Make Atlanta parks a priority, groups urge candidates

Atlanta resident George Dusenberry has listened to the mayoral candidates talk often about making the city safer – but he’s heard little about what they’ll do about its parks.

On Tuesday, Dusenberry and other civic leaders are scheduled to meet at Washington Park in west Atlanta to issue three specific challenges to the mayoral and City Council candidates.
By next year, take concrete steps to make Atlanta’s parks safer.

By 2012, commit one mill of property taxes, about $20 million, to operate and maintain city parks. (The current budget is $29.6 million. The proposed 2010 budget is $25.3 million.)

By 2013, create a plan to acquire and develop more green space.

The group has called itself the Parks Atlanta Rescue Coalition. It makes its pitch by pointing to research used by a local group called Park Pride that found Atlanta ranks last among 26 big cities in the percentage of space dedicated to parks. Slightly less than 5 percent of Atlanta is parkland, according to Park Pride. PARC would like to see Atlanta rise to 10 percent.

“Everyone is so focused on crime and the furloughs [on city workers] and the finances that there’s no discussion about what Atlanta’s vision is for what we are going to be 10, 15 years from now,” said Dusenberry, executive director of Park Pride. “Parks and green space has to be a huge part of that vision.”

PARC makes its pitch arguing that parks and green space bring people together and encourage better health. They say it also boosts economic development because home builders understand people like to live near a park.

West Atlanta homeowner R.R. Harris supports the effort, noting how efforts by her and others to improve a nearby park, Collier Heights, have brought the neighborhood together.

“I’m on board because I know what it’s done for our community,” she said. “It’s bringing the children together. It’s bringing the grandparents together.”

PARC includes more than 60 neighborhood groups, community organizations and even a few businesses. Advocates include Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

“There’s just a tremendous amount of work to be done,” Blank said in a video promoting the effort.

Several mayoral candidates say they support PARC’s mission, but they’re less willing to make a financial commitment. The city is in the midst of a budget crisis. Outgoing Mayor Shirley Franklin has proposed a property tax increase to end four-hour-a-week furloughs on city employees. Some neighborhood planning units, Dusenberry said, declined to join PARC because of the city’s financial challenges.

“Given the city’s current financial condition, I feel it would be irresponsible to make a pledge of taxpayer money,” said candidate Jesse Spikes, echoing the thoughts of some candidates. “However, it is an important issue, and I would certainly be a strong advocate for more green space for the city.”

Dusenberry says he’s sympathetic to the budget troubles at City Hall, but he believes all three goals are attainable within the time frame PARC has set. He points to Gwinnett County as a model of what Atlanta can do. A portion of the county’s 1 percent sales tax on most retail items goes to its parks system.

Park advocates feel optimistic about their chances to lobby city leaders, recalling a similar effort in 2001 called “PARC 911.” Since then, the city has added about 1,000 acres of green space, and Atlanta has created the Beltline project, which will add 1,000 acres of parkland over the next two decades.

However, for all the new green space, Atlanta’s population has grown by about 100,000 residents during the same time frame.

“The land is there,” Dusenberry said. “It’s a matter of will.”