By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, a professor of the practice of planning at Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture who has overseen several Tech studios that examined Northside Drive and its neighborhoods
For over 30 years Northside Drive has separated westside residents from the jobs and vibrancy that continue to grow in Downtown Atlanta with a physical wall of traffic and pavement as if to emphasize the race and class divisions that plague the neighborhoods it bounds.
Two strategies seem to be emerging around the issue of affordable housing near the Falcons stadium – 1) Give up the neighborhoods and work to keep the name and statue of a Confederate officer out of a planned park; or, 2) Quickly impose public policies to protect current and future residents who have lower incomes.
One take-away from a lengthy discussion about lofty plans to improve neighborhoods near the Falcons stadium is that progress is difficult and surprises lurk around every corner.
A new study confirms the fears residents of the Washington Park neighborhood voiced a decade ago, when they told city planners that the Atlanta BeltLine would drive up housing prices and drive them from their homes.
