In 2002, a flood pushed six feet of stormwater and sewage into the living rooms of families in Atlanta's Vine City neighborhood. Sixty families were displaced. The infrastructure had failed them for decades.
Twenty years later, that same land is home to one of the most remarkable urban parks in America.
Cook Park is a 16-acre green space in the heart of Atlanta that holds 10 million gallons of floodwater, restored tree canopy to a historically underinvested neighborhood, and gave a community at the center of the civil rights movement the park it always deserved — complete with statues of John Lewis, Andrew Young, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., murals honoring the neighborhood's rich cultural history, and climbing boulders designed by the hands of local kids.
Jay Wozniak, Director of Georgia and Alabama Parks at Trust for Public Land, spent six years orchestrating the community engagement, design, and construction of Cook Park. He joins The Parks Podcast to talk about what it takes to build a park that's equal parts engineering marvel and community love letter — and why your local neighborhood park might be more powerful than you think.
In this episode:
How a catastrophic 2002 flood became the catalyst for Cook Park
The cooperative model that made it possible — city, donors, nonprofits, and community working together
What the Vine City community asked for and how Trust for Public Land delivered it
The 10-minute walk mission and why access to parks is a public health issue
How to visit Cook Park and what to bring
Why Hurricane Helene put the park to the test — and it passed
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