Best Atlanta Neighborhood 2022, 1st round: (1) Midtown vs. (16) Old Fourth Ward

As part of ongoing Best of Atlanta 2022 coverage, Urbanize’s second-annual 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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MIDTOWN (1)

Highest home sale of 2022: $2.5M, for a three-bedroom condo above Loews Atlanta Hotel

Lowest: $100K, for a 380-square-foot pad at The Biltmore

Median sales price increase year-over-year: 3.7 percent (November)

How fitting that Atlanta’s epicenter of high-profile job growth, high-rise development, and sheer physical change has taken the pole position in this year’s tournament, as determined by reader nominations this month. Like no other place right now, Midtown exemplifies Atlanta’s roaring ’20s boom, as our aerial photo essays have attempted to relay throughout the year. Mega-builds like Midtown Union delivered in 2022, while more than a dozen more high-rises broke ground or topped out, continuing a decade of skyline-altering investment that shows few signs of abating. What's more, Atlanta's tallest new building since the 1990s also showed promise of becoming real this year. 

Midtown has a spotty track record in these contests, including a Round 1 knockout against 13-seed Adair Park in last year’s action. But could the district ride the wave of recent arrivals like Google, Microsoft, and Shake Shack (hey, those crinkle fries) and stomp toward everlasting Best Atlanta Neighborhood glory in 2022? Only time (and votes) will tell.  

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OLD FOURTH WARD (16)

Highest home sale of 2022: $2M, for a terrace-heavy penthouse overlooking PCM

Lowest: $75K, for a two-bedroom condo on Ralph McGill

Median sales price decrease year-over-year: -3.8 percent (November)

Old Fourth Ward tallied only enough nominations this year for a No. 16 seed, meaning a truly heavyweight bout is going down in the very first round. But O4W has been a development darling (and gentrification magnet) since the Eastside Trail was little more than a ratty former railroad corridor. By every conceivable metric, it remains on fire to this day, with what’s arguably the most anticipated/celebrated development underway in metro Atlanta, New City’s Fourth Ward project, rounding more into shape with each passing week. Nearby, global tourist attraction Ponce City Market got underway with a two-tower growth spurt in 2022. Smaller-scale projects with eye-catching designs took shape elsewhere on Ponce, on the BeltLine, and notably on a full corner where Boulevard meets Edgewood Avenue.  

Nominator Mike Mills put it like this: “Old Fourth Ward. I know it’s old hat these days, but with Waldo’s on the rise, Junction Krog topping out, and the Krog District cutting through to the BeltLine, this neighborhood is hotter than ever!” But hotter/better than Midtown this year? We’ll see.

Now, please cast a vote below!