old fourth

These boys dropped by to look for work and get their picture taken. I asked them about their shirts and they said a guy up the street was selling them. He apparently also had some bootleg Obama tees but I never saw them. The Old Fourth Ward is one of several neighborhoods that spill into Ponce. Midtown, Virginia-Highlands, Poncey-Highlands, and Old Fourth comprise the bulk of the street until it reaches the city limits heading east towards Decatur.

Back in the day, Ponce was racially divided north and south. I still haven't gotten a good interview chronicaling this, but many of the streets on the south side and The Old Fourth Ward are under different names than they are on the north side heading towards Piedmont Park. Monroe becomes Boulevard. Charles Allen becomes Parkway. One man told me it was so white folks didn't have to admit they lived on the same street as black folks.

The Old Fourth has been targeted for growth in the past few years with good reason. It's practically next door to Midtown, has decent skyline views, and has a nice collection of historic homes. The fringes near I85 are a bevy for so-called loft spaces and the dilapadated houses near Dekalb Ave have been renovated and go for anywhere between 250-500 hundred thousand.

Near Ponce the neighborhood is still primarily black and suffers from crime, especially along Boulevard. However, developers have already scooped up the land and are offering condos in the 300 thousand range. They don't seem to have many takers, seeing as how one property is still undeveloped and it sits next to one of Boulevard's best crack houses. However, with the shift from suburban to city life intensifying, I envision those properties going under contract within the next year as Fulton County growth begins to swell.