Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Guv'ment FanPlex, Fulton County's failed video arcade and mini-golf experiment, finally finds a purpose? (Update)
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 10:00 AM
Longtime political observers and residents of the neighborhoods near Turner Field are surely familiar with FanPlex, the former children's entertainment complex owned by the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreational Authority that, by all accounts, was a colossal failure.
Built for $2.5 million in 2002, the facility was supposed to attract Atlanta Braves fans who, after forking over $42 for a bag of peanuts and warm beer, wanted to play miniature golf and video games with the kiddos. But Fanplex never found any, well, fans. The 11,000-square-foot facility on Hank Aaron Drive burned through cash and, after less than two years of business, shut its doors. It's sat vacant or been used as a gameday parking lot ever since.
The county's loss might be the city's gain. According to legislation currently before the Atlanta City Council, Fanplex would become one of Atlanta's "Centers of Hope," which are basically reopened or repurposed recreation centers that provide cultural and educational after-school programming to children and teenagers.
The city's partnered with Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and National Center for Arts and Technology, two nonprofits operated by the Pittsburgh, Penn.-based Manchester Bidwell Corporation, to provide educational services and activities for young people at the facility. The groups says FanPlex is the best fit for their programs, which the city says includes "training in the culinary arts, technology and workforce development."
Renting FanPlex wouldn't cost the city a dime, the legislation says, so long as it maintains the space. We're waiting for word as to how much it'd cost to maintain the facility. The City Council's Finance and Executive Committee is scheduled to hear the proposal today.
UPDATE, 4:33 p.m.: According to a Atlanta City Council spokesman, the legislation was held today at the request of Mayor Kasim Reed's office.
Comments (7)
Showing 1-7 of 7
I'm looking forward to seeing what the bright kids who vandalized the DH stanton park will do to the fanplex afterschool spot.
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Zed -- I share your frustration with vandalism, but I think it's possible that this kind of after-school program is part of a cure. When kids have no hope for fitting in with society & the workforce, they have little option but to end up as aimless hooligans with nothing better to do than commit crimes like vandalism. (Yes, I just wrote 'hooligans' -- I'm that old).
An after school program like this, while not a solution in itself, can be an important part of a multi-pronged approach for giving kids hope, guidance and work skills. That said, there had better be a plan with those other prongs in place -- one of them being an initiative to bring more jobs in town for people without college degrees.
@ Darin
Zed nailed it. This white elephant will continue to be a millstone around the taxpayer's neck. Maintaining the space when surrounded by 24 hour a day vandalism guarantees continued failure.
Burroughston -- but aren't kids without guidance and hope for the future already a millstone around the necks of taxpayers and society at large? At least this project, even if it ends up having millstone-ish qualities for taxpayers, works toward a solution that benefits the kids and society. Surely that's worth the risk.
Darin makes a fair point— and even if the kinds of kids who would vandalize a nice new park in their neighborhood want nothing to do with a community center, at least it'll give their nice-kid neighbors another place to get away from them.
Manchester Craftsman's Guild in PA is the real deal; Look it up, as they say. It figures that someone has to be brought in from out of town to TRY TO show Atlantans how to stop stomping on their own dicks. But I'm sure the naysayers will do everything possible to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. After cutting off a sweet piece for themselves, of course.
Why is this neighborhood, the epicenter of the Atlanta Olympics, still a shithole, after all the dough that was earmarked for it? Maybe axe Bill Campbell?
As a Summerhill resident, I emplore you to look beyond the parking lots and the stadium. There are residents here that are working toward improving this neighborhood. The problem is that nobody looks past the blight on Georgia Ave that has so much potential. We are hopeful that with Boners BBQ coming to the neighborhood and the Stadium TAD, we can really start improving the neighborhood for both the residents and the visitors.
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