This latest list will require some input, as I tend to avoid flicks that wallow in shameless sentimentality.
Movies like “Patch Adams.” Its sadistic director used actual cancer-stricken children in this scene, subjecting them to repeated takes of a desperately unfunny Robin Williams. As if they hadn’t suffered enough.
Hey kids, wanna know what Hell’s like?
There was a time, I’m told, when Atlantans frequented downtown. A combination of white flight and institutional neglect turned the city into a blander version of Detroit through the 1980s and 90s, though a recent influx of urban pioneers has brought some signs of life back to Marthasville’s streets.
Their presence indicates the potential for a downtown revival, but misplaced priorities and a lack of imagination by local officials continue to stand in the way.
Maybe they’d do better trying to reach a wider audience, one that includes the people who actually live here. Instead, every effort at downtown revitalization is aimed at tourists. What else explains the misbegotten attempt to lure — and fund — a NASCAR museum?
I guess that would give the conventioneers somewhere to go besides the aquarium, strip clubs and one of our many fine shopping malls. Too bad they don’t enjoy classical music; maybe then the city would pony up some dough for the proposed Atlanta Symphony Center.
Or how ’bout hiring more cops? As I reported in Saturday’s AJC, even the panhandlers think there’s too much panhandling in Atlanta.
I was solicited a dozen times one night. That’s not an exaggeration. Most of the beggars are aggressive and in-your-face. Some are threatening. No doubt the homeless are to be pitied, and helped, if possible, but enabling the desperate benefits no one.
Of course, if you hang at the aquarium, or Philips Arena, you’re less likely to encounter a panhandler, particularly if there’s a big convention or event downtown. I’m all for making visitors welcome, but must those of us who call Atlanta home be confined to the metaphorical pull-out?
