Women power: African-American females are playing major role in preparing Atlanta for the Olympic Games

Ebony, July, 1996

AS PRESIDENT and CEO of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership Inc., Hattie Dorsey is doing all she can to make sure Atlanta's inner city neighborhoods get their share of public and private development money. Because six of the 14 neighborhoods her corporation works with are in the "Olympic Ring," the Games have put Dorsey and her business on the frontlines in the battle for a slice of the Olympic pie.

Far removed from the unorganized community-based initiatives of the past, Dorsey's business is l till like a business She strategically gathers funds from private sources and national anti local foundations, then redistributes the the money, along with technical assistance, directly to community development organizations which build houses, start businesses and finance other projects that will help revitalize depressed economies in low-income areas.

Dorsey says it is vital for someone to represent Atlanta's voiceless. "It's important that inner-city neighborhoods benefit from Olympic visitors," Dorsey v says. "Those communities need to be revitalized. They need new housing, new businesses, repaved sidewalks and new lighting that the rest of the city will get."

CLARA Hayley Axam, president and CEO of the Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta, agrees. Her corporation was formed in 1993 to redevelop public land and infrastructure within the 3.5-mile Olympic Ring in preparation for the Games. It is her job to make the city so user-friendly that Olympic visitors will want to walk throughout the down town area.

Axam spends most of her time attempting to leverage public money to obtain private funds. She has had tremendous success so far, raising $77 million to repair streets, widen sidewalks, install a unified light system, plant trees and refurbish parks.

Axam calls it "knitting the urban fabric." One project she is especially proud of is the revitalization of the Auburn Avenue corridor by placing a "freedom" fountain, new sidewalks with quotes from famous Blacks, a marketplace and a plaza along the famous street. Axam hopes to restore Auburn Avenue to the vibrant state it was in decades ago when John Wesley Dobbs, the godfather of Auburn Avenue and the great-grandfather of former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, named the street "Sweet Auburn."

"We are really committed to planned neighborhoods with some sense of vision and some sense of direction," says Axam, a fourth-generation Atlantan who previously owned a management consulting company. "We are a young city. We have grown very fast. We are just at the point now where we are beginning to experience urban ills. The 1996 Olympic Games has forced us to focus on the next century."

FOCUSING on the future is some thing Angela Gittens is committed to. As general manager of Haltsfield Atlanta International Airport, Gittens will be responsible for getting millions of air travelers to and from their destinations during the Olympics.

To do that, Gittens is overseeing a $200 million airport renovation project, which includes adding new parking decks, replacing floors and adding escalators and trains to its subway system.