By Phill Kelly, Grant Park Neighborhood Association Transportation Committee Chair
Neighborhood Planning Unit W (NPU-W), with its three neighborhood associations of Grant Park Neighborhood Association (GPNA), South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development (SAND), and the East Atlanta Community Association (EACA), is hard at work with its most recent placemaking project. After NPU-W leadership worked with the neighborhood organizations’ leadership and memberships to identify a community project, a grant proposal from us to the City of Atlanta was awarded in the amount of $6,500, to be equally split among the three neighborhood organizations.
As stated on the City’s website, the City of Atlanta Community Impact Grant is intended to “assist NPUs in their efforts to improve their neighborhoods and the city as a whole.” Since the program began, grants have been awarded to Neighborhood Planning Units and the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board for purposes of neighborhood beautification, engagement and awareness, and community building.
NPU-W in a previous year was awarded a grant for utility box beautification and this year they are diligently working on the sign topper project, a process that each neighborhood organization is managing for their specific areas while sharing with each other best practices and lessons learned. Scattered throughout Atlanta neighborhoods, sign toppers are placed on top of an intersection’s street sign pole with the name of the neighborhood, sometimes rather dryly, and other times with a logo, icon, or some other artistic flair.
Here in Grant Park, we are excited to build off of the 2014 Woodward Mansion Street Topper Fundraiser where neighbors contributed at a silent auction put on by our Homes and History committee. Now, we have launched a fundraiser modeled after Reynoldstown’s sign topper initiative. Our adopt-an-intersection fundraiser in Grant Park has been running for a month and a half and at the time of this writing, we have already secured almost 33% of our sponsorship goal. This means that 65 intersections have been sponsored and 142 are left to be claimed. At $100 per intersection, we encourage people to donate directly or team up with neighbors to make a contribution.
Our neighborhood decided to pursue a new design for our sign toppers to match the theme of our neighborhood association’s new logo, which is modeled after the locally famous sunburst design – seen hanging from porches across southeast Atlanta. The first few dozen donors who stepped up will be receiving a thank you gift of one of our old, existing sign toppers, and all donors in Grant Park will be receiving a mini sign topper keychain modeled after the new sign topper design. Once expenses for new sign toppers have been met through our fundraiser, additional funds raised will go towards other neighborhood projects and priorities, including grants that we issue to other organizations serving our community.
Thank you to our unnamed 2014 sign topper donors and our first round of 2022 sign topper donors for their contribution to placemaking in our neighborhood: Alli & Adam, ARK Leadership & Chris, Thomas, and Noah Ryan-Lawrence; Ashley Kinsey, Travis Thomas, Melissa Artley, Karley Wilson (Cherokee Heights Homeowners Association); Benjamin Estes, Caro Lunney, Shaun Yurcaba, Heather Novotny, Colleen Rickel, Danielle Johnston; Bill and Jo Moore; Brad Nevin & May Youngblood; Caroline Mahoney; Chris & Kelsey Knight; Chris Murphy, Tyler Freeman, and Austin Hayes; Chris Gwin & Natalie Sandi; Claire & Andrew Kern; Coco Cone & Ricky Casal; Craig & Holly Miller; Dean & Jennifer Robinson; Desiree Bartosiak, Tim Mulkerrins, & Jackson Mulkerrins; Eleanor C. Harleston; Elena & Thomas Allmeroth; Eliana Salas & Jason Alvarado; Evan, Heather, Luke, & Beau Sheward; Evelyn & Rich Pannell; Geoff Milspaw & Brittany Holian; Instagram: @love_street_library; Jake Schrodt & Laura Terrazas; James Reindel & Laura Keen; Jennifer Wilt; John Ryan Alexander; Jon Ratliff & Kristine Gabuyo; Kirk & Jami Sieder; Krys Burgess; Kyle Bernstein & Remy Lemoine; Linda Medsker & Terry Higgins; Loyal Charles; Marisa & Champ Hammett (x3); Mark Dawson & James Larson; Matt & Creedence Rossi; Megan & Matthew Berendt; Michael & Heather Lott; Nate & Shannon Shivar; Oz Sabina; Ozzy, June & Bobbie Vermeulen; Patrick & Laura Pease; Rebecca, Elliot, and Daniel Grant; Rebel Raw; Republic Social House; Richard Sanchez; Rob Smith & Carl Mattison; Round Here Renovations; The Adams Family; The Angstadt Family & Trenton Crawford & Gene Gibbs; The Benton Family; The Colley Family; The Hanley’s; The Hatch Family; The Hutto’s; The Kelly Family; The Knell Family; The Martin Family; The Warner Family; The Watkins Family; The Weeman Family; The Wilber Family; Tim & Rachel Fergus; and Zack & Nikki Zimmerman.
To learn more about Grant Park’s program and to sponsor an intersection, visit gpna.org/transportation where you will be redirected to our sponsorship webpage.
For more information about the other Porch Press neighborhoods going through the sign topper process, visit www.sandatlanta.org for the various neighborhoods represented in SAND, and www.eaca.net/toppers for East Atlanta.
