Fresh Loaf

BROKEN WINDOWS Some residents of Vine City feel that their neighborhood is crumbling before their eyes.

Ask lifelong Vine City resident and community organizer Byron Amos to recall his childhood in the historic neighborhood, and he paints a simple portrait: houses, children, residents mingling in narrow, friendly streets.

“A real neighborhood,” he says.

Ask him to describe Vine City today, and he’ll tell you this: “It’s a shell of its former self.”

Literally. Thanks to disasters both natural and man-made, the long-overlooked community so rich with heritage has devolved into the very definition of blight.

On Sept. 21, 2002, an unprecedented downpour, exacerbated by the city’s antiquated sewer system, flooded Vine City 6 feet deep. Some stranded residents were forced to swim through raw sewage to reach safety.

Continue reading “Down and out in Vine City”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Last night’s tornado didn’t just tear a path through Downtown and Cabbagetown. The storm’s footprint appears to have started in Vine City, a historic neighborhood just blocks from the Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center, and stretched east.

In Vine City this afternoon, crews from Georgia Power and Comcast were at work restoring power and telephone service, as well as clearing downed power lines from the street. Griffin Street was hit particularly hard and appeared as if a eastbound wave of force tore through the neighborhood. A pavilion at John F. Kennedy Park was crushed, and two trees fell on the park’s playset.

On James P. Brawley Drive, an apartment building’s roof was torn off. Remnants were scattered on an adjacent park’s playing field. A tenant from the damaged building who went by Robert allowed me to photograph inside while he packed up his belongings.

Half of the ceiling in Robert’s apartment was gone. Everything inside was drenched, including his family photos. Robert’s daughter said she and her father would spend the night at a relative’s apartment. Shortly after I took these photos, marble-sized hail and pounding rain started to fall.

So far, two people had been reported killed by the weekend’s storms. John Oxendine, Georgia’s insurance commissioner, estimated the storm’s damage at $150 million. The Downtown skyline looks pummeled, with many landmark buildings missing windows. Streets around Centennial Olympic Park are still closed because of scattered debris.

To view more photos and add your own, visit Creative Loafing’s Flickr page here.

(Photos by Thomas Wheatley)

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