Destinee Marbley, “born and raised” in Atlanta, says she’s always hearing about (and seeing with her own eyes) how the city is changing—buildings where land used to be, once upon a time landmarks now a thing of the past, and more. For her project as an Election Fellow, she had one question.

“How does one’s vision determine their decisions?” she asks. “If they see a certain thing, does that influence them or motivate them to want to go out and make a change or do something?”

In high voter turnout areas, like Piedmont Road for example, Destinee describes the scenery as bright and busy, with lots of traffic and pre-existing infrastructure. But in lower voter turnout areas, it’s not as busy or you see more construction actively being done in the middle of the community, she said.

“’Even when I was riding through the Bankhead community—it’s currently being gentrified in a way—well, not even in a way, it is.”

As a Lakewood Heights Fellow, she loved that the low voter turnout areas reminded her of that community.

“Because from the outside looking in, it does look very impoverished, low income,” she said. “But once you get in there and you talk to the people in the community, you realize they just need more support.”

She says the lessons she learned still apply after the election, regardless of the presidential results. The most important things to everyone was communities being more involved with each other—and that local elections can have the most direct impact on residents.

Editor: Stephanie Toone

Canopy Atlanta Reader: Mariann Martin