(September 6, 2012) The stadium effect: What happens when your neighbor is a multimillion dollar shrine to sports

Dustin ChambersJUST NEXT DOOR: Residents of Vine City have lived alongside the Georgia Dome, which might soon be demolished after a new multipurpose stadium is constructed, since 1992.

The Rev. Anthony Motley has preached God’s word in English Avenue for more than 30 years, yet he’s still taken aback when he tours the historic but beleaguered community.

His brown eyes scan the boarded-up homes built among the trees along the narrow streets, the people loitering in the middle of vacant lots, casting hollow stares at passing motorists, and the young men hanging out on street corners, hollering at passers-by and then to lookouts down the street.

The neighborhood, along with neighboring Vine City, has so much potential, says the pastor of Lindsay Street Baptist Church. Great bones. Great churches. Great people. But Motley, like many Vine City and English Avenue boosters, is disappointed by the poverty, crime, desperation, crumbling houses, and the “idleness.”

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