Vine City sits immediately west of downtown, between the Georgia World Congress Center and the neighborhoods that climb toward the Atlanta University Center. The area grew quickly in the early twentieth century as Black Atlanta expanded westward, and it filled with churches, schools and civic institutions that made it a center of Black life on the westside.

Built, cleared, built again

In the 1960s, construction of the Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium and the freeways that sliced through the westside cleared housing and split streets, and the stadium district kept expanding for decades after. By the 1990s the neighborhood was dealing with the second wave: the arena and Olympic-era construction, then demolition, then new stadiums on the same land. Through it all, Vine City kept its churches and long-term homeowners.

Where it stands now

The Westside Trail and the new park and stadium district brought both investment and tax pressure. Rising assessments on homes that have been paid off for years are now the front line of the neighborhood's politics, and residents have pushed the city for protections on legacy homeowners.