By Carol Holliday
Join Freedom Park Conservancy for a Park Clean Up on Saturday, June 22, from 9am until 11am. To sign up go to https://bit.ly/3yEhLyQ
Freedom Park, which runs from Moreland Avenue to Candler Park Drive, makes up some 25 percent of the land in Candler Park. What an incredible asset for the Candler Park neighborhood! And what an incredible history that goes along with it.
In 1982, there was a plan to build a limited access expressway on the footprint of what became Freedom Park. In an amazing effort, the neighborhoods came together for a decade-long struggle which successfully stopped the construction of that expressway. We were left with the rare opportunity to turn such a significant amount of land within an urban environment into a combination of housing and parkland.
Freedom Park Conservancy is committed to the stewardship of this 120-acre Park, which connects Candler Park, Druid Hills, Inman Park, Lake Claire, Old Fourth Ward, Poncey-Highland neighborhoods and The Carter Center. The Park is huge and needs all of our efforts to maintain it.
In support of this, Freedom Park Conservancy is pleased to announce that a $60,000 matching grant from Park Pride was recently received. This grant is meant to address litter in the Park through the installation of 28 new trash cans to augment the existing 52 trash cans. The project is in response to community input that litter is one of the major concerns of our visitors. One of the primary needs outlined in the final Master Plan is Park maintenance and this project will provide immediate improvements while elevating the profile of the Park in alignment with the goals of the Master Plan.
Latosha Tucker, from the City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation, participated in a site visit of the entire park to ensure that receptacles were sited for placement at gateways, benches and along long stretches of pathways, as well as ensuring the ability for City Parks Staff to easily and safely access the receptacles to empty them.
We thank both the City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation and Park Pride for making this possible.