Funky Amid Change
Little Five Points seeks to stay funky amid change
Findley Plaza features rows of businesses such as the Porter Beer Bar, Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, Criminal Records music shop and Southern Star Tattoo. photo by BYRON E. SMALL
By Chris Fuhrmeister – Restaurants and Airport Reporter, Atlanta Business Chronicle
January 10, 2020
Significant changes are coming this year to Findley Plaza in Little Five Points. Property owners, landlords and residents are considering the cultural future of the eclectic east-side commercial district as well.
Sitting along Moreland Avenue where Atlanta’s Inman Park and Candler Park neighborhoods meet, Little Five Points has long been a bastion of counterculture. It is increasingly an island in a sea of development that, spurred by the construction of the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail, has brought a wave of high-dollar commercial and residential real estate projects in the past decade.
Findley Plaza takes up a tenth of an acre at the intersection of Moreland, Euclid and McClendon avenues. Trees are scattered throughout the public space, which is backed by a long row of businesses such as the Porter Beer Bar, Euclid Avenue Yacht Club (a much divier establishment than the name would indicate), Criminal Records music shop, Southern Star Tattoo and the Pot Shop, a self-described “medical cannabis reform shop” that operates next door to an Atlanta Police Department mini precinct.
Findley Plaza at Little Five Points
Renderings of construction that would open up Findley Plaza in Little Five Points.
Construction will open up the plaza by moving greenery and benches out to the curb. The vacated space will allow for pop-up markets and other community events.
Construction will open up the plaza by moving greenery and benches out to the curb. The vacated space will allow for pop-up markets and other community events. With the Atlanta City Council recently passing legislation to allow sidewalk dining at restaurants, Findley Plaza is likely to seat eaters and drinkers as well.
The City of Atlanta, which owns Findley Plaza, has put out a request for proposals for the work, which is expected to cost $600,000 to $800,000. Money from Renew Atlanta bonds, local fundraising and a Park Pride grant will pay for the redevelopment. A groundbreaking is targeted for spring with the hope of completing construction by the end of 2020.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has begun sidewalk reconstruction along Moreland Avenue and will re-stripe the street. Improvements on Euclid Avenue also are in the works.
Anna Foote, outgoing chair of the Little 5 Community Improvement District, told Atlanta Business Chronicle the organization has been working toward these plans for years.
“It’s like building a house. The house doesn’t look like a house until the last 25 percent of all the work you’ve done on it,” Foote said. “It’s kind of the same thing here. We’ve spent a lot of time building the under part and the base of a sustainable house that we now hope to build into a fabric that will mold with the established Little Five Points that will make it even more of a great place that people want to come to.”
Anna Foote, SE regional director at On The Rise Financial Center; Ahzjah Simons, cooperative director of Sevananda Natural Food Co-op in Atlanta; and Lauren Welsh, executive director of Little Five Points CID.
BYRON E. SMALL
In addition to the patrons of local businesses, Findley Plaza for years has been populated by homeless individuals, panhandlers and so-called "train kids," who hop off the nearby CSX line and set up with packs and animals. To some, this is all part of what makes the diverse area what it is. Others question their safety in Little Five Points. As the east side of Atlanta continues to change, this is a growing tension.
In December 2009, the median home value in Inman Park was $300,000, according to calculations by real estate listing website Zillow. Ten years later, that number surged to $533,000. Molly Gunn, who has lived in Inman Park since 2006 and opened the Porter Beer Bar in 2008, said Inman Park “used to be a Volvo neighborhood, and now it’s a Tesla neighborhood.” The Beltline and the opening of the Krog Street Market and Inman Quarter mixed-use developments have been catalysts for the skyrocketing property values.
Making everyone welcome in Little Five Points is a key point for the CID. The organization, along with neighborhood groups, business and property owners, and the Little 5 Alliance, are discussing upgrades to security, which may include police officers and cameras already in place, as well as plainclothes “ambassadors” who would work to discourage anti-social behavior. Individuals engaging in illegal activities or harassing others would be the priority for security operations, but it is a complicated issue.
Homeless individuals sleeping or occupying space in front of businesses may be asked to move, but there is no intention to police homelessness or kick these individuals out of Little Five Points. Still, Foote admitted balancing the cultural history of the area with the comfort of visitors is a struggle.
“Nobody wants to make it a homeless-free zone, but we do need for it to feel safe,” Foote said. “If you have a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old and you live within walking distance in Candler Park, then you want to be able to walk up to see your doctor, because there’s a beautiful pediatrician in Little Five Points, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, that’s a problem.”
Accountability for one’s actions extends to the business owners, Foote stressed. If someone is tarnishing Little Five Points by improperly disposing of garbage, for example, they too will face consequences.
It is not uncommon to find a supporter of Little Five Points who is wary of even the smallest changes. Community organizers know this and try to clearly communicate the upgrades coming in 2020 are just that. Remaining a destination for residents of Inman Park and Candler Park is paramount for Little Five Points to continue to exist as it always has. Shops and restaurants require the regular business locals provide. If the people who live closest to Little Five Points were to deem the area as no longer desirable, that is when the real change would arrive.
“All that stuff is to just position Little Five Points to continue doing what it’s doing even better,” Foote said. “It is not an attempt to change it or turn it into Virginia-Highland.”