L5P Alliance Launches
August 21, 2018 – The Little Five Points Alliance (L5PA) launched this week to work with business owners and neighboring communities to champion and sustain the Little Five Points area. Created from a combination of leadership stemming from the Little Five Points Community Improvement District (L5PCID), the Little Five Points Business Association, Little Five Alive, Inman Park Neighborhood Association, Candler Park Neighbors Organization and previous volunteer efforts, the Alliance will be the outward-facing organization dedicated to keeping Little Five Points creative, authentic, safe, welcoming, and unique.
“Little Five Points is primarily a business district, but it’s a district that was created with community in mind,” says Anna Foote, L5P Community Improvement District board chair. “Years ago when people like Don Bender and Kelly Jordan, and many others in the neighboring communities, came together to roll up their sleeves and build this community, they worked with residents to create a space that would serve everyone. Today Little Five Points is the longest-standing, full-service, neighborhood commercial and arts district in Atlanta complete with a credit union, dentist, pediatrician, artistic theatres, art gallery, health food market, and more. We want to keep that connection with community through the Alliance.”
The L5PCID is a made up of property owners who chose to tax themselves to collaboratively allocate those funds for infrastructure improvements in Little Five Points. Similar to the Midtown Improvement District and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, the L5PCID was looking for ways to better engage neighboring communities as well as to enhance programming in the area.
“The CID is a wonderful tool for property owners and building up revenue for projects,” says Lauren Welsh, executive director of the L5PCID. “But that structure doesn’t allow a broader level of participation and input beyond the property owners. Now the new L5P Alliance will build that larger collaborative.”
The Alliance chartering board is being led by community development consultant, Jennifer Ohme, of idealDESIGN,inc, who has a long history of standing up business and community organizations throughout Atlanta. With experience in Old Fourth Ward, Kirkwood, West Midtown, Castleberry Hill and previously Little Five Points, she is building a unified organization that will create a seamless connection between property owners, business owners, nonprofit organizations, and community groups to build upon the unique story that is Little Five Points.
“Our first order of business is to seat a chartering board for the Alliance. This leadership will be from all those who love Little 5 Points and have an established organization or are a resident stakeholder. This group will set the priorities and structure of the organization, recruit membership, and begin important community engagement conversations on how to address pressing needs for the district,” says Ohme, “and we are eager to get things moving.”
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Little Five Points has been one of Atlanta’s most important cultural and arts destinations for more than 100 years. Today it supports well-known artistic theatres, live music venues, an art gallery, local retail and restaurants as well as neighborhood business amenities including a pharmacy, eye clinic, dentist, community credit union, and health food store.
The Little Five Points Community Improvement District is a self-taxing district created by Little Five Points property owners to expand upon public resources dedicated to infrastructure in the area.
The Little Five Points Alliance is the nonprofit membership partner of the L5PCID, comprised of residents and business owners dedicated to supporting and sustaining Little Five Points.