Small-Scale Area has Big Dreams

By: David Pendered

Neon-colored blouses and skirts fly off the racks as Adrene Ashford displays the clubby sportswear she sells in her East Atlanta boutique.

"Runway fashion at affordable prices for that confident, young, sexy girl," Ashford says of light-as-a-kiss wisps in mango or pink draping over her arm.

[img border="1" align="right" alt="Don Bender (left) of Neighborhood Commercial Redevelopment Inc. and Corby Hannah of Southstar Community Development Corp. stand at Glenwood and Flat Shoals avenues in East Atlanta, which they hope to improve." hspace="6" height="300" width="410"]files/AJC_032104_Bender_and_Hannah.jpg[/img] Leaders including Don Bender, a developer who pioneered Little Five Points almost 25 years ago, hope to re-create a bit of the magic that made the early Little Five Points such a vibrant alternative. They seek to benefit from spillover traffic from the regional shopping center now being built about a mile away on Moreland Avenue, between East Atlanta and Little Five Points. Advocates face an uphill climb in that East Atlanta's business center is too small to compete for funding through widely known programs, such as the Livable Centers Initiative coordinated by the Atlanta Regional Commission. They have to look elsewhere for dollars and other types of support, says Atlanta's planning commissioner, Charles Graves III. "The challenge is the small scale of East Atlanta and the limited impact its improvement would have on the region," Graves says. "But even though its scale is small, there is a residential neighborhood that really patronizes shops in the village. What we need to identify are some nontraditional supports." The assistance could come in the form of business advice for merchants. It could include a small, but significant, amount of federal grants controlled by Atlanta to upgrade facades and streetscapes. The Atlanta City Council approved last week a $132,000 contract to complete construction drawings for streetscape improvements. Norcross-based Jordan, Jones & Goulding Inc. will finish off a preliminary plan drawn by Atlanta-based Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates, says Natalyn Archibong, the city councilwoman who represents the area. Flat Shoals work Work is to begin this summer along Flat Shoals Road on a $896,000 city-funded project. If the city wins a $1 million federal grant in April, the plan is to expand the program to cover a triangle of tree-lined streets bounded by Moreland Avenue, Flat Shoals Road and Glenwood Road, according to the city's public works department. Sidewalks will be improved, trees planted, and it will be safer to cross Flat Shoals Road at areas where the sidewalk will "bulb out" into the street. The bulb-outs effectively narrow the street at pedestrian crossings, slowing vehicles and shortening the walk across the street. "The main idea," says Bender, who started buying buildings in East Atlanta in 1985, "is to enhance the village's attractiveness as a commercial area for pedestrians. It's not a matter of turning something hostile into something that's attractive, because it is attractive. It's a matter of enhancing it." Restaurant server Adam Murphy, 24, agrees with Bender. Murphy, who lives in the West End community, southwest of Atlanta's central business district, thinks East Atlanta is a pleasant place. "It's a nice place to hang out," says Murphy, who also works as a promoter for bands and disc jockeys in East Atlanta. "There's a lot of diversity in the area, and it has a lot of potential. What they really need is a place for teens to hang out and more community events and family-type things." A new library is slated to open at the north end of the business district in September 2005, Archibong says. Area shopkeepers are establishing a tradition of reaching out to families and the rest of their community, Archibong says. For instance, she says the manager of the Australian Bakery Cafe made a point of visiting nearby schools to talk about his native Australia. When the cafe decided to have a mural painted on an exterior wall, a work of aboriginal Australian art endorsed by Bender, the building's owner, the cafe invited local children to help. "I wanted to make it into a community event," says cafe manager John McLaughlin. "We have 500 handprints on the wall. This is a close community, and I wanted to show that we want to belong here and have them feel that they are part of us, as well." Healing begins The outreach also represents the beginning of a healing in a community that was sharply divided when gay men and young white families began buying homes a decade ago. East Atlanta was among several intown neighborhoods torn by the arrival of these residents in historically black communities that had been overlooked for decades. Corby Hannah is trying to unite the community through his work as executive director of the Southstar Community Development Corp. He helped coordinate the initial streetscape plans and thinks that a renewed business center will bolster the surrounding neighborhood. "We have ambitious ideas to link different green spaces in the area," Hannah says. "It's all about building a stronger community."

Read entire article at: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution