Now I Can…
William Teasley
& Greg Burson, Friends of Peoplestown ParksWith the help of Park Pride, an Atlanta-based park advocacy group, Friends of Parks groups have been improving neighborhood parks across the City of Atlanta.
Friends of Peoplestown Parks is re-building Daniel Stanton Park, located in the southeast section of the BeltLine.
Park Pride has helped the group develop a vision for the park through its community-based visioning process. The community’s conceptual master plan will feed into the master planning efforts under way through Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.
INSPIRING SPACES
“Among the 25 largest cities in America, none has a smaller percentage of parks and green spaces than Atlanta. This is a problem, because parks and green spaces are important to the health of the community. People need access to safe, comfortable places for recreation and physical activity. They need parks to provide natural filtration for the water system. They need trees that remove a lot of primary and secondary pollutants from the air. They need the cooling effect that parks bring to an urban heat island such as Atlanta. And parks can be natural gathering spots for communities”
About Our Parks Initiatives
“In 2006, the Foundation developed a strategic plan to focus on 33 Atlanta parks that are within one mile of the proposed BeltLine, located in an underserved community, and leveraged by outside investments in the park.
“Due to a history of underinvestment by the public sector, many of these parks have not been maintained. There’s been a pattern of park amenities falling into disrepair and underutilization by local residents. However, through the leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin and Commissioner Dianne Harnell Cohen, we’ve seen an increase in the park budget and a new parks agenda that seeks to make Atlanta a national model for parks and green space. Assisting in this mission is Park Pride, a grantee that has been instrumental in engaging individual communities to take ownership of their parks and transform their green spaces.
“Park Pride works with communities to discover what’s needed, to show what can be done, and how to present those ideas to the City. Their Park Visioning process empowers the community to think about the type of park they want and need in the community. The outcome of this process is a “conceptual” master plan that the residents can then use as a blueprint when talking with the City. The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has been able to partner with both Park Pride and the City of Atlanta Department of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs to improve park access, amenities, and foster community mobilization.
“Since 2006 we’ve funded five parks. Many of our grants are multi-year commitments, and we plan on investing in more parks in the upcoming years. Our intent is to continue along this path until we have helped transform all the priority parks.”
The Atlanta BeltLine
“The proposed BeltLine project gives Atlantans a history-making opportunity to reshape our city with a 22-mile loop of linear parks, trails, greenways, and a transit system. These assets will connect 45 neighborhoods along an old railroad right of way.
“The BeltLine continues to be a major area of investment for the Foundation. More than 200 million public and private dollars have been raised to buy tracts of land and start constructing BeltLine pathways. One of our major land acquisition partners, The Trust for Public Land, has been instrumental in buying properties and holding them for appropriate development.
“Trees Atlanta is another Foundation grantee. They are currently master planning for a BeltLine Arboretum which, when complete, will be the world’s longest linear arboretum. In October 2007, we participated with Trees Atlanta, Atlanta BeltLine Inc., BeltLine Partnership, Park Pride, and other BeltLine partners in a groundbreaking BeltLine event. The mayor, city council members, and more than 300 volunteers gathered for the One Great, Green Mile Clean-up of a southwest portion of the loop. It was a great example of a community believing in something, taking ownership in a vision, and getting involved in seeing it through.”
On Making A Difference
“I love our grantees. The people I deal with are very passionate and super energetic. The excitement and optimism of our grant partners is infectious, and spills over into the neighborhoods. I’m excited to be a part of it; to meet individuals on the ground, and see how a little bit of investment in a park and in themselves can transform a community.
“I often find myself disheartened with the world we live in. In my opinion, we have a long, long way to go. But then I meet people who are out there really making great strides towards bettering our world. They’re succeeding against the odds and making a difference in their community. Those individuals recharge my batteries. They keep me focused on why we’re all here.”
The Big Picture
Valarie Wilson
President, The BeltLine PartnershipIn 2006, Atlanta ranked 16th out of 19 comparable cities in total acres of park land with 7.9 acres per 1000 residents.
Only 4.5% of Atlanta’s land is dedicated park land.
Atlanta had only one park included in the Center for City Park Excellence’s 2007 list of the most visited parks in the United States. The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site ranked 44th out of 54.
There were only 116 park playgrounds and 44 baseball diamonds available to Atlanta’s 2006 population of 483,108.
Inspiring Spaces
Decades of strong growth in Metro Atlanta have resulted in sprawl, congestion, and disappearing open spaces. Some 50 acres are lost to development each day. The City of Atlanta ranks last among comparable cities in the number of park acres per thousand residents.
The availability of green space decreases residents’ isolation, enhances physical health, fosters economic development, reduces crime, and provides room for children to play and stay fit.
Our aim is to help develop a system of great parks in Atlanta, tied to the larger vision of how public space connects the entire community. By providing support, we want to ensure the creation of high quality, well-maintained, protected parks that are accessible and available to all Atlantans.