Good fences...

We talked a bit about the cemetery clean-up in Canton, GA. Another project the Atlanta office is participating is the building of a fence in East Lake Park. The park is not huge, 10.3 acres compared, for example, to Piedmont Park's 185 total acres. The fence we're building is a rail fence, intended to define the perimeter around the playground in hopes of keeping the children a safe distance from the busy Memorial Drive while they romp.

Sounds like a small project in a tiny neighborhood park, right? With reports due, calls to be made and meetings to attend one might wonder if it's really even worth it.

First, a quick history of the area that surrounds East Lake Park. In the early 1900s this neighborhood developed as a getaway from the hustle and bustle of downtown Atlanta (which is kind of funny, just 4.5 miles away, it's an easy bike ride from East Lake to downtown). The affluent began setting up shop on parcels of land purchased from the East Lake Land Company. To the left you can see an old photo of the clubhouse at the country club. The neighborhood thrived for some time. Golf great Bobby Jones played his very first and very last golf tournaments in East Lake. However, in the 1960s the area began to fall into disrepair. A housing development called East Lake Meadows (pictured to the right) was built on the land right next to the golf course and became an area so blighted the police referred to it as a war zone. Unconfirmed rumor has it, many police officers refused to respond to calls in East Lake Meadows because too many of their brethren had been shot there. By 1995, the employment rate in East Lake Meadows was 14%. This place made The Wire's "Pit" look like a vacation resort.

Today, my tiny children attend daycare right in the middle of East Lake Meadows. Not because I'm a negligent mother, but because the East Lake Foundation came in, moved everyone out, tore down the housing project, erected mixed-incoming housing and allowed the interested to move back in. When I drive through East Lake Meadows I pass a new YMCA, the Drew Charter School (first charter school in Atlanta), lovely apartments, condos and town homes, and a restored golf course on which the Drew kids conduct their gym classes. Prominent Atlanta developer, Tom Cousins, gave birth to the idea for this change, and was regarded as a complete nut-job. Yet it's worked not only because of his insistence but also because the community really wanted it and has pitched in to make it happen.

The park is close to East Lake Meadows and the daycare sometimes takes the kids to the playground over there. The playground was built entirely by volunteers back in 2005. So were the pavilions. The park once involuntarily hosted raucous pop-up parties in which people from outside the neighborhood would direct hundreds of people over and throw down in such a way that the neighbors didn't feel safe going there. Now the community has crushed that. Little by little, using volunteers and neighbors, East Lake has become a wonderful place to live, work and play. Once, many of the kids from East Lake were destined to become criminals, now the kids who live here have programs in place to keep them in school. Currently, 100% of the kids who attended the Drew Charter School for elementary school are enrolled in high school. Many of them come to the elementary school to mentor their juniors.

In addition to reclaiming the golf course(s), the housing developments and the park, the community is also putting East Lake on the cutting edge of the Green movement. The park will soon recycle rain water using an elaborate system bought with a grant from the City of Atlanta. Additionally, they propose to put a solar panel on the new pavilion that's scheduled to go in next to the playground, thus allowing the park to support itself through the sale of it's stored energy to the electric company. Again, these plans are all the efforts of volunteers.

Every single thing one person does to contribute to a community, is a building block for positive change. When one community thrives, the entire city benefits. Is it worth it to miss a day of productivity in the office to build a fence? I don't know, is it worth it to dig in, cast a vote in favor of a safe, fun place for kids to play...to grow up?