“Meeting” the Development Challenge on Edgewood
Tonight February 24th and tomorrow, the 25, ‘The Meeting‘ is playing and you should go see it. Moreover, when you do, pay attention to everything.
For those unfamiliar with the play, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and Martin Luther King Jr. battle mentally and physically in a Harlem Hotel Room on Valentines day 1965. They come to a truce of sorts, but each set of ideas is explored and it is something to see how relevant some of the ideas are today and how some of them have indeed passed on to history.
Sweet Auburn Theatre company is presenting this show in Javaology at 466 Edgewood Ave at the corner of Boulevard. There is parking behind the building.
They are upstairs and you can bring your coffee into the show! Being upstairs has the advantage of making the show more realistic. The atmosphere of the room helps with the production. You hear an urban street and boulevard is a character in the show. You also hear and see what Shabazz and King were thinking and feeling as they went forward in time.
So you have a show, a space, and a place all growing together. Despite all the attention paid to Auburn Avenue, it’s Edgewood that is developing. High end clothing boutiques, restaurants, coffee houses, and with the introduction of theatre at the space, a growing arts component which will only feed things.
This is all to the good, but it happens in stark relief from the area around it. North of Auburn Avenue, past the Freedom Parkway exit for roughly a mile, Boulevard is blighted. Auburn Avenue has never had the renaissance people wanted for it. This is a case where government planning has not helped. Yet, Edgewood prospers and does so because people think they can make a go of it. They’ve found cool spaces to renovate and transform and they can afford it. The road leads straight into Chandler Park and so there is some customer base close by.
The coffee house is the capstone of the first holon of the redevelopment of the area. It shows there is enough upper socio-economic traffic to support a spot of that type and in thriving it provides for a necessary service to launch the next step of development with better housing and the re-introduction of more non-retail business into the area.
All of this has happened without the deep investments and governmental workings that have gone into Underground or to Auburn Avenue. It’s all happened from market demand and that should make all the libertarians smile. They should. While markets can’t be the sole determinant in deciding where aid, development money, and particular kinds of business go, they often rescue downtrodden and blighted areas and rebuild them. It happened in East Atlanta, Castlebury Hill, and Decatur.
The business and real estate people would be smart to take notice of the theatre company. By bringing in new folks, the theatre company grows awareness and interest in the community all in a positive light. If cities such as Lawrenceville can think that way, it would behoove folks such as Charles Brewer and other developers to think about the importance of arts in their communities as well.