On Tuesday October 21st, around 30 Washington Park residents gathered at KIPP Ways School on Temple St. to discuss the Livable Centers Initiative grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission. The event was hosted by Christi Jackson, Executive Director of The Conservancy at Historic Washington Park and supported by Allison Duncan of the ARC, and Carlos Perez and Wesley Brooks of Perez Planning + Design.
Dr. Pearlie Dove, a long-time resident of Washington Park, gave a warm welcome and call to action, starting the meeting with a great quote from Henry Ford: “Coming together is the beginning, working together is progress, staying together will result in success.”
The Livable Centers Initiative comes out of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Community Choices program. The purpose of this meeting was to create a vision for the neighborhood with input from the residents. Once a report has been created, the group will identify strategies and sources for implementation.
ARC conducted an interactive survey using clicker remotes. Sample poll questions included: “What gives the community its character?”, “Why do you live in this community?”, “The community needs more…” etc. Following the survey, the attendees broke up into tables and discussed three questions:
1) What is it that you love about the neighborhood and do not want to see changed?
2) What is it that you do not like about the neighborhood that you would like to see changed?
3) What specific ideas and recommendations do you have about maintaining the things you love and/or changing the things you do not like?
The next meeting will report on the synthesis of the groups’ responses to the survey and discussion questions. It will take place on Monday, November 10th, 2015 at 6:30 pm at HAGAR Palace, located at 19 Joseph E. Lowey Blvd (the intersection of Lowery and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive).
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