Insights on my time with Atlanta’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative Commission
The Maasai, an ethnic group along the Nile River, have a greeting they share:
“How are the children?” (Kasserian Ingera)
And the response:
“All the children are well.” (Sapati Ingera)
This greeting reflects a deeper truth: you can tell a lot about a society by how its children are doing.
This idea echoes Mayor Andre Dicken’s north star – to make Atlanta the best place in the country to raise a child. Over the course of his time as mayor, there has been real progress. Crime rates have declined, and graduation rates are rising across our city. In our FCS neighborhoods, Carver High School saw increased graduation rates last year, consistent with those trends.
And still, we’re not yet at a place where we can confidently say, “All the children are well.”
Neighborhoods like Thomasville Heights and Historic South Atlanta continue to carry the weight of decades of disinvestment and displacement. Research consistently shows that place shapes life outcomes, like educational attainment and economic mobility. This, then, means that investing in neighborhoods isn’t optional. It’s essential.
That’s the work the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative is committed to.
What is the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative?
The Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative (NRI), established by the Atlanta City Council, is a place-based approach to revitalizing historically underinvested and underserved neighborhoods.
It focuses on eight building blocks of healthy communities: affordable housing, public safety, youth development and education, public spaces, transit, health and wellness, economic opportunity, and dependable government. We know these conditions shape long-term outcomes, and the NRI wants to make each of these focus areas available to all.
The City has identified seven priority neighborhoods to begin this work, including Thomasville Heights. These communities were selected not only because of need, but because of their strengths: resident leadership, existing partnerships, and a foundation to build on.
Seven priority neighborhoods
The NRI is an important project for Atlanta. I’m grateful to serve on the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative Commission (NRIC), an advisory board helping guide this effort.
My Role in the Work
At its core, this initiative reflects a simple idea: Atlanta is a group project. Lasting change requires alignment across residents, city leaders, and partners working towards a shared goal of stronger neighborhoods.
The NRIC brings together leaders from across sectors to provide oversight, ensure accountability, and strengthen the strategy behind neighborhood investment. Over the past few months, we’ve done more than 30 listening and work sessions centered on one question: ‘How do we invest in a way that leads to long-term, equitable outcomes?’
This question naturally brings up others about how to fund the work.
Why the Extension of Tax Allocation Districts Matters
Tools like Tax Allocation Districts (TADs) make this kind of investment possible.
If you’ve visited Atlantic Station or walked the Beltline, you’ve seen TADs at work. They allow growth in a neighborhood to be reinvested back into that same community. This strategy funds initiatives like affordable housing, infrastructure, parks, and access to essential services.
For neighborhoods that have experienced long-term disinvestment, this kind of targeted funding is critical. TADs help make projects possible that wouldn’t happen through private investment alone.
We’ve seen this firsthand at FCS. Developments like Brownsville Pointe in Historic South Atlanta likely would not have been possible without TAD funding.
As Atlanta considers extending its existing TADs, the opportunity is clear: to direct resources toward neighborhoods that have historically been left out and to do so in a way that’s grounded in community-driven planning and long-term impact.
Moving Forward
The NRIC released its final report on March 31, 2026. This report provides a detailed overview of the NRI and outlines recommendations for moving this work forward. I encourage you to explore it and consider what it means for our city.
Ultimately, the NRI isn’t just about policy or development. It’s about whether we can build neighborhoods where children have real opportunity. It’s about investing in neighborhoods where families can stay, grow, belong, and flourish.
The NRI is shaping a future where, one day, we can say with confidence:
All the children are well.
