This video and story about Kirkwood is one of seven about neighborhood issues in the Atlanta mayor’s race by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Kirkwood is a historic neighborhood in East Atlanta, bound by DeKalb Avenue on the north end and Memorial Drive and I-20 to the south. The neighborhood has a walkable retail and restaurant district clustered mostly along one street in between rows of historic neighborhoods. It was a historically white suburb when it was first built in 1899, but then became mostly Black after white flight in the mid 20th century. It is now majority white again.

Demographics, according to 2019 data from Neighborhood Nexus:

Population: 6,487

Median household income: $110,242

Median age: 35

Race: 59.8% white, 30.4% Black, 2.4% Hispanic or Latino, 1.3% Asian, 6.1% other

Unemployment rate: 7% (this could have changed since COVID)

Poverty rate: 9.7%

Median home value (of owner-occupied units): $365,281

Percent of rental units: 30.7%

Percent of owner-occupied units: 69.3%

Percent of rents above $1,000: 53.4%

ABOUT THE VIDEO: Video by Ryon Horne, Tyson Horne and Hyosub Shin. Reporting by Sarah Kallis.

Kirkwood map

About the Author

Keep Reading

A man has been arrested after the items were stolen two days before Beyoncé performed the first of her concerts in Atlanta in July, police said. (Courtesy of Greg Noire)

Credit: Greg Noire

Featured

Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

Credit: NYT