"several investment properties"?

Was the concern over the community, or flipping for a profit?

Pete admitted it wasn't perfect, but was the overall result a boost for the city, or just another instance of rampant gentrification for profit?

no matter what someone does, someone else is going to be unhappy about it.

I think I will look at the big picture.

Atlanta has its share of dilapidated houses. These houses sit in disrepair for years and often are inhabited by squatters. That doesn’t mean that someone doesn’t own the property, though. Often it’s an “investor” that comes in and pays peanuts for these properties.

They don’t do anything with their investments for years. But when the neighborhood or neighborhoods around it began gentrifying or getting re-developed, that’s when they tear down a house and build a new one or sell the lot at an inflated price. Investors have no interest in building up the existing community. They are happy to let properties sit idle until someone will pay them more for the land.

Back to Atlanta. Atlanta has a big project called the beltline. Once it is finished, the beltline will encircle Atlanta with a network of trails, light rail and parks. When the beltline development comes near a neighborhood, property values start to rise. Right now the beltline is undergoing development in South Atlanta. One of the neighborhoods that will abut it, a historically black neighborhood called Adair Park, is now experiencing the predictable increase in property values.

Even though investors sat on dilapidated properties for years, it is only now that they are starting to develop them by tearing them down and replacing them with new homes. These new homes are made to appeal to professionals who want a sanitized city experience but can’t afford other neighborhoods that have already gentrified. Taxes are going up. Long time residents of Adair Park will get pushed out by the higher property taxes. These longtime residents can probably make some money by selling their house. But that means they will need to move out of the neighborhood where they lived for years.

My husband and I thought about buying a property in Adair Park and fixing it up ourselves to live in. We gays like to move into neighborhoods that people don't want to live in and stay there . There are some beautiful homes from the early 20th century in the neighborhood and amazing examples of Craftsman homes that should be preserved and not torn down. What we learned quickly, however, is that occupied homes and empty lots were purchased in bulk by a handful of investors during the recession. We couldn’t buy a property there to fix up even though we wanted to.

This is a long post, but like I said, it’s a complicated issue. If the city of Atlanta had taken a more proactive role in revitalizing the neighborhood and not leaving it to investors who have no stake in the neighborhood, Adair Park would stand a better chance of being better for its residents and not instantly going through gentrification. The city could’ve also taken a more proactive approach in addressing the neighborhoods high crime rate. But it didn’t. It’s in the hands of investors now who care nothing for the neighborhood or its residents.

We had a downtown rejuvenation project that involved building a stadium for minor league hockey.

The results are mixed. It isn't the shot in the arm everyone thought they were getting but it isn't the disaster some people were projecting. The mayor went to federal prison over corruption.

10 years ago the main street was porn shops and pawn shops and it has turned around a bit. Not as much as everyone hoped and respectable businesses are returning to the area.

“Odom and Williams-Preston also praise Buttigieg for making more resources and money available for low-income residents to fix up homes. In January, Buttigieg launched South Bend Repair, an initiative composed of three programs and more than $1 million in investment at the city and federal level, according to the South Bend Tribune. The effort is aimed at helping homeowners make renovations small and large. One of programs, Love Your Block, includes a $25,000 grant from the national Cities of Service nonprofit, matched by $25,000 from the city. Odom recently helped the city connect property owners with resources available from that fund. The mayor, she said, has shown an open door.”

With the headline I went in thinking it was going to be bad. Looks like he put his neck on the line for something that they are still building off of today.

His dismissive tone here is disappointing. Development and housing initiatives are historically common deep manifestations of institutional racism. I really hope he gained greater awareness since then.
The pervasive nature of white supremacy as a default system where cries of harm are dismissed when malice is absent is something we really need to deal with nationally.

he recognized the issues/complaints.

but I don't think he's quite there. "Hitting such an ambitious goal made it easier for residents to believe we could do very difficult things as a city, at a time when civic confidence had been in short supply for decades.”
His generalization of residents ignores the people for whom "making it easier to believe" refers to making it clear how easily a city can destroy what ignored residents value if it is numerically determined to benefit the residents who are automatically part of the equation.
He has an opportunity to talk about something discomforting and shedding light on a widespread injustice. His success was built on heartbreak and loss for people whose voices were not heard.

What?

that weren't being maintained, and that some of the investors (naturally) feel like the city was too trigger-happy in tearing them down?

All actions have various sets of costs and benefits.

Only to empty-sack politicians can decades of no achievements that thus had no costs be of benefit -- to those politicins, though to no one else. Zero admiration here for can't-doers who then try to get elected by tearing down all their opponents.

Mayor Pete was famous among the nation's mayors and experts in government as one to watch and emulate long before most of us heard of him. Sanders known to a few as the face in group pictures with an I next to his name in the caption.

wasn't in a position to keep them up, and the city stepped in and demolished them?

And this is being portrayed as a bad thing?

investment properties.

Sounds like an attempt at a smear that just doesn't work.