Young ideas in Atlanta

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 20

Young ideas in Atlanta

From the “Economist,” London

Mayor’ Andrew Young, in office for seven months, is trying to revive two vast civic projects long in limbo: building a “presidential park” and redeveloping Underground" Atlanta, a four-block area of old buildings that was covered over by bridges and viaducts early in the century. His aims are to create jobs and' to save Atlanta’s downtown, but he has bitten off two very big mouthfuls.

this controversial project has been a surprise. He claims that it will cost the. taxpayer little while providing quick returns — in the form of 4000 jobs — and more lasting returns in the form of tourist dollars and increases in the property.-tax rolls.

The Mayor hopes that the -second proposed project, the redevelopment of Underground Atlanta, will solve several problems. Underground Atlanta was developed in the 1960 s out of Atlanta’s few remaining nineteenth-century buildings as an area of shops and restaurants.

In July the Mayor got the City Council’s approval for development of a 219-acre presidential park on . the northeastern edge of downtown. The park would be built on land owned by the state (which backs the project), and is expected to cost around $lOO. million. It would , include Mr Jimmy Carter’s presidential library (costing $3O million - $4O million, to, come from private subscriptions), 700 units of housing and a four-lane parkway to be paid for by the state transport department Mr Young’s speed in reviving

It flourished for a decade until fear of crime began chasing -patrons away. Today the area has been reclaimed by tramps. Even so, a recent poll of tourists showed that it was still popular. . It will be about 10 months before Atlanta receives an estimate for its down-town redevelopment project, but the financial burden will fall on private enterprise with some

help from industrial revenue bonds. A radical overhaul is necessary. Down-town Atlanta has grown without any sort of plan; large oases of development are interrupted by relatively small deserts of parking lots . and seedy properties. These deserts .foster crime, and the better-off tend to abandon the city after dark — an exodus that has prompted shopkeepers to follow.

During the administration of the previous Mayor, Mr Maynard Jackson, both the population and the proportion of whites within the city limits shrank by about 15 per cent while the suburbs grew by some 26 per cent. The spirit of co-operation between the new Mayor and the businessmen is reminiscent of the Atlanta of former days, when prosperity and racial tolerance went hand in hand. Black and white drifted apart a bit -during Mayor Jackson’s administration. Now Mayor Young is mending fences.