South of downtown, epic Atlanta Streets Alive route making comeback

Who says everywhere south of Interstate 20 never gets any love?

Come next month, Atlanta’s largest open-streets block party is shifting from the heart of downtown and Midtown to a new route spanning between a West End greenspace along the Beltline to the doorstep of the city’s oldest park.

Atlanta Streets Alive will begin a series of three monthly events from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15 along a straight route from West End to Grant Park, with Mechanicsville and Summerhill’s lively commercial district in between.

It will return to that route—opening Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard and Georgia Avenue—on Oct. 20 and Nov. 17. 

By our calculations, that’s a little more than three and ½ miles. And that’s considerably longer than the 2.8-mile Peachtree Street route Streets Alive has used for four consecutive events, dating back to the September comeback last year.  

More than a dozen cross-streets will also be open to pedestrians and cyclists in neighborhoods along the West End-Grant Park route during the three upcoming events, according to organizers Propel ATL and the Atlanta Department of Transportation. (Find an interactive map of the route here.)

After a four-year hiatus, Streets Alive made a lively return in September, opening Peachtree’s traffic lanes and sidewalks from south of Underground Atlanta up to 15th Street in Midtown. The Peachtree route was among the most attended and frequently staged of the events over the years, with crowds often topping 100,000, as estimated by volunteer counters.

Atlanta Bicycle Coalition (now Propel ATL) originated Streets Alive, inspired by ciclovía events in Bogotá, Colombia and other cities. The Atlanta phenomenon began meagerly one day in 2010 when a stretch of Edgewood Avenue opened to bicyclists, skaters, walkers, and anyone else not driving a car. Over the next decade, organizers say Streets Alive staged 29 events and covered some 83 miles of city streets, drawing an estimated 1.7 million people total.

The final pre-hiatus event was held on Peachtree in 2019, before going dormant through pandemic years as logistics for a more frequent Streets Alive were worked out with ATLDOT and other city leaders.

Should all plans come to fruition, six different Streets Alive events in 2024 would mark a record for a single year, with the previous highmark being four in 2016.

Not to be outdone, the Howell Mill Road corridor west of Midtown is once again hosting its own open-streets bonanza this fall, too. 

The second-annual Westside Stride is planned from 12 to 6 p.m. Oct. 6, with live music, food, retail vendors, and other family-friendly activities spread across roughly a mile, between Trabert Avenue and 8th Street this year. (Tip: Don’t miss the music lineup in Northside Tavern’s parking lot.)

Here’s a look at that route:

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