Year of Boulevard: Progress Made

At the beginning of the year, District 2 Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall dubbed 2012 as the "Year of Boulevard" with several targeted initiatives and partnerships aimed at boosting public safety along Atlanta’s Boulevard corridor, which links a string of neighborhoods from Benteen to Old Fourth Ward to the borders of Virginia-Highland and Midtown.

The stretch of Boulevard between Freedom Parkway and Ponce de Leon Avenue has been an eyesore for decades. That part of the Boulevard corridor has long been a source of complaints for Midtown residents who say crime there spreads into their neighborhood.

Among the key initiatives was to be the establishment of an Atlanta Police Department mini-precinct on Boulevard, and that will come to fruition with a ribbon cutting ceremony for the APD's new Boulevard mini-precinct at Atlanta Medical Center on Monday, April 23.

Also within the last week, 10 new Victor Stanley trash cans have been installed by Wingate Management on blocks that are part of the Bedford-Pine apartment community. Wingate donated the trash cans as part of the 'Year of Boulevard' initiative and the City of Atlanta will service the trash cans.

And this comes courtesy of the Atlanta City Council District 2 Facebook page:

We have been busy the past two weeks working with the TEDxAtlanta community as we prepare to launch "The Summer of Possibility," one of the main features of Kwanza's Year of Boulevard campaign. The goal of The Summer of Possibility is to ensure that kids and teens who live in the Boulevard corridor, especially those living at and below the poverty line, have an opportunity to participate in a fun, safe, and affordable summer camp experience this year.

Four summer camps will take place in the immediate neighborhood this summer. Our goal is to fill them with as many young people from the Boulevard corridor as we can. They are: the City of Atlanta's Freedom School, at the Martin Luther King Jr Recreation Center; the City's Camp Best Friends Basketball Camp, at Central Recreation Center; Summer Camp in the Bedford Pine community; and Truly Living Well Urban Farm Summer Camp, in the King Historic District.

Historically, many kids and teens from the neighborhood have not participated in summer camp. Sometimes, families have not known about the opportunities located right in their own backyard. Oftentimes, the price of attending summer camp is a barrier. Thanks to our partnership with TEDxAtlanta, we are removing many of these barriers this year. We are bringing registration to the neighborhood's two elementary schools and the apartment buildings where kids and their families live. In just one week of outreach, we registered 76 kids for camp.

We are also mobilizing the generosity of neighbors and friends of the Boulevard corridor to help fund students' participation in the camps. To learn more about Kwanza's TEDxAtlanta Wish, and how you can support The Summer of Possibility: www.TEDxAtlanta.com/wish

- Péralte Paul contributed to this story