In the new series From Harm to Healing, Capital B is putting a spotlight on how pollution and environmental dangers are threatening Black communities, and the people who are working to fight back against these threats to health.
For decades, flooding in the West Atlanta neighborhoods of Vine City and English Avenue had been more than a minor inconvenience. It was a recurring crisis.
Heavy rainfall flooded streets and homes, overwhelming aging sewers, and in some cases, pushing raw sewage into people’s homes.
Alfred Tucker, a longtime West Atlanta resident, said that in 2002, flooding from a major storm was so severe that the city bought out an entire section of Vine City after residents’ homes were flooded with wastewater. Seeing that the area wasn’t fit for any homeowner, the houses were demolished by the city.
To protect the area from any more flooding disasters, especially as climate change persists and extreme weather events continue to increase in severity, the city of Atlanta has implemented an innovative solution in this predominantly Black community: a 16-acre park.
The problem stems from a combination of crumbling infrastructure and a lack of investment in upgraded stormwater management. Tucker said that much of the area sits in the Proctor Creek Watershed, the only major watershed that lies entirely within the Atlanta city limits. Some of the communities within the watershed, like Vine City, sit at a lower elevation, making them more susceptible to flooding.
On top of that, Tucker said that much of the area is covered in impermeable surfaces, like concrete and asphalt, which prevents rainwater from soaking into the ground. That means when big storms happen, instead of grass and greenery absorbing the waters, it all flows directly into the city’s sewer system.
And depending on the severity of the storm, the city’s system can become overwhelmed and the area begins to flood, much like what happened back in 2002 in Vine City.
Rodney Cook Sr. Park, which sits where the demolished, flooded homes once stood, is now working to protect the area from storms and flooding as it has the ability to capture up to 9 million gallons of water.
“The park is very much needed,” Tucker said. “The people really love the park, and they know that it was put there primarily because of the flooding issue. So I would say that overwhelmingly, the community supports the park.”
A park with a purpose
Opened in 2021, Cook Park in Vine City may look like a beautiful community greenspace, with its playgrounds and art installations, but beneath the surface sits a massive stormwater detention system.
Built through a collaboration between the city of Atlanta and Trust for Public Land, Cook Park is an innovative example of green infrastructure in action.
Jay Wozniak, director of the Georgia Urban Parks program for Trust for Public Land, helped oversee the park’s development. He said the idea was to build a park that not only served the community’s recreational needs but also could absorb millions of gallons of runoff during storms.
“We needed to design a space that’s going to take 9 million gallons of water off the city’s stormwater infrastructure and then with that, we needed to make sure that it’s actually an attractive park,” Wozniak told Capital B Atlanta.
Atlanta’s first stormwater park was the Historic Fourth Ward Park, which Wozniak said his organization helped bring to fruition. Built in 2010, it can hold up to 5 million gallons of stormwater as it was created to address sewer overflow and flooding on the city’s east side.
In that same year, local nonprofit Park Pride developed the Proctor Creek North Avenue study — a visionary plan to build a network of parks that could both provide communities with green space and manage stormwater. Cook Park, the largest of these proposed spaces, would need around $40 million and nearly two decades of collaboration between public agencies, nonprofits, and private donors to be brought to life.
Engineered to intercept and store runoff from the surrounding area, the park works like a giant sponge. When rain or a storm rolls through, water soaks into the greenery and vegetation of the park and fills the park’s large retention pond. The water is then held temporarily in the pond’s large basin, filtering back into the ground or rejoining the city’s stormwater system slowly, preventing overload.
Wozniak said that the 9 million gallons of water that Cook Park can hold and filter out is equivalent to a swimming pool that’s the length of an entire football field, with a depth of 28 feet.
While Trust for Public Land doesn’t currently track the exact amount of stormwater Cook Park has captured, Wozniak confirmed that the system has reached its full 9-million-gallon capacity twice — most recently during Hurricane Helene in 2024. He said just 72 hours after the storm, the park returned to normal. He said that there was little to no damage in the area because of the park.
The park also brings recreational amenities to Vine City and English Avenue that are often missing in underserved communities: a splash pad, walking paths, and climbing boulders.
Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, co-founder of the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, said that to understand the neighborhood’s flooding, start with understanding the city’s history of racial segregation.
She said that in the past, due to discriminatory policy practices within city and urban planning, many Black residents ended up living in the homes located in the low elevation community of Vine City.
“The city, after Reconstruction and during that era, they were putting Black communities in those areas that were low-lying and prone to flooding,” Osborne Jelks said. “Many cities sort of have a history of filling in land that you know is likely in a floodplain, and building housing there where it shouldn’t be”
And while the area has suffered from disinvestment and racial discrimination, it also has a rich history tied to the nation’s Civil Rights Movement, which Wozniak says is one of the reasons why investment into Cook Park and into its surrounding neighborhoods is so important.
“One street west of the Cook Park site is Sunset Avenue. Sunset Avenue is where Dr. [Martin Luther] King raised his family. It’s the last home that Dr. King lived in,” Wozniak said. “On Sunset Avenue is where Julian Bond lived, and Walter White, one of the longest serving chairs of the NAACP. It’s a critically important neighborhood and location in the Civil Rights Movement, not just in Atlanta, but across the country.”
A partial solution that needs more support
Residents agree that flooding in Vine City is less severe near the park, and the greenspace is also widely appreciated.
The Rev. Leroy Wright, a pastor at First Thessalonian Missionary Baptist Church, which is located across the street from Cook Park, told Capital B Atlanta that since the park has been built, he hasn’t seen any major flash flooding impact the area.
He said before the park was built, he remembers a moment during church where rain came on so suddenly that he recalls seeing a car stuck in a pool of water. He said nothing like that has happened since the park was created.
“The park really is like a focal point. There’s very few places where the kids can play,” he said. “The grown-ups on Sundays, they spread out blankets and have cookouts and stuff, so the park is utilized.”
Although Tucker said he sees Cook Park as innovative, he says it’s not enough to solve flooding in his community completely.
“The park is great, but it’s only a partial solution,” he said. “It doesn’t capture all the water. That’s the problem.”
He said that in neighborhoods throughout West Atlanta, people are still being negatively impacted when storms take place or heavy rainfall comes down.
“People’s yards flood … basements flood a lot, and many people are impacted with mold as a result of continuing episodes of flooding. They have a problem with mold because of the dampness that’s left behind,” Tucker said.
According to the Proctor Creek North Avenue study, the area needs stormwater infrastructure capable of detaining at least 30 million gallons of runoff to fully protect the surrounding neighborhoods. Tucker said that number has since increased to 36 million — Cook Park holds only about a quarter of that. The area would need three more parks like it to eliminate flooding in the area.
Osborne Jelks said she sees Cook Park as both progress and a warning.
“The idea behind this park and the Proctor Creek North Avenue vision is that we really needed a series of green infrastructure parks. And so Cook Park was not meant, I think, to be the silver bullet. It’s not the end all be all,” she said.
While she said that other smaller parks like Lindsay Street Park and Mattie Freeland Park in Bankhead are other key pieces of green infrastructure the city has implemented to help address flooding in West Atlanta, more is needed.
“We can’t run a victory lap just yet, until the city has more comprehensively dealt with stormwater issues as they impact the west side,” Osborne Jelks said.
Despite the new green infrastructure, the city’s old stormwater infrastructure is still leaving portions of West Atlanta vulnerable. A 2023 flood event brought major water damage to Clark Atlanta University and nearby homes and churches — including Central United Methodist Church, which sits just across from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
For advocates like Tucker and Osborne Jelks, the fight now is about ensuring the city follows through — not just with Cook Park, but with a holistic stormwater management plan for the city.
Tucker is a part of a community coalition called Stop Flooding Us, where he and other residents are pushing the city for more infrastructure to further mitigate flooding in their neighborhoods.
“We’ve been giving presentations in churches, in neighborhood meetings, and NPUs,” Tucker said. “We’re gathering signatures for a petition to the mayor and City Council. We’re going to speak at council meetings and candidate forums. We’re trying to hold them accountable.”
