A local nonprofit is granting Metro Atlanta almost four million dollars for improvements for parks.
The grants are allocated to 37 parks and are geographically spread throughout all of Atlanta’s city council districts, with a few locations in DeKalb County.
About 50% of the funds are going to historically disinvested communities, defined by the United States Census as having 50% of households with incomes below 60% of the Area Median Gross Income or having a poverty rate of 25% or more.
A map of grant recipient parks throughout the Metro Atlanta region, where the pin icons are City of Atlanta parks, star icons are DeKalb County parks and purple icons are parks in census-defined historically disadvantaged communities.
This is Park Pride’s largest-ever investment, a mix of private and public funding.
The organization, founded in Atlanta 35 years ago, connects friends of the park groups – neighbor groups that support parks – with funding.
While the grants are a big chunk of change, Michael Halicki, executive director of Park Pride, said it’s also about something larger.
“This is not just about money,” he said. “It’s really about communities having a voice and having a say.”
Halikci says that the grants are all about the communities spurring improvements, with the niche of Park to meet the needs of communities who feel as though the city has not given them adequate support.
The projects are wide-ranging. At Cascade Springs, a nature preserve in Atlanta, the executive director said that money has been allocated to provide some safety improvements for visitors to reach the waterfall and the overlook.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the springs saw a dramatic increase in traffic. An earlier part of the grant focused on ADA access, and this is carried forward to the waterfall.
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