On Saturday, Four Corners Park transformed into a cookout complete with choir music and a marching band. The whole affair celebrated a milestone for the Peoplestown community — the launch of a nearly $10 million makeover for the long-neglected park.
The $9.4 million grant was first announced in July by the Bezos Earth Fund. It gave the dollars to Park Pride, which will work with Peoplestown to make their park vision a reality. It’s the biggest project in Park Pride’s history.
But it didn’t come out of nowhere. The Bezos Earth Fund, created by billionaire Jeff Bezos, wanted to invest in projects with “strong community engagement.” The money came from a $100 million “Greening America’s Cities Campaign” focused on community-designed parks and greenspace projects across eight cities.
Community-led Four Corners Park in the heart of Atlanta was a perfect fit.
It was originally a vacant lot, but the five-acre park is a gathering place for the neighborhood, with a neighborhood center and basketball court.
“Peoplestown residents and the Friends of Four Corners Park have been dedicated champions for this space for years,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.
The influx of funds recognizes long-standing community investment. They also speed up the timeline. Original project plans were spread across 20 years; now the revitalization will be done in three.
“We’re going to be here before we know it, doing a ribbon cutting,” Atlanta Parks and Recreation Commissioner Doug Voss said.
The newly-appointed commissioner and longtime parks employee said the park is an example of the “Atlanta Way,” where things are built on community involvement early. He said the community “drives the discussions.”
Park Pride CEO Michael Halicki echoed Voss’ statements. He said the nonprofit has a “big idea” that communities have great ideas on what makes great parks.
But the project also represents a joint effort: Philanthropic investment to a local nonprofit, which will work directly with community members, while being supervised by the city.
“When foundations, nonprofits, community advocates and residents in the city work together, we can accomplish more for our parks and recreation department than we can individually,” Voss said.
The mayor called it a classic Atlanta “group project.”
Many of the community members behind the “group project” attended the Saturday event, like Peoplestown native George Epps. He also serves as the Program and Facility Manager for Community Care, Inc., housed in the park’s Rick McDevitt Youth Center.
After the event, Epps teased the next steps for the park project. He said part of the process is “establishing and checking” foundations – flood safety, ground work and more. The first stage will address these concerns, and it will add in amenities like hill slides, grills, a pavilion, expanded playground and community garden.
It will be an intensive project on a short timeline, but Epps isn’t worried.
“We’re prepared for the process,” he said. “I mean, we’ve been a part of it since forever.”
Mayor Dickens said this project represents his goal to give every Atlanta resident access to safe and welcoming spaces. Once revitalized, Four Corners Park will mark a transformative investment in the long-neglected neighborhood.
“This community has lived through redlining, displacement and poorly thought-out infrastructure decisions for far too long,” Dickens said. “Through this project and other city initiatives, we are working to reverse decades of underinvestment in the Atlanta neighborhoods that need investment the most.”
See more photos by Delaney Tarr from the Oct. 25 celebration below.
