Castleberry Hill is a Victim of Its Own Success
Walk around Castleberry Hill these days and you can see it’s a neighborhood in transition. Galleries are closing and Nightclubs are moving in.
The influx in restaurants is not a bad thing, but the squeeze on the galleries is. A thriving art scene helps the city and downtown in particular. That it was a 5 minute walk from MARTA was even better.
Some galleries moved. Some, such as Romo, are gone forever. The question is where the artists and galleries will go now? What’s the next recoverable neighborhood?
Moreover, is there a mechanism to assure that artists who are renting and help a neighborhood don’t then become the victims of their own success?
April 28th, 2008 at 11:34 am
They should move to Murphy Avenue–immediately.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I live in castleberry and am a member of the CNA. More galleries have moved in within the past 2 years then left. Don’t know where you’re getting your facts but I suggest you go to the castleberry site and take a look.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
brad is right. And my information is that Romo was not squeezed out by higher rents, but rather suffered the fate of many galleries around the country. It’s a hard business (as is the restaurant business); it takes about 5 years to start making a profit on a gallery. It’s a shame, because Sam Romo has an excellent eye and was showing adventurous work.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I totally agree that CH went downhill. I have never seen a community fail like CH did. What happened to Monica Tookes gallery, looks like she booked it on over to East Atlanta Village I guess. Nozuko Gallery is gone. The art strolls are pretty pathetic now, there are way too many gunshots and homeless people that you have dodge on your way to get to the galleries. It’s too bad, could have been a really cool neighborhood. I hear rumors now that the new restaurants at Castleberry Point are going to back out now too because CH has changed for the worse. It’s too bad the residents didn’t come together and support their business’.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I agree with Bigdiggie that the next frontier for artists (starving artists at least) is going to be along Murphy Ave and the warehouse spaces around the West End Marta station. I just read an article this week about an old garage renovated by BLDGS Inc. on Murphy Ave called “Villa de Murph” (stunning A+ reno). The prices are right in the area, you’ve got a Marta station, I-20 & 75/85 all there and the area has personality.
As far as ending the cat and mouse game between the creative class and those that crash the party? Beats me…
June 29th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I think the obituary is a bit premature. Over the last couple months, Beshart Gallery has opened and a new gallery moved into the Romo space. Also, both Coffee Loft and Tilt have been putting art up on their walls.
As h20hoodie says, something definitely needs to be done about the undesirable element to keep the revitalization rolling.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:24 pm
what’s with the bums and the freedom to beg, pee, and sleep wherever, whenever they choose. figure it out. for every bum who hassles a mom to park her car or “bless” the bum with some dough 200 of mom’s friends won’t come to avoid the calcutta experience. look at manhattan, move the beggers off broadway one street over to 8th ave. and its party time. this isn’t rocket science. it’s social science. if castleberry hill wants to be the new village move the freeloaders a couple blocks toward west end. have the cops enforce the car boomers and the atlanta university center kids who don’t have good manners and peters street will be an artist and club paradise like soho. how can you expect people to spend money when the boys feel free to pee in your doorway???
December 15th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
that’s funny, CH is a stones throw from the AUC and smack dab in the middle of one of the most socio-economically depressed neighborhoods in Atlanta; did you really think the cultured class of yuppies were going to flock to this area and support art just because they spruced it up with cute storefronts and loft space.
Someone didn’t do their research or they wanted to appeal to a certain group for monetary purposes but were woefully unprepared for the consequences.
SOHO didn’t happen overnight and New York embraces its diversity mostly because real estate is at a premium and they have no choice. Conversly, if the ‘wrong’ tenant or customers begin to patronize yuppie business’ in Atl, they board up their windows and abandon ship.
We have to do a better job of accepting people and not running from them in Atlanta. All it takes is patience and a strong police presence to handle the rowdy every now and then.