Making Way For More Parks

When people think of parks in Atlanta, they generally think of Piedmont Park. Its the cities largest park and nestled into the side of Midtown where major concerts or festivals convene throughout the whole year. They also think of Centennial Olympic Park situated next to Downtown. Central to the Aquarium, CNN, the World of Coke, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the Ferris wheel, its the tourists' epicenter of Atlanta. If you live ITP, you will definitely consider the Atlanta Beltline a major city park. Bikers and runners will also think of the PATH Freedom and PATH 400 trails which connect the Eastside and Buckhead respectively. Some people may mention Grant Park, home to the zoo, but its not in as desirable location as say Piedmont Park is. But of the major parks prevalent across the city of Atlanta, the list is relatively limited compared to other cities such as Chicago, Boston, or New York City.

Old Fourth Ward Park- once an industrial yard

In fact, Atlanta has only 4,418 acres of parkland compared to its total 85,217 acres. Nearby Charlotte, on the other hand, has about 25,000 acres of parkland. For a supposed world-class city, Atlanta does not have a world-class park system. City leaders and community activists are trying to change that by petitioning and raising funds for new parks such as the Bellwood quarry (aka Westside Reservoir Park) which would be four times larger than Piedmont Park and is already famous for its Walking Dead and Hunger Games scenes or the Atlanta Water Works which was a park until the city put up a fence around the valuable water supply in preparation for the 1996 Olympics. Also, the Atlanta Beltline has put Atlanta on the map for its incredible urban renewal projects which will add 1,200 new acres of parks to Atlanta and 33 miles of multi-use trails. Their Old Forth Ward park was once an old industrial field that flooded local streets and buildings and is now a beautiful park and wetland that prevents flooding and has stimulated millions of dollars in reinvestment to the adjacent lots. So, yes, we are working on our lack-of-parkland problem, but the Beltline isn't expected to be completed until 2030, and there is currently no timeline for the opening of the Bellwood quarry and Atlanta Water Works.

In the meantime, what can we do to make Atlanta more park friendly? I support two ways to further increase park acreage and park access: 1) reinvest in the current parks and 2) create new parks along major road corridors.

D.H. Stanton Park- renovated by the Atlanta Beltline

Firstly, reinvesting in the current parks could work magic to many of Atlanta's more disadvantaged neighborhoods. While this isn't necessarily going to increase park acreage, it will make the quality of the Atlanta Parks and Rec system rise. Re-doing old sidewalks, replacing old playgrounds, adding new splashpads and water features, adding new landscaping, and renovating community centers will give some of Atlanta's oldest parks a breath of fresh air. Local residents will enjoy an improved quality of life. Investors and redevelopers will be more interested in developing and converting empty lots and old parking lots into more dense and walker-friendly homes and shops. People from outside the city limits may even begin to see themselves moving away from their suburbs to more walkable, livable, user-friendly neighborhoods. And on the political side, everyone would support this reinvestment because it positively impacts a wide range of people's concerns.

Secondly, making mini-parks and greenways along the city's old and decrepit roadways would create more parks and green space without forcing the city to buy new land while also renovating old roads into complete streets that are accessible and safe for transit, bikers, walkers, shoppers, workers, and residents. Georgia Tech's College of City and Regional Planning created a master plan for converting one Atlanta roadway into a complete street with small parks, a wide walkway, and a newly paved road where the car isn't king. Currently, Memorial Drive is an old 4-lane highway where the sidewalks are not always complete and the road clogs up during rush hour due to bad planning. The school imagines Memorial Drive and its surrounding area to become a shared space complete with bike lanes, multi-use trails, pedestrian bridges, improved crosswalks and sidewalks, bulb outs, and even pedestrian barriers. Along improved sidewalks and near bus stops the school also envisions small parks with seating, landscaping, and shade. This mini-park would create more park space for nearby businesses and residents without taking up an entire new lot and costing the city a fortune to plan and build.

Before and After of a Complete Street Renovation in NYC

Creating more complete streets with small parks, trails, and bike lanes along other major roadways such as MLK Jr. Drive, North Avenue, Cascade Avenue, and Metropolitan Parkway would dramatically alter the city's environment without the huge costs of building new parks in dispersed areas on smaller-sized lots. Making more complete streets in Atlanta is a smart investment because it allows more residents to have more access to park space, it reduces traffic with better transit, bike lanes, traffic light signals, and round-about intersections, and it makes the overall area a greener and more friendly area to live with improvements in infrastructure creating more investments in the community. Creating complete streets is a smart alternative to building new parks such as the Bellwood Quarry, and currently, Georgia Tech's School of City and Regional Planning estimates all of the Memorial Drive construction to be complete by 2026 while the other parks in the works have no estimate to their completion time.

Memorial Drive in Atlanta

Renovating old parks and renovating old streets is the best way to make more parks in a city with a tight budget and pricey real estate. While this plan doesn't create acres of new parkland and green space, what is does instead is create green communities where residents are living and working in places that look and feel like a park but in reality is just a renovated street. Also, renovating old parks will light a spark in communities that have already been designed around these older parks creating a chain reaction in smart and new development in those park's surrounding areas. We don't need to build new parks to make way for more parks in Atlanta.