The study area of the Atlanta
University Center Corridor (AUC) CEDS includes 40 census tracts in the south central portion of the City of Atlanta. The study area includes the campuses of Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College and adjacent neighborhoods. The AUC’s parameters are bordered by Ponce de Leon Avenue/D.L Hollowell Parkway on the north, Cleveland Avenue (East Point city limits) to the south, West Lake Avenue/Beecher Avenue to the west, and the DeKalb County line to the east.

Since the 1950s, the Atlanta area has experienced an explosive, yet uneven, growth and development pattern. Atlanta has always lacked a comprehensive city and regional growth management policy. Structurally, the AUC’s northern boundary has marked a long-standing dividing line between the areas of predominantly working class and African-American neighborhoods and the areas of predominantly white affluent neighborhoods. 

With no “formal” city growth management policy, the AUC area has for too long experienced a “concentration” of an unusually high degree of “economic stress” factors, such as high unemployment, low income, and high rates of poverty and the associated land uses. The AUC area contains a 2000 census population of 110,236 and an abundance of “non-owner occupied” households. Subsequently, the area has consistently comprised the most distressed sector in the Atlanta MSA. The corridor’s weighted average per capita income of $10,550 is 48.9% of the 2000 US average -- $21,587. The mean or average unemployment rate is almost 21.47% versus 2000 US average – 5.77%; this is nearly four times the US unemployment rate. 

Growth in the Atlanta MSA has not benefited the entire region in a comprehensive, logical and strategic manner. It is because of these “stress factors” and the desires of the AUC neighborhoods for a better “quality of life,” that Morehouse College and the University Community Development Corporation (representing the other AUC institutions) applied for and received a feasibility grant through the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

To combat this expected unorganized growth, Morehouse College and the University Community Development Corporation (UCDC) has hired AngelouEconomics (AE) to develop a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) that results in the prioritization of projects important to the long-term health, vitality, and sustainability of the AUC Corridor and the region; addresses the economic disparity between the AUC Corridor and the rest of the Atlanta MSA region' creates sustainable, higher paying “knowledge-based” jobs; reduces the Corridor’s unemployment and under-employment; raises per capita income; improves the skills of the Corridor’s residents so they can participate in the global economy; and stimulates entrepreneurship in the Corridor, particularly in industries focusing on high-tech and emerging technologies.

For the next six months, AE will assess the Corridor’s economy; identify target businesses that should be recruited to the Corridor; identify the Corridor’s strengths and weaknesses along with opportunities and threats it needs to recognize; and recommend improvements to the Corridor’s business climate, its workforce, its quality of life, its sites and infrastructure, and the economic development and marketing efforts used to sell the region.

The end result of this process will be a comprehensive plan that will be submitted to the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) for approval and funding. More importantly, the Corridor will have a blueprint for economic success that will revitalize the area and help create the economic climate that fosters growth. The AUC CEDS be incorporated into ARC’s Regional 2006 CEDS.

Your input is essential to the success of this project! How can you get involved?

• Please take a few minutes to complete our online survey. To access the survey, click here.
• Click here to read our reports. [Will be posted when available]
• Send your ideas to John Warren at jwarren@angeloueconomics.com, Project Manager at AngelouEconomics.

The Atlanta University Center’s students, faculty and staff come from every state and from over twenty-five foreign countries. As a collective, the institutions form the largest consortium of private Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the world. The AUC Institutions as a whole are one of the largest employers in the study corridor. The AUC is located within the city’s Neighborhood Planning Unit T (NPU-T). In the study, there will be a special focus on NPU-T, which will document the Atlanta University Center as a regional economic activity center. 

As such, The AUC is well poised to be involved in future job creation. Each institution has a long history of working with the community.