When she first started working with the Westside Future Fund (WFF), Carol Waddy knew the organization was positioned to make a tremendous impact in the underserved, disinvested Westside community – and she was committed to help make it happen.

Waddy, director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Chick-fil-A, Inc., joined Chick-fil-A with the specific intent to help support company Chairman Dan Cathy’s philanthropic efforts on the Westside. With her, she brought years of experience and commitment to supporting underserved communities in Atlanta, including a decade-long tenure with United Way of Greater Atlanta.

Waddy’s relationship with the Westside is personal. From a young age, she’d become engrained on the Westside – from memories of lunches at Paschal’s while on vacation with family to attending graduate school at Clark Atlanta University. Her time in the community exposed her to the extensive needs and gaps in resources for local residents.

“Over the decades, there have been a lot of broken promises and disinvestment for this community. It’s important that we right that. We need to make it possible for people here to stay and thrive, not just survive,” said Waddy. 

In the formative days of WFF, Cathy, Waddy and Chick-fil-A leaders joined forces with WFF leadership with the goal of bringing together civic and corporate leaders as well as local residents in a way that would be engaging and informative about the critical needs of the Westside. From that came the Transform Westside Summit – and as the event grew, it became clear that the organization had an opportunity to further expand community engagement and really make an impact.

 “They started as small Friday morning meetings at City of Refuge, where I was getting up and arriving at City of Refuge at 5:30 in the morning, setting up chairs and helping them figure out the weekly programming,” said Waddy. “As the event grew, we started putting together a plan together through collaboration between Dan, WFF leadership and other stakeholders on how to engage the community more broadly and educate people on the work the organization is doing to draw more people in.”

Waddy then approached John Ahmann, the newly appointed president and CEO of WFF, with an idea.

“I immediately thought that volunteer efforts could be a wonderful and effective way to get corporate partners to come to the table, learn more and engage in a hands-on way,” said Waddy. “The thinking at the time was ‘if they do that, they’ll also want to give.’ Not to say that the needs and the story weren’t enough, but there’s nothing like having your staff come out and say ‘it was amazing, I connected with the Westside.’”

In that moment, the WFF Volunteer Corps was born. At the time, WFF’s team was small and just getting started in their mission. They needed help getting the program off the ground, so Waddy turned to her friends at United Way of Greater Atlanta who agreed to help provide resources for volunteerism. In an effort to bridge costs as WFF built up its team, Chick-fil-A elected to underwrite the costs of kicking up the program, paying United Way costs to partner with WFF.

“We simply helped with the initial efforts to engage corporations, large community groups and other folks who may not necessarily understand or know the impact of WFF,” said Waddy. “From there, once people really got out into the community and understood its needs, the mission of WFF did the rest.”

Waddy, Cathy and Chick-fil-A’s commitment to the Westside didn’t stop there. Over the years, the company has been deeply involved in philanthropic efforts supporting local schools alongside WFF, and extended their support to other local organizations for change in the community.

 “We wanted tocome in and help local organizations small and large in the community and help them succeed. We didn’t want to come in and create anything new or get in anyone’s way, we saw that these organizations were doing great work and wanted to be a resource for their success,” said Waddy. 

As his philanthropic efforts on the Westside continued to expand, Cathy took notice of one issue in particular – food security. His solution: open a Chick-fil-A in the community where restaurants and groceries are largely absent – and do so in a way that it supports the community in more ways than one.

“Dan made the commitment to bring the restaurant to the community. To me, that was the biggest ‘putting your money where your mouth is’ investment that you could make. The goal was not only to bring in a place where people could get quality food, bring in a job center with over 100 jobs, and be a resource for the community. Within that store, is a community resource room dedicated to H. Herman Russell, a hometown and community hero,” said Waddy. “Quincy Springs, the owner operator, was selected from his role as the general manager of the Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd Walmart as someone who was already known, trusted and committed to the Westside.”

The partnership between Chick-fil-A and WFF has been essential to the organization’s success. With their support, WFF has been able to provide key resources to local residents that both protect their ability to remain in their homes without being priced out while simultaneously transforming the neighborhoods into clean, safe and vibrant communities.

“The Westside community is a part of the historic fabric of Atlanta and the Nation. I don’t know if folks really understand that. It can’t be left behind. It’s important for legacy families and residents can remain in the community and thrive in the community,” said Waddy. “The work of the Westside Future Fund is what makes it possible for these legacy residents to stay, to have the resources they need.”

As WFF continues its work to revitalize the five historic Westside neighborhoods – English Avenue, Vine City, Ashview Heights, Atlanta University Center and Just Us – the hard work continues with results that would make Dr. King proud to call the Westside home.

The Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), Atlanta Police Department (APD) and Westside Future Fund (WFF) are celebrating a key milestone in their Westside Blue program partnership – the delivery of a brand-new squad car dedicated to community policing on the Westside.

When the Westside Blue program kicked off nearly two years ago, WFF provided funding for the APF to order a fully-equipped police vehicle. At the time, the on-duty police officer was driving a small, outdated vehicle that lacked the technologies and equipment necessary to police effectively. Supply chain challenges briefly delayed the vehicle’s delivery, but the new squad car is finally hitting the streets and amplifying the effectiveness of this crucial program.

The Westside Blue partnership is a critical resource that has been historically absent in the community. According to Derrick Jordan, real estate consultant for WFF, the increased exposure to police officers intends to deter crime and foster positive relationships between residents and law enforcement. 

“The program is similar to other neighborhood public safety programs, but new to the Westside community. English Avenue and Vine City in particular have never had a neighborhood-focused public safety program of this kind,” said Jordan. “The idea behind the program was largely spurred by a call from local business owners who felt it would be helpful to have more community-based police officers. When I say community-based, I mean they aren’t here to be arresting people, they’re here so the community can establish a relationship with officers.”

In addition to the Westside Blue program, APF has focused on officer housing in the Westside neighborhoods through its Secure Neighborhoods Home Officers program. By housing officers in the neighborhoods in which they work, they garner a greater understanding of the specific needs and nature of their communities and build connections with neighbors and residents.

To encourage the housing program on the Westside, WFF has donated land to APF for future home building projects, but has not directly contributed to construction.

“We want a police presence in the community ahead of the work we are doing in affordable real estate development. We are working hard and quickly to construct affordable housing in these neighborhoods, with new homeowners and residents moving in each month, and as we attract and retain these residents, we need to ensure safety and security,” said Jordan. “We’ve asked our Westside Blue officers to patrol the areas where we are focusing our housing initiatives to get ahead of the development and growth now.”

So far, the program has seen tremendous success, with incidents of crime decreasing and trust in law enforcement increasing. 

“The point of the program isn’t to encourage arrests, it is intended to increase visibility of law enforcement in the community to foster positive relationships and deter crime in a proactive manner rather than retroactively through arrests. From what we’re seeing, we strongly believe that our goals are proving successful. We can feel and see a shift in the overall sentiment toward law enforcement in our community,” said Jordan. “Since the beginning of Westside Blue, we’ve seen a significant decrease in the vandalism and reduced break-ins of our own properties, and our neighbors and other existing residents have felt the same relief.”

In addition to protecting homes, WFF has expanded the range of the Westside Blue program to monitor and protect the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard business district corridor at the direct request of local business owners.

With the new police squad car on the street and a continuously improving relationship between community members and law enforcement, the future is bright for the Westside Blue program and the five historic Westside neighborhoods.

“We’re excited about how well the program is doing, and even more excited to see where else it can go,” said Jordan.

This National Volunteer Month has been jam-packed with opportunities to get involved with Westside Future Fund (WFF) and our mission to revitalize and transform the historic Westside neighborhoods into a community Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud to call home. The organization has been honored to receive an outpouring of support from local residents and partner organizations. 

Early in the month, volunteers joined seniors at the New Horizons Senior Center in Vine City for BINGO, helping set up and run the event while getting to know legacy community members.

To kick off Earth Week, volunteers from AT&T’s NETwork Black Integrated Community Professionals gathered at our monthly community clean-up, clearing blighted lots of litter and waste. The Earth Week celebration continued as volunteers from Cognizant got their hands dirty while sprucing up the gardens at Historic Westside Gardens.

Volunteers drive our mission – and we are incredibly grateful and appreciative of their commitment to our Westside community. To celebrate their hard work, all volunteers were invited to a special volunteer happy hour at the Westside Motor Lounge joined by WFF staff members. 

To register and to see future volunteer opportunities, visit our Volunteer page.

Westside Future Fund (WFF) is dedicated to providing essential services to the historic Westside neighborhoods, but like any organization, it faces a unique set of challenges. One of the biggest has been balancing the need for community services with limited organizational staff resources.

Although WFF utilizes Salesforce CRM technology to manage program applicant data and volunteer-staffed events, the database became cluttered due to a small, often over-burdened team. This resulted in an over-reliance on manual processes, including emails and time-consuming reports.

To streamline operations and achieve optimal efficiency, WFF partnered with PwC to overhaul its CRM technology and improve database systems. The transformation was completed in 11 weeks, thanks to a comprehensive realignment of the Salesforce technology that centralized important data around volunteers, program applicants and donors.

The partnership between PwC and WFF went beyond solving technical issues. The organization’s staff also received personalized training, including live sessions, empowering them with critical new database and technical skills to maximize their ability to achieve their growth objectives.

“We developed a more seamless application process with PwC’s help. We now elicit more relevant responses from applicants and have significantly reduced manual touchpoints between applicants and Westside Future Fund staff to obtain the right information,” said John Ahmann, president and CEO of WFF. “Our team now spends more time helping applicants and less time sifting through duplicate data.”

With PwC’s help, WFF is now well-equipped to continue serving the Westside and fulfilling their mission to transform the community into one that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud to call home.

Read the full PwC case study on WFF: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/case-studies/nonprofit-workforce-cloud-transformation-salesforce.html

Hundreds of community members gathered at Rodney Cook Sr. Peace Park in historic Vine City on April 1 for World Peace Revival’s unveiling of the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The statue is named in honor of his final speech the night before his assassination. 

The historic moment celebrating the legacy of Dr. King came just days before the 55th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination on April 4, 1968. Attendees included local civic and business leaders as well as residents who joined to honor the life of the legendary civil rights luminary.

Within walking distance from Dr. King’s Sunset Avenue home, Rodney Cook Sr. Peace Park is home to lasting symbols of the Civil Rights Movement. Rodney Cook Jr., who led the initiative to construct the park named in honor of his father, former state legislator Rodney Mims Cook Sr., has raised more than $25 million to place at least 18 bronze statues in honor of civil rights leaders. The statue of Dr. King joins those of Congressman John Lewis and Ambassador Andrew Young.

An exceptional display of craftsmanship, the powerful bronze figure was designed by artist Kathy Fincher and co-sculpted alongside Stan Mullins. Both artists are known for their memorial works throughout metro Atlanta, including the Chief Tomochichi statue in Midtown and the Dream Keepers 9/11 Memorial in Gwinnett.

This statue of Dr. King uniquely captures his life as a preacher and exemplifies his upbringing and commitment to the Church. Draped in a preacher’s robe with a Bible nestled in his arm, his eyes gaze to the heavens. In an interview with Christianity Today, Fincher said she designed it so he would “be on a mountaintop, and he would be talking to God.”

World Peace Revival was launched as a global prayer movement centered around Dr. King’s commitment to peace. The organization looks to foster unity across all religions and borders, spreading the teachings and tenets of Dr. King’s movement for equity, equality and justice.

Learn more about World Peace Revival: https://worldpeacerevival.org/

Revitalizing our community is a team effort, one that relies heavily on the support of our many incredible volunteers. To thank them for their hard work and dedication, we shine a light on people who actively support our mission. 

This month, we’re spotlighting Bianca Eze, a volunteer for WFF Volunteer Corps since nearly the beginning. See what inspires her to give her time as a volunteer for Westside Future Fund.

Q: How did you first hear about the Westside Future Fund? 

A: I first heard about Westside Future Fund as a student at Georgia State University onMLK Day 2017. I don’t know how I initially volunteered, but I think it was with GSU Cares and the Eta Mu chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. At that time, I had never heard of WFF before but I thought it would be a cool way to get involved with the community and inspire others to be involved with the community, too. Since that day, I’ve been more interested in helping with the community in any way. I’ve volunteered with WFF through the community garden, and participated at a festival at M. Agnes Jones Elementary School and done other projects.

Q: What is your favorite part of serving with the WFF Volunteer Corp?

A: I think my favorite part is having the choice to do more than one project every day. For example, during the festival at M. Agnes Jones, I painted butterflies and animals on kids’ faces, helped with the set up and other projects, and many other projects to make the day special. The biggest reward is knowing that I helped make a day special and make the community a better place. Throughout my time at Georgia State, I’ve had many of my friends, classmates and freshman students volunteer with WFF and their numerous projects, and I have yet to hear anyone say they didn’t love the work.

Q: What inspires you about this service opportunity?

A: I always wanted to invest in helping people and be a part of making the community a better place for everyone. However, I didn’t know how to go about it. Since I began volunteering with WFF, I’ve been more invested in volunteering and participating in activities that are beneficial for the people of the community. Also, I’ve been very interested in being a mentor to the kids of today – being a part of WFF and other organizations has given me the chance to be there for children and be a role model for them. I briefly left the U.S. to move to Grenada for my medical school education, and when I came back, I wanted to take any opportunity I could to volunteer

In the coming weeks, Westside Future Fund’s (WFF) Home on the Westside program is set to complete two multi-family development projects in the historic English Avenue neighborhood. Located just a few blocks apart at 356 James P. Brawley Drive and 400 Paines Avenue, the two high-quality, affordable housing developments will provide 14 new residential units to local legacy residents.

The transformation of these two-story complexes from abandoned, blighted buildings to modern, multi-family developments is a testament to the power of community investment and support. The fresh coats of paint and sparkling new windows in place of what were once wooden boards are just the beginning of the upgrades made to these buildings. Inside, the units are equipped with new appliances and clean, sizable living spaces.

Upon completion, WFF will host ribbon cutting ceremonies alongside community members and philanthropic partners to celebrate the completion of these units.

Two additional multi-family developments are in the works with estimated completion dates later this year. They will add 19 more units, bringing the 2023 total to 33 high-quality, affordable multifamily housing units.

Early next month, the program will welcome Colette as its newest homeowner. Colette will be closing on her Westside home at 659 Foundry Street on May 5. The beautiful new home is a short two-block walk to Rodney Cook Sr. Park. 

Learn more about the Home on the Westside program: https://www.westsidefuturefund.org/homeonthewestside/

To honor Women’s History Month, community members and business leaders came together for a women-led panel and discussion about youth anti-violence at the Westside Future Fund (WFF) Transform Westside Summit on Friday, March 17.

John Ahmann, Westside Future Fund president and CEO, invited new members of the crowd to introduce themselves, and Kanesha “KaCey” Venning, Co-Founder of HEY! Helping Empower Youth, led the devotion.

Meet the Panel

An all-woman panel took the stage to discuss youth anti-violence and how their organizations present options that steer these youth in the right direction. Panelists included:

• Tangee Allen, Co-Founder, Raising Expectations
• Maria Armstrong, Co-Founder, Raising Expectations
• Kanesha “KaCey” Venning, Co-Founder, HEY! Helping Empower Youth
• Dr. Danielle Sweat Whylly, Ph.D., Community Outreach Specialist, U.S. Attorney’s Office of Northern District of Georgia
• Moderator Ebony Ford, Director of Community Building and Engagement, Quest CDC

Powerful Testimony

The most powerful moment of the Summit happened when co-moderator Benjamin Earley, Westside Correspondent at Redclay-Hill and a fourth generation Westside resident, shared his  testimony with tears streaming down his face. (The video contains audio with potentially disturbing language.)

“I grew up on the Westside and from the time I was probably 15 to 27, I lost about seven friends to street ****. Excuse my language, but that’s just what we call it. The difference between where I’m at right now and where some of my peers are, is the fact that I had resources. I had a support system. I had a safe home. I had food, even when we were on food stamps, I could eat every day. It’s real; these are people… and we need our city, Atlanta, the beacon of civil rights, of equality, of justice… we need y’all to stand the hell up. I am tired of losing young Black people in this city when it can be perfectly preventable. This is unnecessary. It’s unnecessary. God, it is unnecessary.”

All Women, All Servant Leaders

WFF CEO John Ahmann praised the work of the all women’s panel, pointing out two words missing from any of their responses — servant leader.

“On this morning’s panel discussion, I heard a lot about service, but I never heard one of them say: ‘I am a servant leader.’ What I’ve learned about real servant leaders is they don’t think about it or say it because they’re so busy serving. These women have been at it for so long, and quite frankly, I don’t know how they keep going sometimes. They are servant leaders, and we can celebrate these women for modeling it.”

Stories & Stats

Local youth talked about their personal experiences with violence in a series of audio snippets that brought Summit co-moderator Ebony Ford to tears. (The video contains audio with potentially disturbing language.)

Panelist Dr. Whylly of the U.S. Attorney General’s office of the Northern District of Georgia also presented  facts and figures:

Homicides

• Nationally, gun violence is said to be the leading cause of death for children under the age of 18.
• On average, it’s estimated that gun violence takes another life every five hours in Georgia.

Juvenile Crime Rate

• Until 2020, the juvenile crime rate had been declining.
• Since the pandemic, homicides committed by a single juvenile alone increased by 30%.
• Multiple juveniles committing a homicide increased by 66%.
• Homicides committed by children under 14 was at its highest in two decades.

Effects of Gun Violence

• 40% of children exposed to gun violence develop PTSD.

Make an Impact

We invite you to sign up to be a mentor as part of the LitChics program so you can make a lasting impact on metro Atlanta youth who are affected by violence.

Miss the event? Watch the full Transform Westside Summit on YouTube.

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are honoring key women leaders from our community, both past and present, including many of our very own hard-working board members.

“I am incredibly grateful for the many visionary women civic and business leaders who form our Board,” said John Ahmann, president and CEO of Westside Future Fund. “Their leadership as Women of the Westside and commitment to the equitable revitalization of the four historic Westside neighborhoods are essential in our mission to transform our community into one Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud to call home.”

Thank you, Women of the Westside board members:

• Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College
• Stacy Apter, The Coca-Cola Company
• Kathleen S. Farrell, Truist Inc.
• Shawntel Hebert Clark, Vanderlande Industries Inc.
• Virginia Hepner, Retired, Wachovia Bank
• Susan Somersille Johnson, Prudential Financial
• Lee Kuschel, PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Penny McPhee, Retired, The Arthur Blank Family Foundation
• Helen Smith Price, Retired, The Coca-Cola Company
• Sylvia Russell, Retired, AT&T Georgia
• Beverly Thomas, Retired, Kaiser Permanente
• Kathy Waller, Ex-Officio, Atlanta Committee for Progress
• Eloisa Klementich, Invest Atlanta

When she first arrived in Atlanta in 2002, Dr. Beverly Tatum stepped into a critical role for the success of the City. A life-long educator, Tatum was named President of Spelman College – a leading educational institution for Black women, not only here in Atlanta but around the world.

She brought years of experience with her. She attended Wesleyan University for her undergraduate education in psychology before earning her master’s and doctorate degrees in the field from the University of Michigan. From there, she went on to teach briefly at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Westfield State College in the subjects of Black Studies and psychology in the 1980s. She then landed at Mount Holyoke University in South Hadley, Mass., where she served as a professor and dean of the Psychology department before being appointed interim President of the school.

A brilliant academic, Tatum focused her studies in psychology around the issue of racial inequity and its systemic roots. Naturally, Spelman College, a school founded on the matter of addressing racial inequity, was a perfect fit for her leadership.

Founded in 1881 by Christian missionaries, Spelman College served the critical purpose of educating Black women less than a generation out of enslavement with the goal of these women then going out and educating the communities they came from.

“The idea was that Spelman women would be able to get a quality education and then use it to transform the communities from which they came, and that was the history and role Spelman played locally here in Atlanta and beyond, going as far as Africa,” said Tatum. “A third of the women who graduate from Spelman have remained in Atlanta and are a crucial part of the engine that drives our City. I like to say if you meet a Black woman who is in a leadership role in a corporate or civic setting here, the odds are high that she is a Spelman graduate.”

During her tenure as president, Tatum led initiatives to improve Spelman, the neighboring historic universities, and the community and neighborhoods surrounding them, but she quickly realized they needed more than what the accessible resources of the institutions could provide.

“These were communities that were disinvested and intentionally so, it was not an accident. They were left without working sewers, without drivable streets, and it was no secret that these became highly segregated neighborhoods,” said Tatum.

Her time working closely with local leaders had made her evidently aware of the vast needs the surrounding community required. Adequate affordable housing was limited, schools were unsupported, healthcare was inaccessible and food markets were scarce. Her vision for the community was going to need something bigger—a collection of visionary leaders who could take on the critically needed mission of revitalizing the Westside.

In 2014, shortly after announcing her intention to retire the next year, she realized her own vision was shared by many others. Tatum had long served on the Atlanta Committee for Progress, an advisory council to the Mayor of the City. She started under the leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin and continued under Mayor Kasim Reed, who one day approached her and asked if she would serve on the board of an soon-to-be formed organization called Westside Future Fund.

He described it as a group of civic and corporate leaders who would lead an effort for the revitalization of the four historic neighborhoods of the Westside, bringing together some of the city’s best and brightest. Instantly, she knew it was an opportunity to accomplish a long-standing goal of her own.

“It had been a goal for myself and the university to assist in the revitalization of the neighborhoods surrounding the college. We found it hard to do as one organization or even in partnership with the other AUC schools. There was so much need and not enough resources to be able to do the kind of things that now Westside Future Fund is doing–acquiring property, renovating houses–things that weren’t in the purview of the college but essential to the revitalization of the neighborhoods,” said Tatum. “I realized that as I was exiting Spelman, being involved with Westside Future Fund from day one would give me the opportunity to work on some of the things we had hoped to accomplish.”

In December 2014, the inaugural Westside Future Fund Board of Directors was named, including Dr. Beverly Tatum. From the start, her focus was dialed in on education for residents from cradle-to-career.

“As a life-long educator, focusing on education was the place where I first got involved as a board member. Around the same time we were getting started, Hollis Innovation Academy was starting up. It was a unique situation, the first public school in the City to offer education starting at Pre-K. I had the opportunity to meet the new principal, Dr. Diamond Ford, and it was immediately clear we could support educational resources in the community through partnership,” said Tatum. “From there, we went on to work with Booker T. Washington High School and eventually the whole Booker T. Washington School cluster. The progress we’ve seen in these schools since has been tremendous.”

Her work on the board has not been limited to education. Tatum has played an integral role in the decision making of WFF’s highly-successful initiatives. In 2020, she was named the first woman Chair of the Board. For Tatum, WFF’s approach to accomplish equitable revitalization in the community is what stands out as most essential to the organization’s success.

“One of the things that really attracted me from the start about this work is how holistic it is. It wasn’t just about acquiring land,eliminating blight and rehabbing buildings, though that is important. It was also about looking at the education available in the community, access to healthcare, how infrastructure could support job and economic growth opportunities,” said Tatum. “The revitalization of the community that is being done is a wonderful thing that ensures the people who have lived and labored in these communities for so long are able to benefit from the improvements that are taking place.”

In her eyes, it also plays a critical role in advancing the institutions that educate essential Black leaders in the Atlanta community and beyond.

“It’s important to the AUC institutions that the neighborhoods surrounding them be thriving neighborhoods. Students want to come to schools where the neighborhood is safe, has amenities and it feels like an exciting place to be. As a leader of one of the instructions, we always wanted our institution to thrive and the neighborhoods around it to thrive,” said Tatum. “I continue to see that as important, but most importantly it’s about equity, fairness, and social justice.”

Tatum’s tenure as Chair of the Board will come to a close at the end of 2023, but her leadership within the community will be far from over. As the Westside continues to revitalize into a community Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud to call home, both Tatum and the entire WFF board will continue to support it.

“It’s been a tremendous privilege to serve on the board. It is a wonderful group of community leaders who are giving their time to advance the cause and mission of the organization. The work is so important. We know that what we are doing on the Westside needs to be replicated in other neighborhoods and communities, and I think we are creating a template for what can happen when people come together to bring the resources that are long overdue to bring about positive change,” said Tatum. “It’s exciting to see the ways that the neighborhood is being transformed so that we are not driving people out but rather ensuring that we include the local residents as well as making space and opportunities for new people to move in. I’m incredibly excited for the future of this community.”