As part of ongoing Best of Atlanta 2021 coverage, Urbanize’s inaugural Best Atlanta Neighborhood tournament is kicking off with 16 places vying for the prestige of being called the city’s greatest. (Note: Seeding from 1 to 16 was determined by reader nominations this month, so no pitchforks, please.)

For each Round 1 contest, voting will be open for just 24 hours. Please, let’s keep the tourney fun and positive, as one neighborhood rises above the rest in very public fashion. The eliminations begin now!

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GRANT PARK (2)

The Grant Park Gateway opened next to Zoo Atlanta in January. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Highest home sale of 2021:  $1.63M historic, seven-bedroom renovation

Lowest: $189K one-bedroom condo

Median sales price increase year-over-year: 7 percent

Speaking from experience, Grant Park tends to take these year-end Best Atlanta Neighborhood tourneys seriously. And why shouldn’t it be proud? Starting from a strong No. 2 seed, this richly historic nabe loaded with fairytale home architecture counts Atlanta’s oldest park—and as of this past January, the city’s most functional, eye-pleasing parking deck, next to Zoo Atlanta. Grant Park is also home to the formerly blighted warehouse revival that is The Beacon; not coincidentally, the city’s top-selling condo project is under construction next door, wedged against the BeltLine’s Southside Trail corridor.

This year also saw the debut of the adaptive-reuse GlenCastle creative office campus, with more than 250 for-rent townhomes and apartments popping up next door. Elsewhere, some 517 apartments launched construction in two ventures that will soon front the BeltLine. It all proves once again that Grant Park uniquely blends the city’s past and future—and that people want to be part of a neighborhood like this.

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HOME PARK (15)

This year, the $450-million Interlock project opened in Home Park, bringing a mixed-use, open-container funplex for grownups to the Howell Mill Road corridor. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Highest home sale of 2021: $1M modern near Atlantic Station

Lowest: $210K condo on 10th Street

Median sales price increase year-over-year: 24 percent

Many recently transplanted Atlantans may have visited Home Park without even knowing it. With boundaries spanning from the doorstep of Atlantic Station to 10th Street, and from the Connector to the former warehouse row that includes The Painted Duck, this district has been more commonly referred to as “West Midtown” for well over a decade. In that timespan, Home Park’s main commercial artery, Howell Mill Road, has transformed like almost no other place in Atlanta.

This year, big-ticket changes included the addition of two marquee projects—Star Metals Offices and the massive, $450-million Interlock project, which is barreling ahead with its Publix-anchored second phase right now. Another recent development—the forthcoming reopening, finally, of Atlanta Waterworks park—might technically be outside the boundaries of Home Park, but it’ll provide the neighborhood its long-sought greenspace boost.