VILLA RICA, GA
Posted October 1, 2024
In Villa Rica, GA, during Jim Crow segregation the railroad tracks were the boundary demarcating the area in which Black residents could rent and buy homes in this small mining town. Within the area around the tracks, a self-sufficient community formed with homes and businesses along Railroad Pl. (today Eleanor Walk), and churches & schools along the Atlanta-Carrollton Road (today Dorsey Dr., named after Thomas A. Dorsey, an influential blues musician from the area).
Villa Rica has become much less segregated since the 1968 Civil Rights Act outlawed (overt) racial housing policies, and the city’s population today is roughly equally split between Black and white residents. However, the railroad tracks continue to serve as a physical division within one of the small city’s few walkable areas. Dozens of mile-long freight trains pass through Downtown Villa Rica daily, simultaneously blocking all of the area’s crossings for a total of hours each day. The problem has grown worse as trains have grown longer and more frequent, due to a combination of cost-cutting measures from the railroad and industrial growth along the line (1).
Like so many other towns and cities across the country–especially those with a history of racist housing and transportation policies that have systematically hindered the growth of and devalued nonwhite communities–Villa Rica has not had the infrastructure funding necessary to address the problems created by the rail line (2). Now, with assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies & the Local Infrastructure Hub, the city has applied for funds through the Biden/Harris Administration’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Initiative (RCN) to redesign Downtown’s transportation network for walkability (first image).
As mentioned previously, I’m partnering with the Local Infrastructure Hub to highlight recent progress from the RCN and cities they’ve assisted in applying for funding. The Local Infrastructure Hub is a national program guiding municipalities on how to navigate historic federal funding opportunities, develop competitive grant applications, and bring essential investment home to residents. Led by Bloomberg Philanthropies which galvanizes support from the Ballmer Group, Emerson Collective, Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Waverley Street Foundation, National League of Cities, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, Results for America, and Delivery Associates, the Local Infrastructure Hub is a first-of-its-kind initiative helping thousands of mostly small towns and mid-size cities improve their communities for generations to come.
The Local Infrastructure Hub seeks to address the lack of grant-writing capacity that short-staffed smaller cities like Lansing face as a barrier to accessing federal awards. While this may seem like a small issue, it is crucial. Through programs like the RCN, the Administration has made billions of dollars available to local governments for potentially transformative infrastructure investments. “Historically, bigger cities with substantial budgets tend to corner grant opportunities,” writes Patrick Sisson for Citylab. “Local governments without the expertise or budget to apply could be left out of the action.” (3).
"We don’t want the Infrastructure Law [that created the RCN] to compound our geographic inequalities. We wanted it to be an equalizing moment," said James Anderson, head of the Government Innovation Program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, in an interview with Streetsblog. "We are asking local governments to do more and more, but we haven’t made a commensurate investment to help them do it… This is an opportunity to reduce the number of places that have been left out and left behind.” (4).
Villa Rica’s plan emphasizes the creation of safe, ADA-accessible connections across the tracks in Downtown, as well as creating new public spaces and amenities in the area. Additionally, the city plans to study potentially creating new, grade-separated pedestrian crossings (see above).
Endnotes
Denney, Ken. “Trains in West Georgia.” The Villa Rican, 2019. https://www.times-georgian.com/villa_rican/trains-in-west-georgia/article_565a0117-c6ac-55af-ba11-701309c1d741.html (accessed 9/30/24).
“91% of Cities Say Insufficient Funding Delaying Critical Infrastructure Investments.” National League of Cities, 2021. https://www.nlc.org/post/2021/05/10/91-of-cities-say-insufficient-funding-delaying-critical-infrastructure-investments/ (accessed 8/15/2024).
Sisson, Patrick. “For US Cities in Need, Grant Writers Wanted.” Citylab, 2024. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-06-14/grant-writers-in-demand-as-smaller-cities-scramble-for-infrastructure-funds (accessed 8/15/2024). (@citylab @psiss).
Wilson, Kea. “How a New Program is Helping Small Cities Transform Their Transportation Systems.” Streetsblog, 2024. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/08/21/how-a-new-program-is-helping-small-cities-transform-their-transportation-systems (accessed 8/31/2024). (@keareads).