Long a part of SW Atlanta community, Young YMCA gets an assist from Hawks

NBA team launches 10th Good Neighbor Club in metro area.

Logan Whichard and his daughter Layla visit the Andrew & Walter Young Family YMCA nearly every day. While Whichard is hitting the gym, Layla is participating in after-school activities, playing soccer and some- times gardening.

“It’s a great part of the community,” Whichard said.

The two men whose names are prominently displayed all over the facility agree. Andrew Young, the former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta mayor, and his brother Wal- ter, a local dentist and civil rights leader, regularly walk the halls of the recreation center.

“Walter and I owe our lives to the Y,” Andrew Young said Thursday as the Atlanta Hawks announced the open- ing of their 10th Good Neigh- bor Club in metro Atlanta, this time choosing the busy center on Campbellton Road in southwest Atlanta.

“You come to the Y, and you can’t help but be a good man. You can’t help but be a strong man. You can’t help but be like our mayor,” said Young, pointing to Andre

Dickens, who learned how to swim and play basketball at the YMCA.

The Good Neighbor Clubs, also sponsored by State Farm, are meant to provide a space for youths to play basketball and participate in educational activities. Each has different features, based on community needs.

The new work at the Young Family YMCA added to the existing $9.6 million reno- vation project taking place at the center. The pool was reopened last year — with Walter Young, now 89, tak- ing a dip in it once it was completed.

The storied location has been part of the community since 1959. The second-old- est YMCA in the metro area,

it was originally named the Southwest Y.

Its importance to the area is why the location was selected by the Hawks, officials said. Through the years, it has seen thousands of kids grow into successful adults, some of whom are now city leaders.

“So many people that are in leadership in the city of Atlanta actually learned how to swim here, learned how to play basketball here,” City Council member Marci Over- street said.

“We’ve had memberships here for decades,” she said.

Whichard said seeing those recognizable people is what makes this YMCA so special.

“When I’m leaving out, he’s coming in,” Whichard said of Walter Young. “You see him in the steam room, passing through the gym in the morning.

“It’s pretty cool that you get to see Atlanta legends walk through the door at any given time.”

As part of the new club, the basketball gym got a complete renovation: a new court, which is named after NBA legend Dominique Wilkins; new backboards and hoops; an upgraded scoreboard; new wall pads; and lighting upgrades.

On Thursday, at least 50 kids took part in basketball skill challenges, relay races and craft activities during the event.

Wilkins, who also was in attendance, said he was happy he could be part of the festivities.

“Young Family YMCA is a part of the landscape here in Atlanta,” he said, “and to be a part of that landscape, totally happy.”

The first Good Neighbor Club was opened in 2019 at William Walker Recreation Center on Fairburn Road. In addition to three other locations in Atlanta, the Hawks have opened centers in Norcross, Powder Springs, South Fulton, Decatur and College Park.

There are other clubs in the works, but Hawks officials did not share specific locations.

After a contentious Norcross City Council meeting last month, a government-backed ride share service is set to begin in September in and around the city.

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners unanimously granted final approval to a contract with Norcross and the Gateway85 Community Improvement District to fund the Southwest Gwinnett Microtransit Pilot program.

The contract provides four microtransit buses that each carry nine passengers. The buses will operate on demand, providing curb-tocurb service within an area that includes the Target on Holcomb Bridge Road, the Global Mall, the Walmart on Jimmy Carter Boulevard and the Amazon distribution center off Interstate 85. About 36,500 people live in the zone, according the Gwinnett County Department of Transportation.

Passengers can use the Ride Gwinnett app or call to book $3 rides.

The buses will operate Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

It will cost an estimated $1.3 million to run the program through July 2025, with the county and Gateway85 CID each paying 44%, or more than $565,000. Norcross will pay the remaining 12%, about $154,000, after the City Council narrowly approved the contract amid concerns about the cost.

The County Commission is planning to place a penny sales tax on the November ballot that would fund most of a $17 billion transit expansion plan, including microtransit zones that would eventually cover all of Gwinnett.

The Norcross-area microtransit zone includes the two lowest-income census tracts in Gwinnett County, said District

1 Commissioner Kirkland Carden, who represents most of the area. People without transit options could use the service to get to school, work, medical appointments and other places, he said.

“This is economic development,” Carden told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This is people who desperately need it.”

Microtransit zones already operate in the Snellville and Lawrenceville areas. Gwinnett has also received grant funding to implement a zone in the area of Buford and Suwanee.

After the Norcross City Council voted to contribute less to the pilot project than originally planned, Carden said he met with county and CID officials to get them to make up the difference.

All the county commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting thanked city and Gateway85 CID officials for their collaboration.

“This is really going to impact a lot of southwest Gwinnett County,” Norcross Mayor Pro Tempore Bruce Gaynor said. “We can all be proud of ourselves for having gotten to this point.”

Carden is running for reelection in November. When he was first elected four years ago to the County Commission, most of the Norcross area was not in his district. He nevertheless cast the vote as a fulfillment of a campaign promise to expand transit services to people in need.

“This is going to be good for Gwinnettians,” Carden said. “This is a test run for what can happen if voters choose to approve the referendum later this year.”

The Norcross area has a large Hispanic population and many Hispanic-run businesses and restaurants. The Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce worked with Gateway85 CID to advocate for microtransit, said Antonio Molina, a representative of the business organization.

“Our community needs it badly,” Molina said. “Hopefully this is just the beginning of something great.”

PHOTOS BY KAT GODUCO The grand opening Thursday of the Atlanta Hawks’ 10th Good Neighbor Club in metro Atlanta, at the storied Young Family YMCA, drew some of Atlanta’s legends, including (seated at center) basketball superstar Dominique Wilkins and former U.N. Ambassador and former mayor Andrew Young, along with his brother Walter, a civil rights legend himself, and Mayor Andre Dickens, with other community leaders standing by.

Children from the Southwest Atlanta community join in the opening of the Good Neighbor Club at Young Family YMCA, sponsored by the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm.