Best Atlanta Neighborhood 2024, Elite Eight: Midtown vs. West End

Josh Green

Tue, 12/24/2024 – 14:35

As part of ongoing Best of Atlanta 2024 coverage, Urbanize’s fourth-annual Best Atlanta Neighborhood tournament kicked off last week with 16 places vying for the prestige of being called the city’s greatest.

Now, for this Elite Eight contest, voting will be open until 3 p.m. Thursday, allowing anyone to chime in who’s currently traveling or enduring family. Please, let’s keep the tourney fun and positive, as one neighborhood rises above the rest in very public fashion. The quest to crown a champion resumes now!

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(1) Midtown

Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Like no other place right now—or across the past decade, for that matter—No. 1 seed Midtown exemplifies Atlanta’s roaring ’20s boom, as our aerial photo essays have relayed throughout the year. In just the past year, the district has packed on another 2,200 residences, as recently tabulated by Midtown Alliance. The tallest building to rise from Atlanta’s red dirt since Bill Clinton was president is currently climbing over Midtown’s West Peachtree Street. Lest we forget the leafy, stately Garden District in the shadow of glowing skyscrapers—and hands down one of the best urban parks in America.

Nonetheless, Midtown has a spotty track record in Neighborhood of the Year brackets, including a Round 1 knockout against 13-seed Adair Park in 2021 action. Surprisingly, Midtown has never won the non-existent trophy in these contests, either. Here’s a rundown of just a fraction of what’s happening in Midtown these days. But it begs the eternal question: Does all this activity make for the best actual neighborhood around? We’ll see.

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(8) West End

The most recent proposed redevelopment of parking lots at Oak and Dunn streets.
Prusik Group/BRP Companies; One West End

As the only two-time Neighborhood of the Year champion in Atlanta history, West End notched a relatively seismic year as major development proposals go. The 800-pound gorilla in that room is, of course, the redevelopment of Mall West End. After three false starts, the mall’s extreme makeover appears to have finally found its footing (with city backing) to turn 12 acres of parking lots into about 900 units of mixed-income housing, 125,000 square feet of retail (with a grocery store), and much more, beginning as soon as next year.

Just around the corner, an eye-catching apartment proposal has emerged near West End’s MARTA stop, while a pickleball emporium and more is in the pipeline along a new (and needed) Beltline stretch now in planning. Bonus points to West End in ’24 for joyously welcoming Atlanta Streets Alive back to SW ATL—not once, but on three different occasions.