Quote:
Originally Posted by atlantaguy
Here's another Georgian asshole that enjoyed these.
Re: Underground - eh, it's not doing too well......
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Well, as in his original post statement, it's not that there are lots of assholes here (or any more than any other big city), it's that there's lots of bums downtown. Last time I took my camera with me in broad daylight (night time? He's BRAVE), I walked from Peachtree Center to Underground (maybe what.. about 6 blocks or so?) and was asked for money ELEVEN TIMES, and on top of that had two very odd guys want to uh.. "hold my camera and look at it" (yeah, right). I've been here over 20 years and even I don't go downtown anymore unless I've got a group with me.
Regarding your Underground comment though: I know someone who works with one of the tourism agencies in Atlanta and they gave me a scoop on that. Ok, the Mayor doesn't like the bum situation any more than tourists or residents do. However, whenever they try to enforce the anti-panhandling laws, the activists get riled up, file lawsuits, have marches, etc. So at some point around the time the Aquarium opened, they decided to make the Centennial Olympic Park / Aquarium area the "new downtown". It's been razed and rebuilt from scratch around there, is still growing with higher end housing and attractions, and it's easier for them to keep secure from the get-go than the Five Points area is where Underground is at. In short, their attitude is to "sacrifcie Underground and let it die, and build on the new downtown area away from Five Points".
A lot of work just to avoid bums, but that's their plan. Expect to see much more development focused on the Aquarium area and much less attention in the Five Points area... it's kinda like "Thunderdome" over there - they're just going to let it have a life of its own. That's one reason they were so ticked off when they lost the bid to get the Nascar museum here as it was to be built one block from the Aquarium -they're trying to make the "new" downtown area very diverse and all new.
Just my two cents. And the pics in the top post were very good to add - and I applaud anyone who has the chichis to walk around downtown Atlanta after dark with a DSLR (which I assume you were using since the pics were so good).