ATLANTA — The National Park Service held a meeting Tuesday and is holding a second installment Wednesday evening to identify ways to enhance tourism at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth home and the home he later lived in with his family in the Vine City neighborhood.
While some think increased security is the answer, David Mitchell of the Atlanta Preservation Society thinks community buy-in for protecting and preserving the sites will have the biggest impact.
“Otherwise, you create difficult things to sustain. You see, technology alters and changes all the time,” said Mitchell.
Park service officials said they are hoping the public will weigh in on ways to protect, preserve and make the homes more accessible to everyone.
For some members of the neighborhoods that surround both sites, security around King’s birth home is top-of-mind after police arrested a woman for allegedly trying to set the birth home on fire back in December.
Mitchell said as interest in both homes grows, some kind of synergy with residents will need to happen.
“I think the first thing is to collaborate with the neighborhoods they reside in and really understand how the neighborhoods are going to be impacted by this,” said Mitchell.