As part of ongoing Best of Atlanta 2023 coverage, Urbanize’s third-annual Best Atlanta Neighborhood tournament kicked off last week with 16 places vying for the prestige of being called the city’s greatest.

Now, for each Elite Eight contest, voting will be open until noon on Tuesday, allowing anyone time to chime in who’s currently traveling or enduring their family. Please, let’s keep the tourney fun and positive, as one neighborhood rises above the rest in very public fashion. The quest to crown a champion resumes now!

…

(10) East Atlanta 

The new Marbut building's balconies, storefronts, and Art Moderne detailing in East Atlanta Village. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

In round one action, No. 10 seed East Atlanta pulled a minor upset by booting Chamblee (No. 7) from 2023 contention, capturing 55 percent of more than 1,000 votes cast. A solid start, for sure.

Unlike several voted-appointed competitors in ’23, East Atlanta is a bona fide ATL neighborhood, with a famed village at its core where change is persistent but gloss never outweighs funk. This year saw a unique Starbucks concept bow out in EAV, which some might consider worthy of bonus votes. But elsewhere, artist Greg Mike’s church makeover is very much moving forward, like a nearby infill project on Flat Shoals Avenue with relatively attainable housing in its mix. On the bougier side of things, East Atlanta wasn’t lacking in new options this year, either. As the tourney’s 2016 champion, East Atlanta clawed to the Elite Eight round last year but was ousted by current trophy-holder Avondale Estates. Could that light a fire under this perennially hip eastside district? We shall see.

…

(15) Old Fourth Ward 

Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

No. 15 seed Old Fourth Ward barely garnered enough nominations to make the Best Atlanta Tournament cut this year, but that didn’t matter in round one, when O4W flexed by tossing high-seed Midtown out the door.

As large-scale development goes, O4W is clearly on a roll, with the Atlanta Civic Center redevelopment’s initial phase finally showing verifiable signs of life, and Portman delivering one of the most eye-catching BeltLine buildings to date with Junction Krog District in 2023. Ponce City Market sprouted two new towers this year, and the dreaded Chick-fil-Apocalypse on Boulevard didn’t really come to pass. But the feather in O4W’s cap this year—from an architecture and public space standpoint—is New City’s Fourth Ward Project, where two plazas opened, a diamond-patterned high-rise hotel topped out, an apartment venture like no other intown delivered, and offices actually got leased. O4W has pulled together and brought home the hardware before, winning the full tourney in 2012.