My goodness, there is so much history in this neighborhood, so many changes, and so much yet to be done. After speaking with some of the people from our church and several other friends I’ve learned so much!
Evidently, the English Ave community is one of the roughest areas in the city of Atlanta. Although we are just west of the downtown area, (we can see the skyline from our upstairs window) this area has some of the highest crime rates and highest levels of incarceration in the city.
Several years back (before Pastor Tim and his family moved into the neighborhood) the area was full of drug and gang violence. Mischa (the mother of the boy I tutor at SAY yes) said that when she moved here 8 years ago they would hear shootings all the time. She said that many nights they would spend on the floor for fear of stray bullets entering their house. At one point, a shooting occurred in the middle of the afternoon. Before the cops could come and clean up the scene, the bus dropped her children off after school and they saw the body lying in the street. It was these kinds of things that the neighborhood would experience all the time.
The downturn in the economy hasn’t helped either. Prior to the trouble, many people saw English Avenue as the next neighborhood to be gentrified in the Atlanta area. Because of this, many people invested in property hoping to resell for a huge profit in the upcoming years. Unfortunately, property values dropped and all the houses were left empty and unguarded leaving tons of room for vandalism and thievery. Even now, there are still many houses left empty on our street.
A few years back was when Pastor Tim, his family, and many others began moving into the neighborhood in the hopes of making it a safer place to live. They’ve built a community garden, helped to clean up the area and instill pride for the area in the people who live here. New Life Covenant Church and many of its supporters have worked hard to provide resources for those in need and those in trouble. They’ve made it possible for many high-risk teens to go to alternative schools in which they will receive education in a smaller classroom setting with a higher level of attention and discipline. They’ve instilled the SAY Yes after school tutoring program on Monday-Thursday afternoons. This provides a place for the younger children of the neighborhood to come after school. This keeps them off the streets and also provides them with one-on-one tutoring in their homework and studies. New Life Covenant has also provided many people with job support, resources at various halfway houses and pregnancy resource centers, and financial support for those in desperation.
With all of this support being put into place throughout the past 7-8 years, the neighborhood has been improving. According to our neighbor, Kevin, most of the drug and gang violence has been pushed further west and confined to a much smaller area than before. He says that this neighborhood has never been safer and he hopes that it continues on in that way.
