1736 Magazine - Fall 2018

PHOTO BY DAMON CLINE
Downtown Dwellers
Most of Frederick Neely’s college friends
left Augusta in search of jobs. When he
graduated Tuskegee University in 2012,
he not only wanted to return home, he
wanted live in the very neighborhood
he grew up in: Laney-Walker/Bethlehem.
“My friends got their degrees and they moved elsewhere,”
the 29-year-old conductor for CSX Transportation
said. “I wanted to buck the trend and really come
back and develop my community.”
In 2012, he closed on a duplex in the Heritage Pine
neighborhood, a market-rate single-family neighborhood
developed by the city Housing and Urban Development
Department on Pine Street, just blocks from where
he grew up on 12th Street.
“My mom still lives there, and I can always raid her
fridge when I’m hungry,” he said jokingly.
His home is not only a short drive from his job, but is
close to the downtown night life scene that he and his
friends frequent. Neely also is a part-time manager of
the Studio Neighborhood Bar at 11th and Greene streets.
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Frederick Neely
Age: 29
Neighborhood: Laney-Waker
Other than the length of time it took him to get a
mortgage – the process was complicated by the lack of
comparable sales in the Laney-Walker area – he said
the urban living experience has been largely problem
free.
“You’ve got vagrants and panhandlers and things like
that, but it’s hard for me to see that as a big problem,”
Neely said. “The only downside is the stigma the community
still has. A lot of people are still afraid of downtown
based on what their idea of it is. The things that
people are afraid of have yet to come to pass.”
Neely said he dislikes having to drive to North Augusta
for grocery shopping, but he said he is confident additional
development in the district will attract a supermarket
to downtown Augusta.
He acknowledged downtown living isn’t for everyone
– his yard, for example is too small for children to play
– but he said he doesn’t know why more young, single
people aren’t making the move to the urban core.
“It’s the best decision I ever made,” he said. “This
went from being a dark spot for the city to a bright spot
for the city.”