1736 Magazine - Fall 2018
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eady.”<br />
Especially those in the blighted Laney-Walker/Bethlehem<br />
district, a 1,100-acre neighborhood<br />
southeast of the city’s medical district, where a<br />
city-funded survey found roughly 70 percent of<br />
buildings are in poor, deteriorated or dilapidated<br />
condition.<br />
Unlike downtown, Harrisburg and Olde Town,<br />
where renewal efforts have<br />
been largely driven by a handful<br />
of private-sector investors<br />
and nonprofits, Laney-Walker/<br />
It’s like Mayberry,<br />
in a really urbany<br />
setting.<br />
Mandy Pond<br />
Bethlehem has relied on taxpayer<br />
dollars and grant funds to<br />
kickstart revitalization efforts.<br />
The historic African-American<br />
community – once considered<br />
the center of black commerce<br />
and politics – fell on hard<br />
times starting in the 1960s as<br />
anti-discrimination laws enabled<br />
more affluent blacks to<br />
move and spend money elsewhere.<br />
After decades of disinvestment, the first major<br />
attempt to turn the neighborhood around was the<br />
creation of the Augusta Neighborhood Improvement<br />
Corp. in 1999, which disbursed $20 million<br />
in state funds secured by then-State Sen. Charles<br />
Walker to rehabilitate dilapidated homes and construct<br />
new ones.<br />
City officials upped the ante in 2008 by approving<br />
a $1 a night hotel tax to help fund a 50-year,<br />
$750,000 allocation for Laney-Walker/Bethlehem<br />
improvements. One of the signature redevelopment<br />
projects is Heritage Pine, a<br />
small single-family subdivision off<br />
Laney-Walker Boulevard between<br />
11th and 12 streets.<br />
Heritage Pine’s homes are<br />
among the newest and nicest in the<br />
neighborhood, which appealed to<br />
29-year-old Frederick Neely, who<br />
grew up in Laney-Walker and graduated<br />
the from nearby A.R. Johnson<br />
Health Science & Engineering Magnet<br />
School.<br />
The conductor for CSX Transportation<br />
said he believes more<br />
young people would return to the neighborhood if<br />
its housing stock was improved.<br />
“Me buying this house made my friends want<br />
to own downtown property,” he said. “But there<br />
BROKERAGE<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
DEVELOPMENT<br />
706.736.1031<br />
jordantrotter.com<br />
AG-0003090489-01 24 u <strong>1736</strong>magazine.com<br />
PROUDLY CONTRIBUTING TO THE<br />
Revitalization of Downtown Augusta<br />
Security Federal Bank<br />
coming in 2020 to<br />
1109 Broad Street, Augusta<br />
706-650-6799<br />
www.securityfederalbank.com<br />
NMLS #456430
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