One city, one fate: Atlanta’s investment in neighborhood health

On the last day of September 2025, Mayor Andre Dickens walked to a podium and announced an investment that could define Atlanta’s future. Its name is the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, or NRI, but its ambition is grander than any acronym suggests. The Mayor framed it simply: this is Atlanta’s strategy for becoming the best city in America to raise a child.

Children cannot succeed unless they grow up in thriving neighborhoods — places where the air is breathable, the schools perform, the parks are welcoming, and the streets are safe. All of the outcomes that concern us — failing schools, health disparities, crime and violence, and the lack of economic mobility — all share the same root cause: children growing up in distressed neighborhoods.

The NRI is an attempt to eradicate those