If you take Memorial Drive into and out of downtown, you may recently have noticed land-clearing on several woebegone parcels between that street and MLK Drive. And you may have wondered what’s going in where those dilapidated structures had been.
Here’s your answer: Nothing.
The demolition you’ve witnessed is part of an ongoing project to create a linear park between the state Capitol and Oakland Cemetery. The western portion of the park, where the Capitol Homes public housing project once stood, is already cleared and is awaiting state funding to turn it into a greenway.
Just last week, Gov. Sonny Perdue submitted a budget proposal that includes some $11 million to begin designing a pedestrian thoroughfare that will allow visitors to walk from the Gold Dome to the planned Capitol Gateway Park by way of a walkway spanning the Downtown Connector. The ambitious proposal calls for the parking deck next to the Statehouse to be replaced by a rolling lawn, through which Piedmont Avenue will be rerouted, boulevard-style.
As for the land-clearing to the east, at Hill Street and along Oakland Avenue, that’s the city’s handiwork. Through the Atlanta Development Authority, and with support from the Trust for Public Land and private donors, the city is assembling the rest of the strip along Memorial to complement the state’s portion.
Last year, the city bought three blocks, with four more to go. The most recent acquisition – for $1.7 million – was the block on the north side of MLK, just opposite the entrance to the cemetery. The land was vacant except for an old, shanty-ish house, says Ellen Wickersham, the ADA’s manager of parks and greenspace.
“As we were wiring the money to seller, fire engines were called because the house was going up in flames,” she says. “It’s totally unexplained.”
The site could be used for a future visitor’s center for Atlanta’s most famous cemetery, she says.
Meanwhile, a number of existing businesses are still operating in the planned park corridor, including the beloved Daddy D’z. But Wickersham says the city isn’t trying to push anybody out.
“This is a long-term project, so we’re working with individual businesses in order to respect their needs,” she says.
Well, now we know that simply getting tax allocation district funding doesn’t guarantee a project’s success.
