Atlanta, Georgia’s East Lake neighborhood is a thriving community these days.
It’s home to the PGA’s annual Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club.
It’s one of the city’s more historic and trendy, yet family-oriented communities with affordable housing, shops and restaurants.
It’s located about 4 miles from downtown with access to mass transit.
But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, it wasn’t so long ago that East Lake, located in DeKalb County, was once referred to as an urban nightmare and nicknamed “Little Vietnam.”
During the 1970s, the community saw an increase in crime and violence. By the 1990s poverty, high unemployment and crime dominated Atlanta’s eastern neighborhood. At its core was the East Lake Meadows housing project.
Now the housing project is long gone, and the revitalization of East Lake, sparked in the late 1990s, is used as a model on how to revive other distressed communities.
The neighborhood boasts mixed-income housing, a charter school and a 95 percent reduction in the crime rate, according to the East Lake Foundation.