Report Reveals Imbalanced Investments for Atlanta's BeltLine

A year-old report titled "An Atlanta BeltLine for All: Equitable Development Assessment" [pdf] was recently discussed on SaportaReport by David Pendered. The study was sponsored by the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership, funded by the Ford Foundation, and conducted by Nexus Research Group and Davidson Consulting. According to Pendered, "the Atlanta City Council created the plan in 2008, after public outcry over three significant acquisitions for the BeltLine in and adjacent to northeast Atlanta."

The findings of the report discuss resource allocation and investments made in the trails, parks, general corridor, and affordable housing within the five quadrants of the 22-mile BeltLine project, among other things. In the context of investment, Pendered highlights how "the BeltLine’s southwest area has received 5.5 percent of the total funds invested in BeltLine parks and trails, according to figures in the report. The actual investment is $7 million out of a total investment, as of the date of the report, of $126.8 million."

In addition, there is a vast difference between investment in affordable housing and investment in trails. Of the total $19.2 million invested in trails, "$12.9 million has been invested in the northeast and northside study areas and $6.3 million has been invested in southwest and southeast Atlanta." Indeed, most of the affordable housing is clustered in these southeast and southwest quadrants, 117 units have been funded there out of the total 131 at the time of the report's creation.

Much of the BeltLine's rhetoric has described it as a way to address the historic inequalities that exist in Atlanta along race and class lines.