Renaissance Park is a 5.4 acres (2.2 ha) park in the Old Fourth Ward

Old Fourth Ward

The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated The Fourth Ward or O4W, is a neighborhood stretching east from Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The Old Fourth Ward is one of the city's most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, but is also one of the city's most eclectic, containing a burgeoning nightlife district...

 neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

. The land was originally part of the Buttermilk Bottom

Buttermilk Bottom

Buttermilk Bottom, also known as Buttermilk Bottoms or Black Bottom, was an African-American neighborhood in central Atlanta, centered around the area where the Civic Center now stands in the Old Fourth Ward side of in the SoNo area. It was considered a slum area, having unpaved streets and no...

 slum which was razed in the 1960s.

In a 2007 study, many area residents stated that the park is unusable due to aggressive panhandling, drug sales and use including crack cocaine

Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...

, public urination, and the threat of being mugged, tying these threats and crimes to individuals using the nearby Peachtree Pine shelter.