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The Curbed Cup, our annual award for Atlanta’s “Neighborhood of the Year,” is kicking off with 16 neighborhoods vying for the prestigious (fake) trophy. We’ll reveal each of the neighborhoods this week, and polls will be open for 24 hours, so you can cast your vote as to which ones should advance. (Seeding from 1 to 16 was determined by reader nominations this month). Now, let the eliminations commence!
Grant Park (5)
With multiple Elite Eight and Final Four appearances—and one razor-thin defeat in the 2013 Finals—Grant Park typically knocks on the door of eternal Curbed Cup glory, only to find nobody home.
Perhaps a strong No. 5 seed this year is the first step in reaching down, turning that knob, barging in, and announcing, “Honey, I’m the Neighborhood of the Year!”
Other things working in Grant Park’s favor: a remarkable amount of change this year, from the redevelopment of the 1800s Atlanta Stockade into the adaptive-reuse GlenCastle to one apartment hub after the next popping up near Oakland Cemetery.
Elsewhere in GP, plans moved forward near Zoo Atlanta for what’s perhaps the city’s most progressive parking structure, while parking was also a hot topic with the visually striking Harp Transmission proposal. Meanwhile, the metamorphosis of Memorial Drive continued in a substantial way with Larkin on Memorial (a village unto itself), and Grant Park’s gorgeous housing stock continued to be in high demand.
Boulevard Heights (12)
Curbed Cup newcomer Boulevard Heights is proving you need not be the trendiest nabe in town to gain entry into this hallowed contest.
Residents and general fans of this neighborhood—positioned southeast of Grant Park’s main greenspace and shaped like an upturned mitten—enthusiastically nominated it with commentary such as, “Boulevard Heights for the win, baby!”
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Here in “BoHo,” as it’s colloquially called, smallish turnkey homes can be found in the mid-$200,000s, while larger, more recent builds have leaned rustic-modern (seen here) and massively modern at more than twice that price point.
Eventually, Boulevard Heights will claim a crescent of frontage on the Beltline’s Southeast Trail, and developers are betting big on the neighborhood’s future (and present) allure.
Rising from brownfields near that eventual Beltline flank is a pocket of more than 120 townhomes called The Swift, which EA Homes officials told Curbed in June should deliver in early 2018, starting in the $300,000s.
So scrappy BoHo isn’t exactly idle. But whether it can topple a true Atlanta stalwart like Grant Park remains to be seen.
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