Weekday lunch in Woodruff Park, Saturday yoga return to Downtown Atlanta

The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District is embracing the spring season with the return of free community programs to Woodruff Park, plus the announcement of forthcoming capital improvements to Downtown’s central greenspace, according to a press release.

Favorite warm weather activities include:

• On weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., park visitors can enjoy Lunch in Woodruff in the café seating area adjacent to Auburn Avenue.
• Free Saturday morning yoga classes will resume on the main lawn on May 15, thanks to a partnership with OnlYoga.
• Woodruff Park is also a recent recipient of a Legacy Grant from Park Pride in the amount of $66,000, to be matched by ADID. The grant will be used to fund the park’s Peachtree Accessibility Project, which aims to remove a deteriorating seat wall along Peachtree Street that creates a physical and visual barrier, inhibiting access to the interior of the park, including visitors in wheelchairs.

Both Lunch in Woodruff and yoga will continue through the end of the fall season.

With social and economic activities severely limited due to COVID-19, urban centers across the world have rediscovered the importance of public space as a critical element of civic infrastructure. People have flocked to parks to safely spend time outside of their homes, connect with nature and with their communities, and seek assistance for basic needs such as food and shelter.

A key strategic initiative of the Woodruff Park Strategic Plan and the newly launched City-wide Master Plan process is equity and inclusion. Greater accessibility helps create buy-in, ownership, and shared responsibility for the park. These critical physical upgrades will signal a much-needed sense of inclusion for current and potential park visitors.

Construction on the Peachtree Accessibility Project will break ground in January 2022 and is slated to be completed by summer 2022.