Along a neglected corridor of South Macon, change is underway

Tremaine Hart and Talenna Brown nudged a bright red shopping cart down a sidewalk on Houston Avenue on a recent afternoon. They were bound for their place in Pendleton Homes with a load of groceries.

It’s a trek that, until about a year ago, would have been much more difficult. The couple resided in an area the federal government considered a “food desert,” that is, a low-income tract with limited access to fresh food. Then, Mike Supermarket opened in February 2025.

“This neighborhood has so many people that don’t have transportation,” said the store’s owner, Manish “Mike” Patel, who saw a need in the community and decided to address it.

Mike Supermarket is one of many improvements that residents and county officials hope to see on Houston Avenue and in abutting neighborhoods.

Macon-Bibb officials say they’re making a significant financial investment that they hope will spur a revitalization along the South Macon corridor that has been long plagued by blight and crime.

In 2023, land purchased nearly 20 years earlier by Mayor C. Jack Ellis’ administration was redeveloped into the Frankie E. Lewis Park on Lynmore Avenue.

On Cliffview Drive, another park opened in 2024. Money from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) was used to remove blighted houses, install picnic tables and build a pavilion overlooking a pond. Steps lead to new trails and a fishing pier.

“We need a park because parks are transformational,” Mayor Lester Miller said when the latest recreation area opened off Houston Avenue. 

In addition, First Choice Primary Care, a health clinic that serves people in the area, was built with money from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds, the Peyton Anderson Foundation and other sources.

ARP funds, matched by the foundation, were also given to Habitat for Humanity to build houses in Lynmore Estates, on land once filled with blighted structures.

The Macon-Bibb County Affordable Housing Fund Inc., a nonprofit organization the mayor created with some $7.5 million in ARP money, is also working to build new houses on Villa Esta Avenue.

The Macon-Bibb County Land Bank has acquired dozens of properties along streets abutting Houston Avenue.  

Though millions are being invested in the area, there’s much more work to do to make it a more desirable and safe for people looking to live there or operate businesses, Patel said.

He said he is concerned about unsupervised youths who gather and sometimes brawl after dark at Cliffview Park.

“We have so many issues with kids,” Patel said, adding the county should enforce a closing time for the park. “If they want the park open, they should have security and a limitation.”

Last month, some thieves — wayward teens, Patel suspects — stripped the copper wire out of the air conditioning units at his store.  

“The young kids, they don’t care,” Patel said, adding that the cost to replace several units was about $60,000. 

Mainly, Patel said he wants to see more patrols from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and a faster response time.  

“Once we call the cops, the cops don’t even show up until 30-40 minutes later,” Patel said.

Renando Owens has worked as a crossing guard outside of Bruce Elementary for eight years and lives down the street.

Between the store and the school, at Vista Esta and Houston avenues, a yellow-vested Owens holds a stop sign with one hand and waves children along with the other, smiling and asking each of them if they had a good day. As a pair of women cruises by in a black sedan, she throws up her hand and hollers, “Hey Pookie!” 

“I like it over here,” she said. “I was born and raised over here.”

Asked what she thought about the county investing millions into the neighborhood, Owens wanted to know: “Where is the money going?”

“The best thing that’s happened in the last year is this store opening up,” Owens said. “We see a lot of police patrolling the streets more than usual. That’s a good thing.”

One thing Owens said she wants to see is “something for these kids.”

“There’s a lot of children in this area that ain’t got nothing to really do,” Owens said. 

Hart, father to a 3-year-old and a newborn, echoed those concerns.

“If I had some type of money … I would fix everything up,” Hart said. “Make something for the kids they can enjoy [and] not be on the street and want to do negative stuff.”

Hart noted high-tech cameras the sheriff’s office installed along the road have helped cut down on some of the mischievous and illegal behavior and help make it safer.

Despite lingering problems, there are visible improvements in the area, said First Choice Primary Care CEO Katherine McLeod.

The new $3.2 million health clinic has three medical providers who care for under-insured and uninsured patients. The nonprofit also opened a $1 million school-based health-care clinic at the school.

“Our patients love the new building, and it has attracted more new patients because we’re right there in the heart of the neighborhood. There’s a bus stop right at our corner,” McLeod said. “People are delighted there’s this nice, new, well-built, attractive building that, to us, sends a message that everybody deserves a nice place to come get their health care whether you have insurance or not.”

McLeod said the clinic also has a mental health counselor in the office and is looking to hire a fourth medical provider.   

“South Macon has been so neglected,” McLeod said, adding that she is delighted to see investment in the area. “I hope there’s momentum there.”

Work in the area is ongoing, said Natalie Bouyett, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Affordable Housing Fund.

“The idea is, after decades of disenfranchisement, we’re going to have to have decades of reinvestment in order to bring that area back up,” Bouyett said. “I think the county is doing a very good job with infrastructure, education, health and nutrition and addressing all of those issues, which ultimately would hopefully lead to better and improved safety and health in that community. And so, it’s literally a coordinated effort of just all these organizations, housing being an important part of that.”

The housing fund is beginning construction soon on five homes along Villa Esta Avenue at a cost of $1.3 million.

“The dream is that we can actually coordinate with the Bibb County School District since the elementary school is right there and work on some kind of program for the teachers, to recruit some teachers to come in” and buy the homes, Bouyett said. “But really it’ll be open up for the community. … There hasn’t been a lot of new construction in residential housing at all really in that area.”

The five homes could sell for $180,000 to $240,000 each, she said. 

Housing construction in the area is set to take place in stages and will involve at least three construction companies. After Villa Esta Avenue, the nonprofit plans to build five to 10 more homes along nearby Rutherford Avenue.