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Old 09-03-2010, 12:06 PM
 
859 posts, read 2,116,457 times
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Funny that you posted this link MikeandIke, I was just looking at these photos the other day on skyscraper.

Quote:
Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127 View Post
My two cents: I saw some bags, but that doesn't mean there are books in them or that just because someone is carrying a backpack that it means they're a student, or a brown bad with a handle means they're a shopper. There's also an excessive amount of loitering going on in that area (as has been for YEARS, and it's not people waiting on buses), that doesn't seem to be addressed by the City. Supposedly the panhandling issue has been addressed, but those I know who work downtown say it's still a problem that is "above average". I could care less if everyone walking around an area is White, Black, or has stripes falling out of their rears - loiterers and panhandling won't get me to a place to walk around.

I think the whole section of the City could use a steam cleaning and some redoing of the building and shop facades in a big way. It does look dumpy, but it always has since I moved here 26+ years ago so there's nothing new there. There's a reason the City has been focusing on making the Aquarium/Centennial Park area the place where they not-so-secretly steer the tourists and conventioneers to these days. No one wants visitors (with money to spend) to walk around in an area that looks like a stage set from Thunderdome.
Exactly! Another thing that annoys me about the area is that everytime I drive through there I have to drive below the speed limit b/c people are always darting in and out of the street illegally. I don't know how many times I've almost gotten into an accident b/c someone thinks it's ok to walk out in traffic.
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Old 09-03-2010, 12:07 PM
 
255 posts, read 462,910 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LovinDecatur View Post
Why? Because there are a lot of black people in the photos? After reviewing them I'm afraid I can infer no other meaning in your comment. The neighborhood certainly looked clean in the photos, and no one was getting mugged.
These pictures make Five Points look innocuous enough and more diverse than most people assume. I was rather reminded of my old neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Didn't see the pictures, but the Five Points area is really pretty dirty. I work down there every day and it's pretty depressing. Just yesterday I came in early on MARTA and walked south along Peachtree from the Five Points MARTA station.

Every business had those big metal garage doors down in front to protect them from thieves. Papers and trash all over the street. The sidewalks haven't been cleaned in decades. Drunks, winos and druggies passed out in doorways. Corners smelling of urine and worse. Very depressing.

Yeah, I'd say that "ghetto" fits pretty well with that description.
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Old 09-03-2010, 12:17 PM
 
45 posts, read 124,968 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rcsteiner View Post
Shhh. Every city is just like Atlanta in every way. That's why some Atlanta residents see nothing wrong with their city ... every other city is in exactly the same situation, and you can't "fix" the inevitable qualities that every city shares.

*shakes head*
What is it they say? You can't address the problem until you recognize it?
I know you are relatively recent to living down here, but the reason why parts of Atlanta are so degenerate, I think, is in some part because that's how it's 'citizens' want it.

We have a close friend of African decent and not surprisingly they feel the same way about Atlanta. There are also a lot of degenerate whites in town as well, and again I think the city's 'citizens' aren't part of any solution. Maybe this will change, but not if the group here is any large representation.
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Old 09-03-2010, 12:38 PM
 
255 posts, read 462,910 times
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I think that's an excellent point and a good counter to the complaint that racism motivated the comment about "ghetto" above.

Many of us remember what Five Points and Underground looked like years ago and it darn sure wasn't like this. You can call it racism if you want, but I call it pride in my city and being unwilling to accept turning a beautiful city into the same sort of trash can that people live in up north.
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Old 09-03-2010, 12:39 PM
 
255 posts, read 462,910 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLHRLGUY View Post
Funny that you posted this link MikeandIke, I was just looking at these photos the other day on skyscraper.



Exactly! Another thing that annoys me about the area is that everytime I drive through there I have to drive below the speed limit b/c people are always darting in and out of the street illegally. I don't know how many times I've almost gotten into an accident b/c someone thinks it's ok to walk out in traffic.
LOL! Do like I used to do. Drive down there in an old $150 clunker with bad mufflers and lots of dents. You can drive as fast as you want. Guaranteed...they'll get out of your way!
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Old 09-03-2010, 01:24 PM
 
Location: Avondale Estates
426 posts, read 2,319,411 times
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I think Five Points is fine just the way it is, for now anyway. The area is no longer meant for tourists. As someone else mentioned, the area adjacently to the west is now set up for that type of foot traffic, even if Five Points is the historical center of the city. The Five Points area is a shopping, hangout, and dining spot during the daytime primarily for the residents of Atlanta who do not have a car and find that the district surrounding the train station that all trains go into and out of a very convenient area to hang out in and run errands. This area caters to what this urban demographic is looking for just as the new Streets of Buckhead project is meant to cater to the affluent residents who reside west of Peachtree Road.

If the Five Points district is gentrified these patrons will find somewhere else to shop, dine, hangout, club, etc. The marta runs straight through Midtown and into Buckhead as well, along with Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. They will easily set up shop elsewhere as they would still need to buy clothes, jewlery , cds, movies, etc. just like any other segment of society.

It does feel ghetto to me but that's fine with me honestly. I've never felt unsafe there, though I am sure the area has a higher crime rate than other parts of the city, and I am black and therefore may not as much of a target.

The underbelly of Atlanta, or the Southside, is largely poor and black. It's almost certain there will never be any new shopping distrcits built in Adair Park, Adamsville, Mechanicsville, Bankhead or the like that will cater to this demographic at prices they can afford. If these people get displaced they will not move out of the Atlanta Metro entirely. Most simply do not have the money to do so. I just look at it from a realistic standpoint. Atlanta needs the Five Points district. The way it is benefits underprivaledged inner city Blacks and more upper income people of all races who do not want to encounter this demographic on a daily basis.
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Old 09-03-2010, 01:35 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
2,848 posts, read 6,423,248 times
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Wow those pictures are fantastic! What camera do you use? I have often seen 5-points hoping like that and also Peachtree at International, Centennial Park and sometimes Midtown but I always wondered why nobody ever seemed to capture that action on camera. I never seem to have mine at the time.

As for the racial makeup. I always wondered why the center of Atlanta has to be that way. Is as if there's a reverse magnet there sometimes repelling whites away. Haven't seen any other large city like that. Funny but sad.


Note: Can't blame it all on crime and homeless I think. The OSU area of Columbus, Ohio for instance has homeless and a crime problem but it's packed with whites and every other ethnicity (actually you see fewer blacks than anything). And Downtown San Fran is notorious for it's homeless (maybe even worse than Atlanta) and is no Mayberry far as crime but you see plenty of whites there always.
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Old 09-03-2010, 02:32 PM
 
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 26,029,787 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by waronxmas View Post
I've heard people make this claim you are and it is, respectfully, hogwash. If someone says that bad things do happen in urban Atlanta as well as other cities, it's not meant to say it's "ok" but not abnormal. These same things people say makes Atlanta "such a bad place" happen in most large cities. It doesn't make it right, but it's just the way our society is.
What I don't like is that some (many?) people accept it without question and don't seem to care. Nothing like a little citizen apathy to brighten this city's future.
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Old 09-03-2010, 02:44 PM
 
113 posts, read 310,746 times
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5 Points is one of the biggest embarrassments I've ever seen in my life. My first time ever in Atlanta 3 years ago, I came out of MARTA at 5 Points onto Peachtree St and I couldn't believe it. It was like a scene out of Bangladesh, a Third World country. I know we live in tough times and there are a lot of desperate people out there, but you just can't have the downtown of a major city be an 'inner city'. You can't have people loitering around all day, begging, drug dealing and God knows what else they do. I don't want these people arrested. I'd like to get these people some help, if they have nowhere else to go, put them in an institution, whatever. Downtown needs to be cleaned up once and for all. Clean it up and gentrify it, and you wouldn't need to turn it into some sort of Republican, military, police state. But it'll never happen because the leadership of this city is concerned about reverse racism, trying to get rid of black people, so we can gentrify downtown with white people. So what we're left with is an inner city right in the heart of downtown. Nothing like it anywhere else in this country.
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Old 09-03-2010, 03:11 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
2,848 posts, read 6,423,248 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by waronxmas View Post
EXACTLY. That picture shows who actually frequents Five Points/Underground: People who live and work in the area, GSU students, and kids from inner city neighborhoods who come there to mingle.



It's funny you say that since to me Five Points/Underground/Fairlie-Poplar is a lot like if you carved out four blocks each from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens Blvd (the shops especially) and Downtown Los Angeles and put it all together as one.
Actually, 5 points reminds me big time of the Fort Greene Al B square area of Brooklyn in NYC which is like the heart of Downtown Brooklyn.
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