Buckhead about to get cheesier

(source)

Office space in Buckhead is being converted into a restaurant.

Hooters’ competitor, Twin Peaks, submitted an application to City of Atlanta to receive a building permit to begin construction on its fist Georgia location.

‘The man who watched Cy Young pitch, Joe Louis box …’

Jeff Schultz pays tribute to Furman Bisher, who informed generations of Atlanta sports fans. I started reading him at 6 years old. More than 30 years later, I was (technically) a colleague, though Mr. Bisher had no peer.

“People look at me like I’m in a museum or something,” he said. “It’s like I’m one of those stone things, talking to you. A talking statue. They can’t quite understand it. They look at me and say, ‘You really knew him?’ It really didn’t strike me as that unusual at the time. I had known Cobb before. I’d seen him blow his stack at dinner. I had never seen Shoeless Joe before. When we spoke, he said, ‘This will be the first time I tell this story and the last.’ We got $250 apiece for that story from Sport Magazine. That was good money. It was 1949.”

Yes on public transport, no on Atlanta streetcar

I’ll admit to not having pored over the data about the alleged benefits of the Atlanta streetcar. To me, it seems like another bad idea for downtown aimed at our city’s favorite demographic — tourists.

How many Atlantans traverse between the King Center and Centennial Park? About as many who visit such downtown institutions as the Hard Rock Cafe and Hooter’s.

Is there any evidence the streetcar will alleviate traffic? Projections, maybe, but such estimations tend to be wildly optimistic. A claim that a streetcar will create “more than 5,600 jobs over the next 20 years” has already been debunked.

Hopefully I’m wrong, but, considering the recent history of downtown planning, you’d have to be naive not to be skeptical.

 

Atlanta in the 70s

A series of articles I wrote for the local organ in 2009 about one of Atlanta’s most formative decades:

“Ground zero” of the sexual revolution

At Riverbend, weekends started on Wednesdays, typically in the complex’s notorious clubhouse. The revelry had no boundaries, few rules and, for a brief, blissful period, minimal consequences.

“We were the Quaalude generation,” said Freeman, now 59. “They called it the sex drug.”

Locals had a more clinical name, one best ignored in a family newspaper.

“Underneath the viaduct” 

It’s as if the Atlanta Board of Aldermen saw the ’70s coming.

In 1968, the board declared a deserted five-block area near Five Points a historic district, seeking to create an Atlanta version of the French Quarter.

In the early 20th century, the area had been covered by concrete viaducts to improve traffic flow over railroad tracks. As new streets were constructed overhead, a bevy of juke joints and speakeasys thrived underground.

“I thought he was crazy”

At an introductory banquet for the new team owner by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, [Ted] Turner appeared intoxicated, said Hope, who was in the audience. At one point during his rambling speech, Turner noted how the candles on one side of the room were burning faster than those on the other.

The roots of Clusterfuck

“Atlanta is on the threshold of greatness, but has a long way to go. A metro transit system is a must.”

—- Former Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., 1960

On June 30, 1979, MARTA launches the East Line from Avondale to the Georgia State Station, the first stage of its rapid-transit system and the culmination of more than 20 years of planning.

“Atlanta’s different. It’s not like the rest of the South”

When author Pearl Cleage moved to Atlanta from Washington in 1969 to attend Spelman College, she expected the Old South.

“Lester Maddox was the governor,” noted Cleage, referring to Georgia’s segregationist chief executive.

 Instead, she found herself immersed in a progressive political movement on the verge of history.

“Everyone knew there was a big change coming,” Cleage said.

Willie in ATL tonight

Meh-lanta

A sobering thought for anyone who cares about Atlanta:

An expert in land use and urban development, Leinberger outlined how metro Atlanta has fallen out of favor nationally as a business hub and is now competing with cities like Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Dallas, cities once overshadowed by Atlanta.

My hometown, competing with Orlando West, Romenyville and the city that houses George W. Bush’s presidential library? Next stop Birmingham, and we’ll get there sooner than you think if the tea party’s campaign to defeat the imperfect Transportation Investment Act is successful.

Luckovich du jour

Travel & Leisure readers don’t know what the f—- they’re talking about

I’m sorry, was that rude? Can’t help it — apparently I’m from the nation’s 7th rudest city, according to readers of Travel & Leisure magazine.

As one Atlantan told the AJC, we’re 7th “because we have so many people who have migrated here from the 6 crabbier places.”

That would include Boston, which somehow only ranks 5th. I lived in Massachusetts for about 10 days back in the 90s. That’s all I could stand (sorry, Norma).

If you don’t believe me go to Turner Field the next time the Red Sox show up.

Saints fan shoots 49′ers fan — in Atlanta

Only in Atlanta, where visiting teams rule. 

The Downtown Connector wasn’t always a clusterfudge

This picture of the newly expanded connector, from 1989, warns of “a return to bumper-to-bumper traffic” by ’96. The “before” shot, of a six-lane freeway canopied by trees and a smattering of skyscrapers, is especially fascinating. 

(via Return to Atlanta, a new blog of old Atlanta photos well worth your time). 

 

 

What’s the worst song about Atlanta?

Is it the godawful theme song (click to listen) commissioned by the city six years ago or this yacht rock ditty from Jefferson Starship balladeer Marty Balin unearthed by Andisheh?

“Atlanta June” by Pablo Cruise, which sounded an awful lot like “Atlanta Jew” to my 8yo ears, deserves an honorable mention.