Building a Stadium, Rebuilding a Neighborhood

Amazing.
Someone wants to spend a billion and a half and the Times somehow finds fault with it because the city has to kick in Two hundred million for improvements that the city is responsible for.
Blank should be praised.
He is making an investments in the city's future that no one else is.
I could understand if the project was criticized because it is ugly.
Big building like this should not be built in a residential community.
The Times didn't because they wanted to make this about race and not architecture.
This is like just one of four articles about race that is in the Times today.
This is not news.
It doesn't belong in the Times'
This is why Trump won the election.
White people should not be blamed for every problems black people have,
I am White.
I refuse any attempt by anyone to make me feel somehow guilty because there are problems in some black communities.
I have my own problems.
I don't need theirs as well.

How can any owner of any professional team have any idea how it is to grow up in any "minority neighborhood"? Might as well expect them to understand apartheid.

My sense is the uber wealthy will have this breather to collate gains and clean up all accounts before building a new stadium which may prove to be a less than astute investment. Millionaires may be on the uptake, but they don't fill the seats and the fans of the future will have to get the game on the big screen at work.

I live in the metro Atlanta,GA area. I think in the next 3-5 years the current Residences will be either bought or or eminent domain,making the area more like the new Braves stadium in Cobb county with apartments, hotels,condominiums and businesses. The Vine City area needs home owners,not section 8.They need property tax dollars.

If the city is paying so much for this stadium why is a corporation slapping its name ion the it. Why doesn't it bear the name of a famous Atlantian. Why does every civic structure have to be a corporate billboard. Thy contributes a small amount compared total cost. This ia a massive government subsidies for the rich.

This coming baseball season the Atlanta Braves will play in their brand new park on the West side of town having moved from their old locale near where the Falcons park is being built.

Gotta wonder how much sports money is floating around Atlanta and which team/sport is doing the right thing. Only time will tell, but I know who I'm betting on.

Also in Atlanta Developer Tom Cousins made significant contributions when he redeveloped East Lake Golf Club, home of the Tour Championship golf tournament. Mr Cousins and his foundation spent millions building a charter school, YMCA, affordable housing and another golf course where the FirstTee organization gives under privileged kids an opportunity to learn top play golf and receive mentoring from some wonderful people. Prior to Mr Cousin's commitments this east Atlanta neighborhood was known as "little Vietnam" .A tour of this area now is an unbelievable positive transformation. Let's not second guess and undermine the very positive contributions Arthur Blank is doing in the adjacent areas around the new falcon's statement. Appreciate and support it as a new beginning for the neighborhoods

This is just a pattern repeated over and over by savvy wealthy investors and city planners. Allow property values to drop over years of neglect and investment by starving the area of police and enforcement. The swoop in buy up the neighborhood bring in a big project and bleed the taxpayer and new buyers.
Take your profits rinse and repeat.

San Diego got smart and let the Chargers walk after refusing to be extorted.

I was once on a business trip to Atlanta, got lost in the traffic around the Dome and found myself in those neighborhoods. Even as someone who grew up in Newark, NJ, southern poverty is downright scary.

Arthur Blank seems like a decent enough man, but I am certain that the neighborhood transformation plan merely puts a good face on a cash-strapped city's plan to subsidize a billionaire's stadium project. And, unfortunately for the people in those neighborhoods, successful transformation will likely exclude them. When the high-end latte shops and home couture businesses arrive, rents soar and poor people are displaced.

The leaders of Atlanta would be wise not to rely on the NFL to solve urban blight. The League's goal is reduce stadium costs by forcing cities to subsidize these projects. Fail to do so, and the team is a relocation candidate for which many other cities will clamor. I'm surprised that the NFL even bothers to dress up this business in such a high-minded way, given the depths to have-not cities will descend to lure a NFL franchise.

BTW, recall that an NFL stadium is not a MLB venue. Each team plays eight regular season games at home each season. Those 8 days per year will hardly drive economic development on some grand scale.

The most important thing Arthur Blank has done is to build a job training center in the neighborhood, new parks and the youth leadership program. And as the photos show, there are some very respectably maintained homes in the neighborhood.

I was exiled in Atlanta when the Georgia Dome first opened, a huge monstrosity of a stadium we were assured would be around for decades; 20 years later it's being torn down. At the time we referred to it as the Georgia Dumb, because it was a stupid idea and it did nothing to help the surrounding environs. Now a mere pittance (compared to what's needed) is being spent to give lip service to community restoration. This is just history repeating itself. Georgians don't need a new stadium and they certainly can't afford it. The more things change...

Precisely what Atlanta needs -- another giant parking lot. Glad he wants it close to transit, at least.

The officer driving around the neighborhoods with windows down to try to catch folks smoking weed -- he's part of the problem. Pot is not the thing that's afflicting the Westside. It is, among other things, people being busted for nothing more than smoking it.

Just to put Mr. Blank's $20 million commitment in perspective, it is about what he pays the Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan each year of his current five year contract.

While I'm skeptical of Mr. Blank's motives, the truth of the matter is that doesn't matter. The city of Atlanta or the state of Georgia haven't been investing in these neighborhoods, and more than likely never would have on this scale. Ultimately, Blank's investment has to be seen as a positive for these otherwise forgotten communities.

.........not to mention the taxpayer funded $23 million vanity bridge to cross the street to the stadium, half again more money than the city has committed to the neighborhoods, an exaltation of the power of Blank and Mayor Reed to squander the public purse.

What it boils down to is that we have right in front of us a perfect visual aid of wealth disparity: A $1.5 billion structure sitting on 18 acres that will be used a handful of days per year towering over a neighborhood that consistently shows up in the nation's top 10 for murder rate, where 4-bedroom homes struggle to break $100,000 in value. A structure where goliaths will play games for an average salary of $2 million—the equivalent of the income of 100 Vine City homes per player. And the development effort forges ahead despite a still-working stadium next door under the theory of trickle-down economics at its most classic: The stadium will create jobs and patrons will leave their money in the neighborhood. But that's not entirely true, because the jobs from the old stadium will be deleted; the money paid for tickets will be primarily soaked up into the sponge of the NFL and its players and owners; attendees don't want to hang around in the neighborhood for long, so they won't be visiting local businesses.

And here we are criticizing Arthur Blank for directing his charity to push $30 million into the neighborhood. The stadium would be erected regardless. Its customers would still be provided with a buffer of safety from the local crime, ineffectively being addressed by Officer Taylor who drives around "sniffing for drugs" (read: marijuana, the least dangerous one). Let him invest. Give him his stadium, and give the neighborhood the funds they need to revitalize.

The article has a tone of criticism and tut tutting typical of the Times. Mr. Blank should be praised big time for what he is doing for the neighborhood around the stadium. Hopefully he will listen to the residents about what they feel they want. But keep in mind, Mr. Blank cannot solve the societal problems of lousy schools, crime, systemic poverty, drugs. lack of jobs, transportation and government apathy that caused the problems in the first place. Another thing he could do would be to build a Home Depot in the neighborhood!

It's no perfect but it is progress. As a former New Yorker who's lived in Atlanta for 25 years and has been a Falcons season ticket holder the entire time, I see the work the team and the Blank Foundation is doing to improve the community.

This is much more than a rich guy with a pet project. He is and will make a positive difference for that area, the people and the city.

Why doesn't Atlanta induce Mercedes Benz to build a factory and a tuition-free technical college in the English Avenue and Vine City neighborhoods using the same incentives it provided to the football team?

Here in Hammond, Indiana, Arthur Blank's Foundation also benefits a struggling city still in recovery from losing its big steel employers some years ago. We always give Home Depot our custom whenever we can, knowing that the hiring practices there also benefit the local community. It's heartening to read about the very wealthy who choose to do something outstanding with their lucre.

Notice the derelict Alonzo Herndon Stadium in the lower right corner of the feature photo.

Development makes for a better city. Those who have failed to develop themselves and those who break the law do not belong in such an important place. I'm sorry for those who did not take advantage of their free education and have a sense of entitlement instead. Even so, true freedom requires those who choose wrongly to take the consequences. It's time to get the riff-raff to move to a place befitting their lack of contribution.

The City of Atlanta had decades to do something with those neighborhoods, even built the Georgia dome and did nothing. Thank goodness for Mr. Blank.

never will work until the people turn around. Anyone remember the gazillions poured into Detroit spearheaded by Ford.?It was a failure. No understanding on my part why Arthur Blank doesn't know this. And again, perhaps I do know. Same old same old do good stuff without requisite knowledge.

I'm not exactly an oracle, but I think NFL football is on the way out and these mega-stadiums will be giant money losers.. The players have outgrown the game and for a lot of people, like me, it's too damn brutal. It seems like every other play they're carrying someone off the field. Formerly the big hit wasn't an integral part of the game and the term was not widely used, if at all. Back then when I was a kid, the expectation was that the stars would be on the team all season, not constantly injured. I'm older, so I've seen these thing across the decades. Boxing and horse racing are prime examples.

The NFL promoted violence to sell the game and now they've painted themselves into a corner. The game has to get less rough. My big idea is to go back to helmets without any face masks. The play will become less daring, which is exactly the point.

i m sure the orange one will have an opening day seat. when are we going to understand it s just bread and circus. what a bunch of nonsense as if this is going to solve any serious intercity problems. pure fluff but hey that s the new America.

I’m living 45 miles from Atlanta and the difference between the poor and uber wealthy is astonishing.

What Atlanta did to get the new $1.4 BILLION Mercedes-Benz football stadium (Next door to where the Falcons played at the Georgia Dome) to get the 2019 Super Bowl was mind blowing!

-Hotel rooms for eight nights for each participating team, including 150 standard rooms, two “Presidential” suites and five other suites.

-Rent-free use of Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the game and of other venues for ancillary events.

-Assignment of 10 security officers to each team hotel during the day and five during the night, as well as police escorts for the team owners to and from the game.

-Approximately 10,000 parking spaces for game-day use, with the NFL retaining the parking revenue.

-A wide range of lesser items, such as installing up to 2,000 banners on street poles and setting up a “social media monitoring and response center.”--Another key requirement, also accepted in the Atlanta bid, was that the league will retain all revenue from ticket sales. Even the host committee will have to buy its tickets — up to 750 of them — at face value.

-a party for 2,000 media members at a cost of $375,000; and a pledge to provide NFL owners with “VIP private airport accommodations.”

ALSO! 1996 Olympic Stadium which had the Atlanta Braves has been vacated for a new Suntrust stadium in “mostly white” Cobb County outside Atlanta.

African-Americans ran the Braves games-NOW?

Good god!

Why is that super-rich white guys have the need to buy sports franchises, and then demand government/taxpayer money for improvements and investments. These so-called jobs really never materialize, as shown by study after study.

Are we so obsessed with sports that a stadium like the Georgia Dome, less than 25 years old, isn't deemed sufficient to hold a football game?

There's an old definition of insanity that states, "Insanity is continuing to do the same things, the same way, over and over.... and expecting a different result." I commend Arthur Blank and his Development teams for their contributions, investments, energy, social sensitivities, and activist roles in at least trying to make a difference in these two distressed communities of Atlanta, alongside their sports and commercial motives and interests with the creation of this new stadium for his Atlanta Falcons. At least Mr. Blank and associates are trying a new, fresh, and very benevolent, generous approach here, that should make some very positive changes for most of the residents residing in these nearby communities.

To be honest, this isn't the most exciting stadium-related story going on in Atlanta. Georgia State University just completed a purchase of Turner Field, the old Olympic and Braves stadium, and will convert it into their football stadium and will connect it to the school's main downtown campus via a new series of neighborhoods and parks. More here: http://www.ajc.com/business/how-turner-field-might-look-the-near-future/...

Manhattan's far west side is today being transformed by the addition of millions of square feet of new commercial construction and thousands of new apartments, on a site that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had offered to the Jets. Fortunately, the Jets stayed put in the Meadowlands, and today New York City is constructing a massive new business district.

Mr. Blank is a very successful businessman, and it is hard to throw stones at his philanthropy. Nevertheless, he would have been more successful if, instead of throwing money at cisterns and churches, he had considered the Henry Ford (or even Costco) model: try paying your workers a decent wage. I try not to shop at his Home Depots because of the terrible service, but when I do, I am amazed at how poorly motivated and uncaring most of their employees are. All you really need to know about Art Blank's true colors can be revealed by a trip to a Home Depot.

"So far, his foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, has donated $20 million..."

Chump change for Mr. Blank. A wonderfully au courant example of chutzpah and hubris at the same time.

The word tzedakah is derived from Hebrew roots meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. Giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act. Tzedakah is simply an act of justice and righteousness, the performance of a duty, giving the poor their due.

This is not tzedakah...

This monstrosity has made my working life even more annoying. It's going up only a few hundred yards from my office, and this means that getting to a lot of places has become more difficult. Plus, it's completely unnecessary.

thats was an inspiring article they need to help out the west side because it is very bad the stadium looks really cool though looks a little modern and the owner is very nice.

Note to author: Atlanta doesn't have commuter rail. It has a Metro.

Given that it replaces a stadium that's only 20 years old, it's fo course completely un-necessary. Also about 20 years old is the baseball stadium which also is being replaced. That stadium was supposed to help transform its neighborhood--it didn't unless you count parking lots that are empty on game day. The longevity and strategic vision of Blank's philanthropy remains to be seen. The Falcons have their own problem, which is a very shallow fan base. This is a region where college football and the overrated SEC rule while out of towners retain their hometown loyalties. the various boosters clubs for the Browns, Bills and others are quite robust and the Browns group continued to thrive even when there was no actual Cleveland Browns team. Atlanta is place filled with failed public-private partnerships that mostly wind up falling on local tax payers and a local political machine that mostly turns its back on its voting base, while happily giving the local business community what it wants. Vine City has seen many efforts at renewal and even the presence of the historically Black colleges nearby have not given it a lift. The stadium seems very likely to be just another chapter in this story.

Interesting piece with a different angle than usual, focusing not only on baroque tax benefits but on a white knight seeking to positively impact an under-resourced community. Atlanta is a huge metropolitan area and I think that neighborhood residents should think hard before predicting doom and gloom, referencing ‘the plantation’, and racializing the whole situation.

The alternative to this new stadium in the city was almost certainly a suburban stadium, which would have done nothing for English Avenue or Vine City. This isn’t conjecture – a couple of years ago, the Atlanta Braves opted not to renew their lease for Turner Field, which is in downtown Atlanta, in favor of building a new stadium in suburban Cobb County with $450m of economic incentives. That stadium opens this year.

Would it be better if the city and county actually put the necessary resources and money into bringing sustainable economic development to English Avenue and Vine City, rather than showering a rich guy with more money in exchange for vague promises and a big dumb building? Of course! But that wasn’t the choice here. The choice was nothing or something, and I would think that homeowners especially would want to choose the latter.

Stadiums do not create significant jobs. Revitalizing a depressed area takes more than 80,000 fans on eight or nine Sundays a year. If the Arthur Blank Foundation wanted to create something meaningful for the area they could use the money to seed businesses and social services and keep them going.

I am not trying to downplay somebody elses neighborhood or stomping grounds, but this area of Atlanta could use a face lift. I find it funny that sports are to blame, not the neighborhoods who reflective a rough perception.

Kudos to Mr. Blank who is putting his money where his mouth is. It can work? What he needs to do is make sure he has the right ground keepers to build up the neighborhood. He must make sure those working for him have a knowledge and fundamental understanding of how to rebuild. Mr. Frank should come to Brooklyn, not by the Barclays Center but here in the East New York section and see how I did it. It can be done on a larger scale BUT only with right people on there ground. I welcome a phone call from Mr. Franks and wish him well. It is truly a great thing he is trying to accomplish.

If a city wants to create a deadzone on which nothing grows, build a stadium. The buildings are dark most of the year and even when used bring nothing to the community. People drive in, see the game and drive out, often never actually touching a city street as they move from cars to parking lots to seats and from seats to parking lots to cars.

Yet another city that has been duped by a major sports league that claims it will pay for itself. Doesn't anyone look back at all of these projects, there is yet to be one that brings what it claims. What they do bring is more wealth to the owner at the expense of the taxpayers.