The story
History
The area now known as Riverdale was settled before the Civil War. Riverdale was founded in 1886, when the railroad was extended there. Named for Mr. W. S. Rivers, the original owner of the town site who donated his land to the railroad company, the city was incorporated in 1908.
Monroe Huie, a farmer, supplied lumber to the local railway network. Whenever the train arrived to collect wood, it also delivered fertilizer to the region. As a result, fertilizer sales became the primary business endeavor in the area. Prior to the construction of the spur, fertilizer had to be transported in wagons from the nearby town of Jonesboro.
In 2024, an investigation by the "FOX 5 I-Team" in Atlanta discovered that hundreds of traffic tickets had been issued improperly by robotic traffic control cameras in school zones. The city was compelled to issue refunds and an apology. Police Chief Todd Spivey put it this way: "Initially, this was presented as a good idea, as a good way to slow the people down and create safer school zones. But if we’re going to engage in constant problems and losing the trust of the public because of the issuing of civil-penalty citations, do we need to revisit the idea of, is it really working?"
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Riverdale had a population of 15,129. The median age was 35.8 years. About 25.0% of residents were under the age of 18 and 11.8% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 85.0 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 79.6 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 5,608 households in Riverdale, including 3,404 families. Of all households, 35.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 27.7% were married-couple households, 21.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 43.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 29.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 5,967 housing units, of which 6.0% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.9%.
Parks and recreation
The city currently has three parks, all within a mile of each other:
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Travon D. Wilson Memorial Park on Church St. behind the Merchant Shopping Center
Church Park on Wilson Rd. behind the First Baptist Church of Riverdale
Banks Park on Main St. and West St. next to city hall
From Wikipedia’s article on Riverdale, Georgia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5