From what I could find, there is a lot of redevelopment of section 8 housing in the area. The company that owns that apartment complex opened a new seniors low income housing project called "city lights", and are looking to redevelop the current section 8 housing in the area. There are a few mentions of a person named Kwanza Hall, who was the city council member representing that area, and he seems to focus on low income housing, and supports these projects, as does the mayor.
What this looks like to me is, the city is investing a lot of resources to improve living conditions in the area, and they are using the police to assist with that.
Here is a dated article talking about a project in the area:
Quote:
The first piece of a multi-phase project called "City Lights" has been green-lighted, with the expectation it will brighten up a long-vacant corner of Boulevard. Invest Atlanta has approved $7.5 million in tax-exempt bonds to finance 80 housing units for low-income, independent seniors in the Old Fourth Ward. Wingate Capital Partners — the owner and manager of Bedford Pine, the Southeast's largest Section 8 housing project — is leading the four-story development. It will rise at the corner of Boulevard and Angier Avenue, a lot that's been vacant since fire ravaged two apartment complexes there in 2005.
City officials lauded the project as a clear sign of progress for Boulevard, a beleaguered thoroughfare where redevelopment efforts have been stymied but social programs have recently flourished. "The Old Fourth Ward has been craving this type of redevelopment for years and it is now our time," Councilmember Kwanza Hall said in a press release. Added Mayor Kasim Reed: "Transformative projects like the Atlanta Beltline, the Streetcar line and Ponce City Market are sparking a renaissance in the Old Fourth Ward Â… With even more to come, this neighborhood is on track to reclaim the vibrancy it once enjoyed as a center of commerce and culture."
Construction on the first City Lights phase is expected to take 16 months, wrapping sometime late next year. Units will be leased to seniors with income at, or below, 60 percent of the area's median income. Residents will receive assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. Wingate has been cooking up plans for a new building catering to seniors since last year. Some have blamed the Boston-based company for oppressing Boulevard's progress. https://atlanta.curbed.com/2014/6/19...rd-bright-spot
This is the bullshit part of the MJ story:
Quote:
A homeowner in the area was very frank with me. He said the guys who own Bedford Pines got their tax bill last year, and their taxes were assessed based on all the gentrification that’s happening in the area. And so they wanted to move everybody out of these apartments and knock ’em down and rebuild these nice expensive apartments and the government said no. And so then they said, “Well, that’s ok, we’ll just increase the rent.” They tried to increase the rent and the Section 8 guys came back out and said, “No, you can’t do that either.”
It seems they want to build nicer section 8, or low income housing, and the city council and mayor is on board with that plan. It seems the company is in a private-public partnership with the city to provide low income housing.
Here is another piece, which is also dated:
Quote:
The Future of Boulevard: Two Opposing Viewpoints
Thanks largely to the Beltline's Eastside Trail and the imminent arrival of Ponce City Market, the Old Fourth Ward is one of Atlanta's hottest neighborhoods. But O4W is also one of the city's most debated areas, with the focus squarely on a road with one name: Boulevard. With about 600 separate apartments, Bedford Pine is the Southeast's largest Section 8 housing project. Crime has been so prevalent in years past that Atlanta police opened a holding cell right on the property and a substation down the street at Atlanta Medical Center.
When Wingate Capital Partners — the owner and manager of Bedford Pine — announced last month it was moving forward with a project called City Lights, the praise was effusive from many places, but not everyone was enthralled. Aimed at creating 80 housing units for low-income seniors at the corner of Boulevard and Angier Avenue, city officials touted City Lights as a sign of progress and promise. Mayor Kasim Reed mentioned it alongside "transformative" O4W-area projects like Ponce City Market. One longtime resident foresaw a new drug hotspot.
]The fate of Boulevard is a work in progress. Curbed Atlanta caught up (separately) with Wingate President Mark Schuster and longtime Boulevard resident Keith De Cay for their (very different) thoughts on the past, present and future of Atlanta's most talked-about thoroughfare.
SCHUSTER:
· City Lights is "emblematic of things to come." He believes the city, and particularly Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall (the neighborhood booster behind the Yo! Boulevard campaign), have "made a real commitment."
· The ultimate vision for Wingate's stretch of Boulevard, according to Schuster, is to invest $200 million over seven years and create a mixed-use area for Section 8 folks and market-rate renters. Ground is expected to break on City Lights sometime in the early fall. "I think we all want something better and we've found the tools to do that," he said.
· Schuster notes: "The (crime) numbers are improving every year." He pointed to proactive measures that include 25 off-duty police officers in the area on a regular basis and the award-winning Operation PEACE project. City Lights is the first step in turning "350 sides" — the four walls and roof of all 70 Bedford Pine buildings — into 50. Wingate hopes to convert their properties into just 10 buildings, but has to do so piecemeal so no one is displaced. "It's a very different opportunity to be successful" with far fewer entrances per property, Schuster said.
DE CAY:
· Wingate has "failed to make any improvement in the area which has caused a nightmare for all of the middle-income people that live there because of how they manage the area."
· De Cay contends that City Lights will exacerbate Boulevard's problems. "APD has to see the drug exchange, and the dealers know this, so they use a drop site exchange system," he said. "What the dealers need is a safe, public site to store their drugs and the new underground parking garage (at City Lights) … will be their new safe exchange site. The dealers get the money and just send the buyer to parking spot X."
· "If we make Wingate accountable for their past, we can make Boulevard as nice as 39th Street in Chicago or St. Bernard Ave. in New Orleans," De Cay said. "I have houses in both places and can show you how to change an area."
Last edited by itshotinvegas; 09-23-2020 at 01:24 AM.
