A Self Introduction from the New EACA President
By Matt Day
Katie and I first walked up to the house we now live in and pulled back a corner of the plastic siding. Underneath was the original 1940s wood. Solid. Clearly a fixer-upper, and we were ready to do the work.
We moved to East Atlanta in December 2014. Ellis was one. Flora arrived in 2016 and Imogene in 2017. We’ve lost and gained some cats along the way, but we currently have three.
Historic properties are a passion of ours. I watched my mom grow an Atlanta event company that hosted weddings out of historic homes and that stuck with me.
During COVID we went all in on the house. We stripped off plastic and painted the original channel siding. We fixed the garage, rebuilt a collapsing deck, and redid the kitchen.
The yard got the same treatment. We removed ivy and chaos, planted wildflowers, berries and fruit trees, made a vegetable garden, and built a small pond, all to create something closer to a habitat than a lawn.
Professionally I have spent more than twenty years in the event industry and now work mostly on conferences as a freelance event producer. It’s all about herding cats with the resources you have.
That mindset carried over into neighborhood work.
During COVID our family spent time at Brownwood Park realizing how long it had been since the park had seen meaningful investment. The state of the park was not OK.
Like any frustrated neighbor, I sent an email.
I wrote the East Atlanta Community Association, and Chase Miller, who was president at the time, wrote back. His reply was simple but inspiring: if you care about it, get involved.
So I did.
I joined the East Atlanta Community Association (EACA), got to know Ryan Downey, who runs the East Atlanta Kids Club (EAKC) and is a master at leveraging grants. Together we built on the $200,000 park bond and leveraged it into $800,000 in improvements with local partners. The result is a new playground, workout area, murals, and the revival of the community garden, with more projects on the horizon.
We launched Squatters Club, a weekly porch coffee gathering where I got to know Mookah Adansi, now EACA’s Vice President. We also launched the Arts & Culture page here in The Porch Press.
Those experiences shaped how I think about EACA. To me it’s a platform for civic action. If you see something in the neighborhood that needs improving, bring the idea forward and let’s make it happen together. Real civics happens locally. The problems you can see and touch are the ones worth solving.
EACA has reinstated its Grants committee so that good ideas have a clearer path forward. We are refreshing the Land Use committee so neighbors can stay informed about projects and shape a Village master plan. We have streamlined the monthly meetings while still giving neighbors a high-level update on what is happening around town and how to get involved. Once business wraps, we are keeping the night going with an after party so people can hang out together. It’s been said, the most revolutionary thing you can do is get to know your neighbor.
Looking ahead, my hope is to deepen collaboration with the nonprofits already doing great work here. Organizations like EAKC, EABA, the East Atlanta Strut, Friends of the East Atlanta Library (FEAL), and Friends of the Madison Theatre represent an incredible amount of local energy. Keep bringing that energy together and we will do pretty remarkable things.
I really do have an unreasonable patriotism for East Atlanta. Despite itself sometimes, I just love it, want the best for it, and hope to see you there.
