

For generations, home ownership has provided individuals and families with a path towards economic prosperity, and a strong residential construction industry is known as an indicator of a healthy economy. However, recent restrictions and mandates enacted by some local jurisdictions are infringing on private property rights and adversely affecting home buyers, escalating the cost of new home purchases beyond the reach of some buyers, especially those interested in entry-level and workforce housing.

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Remembering Woodstock

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist BILL VANDERKLOOT, a film director/producer who attended the event

The late Tip O’Neill once said, “all politics is local.” As a corollary, I believe that all history is personal. That is until it grows and grows and becomes a defining cultural event. Then it is owned by everyone and the memories morph into things almost unrecognizable.

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Health of Atlanta’s neighborhoods a marker of progress toward equity

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist DEBRA EDELSON, executive director of Grove Park Foundation

If our Atlanta region continues to grow as predicted, we will have tens of thousands of new residents move in town over the next 10 years. How will they decide what neighborhood to live in? Like many of us, they will look for a community that feels safe, is proximate to good schools, and is accessible to retail and community services. Sadly, across Atlanta, many neighborhoods don’t have these critical characteristics.

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Along the South River, large tracts of tree canopy under siege

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist RYAN GRAVEL, AICP, founder of Sixpitch, Inc.

The latest tale in the slow destruction of Atlanta’s iconic tree canopy might seem like a bizarre aberration. When you see it in context of generational disinvestment in the South River watershed, however, suddenly it’s not so surprising. As it turns out, this tale is not an anomaly, but if you look closely, an elegant and aspirational solution to the larger narrative is hiding in plain sight.

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The absence of children in transportation planning

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist DOUG JOINER, a lifelong child and adolescent advocate

In January 2012, I was introduced to Safe Routes to School in metro Atlanta through the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors via a Kaiser grant. As I assessed the program in metro Atlanta, two disturbing issues immediately caught my attention – children rarely factor in transportation planning; and low-wealth minority communities have even few safety provisions for children walking to school.

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The Westside Work continues: There are no silver bullets

by Jason Marshall

By FRANK FERNANDEZ, senior vice president of community development of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation

The Westside is indeed On the Rise. It is not perfect and long-time residents are rightly and deeply concerned about displacement and gentrification. However, Atlanta’s historic Westside is a different place than it was five years ago when our collective place-based efforts began.

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Vine City Peace Park – Much more than a name: A place to study war no more

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist ANDREA L. BOONE, Atlanta City Councilmember and daughter of the late civil rights leader Rev. Joseph E. Boone

In 2008, the city named the north border of Rodney Cook Sr. Peace Park for my late father, the Rev. Joseph E. Boone. The park located on Atlanta’s west side will consist of 16 acres of green space, with a lake, and, of most significance, a Peace Pantheon with a library, 18 sculptures and tributes to civil and human rights leaders from the area. All said, it will be the largest peace park in America.

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Reflecting on Obama 50 years after Stonewall

by Jason Marshall

By Guest Columnist ERIC PAULK, deputy director of Georgia Equality

During the eight years the Obamas occupied the White House, two moments stand out vividly in my mind. July 19, 2013: President Obama made the following comments during an impromptu press briefing in the days following the Trayvon Martin verdict – “When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is, Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago.”

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