Atlanta's historic Auburn Ave. again at crossroads Associated Press Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 07:51 a.m., Sunday, June 10, 2012 Today, the street is a shell of its former self, the bustling mix of banks, night clubs, churches, meat markets and funeral homes long gone, replaced with crumbling facades and cracked sidewalks. Hundreds of thousands of people still flock to Auburn Avenue to see King's birth home, the church where he preached, and the crypt where he and his wife, Coretta, are buried — all located along the street. While King's legacy has been preserved, Auburn Avenue's business community has never recovered from the exodus of the black community that supported it. The situation represents a decades-old struggle to balance the need to honor the legacy of the neighborhood, while helping the area catch up to the booming development happening across much of the rest of the city. African-Americans could take advantage of the broader array of housing, services and businesses previously unavailable to them ...