Long-ignored park to undergo $100,000 upgrade

Cleopas R. Johnson Park near downtown Atlanta has all the makings of a great city park.

It has two tennis courts, a basketball court, a walking trail and a playground, all in good shape. The location is prime, within walking distance of the trendy lofts of Castleberry Hill, an apartment complex full of children and youth, and the Atlanta University Center.

The 4-acre park has everything —- except people.

Melanie Wofford, head of the year-old Friends of Cleopas R. Johnson Park, said young children will play in the apartment parking lot before they’ll walk across the street to the city park.

Erica Pines, outgoing president of the Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association, said she has one neighbor who prefers to drive to Roswell to play tennis instead of going around the corner to the neighborhood park. Others don’t even think about going to Cleopas Johnson, either to walk their dogs or just sit in the grass on a nice day.

“I’m trying to get them to cross the street,” Pines said.

Wofford and Pines say the park just isn’t inviting. The playground looks more like industrial art than a place for kids, and the deterrents include low-grade drug activity and homeless people who spend the night.

“This time of day, you want to see people running or doing a push-up or two,” Pines said on a recent, overcast morning.

Hope’s on the way. The park recently was named as one of three national recipients of a MetLife Foundation grant. The grant, worth $100,000, will be used to replace the outdated playground equipment of tunnels and sand with something more interesting for children.

Earlier this year, the Atlanta Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs commissioned a $120,000 public art project, a huge sculpture that will stand in the park’s entrance to “create a highly visible portal into the community and engage the diverse neighborhoods surrounding the park,” according to the city’s proposal. Department Commissioner Dianne Harnell Cohen said the piece, by Atlanta artist Zachary Coffin, should be installed by next June.

The sculpture will have moving pieces representing a horn player and will pay tribute to the park’s namesake. The late Cleopas Johnson was the band director at the nearby Morris Brown College.

Wofford and Pines say it’s a great start to turning Cleopas into a meeting ground for the diverse neighborhoods.

“We are a community. We need to be a community,” said Wofford, executive director of the Community and Housing Initiatives Corp. at the John Hope Community Center. “This is the place where we can come out and meet each other.”

PARKS IN ATLANTA AND ELSEWHERE

Percent of city land in parks and green space:

Atlanta: 4.5

New York: 19.6

San Diego: 21.9

Raleigh: 16.5

Oklahoma City: 3.8

Park acres per 1,000 residents:

Atlanta: 7.7

National median: 13.6

Total spending on parks and recreation per resident

Atlanta: $116

San Francisco: $268

Tampa: $145

Boston: $80

Louisville: $49

Source: Trust for Public Land, using fiscal 2006 and 2007 data