Avondale Residents Critical of Student Use of Park

Long-simmering complaints from Avondale Estates residents about students from the Museum School – located just outside the city limits – using Willis Park bubbled up at a meeting last week.

A commission work session last week about the park’s renovation let residents vent about students from the school – founded largely by Avondale parents – using the park frequently. The Museum School told the AJC it has no comment on the complaints.

“That’s the elephant in the room—the use of the park by [Museum School] students while their own park goes unused,” a resident said at the meeting, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“This is not our issue,” said Patti Ghezzi, a member of the school’s governing board.

The park is technically for Avondale residents, the newspaper says. There is no way to know how many of the school’s students live in the city.

“Personally,” she said, “I’ve lived here 13 years and have seen that park go from an underutilized space to a happy, social gathering spot.”

»Read more about this story at the AJC.com website.