![]() ![]() It’s the same drive-thru liquor store,” Barnes says. “It’s the same Checkers that’s been there for 23 years. It’s that type of camaraderie.”īut zoom out, and there’s still an abundance of churches, fast food restaurants, gas stations, and discount stores-and a lack of grocery stores, aside from the Wayfield that Barnes frequents (“I still try to support my community,” she says). “One of the ladies here does my flowers, and her son sometimes cuts my yard. “If I see them within our subdivision, we wave because, you know, we’ve been around a long time,” she says. Nick Bohin from Knight Sign Industries changes bulbs in the Belvedere Plaza sign.īarnes says her neighborhood is well-established with longtime residents who look out for one another, and her homeowner’s association is active. And in South DeKalb (Belvedere Park and Candler-McAfee, but also Gresham Park, and Panthersville), run-down shopping centers like Belvedere Plaza attract gun violence, drugs, sex work, and an unsheltered population.īelvedere Plaza, off Memorial Drive, opened in 1955 to serve then-rapidly growing neighborhood Belvedere Park. “Decatur is where I eat, hang out, shop, things like that,” she says.īarnes has outgrown a neighborhood that seemingly hasn’t developed since she moved there: Namdar Realty Group also bought Gallery at South DeKalb Mall for $19 million in December 2021, but no major changes have occurred since. She’s still there because of her neighborhood’s proximity to nightlife, sports and entertainment-without the cost of living in downtown Decatur. “I just thought, ‘I’ll be here for five years.’ Twenty-three years later, I’m still here.” This is what you call a starter community,” she says. She didn’t think about quality schools or access to parks and recreation at the time. ![]() I didn’t have much choice.” (She purchased it for around $105,000.) It was also a good location for Barnes’ commute to work. Belvedere Park “happened to be the side of town that my money can afford. It was the best of all I had seen,” Barnes says.Īffordable housing for two-income families was already limited when Barnes bought her home, she says. “I looked at about maybe six, seven houses and then I came to this house, and I knew immediately that this was the house. The 1,200-square-foot ranch-a two-bedroom, two-bathroom single family home with an office and a driveway-is a style commonly found in the area. ![]() In the early 2000s, when Jamye Barnes moved from the west side to Belvedere Park, the neighborhood just north of Candler-McAfee, the 21-year-old interior designer figured that she’d stay in the South DeKalb neighborhood for a few years and eventually move to a house closer to the city of Decatur. ![]()
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