[6] A section of the area, "The Bluff," is infamous throughout Metro Atlanta as a high crime area, but in late 2011, English Avenue and Vine City were the focus of multiple improvement plans, including a network of parks and trails,[2][7] increased police presence, and "rebranding" for a more positive image.

In 1910 Alonzo F. Herndon, founder of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, built his home at 587 University Place, now listed on the National Register and open to visitors.

[20] In 1947 Paschal's Restaurant, an Atlanta soul food landmark and meeting place for civil rights leaders, opened in its original location on West Hunter Street.

[13] Over the following decades, it attracted buyers and sellers of heroin, and deteriorated into a corner of poverty in the city, characterized by large numbers of abandoned, boarded-up houses.

[28] The desperate state of the area was described by reporter Thomas Wheatley in Creative Loafing in September 2012 as:[29] "boarded-up homes built among the trees along the narrow streets,…people loitering in the middle of vacant lots, casting hollow stares at passing motorists, and…young men hanging out on street corners, hollering at passers-by and then to lookouts down the street"In November 1994, the Atlanta Empowerment Zone was established, a 10-year, $250 million federal program to revitalize Atlanta's 34 poorest neighborhoods including the Bluff.

[32] In 1999, the Atlanta Housing Authority first announced plans for the "Historic Westside Village", a $130 million commercial, residential and retail project at the area's southern end near Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. at Ashby St.[33] A Publix supermarket opened in May 2002[34] but the overall project stalled by 2003 as further anchor tenants did not materialize.

[37] In December 2010 things looked up as the Atlanta Development Authority announced plans for Wal-Mart to open a store on the site, which Mayor Kasim Reed called "an end to the food desert in the area".

Anthony Motley, a 20-year resident of The Bluff, "Atlanta's roughest 'hood", had "formed a black-white coalition seeking angel investors" and brought together "local businesses, neighboring Georgia Tech, and church leaders to inspire not just city and private investment, but also to light a spark of hope among law-abiding residents – many of them older people fearful of the streets outside their front doors.

Their unusual friendship" had "helped inspire two massive clean-up efforts, a small but significant drop in crime, and glimmers of fresh paint and clean-swept front walks.

"[42] Cook Park is under construction by a partnership consisting of the City of Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management, The Trust for Public Land of Georgia, and the National Monuments Foundation.

[2] In 2015, the City began cleaning the site, and the Trust For Public Land joined the partnership to plan, raise funds, and construct the park above and around the stormwater management solutions.

The National Monuments Foundation and Rodney Cook will fund and construct "sculptures of civil rights leaders, an urban farm, and an 80-foot "peace column.

[49] In May 2010, the non-profit Greater Vine City Opportunities Program, founded and directed by "Able" Mable Thomas bought the English Avenue Elementary School with the intention to convert it into a "state of the art green technology global community center".

[5] In December 2011, the nonprofit Friends of English Avenue arranged for a married couple, both police officers, to live rent-free in a neighborhood house.

A new Urban Perform gym opened on Joseph E. Boone Blvd designed to empower residents to make healthy lifestyle changes.

Invest Atlanta and the Arthur M. Blank Foundation partnered to provide $30 million in seed money for innovative and transformative non-profits to help revitalize the two neighborhoods.

The event includes educational seminars, vendors, a Kids Zone, and a concert stage, with proceeds going to local charities and services.

However, a more recent and in-depth December 2011 series of reports by 11 Alive TV news, referred to The Bluff as a "section of English Avenue".

Bus lines serving the neighborhood are the 3 along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, the 51 along Joseph E. Boone Blvd., and the 26 along Cameron M. Alexander Blvd.