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Unfortunately it had also turned into a center for murder, drug dealing, massive trashing and cruising, drive-bys, stabbings and other assorted mayhem. Enforcement was beefed up several times but ultimately the rowdies shut it down.
Happens all the time in the French Quarter, Vegas, Miami, NYC, etc but they never closed down anything
Be happy your city has people who are willing to invest millions into a project to continue building up the great city of Atlanta!
Actually, the person with millions who started the project also allowed it to go bust as it was too grand in design, where it has sat for a very long period of time. A West Coast company now owns it and are the ones who are doing the development now.
They wanted it shut down so they could prop up their own development, Underground. I don't think they ever dreamed that people would rather simply not go out at all than go to Underground, but that's the way it played out
Oh come now. There's no need to spin wild conspiracy theories about some mysterious "they."
There would never have been a need to shut anything down if the rowdies hadn't gone absolutely wild. A dozen people were murdered within a few years -- what kind of "party district" is that?
Don't forget that the properties in the area Carter bought for his original project belonged to about 30 different owners. There was no "they." Carter had to negotiate separately for each parcel and it took him several years to assemble the land.
Why not use the space for some bars and nightclubs?
It's worked there in the past.
No, it didn't. That was the reason the entire area area was razed to the ground to begin with. It was a popular yuppie hangout for years with clubs, restaurants, and bars. Then somewhat of a public drunkenness issue started happening (you can't let 20-something yuppies get drunk, it's disastrous on the street). Then some of the clubs converted to hiphop style clubs and there were issues with crime, a couple of stabbings/shootings, and people cruising around the surrounding residential areas at very late hours.
The City did only a bit to curb the issues, so a very well to do (at the time) developer stepped in, convinced the City that more tax money could be raised by a new development, and he was allowed to go forward with it and tore down the entire bar/club district. One problem solved - but then the recession hit. New problem... abandoned project. In the meantime, slowly some of the issues that were hitting the old Buckhead district supposedly started to migrate to Atlantic Station, but then new management took over and have ended leases to all or most clubs in that area and are turning it more into a family-oriented type of place (that's another topic).
And now, the new company of "Buckhead/Atlanta" is starting up a revised and scaled-back project. And here we are today. And I seriously doubt given the history, that bars and/or nightclubs are in those plans at all.
You're leaving out one very important thing....not only did the developer convince building owners to not lease to the bars/clubs anymore, the city council also stepped in. You may recall when they rolled back the last call for alcohol to 2:30am. That really put a damper on things and hurt the clubs big time. In a city that didn't really get going until 11pm or midnight, taking away an hour of alcohol sales is cutting into revenue by 25%, and most of the clubs couldn't handle it.
The destruction of Buckhead was a very coordinated effort. The police force purposely did nothing and let things get out of control so the city could have an excuse to shut it down. It's like if the police just decided to stop enforcing speed limits, let a few accidents happen, then they can call the road dangerous and reduce its speed limit. The same concept was at play here. In the later years of Buckhead I never, ever saw a single officer on foot patrol. They purposely let crime get out of control so the city would have an excuse to shut down the district and the developer (forget his name, the Aaron Rents guy) just happened to be well poised to step in and start cleaning up after the city.
You guys can believe whatever you want, but the truth is the destruction of Buckhead Village was a coordinated effort that took a few years to actually pull off.
Of course, the how it happened isn't really important right now. I don't know what the city really wanted to accomplish, but what they did accomplish was making our city a lot more boring and turned it into a place where not nearly as many young successful people want to relocate to. Back in those days, young folks wanted to move to Atlanta because they would visit and see how easy it was to go out, drink, hook up, do all the things that young people do.
Let's also not forget that Atlanta's gay scene has never fully recovered from the closing of Backstreet, and Atlanta is nowhere near the gay destination it once was. If you want a good barometer of where a city is heading, a pretty good early indicator is what is going on with the gay population. If you can attract them, the city is going to go up. If they start leaving, it's a good indicator your city may be going down. Of course, I'm talking about out of the closet gay men who have disposable incomes, eat out all the time, and generally contribute to the economy....the DLs who engage in anonymous gay sex don't really count.
I don't see how Atlanta ever thinks its going to be a world class city again when it refuses to create an environment attractive to young people. It's amazing, we were on such a wave of inertia and fantastic things were happening and just a few people were able to squash it. We're all the ones who are paying the price now and will for years to come.
You're leaving out one very important thing....not only did the developer convince building owners to not lease to the bars/clubs anymore, the city council also stepped in. You may recall when they rolled back the last call for alcohol to 2:30am. That really put a damper on things and hurt the clubs big time. In a city that didn't really get going until 11pm or midnight, taking away an hour of alcohol sales is cutting into revenue by 25%, and most of the clubs couldn't handle it.
The destruction of Buckhead was a very coordinated effort. The police force purposely did nothing and let things get out of control so the city could have an excuse to shut it down. It's like if the police just decided to stop enforcing speed limits, let a few accidents happen, then they can call the road dangerous and reduce its speed limit. The same concept was at play here. In the later years of Buckhead I never, ever saw a single officer on foot patrol. They purposely let crime get out of control so the city would have an excuse to shut down the district and the developer (forget his name, the Aaron Rents guy) just happened to be well poised to step in and start cleaning up after the city.
You guys can believe whatever you want, but the truth is the destruction of Buckhead Village was a coordinated effort that took a few years to actually pull off.
Of course, the how it happened isn't really important right now. I don't know what the city really wanted to accomplish, but what they did accomplish was making our city a lot more boring and turned it into a place where not nearly as many young successful people want to relocate to. Back in those days, young folks wanted to move to Atlanta because they would visit and see how easy it was to go out, drink, hook up, do all the things that young people do.
Let's also not forget that Atlanta's gay scene has never fully recovered from the closing of Backstreet, and Atlanta is nowhere near the gay destination it once was. If you want a good barometer of where a city is heading, a pretty good early indicator is what is going on with the gay population. If you can attract them, the city is going to go up. If they start leaving, it's a good indicator your city may be going down. Of course, I'm talking about out of the closet gay men who have disposable incomes, eat out all the time, and generally contribute to the economy....the DLs who engage in anonymous gay sex don't really count.
I don't see how Atlanta ever thinks its going to be a world class city again when it refuses to create an environment attractive to young people. It's amazing, we were on such a wave of inertia and fantastic things were happening and just a few people were able to squash it. We're all the ones who are paying the price now and will for years to come.
I agree, but the Village is gone now and it ain't coming back soooo........the only thing now is to think about the future of the area. Buckhead Atlanta is a better alternative than leaving the area as is (Boarded up buildings).
I agree, but I think people would be more excited about it if it was going to offer something fun, not just boring shopping.
A few ideas off the top of my head could be things like:
* High-end gym with pools, spas, nice locker rooms. Maybe an Atlanta location for Equinox
* Some kind of high-end take on a movie theater. Reclining seats, personal climate control maybe? Just something to make it unique.
* Some kind of high-end Davd & Busters sort of thing
* Major multi-million dollar dicotheque, along the lines of the old Atlanta Limelight
* A custom permanent theater for a new Cirque du Soleil show based in Atlanta
* Some sort of feature that is the center of the place. A giant waterfal that spills into a koi pond, a massive sculpture garden, something interesting
* An outside area that eateries can put tables and chairs on for outdoor European cafe style eating
You know what I'm saying, something to really make the place special, not just "Hey, we're going to have a Hermes!!!"
It would be really great if they could tap into the area's history of fun and excitement. But they won't.
You're leaving out one very important thing....not only did the developer convince building owners to not lease to the bars/clubs anymore, the city council also stepped in. You may recall when they rolled back the last call for alcohol to 2:30am. That really put a damper on things and hurt the clubs big time. In a city that didn't really get going until 11pm or midnight, taking away an hour of alcohol sales is cutting into revenue by 25%, and most of the clubs couldn't handle it.
The destruction of Buckhead was a very coordinated effort. The police force purposely did nothing and let things get out of control so the city could have an excuse to shut it down. It's like if the police just decided to stop enforcing speed limits, let a few accidents happen, then they can call the road dangerous and reduce its speed limit. The same concept was at play here. In the later years of Buckhead I never, ever saw a single officer on foot patrol. They purposely let crime get out of control so the city would have an excuse to shut down the district and the developer (forget his name, the Aaron Rents guy) just happened to be well poised to step in and start cleaning up after the city.
You guys can believe whatever you want, but the truth is the destruction of Buckhead Village was a coordinated effort that took a few years to actually pull off.
Of course, the how it happened isn't really important right now. I don't know what the city really wanted to accomplish, but what they did accomplish was making our city a lot more boring and turned it into a place where not nearly as many young successful people want to relocate to. Back in those days, young folks wanted to move to Atlanta because they would visit and see how easy it was to go out, drink, hook up, do all the things that young people do.
Let's also not forget that Atlanta's gay scene has never fully recovered from the closing of Backstreet, and Atlanta is nowhere near the gay destination it once was. If you want a good barometer of where a city is heading, a pretty good early indicator is what is going on with the gay population. If you can attract them, the city is going to go up. If they start leaving, it's a good indicator your city may be going down. Of course, I'm talking about out of the closet gay men who have disposable incomes, eat out all the time, and generally contribute to the economy....the DLs who engage in anonymous gay sex don't really count.
I don't see how Atlanta ever thinks its going to be a world class city again when it refuses to create an environment attractive to young people. It's amazing, we were on such a wave of inertia and fantastic things were happening and just a few people were able to squash it. We're all the ones who are paying the price now and will for years to come.
Exactly. The people in charge thing world class is a fancy Target and closing everything at 9pm
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After all, that's where Atlanta's money is anyway. 
