Residents Against Closing of 10th Street for Jazz Fest

A portion of a major Midtown thoroughfare will close Memorial Day weekend. 

The city of Atlanta will close 10th Street, from Charles Allen to Monroe drives, this weekend for the Atlanta Jazz Festival. 

The street will close at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 27, and re-open at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 30. 

Some Midtown residents aren't too jazzed up about the closing. 

"Tenth Street is a fundamental street that helps you move east to west in Midtown," said Geoff Rogers, vice president of the Midtown Neighbors' Association. 

This is the first year that the festival will close 10th Street. 

At the May 3 meeting of Neighborhood Planning Unit-E, the board voted to oppose the special event permit for the 34th annual festival that is set for May 28 through 30 at Piedmont Park. Since then, emails have been flying around the neighborhood. 

Residents say the street closing will cause traffic disruptions. Rogers said traffic will back up on Piedmont Avenue and Monroe Drive, and cars will detour through the narrow residential streets of the Midtown neighborhood.

People also are upset that the city has commandeered one of Grady High School's parking lots for the festival. The city will use the lot off 10th Street (by the high school stadium) to park some of its equipment. Grady usually uses the lot to raise money for school programs by charging people to park. During the NPU-E meeting this month, PTSA president Arlena Edmonds said the school raised $8,000 during last year's jazz festival. 

"It's too much impact," Edmonds said. 

But the city has said it will close the street despite the issues raised by residents. NPU-E only makes recommendations to the city, so the city ultimately has the power to approve the special event permit whether or not the NPU-E opposes it.

"Despite opposition, the department handling permits issued the permit and reminded neighborhood groups that neither the permitting department nor the organizers of this event have any obligation to give consideration to the neighborhood," Steve Gower, vice president of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance, said in an email Wednesday. 

Camille Love, director of the city's Office of Cultural Affairs (the department that puts on the festival), explained earlier this month why the city needs to close 10th Street. 

She said that the festival secured the National Basketball Association as a sponsor for the event. The NBA is requiring space to install basketball courts for the festival. Love says the only place that those courts can be placed is on 10th Street.

"That's the only place we can put it," Love said. 

"We're not trying to create issues for the neighborhood," she said. "We are just trying to create a great festival."

Love said the city was granted permission to use the parking lot at Grady High. She said the school still will have use of the small parking lot on 8th Street for fundraising. 

"They still will be able to raise money, just not as much," Love said. 

Rogers and Greg Guhl, president of the Midtown Neighbors' Association, met with Dist. 6 Atlanta City Councilman Alex Wan last week to discuss the concerns in the community. The neighborhood association has decided to develop guidelines for evaluating future closings of 10th Street. 

"Ultimately, we are just trying to get something everybody can embrace," Guhl said. 

The Midtown Ponce Security Alliance is encouraging residents to take photos of issues that arise during the festival. 

"Going forward, it will be important for Midtowners to document the negative effects of this event with photos and emails and send them to us for forwarding," Gower said. "Hopefully next year, neighborhood groups can leverage this year's experience during the permitting process."