At his final press conference on Friday, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced a $100 million plan to expand Piedmont Park.

As part of that expansion the city is spending $20 million to acquire roughly five acres at the corner of Piedmont Avenue and Monroe Drive.

The mayor said the project would “open up the blinds” on the park and that because of rising real estate cost and development pressure, the city needed to move swiftly to assemble the land.

Reed said that a committee chaired by Home Depot CFO Carol B. Tome would work to raise the remaining $80 million from the philanthropic community.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, among others, will no longer be considered fee-free days at U.S. National Parks. While the MLK National Historic Park in Atlanta doesn't charge admission, the new schedule will affect such metro Atlanta sites as Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

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Credit: AP