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 this Round 1 contest, given the holiday and weekend, voting will be open until 9 a.m. Monday. 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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MOZLEY PARK (3)

Mozley Park's diversifying housing stock, located about three miles west of downtown. Photo courtesy of The Gates Group

Highest home sale of 2021: $650K record-breaking modern  

Lowest: $165K fixer-upper

Median sales price increase year-over-year: 1 percent  

Westside underdog Mozley Park surged to a high seed in this Best Neighborhood tourney thanks to heavily upvoted nominations like this one, pointing out attributes of the historic community about three miles west of downtown: “Our neighbors are engaged and awesome. We can literally walk to Mercedes-Benz Stadium but don't even need to because we have West Lake Marta station... We are close to the AUC. We have four direct entrances to the [BeltLine’s Westside Trail]. Did I mention how great our park is? Perhaps the new playground? The new exercise equipment? How we as a neighborhood have advocated for ourselves? Needless to say I love Mozley Park and the residents. Whether we win or not, I am happy for this opportunity to brag about us.”

Now that’s local passion right there.

Mozley Park made waves this year for breaking ground on the Westside’s first off-leash dog park (about time), and notching record home sales deep into the $600,000s. More contemporary houses are joining Mozley Park’s original Craftsman bungalows and Folk Victorian cottages built a century ago. And while housing prices are steadily rising (current median sale price: $366,000), homeownership still costs significantly less than other charming places on the flipside of town.    

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EDGEWOOD (14)  

The Edgewood Park mixed-use district has replaced former parking lots next to the neighborhood's MARTA transit station. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Highest home sale of 2021: $785K neo-Craftsman near tamales

Lowest: $250K one-bedroom loft near Target

Median sales price increase year-over-year: 2 percent

Tucked between the BeltLine and Decatur, with enviable access to both MARTA and Target, Edgewood continued its years-long quest in 2021 to become a more vibrant and dense intown place. That was thanks, in large part, to the addition of townhomes across the neighborhood on what had been underused/vacant land or church parking lots. (Ironically, for better or worse, Edgewood’s well-documented anti-gentrification house has been swallowed up by gentrification.) Home-price increases have been steadier in Edgewood than many of its intown counterparts, but the median sales price has climbed to more than a half-million bucks.  

This year, the PATH Foundation’s long-awaited Eastside Trolley Trail inched toward groundbreaking, while the patio at El Tesoro—a pandemic-era blessing for the eastside—expanded again and again to gargantuan proportions. But no year-end recap is complete without kudos for Edgewood Park, the transit-oriented redevelopment of barren MARTA parking lots that’s finishing construction and inking tenants as we speak. Edgewood also tallied our favorite nomination of all: “Come for the tacos, stay for the Trolley Trail. Don't let the occasional ammonia leak scare you off.”