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Atlanta City Council Approves Westside Sidewalk Improvements

March 22nd, 2016

Atlanta is moving forward with plans to improve part of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive on Atlanta’s Westside.

The city council approved $6.4 million to repair and maintain sidewalks on a five-mile stretch from Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard to Fulton Industrial Boulevard.

For the better part of an hour on Monday, the Atlanta City Council heard from dozens of West Atlanta community leaders and residents on what many called the need for dignity to be restored to the corridor that bears King’s name.

“We had one of our residents turn over in a wheelchair out on the sidewalk on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. That’s how bad those sidewalks are,” resident James Allen said. He called the thoroughfare in its current state “a street of sorrow.”

Repairing those sidewalks is a first step in a larger plan to revitalize the corridor with funds from the $250 million infrastructure bond approved by Atlanta voters last year.

“We’re hopeful the infrastructure we’re approving today will go a long way to help private sector investment and property owners along that corridor to now risk their own capitol,” said Councilman Ivory Lee Young Jr.

The next steps are for the city to coordinate with the Department of Transportation on the project. Councilman C.T. Martin said he’s hopeful work could begin in the next three months.