Marci Overstreet – Atlanta Magazine

Photography by Martha Williams

Years ago, when Marci Overstreet’s children were graduating from high school, she realized she needed to find a place to grow old. As a lifelong resident of southwest Atlanta, she knew she wanted to stay, but the community would need some improvements so it could grow old with her. So she ran for city council. “I didn’t want to come home from vacation and wish I had more amenities and beautification around my own space,” Overstreet says. “I know we have so much to integrate to make this an age-friendly community, and I want us to be able to better support families.”

Overstreet is now in her second term as a council member, where she is known for her $20 million Cascade Complete Streets initiative, designed to transform Cascade Road. These millions contribute to road resurfacing, bike lane widening, pedestrian infrastructure and multi-modal sidewalks so that parents pushing strollers and residents in wheelchairs can get around town as easily as cyclists and joggers. “I will know my work is done when I can leave my house, get on the sidewalk, walk less than two miles, and go to my favorite restaurants or green spaces,” Overstreet says.

Its efforts extend beyond Cascade in southwest Atlanta, including the construction of the first dog park on Melvin Drive, a new fire station in Princeton Lakes and the first stand-alone water management services station. city ​​emergency room near Campbellton Road. She chooses projects that honor her community and protect its future. His plan to add worker housing to Greenbriar will help attract young professionals to an aging area. And the community is already noticing it.

“One of my greatest moments of satisfaction was when one of my residents came to a Martin Luther King Day clean-up and received the mail I had sent about our improvements,” she says. She. “She told me she had toured the district with her mother using our mail. It was the biggest compliment and showed that people really care about the differences you make in the community.

Advertisement