How Has Atlanta Benefited From The Olympics? (Gray: transplants, condominiums)

[Motion]

With the talk about Chicago not getting the games it got me wondering how having the games in Atlanta has benefited the city. What has changed with the city as a result of having the Olympics?

[waronxmas]

There are too many to list, some of the obvious though:

• Olympic Stadium aka Turner Field
• The creation of Centennial Olympic Park which is still a center piece of Atlanta
• A refocusing on the City of Atlanta proper. Prior to the olympics Atlanta as a city was just barely getting by. Now it's the center of development and a national leader in Smart Growth and brownfield redevelopment.
• Increased foreign and domestic investment.
• The elevation of Atlanta from a city of national and regional importance to a Beta+ World City. Despite the criticism of the GaWC list, I think it rightly places Atlanta in the position of the 6th most important American World City.

and the biggest change. The population:

City of Atlanta in 1990, the year the games were rewarded: 394,017
Metro: 2,959,950

Today:
City of Atlanta: 537,958
Metro: 5,729,304

The Olympics paved the way for Atlanta becoming the City it is today.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

and the biggest change. The population:

City of Atlanta in 1990, the year the games were rewarded: 394,017
Metro: 2,959,950

Today:
City of Atlanta: 537,958
Metro: 5,729,304

The Olympics paved the way for Atlanta becoming the City it is today.

Note the term 'change'(not benefit) regarding the increase in population. Not so sure five and a half million people qualifies as a benefit. I rather preferred the ATL metro just prior to the Olympics. 4 million or so was a nice number.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Note the term 'change'(not benefit) regarding the increase in population. Not so sure five and a half million people qualifies as a benefit. I rather preferred the ATL metro just prior to the Olympics. 4 million or so was a nice number.

From my perspective it's definitely a benefit. That extra 2 and a half million people are just domestic transplants. We've seen international transplants in the 1000% range for some groups. It only adds to the diversity, culture and fabric of our fair city.

[apollyoncruiser]

I found your post intriguing Motion because I had once heard that out of all the cities that ever hosted the Olympics, Atlanta was the only one to come out ahead financially. That caused me to search for the information and I came across these articles.

WNYC - News - Atlanta's 'Olympic legacy' Holds Lessons for NYC

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/do-olympic-host-cities-ever-win/?apage=3

Although I'm not privy to all the information these guys have, from a layman’s view, Atlanta did great with developing new living quarters used during the Olympics and afterwards turning them over to provide housing for students, low-income families, etc. Plus, as mentioned, the new sports facilities. In my view it was a win-win.

One thing they did that I feel was bittersweet was the demolition of Techwood Homes. That was the first "projects" in the USA and had been there since 1936. It's always a shame to loose history like that but on the other hand "the Homes" could be a rough spot at times.
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by apollyoncruiser

I found your post intriguing Motion because I had once heard that out of all the cities that ever hosted the Olympics, Atlanta was the only one to come out ahead financially. That caused me to search for the information and I came across these articles.

WNYC - News - Atlanta's 'Olympic legacy' Holds Lessons for NYC

Do Olympic Host Cities Ever Win? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

Although I'm not privy to all the information these guys have, from a layman’s view, Atlanta did great with developing new living quarters used during the Olympics and afterwards turning them over to provide housing for students, low-income families, etc. Plus, as mentioned, the new sports facilities. In my view it was a win-win.

One thing they did that I feel was bittersweet was the demolition of Techwood Homes. That was the first "projects" in the USA and had been there since 1936. It's always a shame to loose history like that but on the other hand "the Homes" could be a rough spot at times.
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]

Well, a number of the sports venues didn't make it...saddest to me was the horrible location of the Tennis Center. Shame they didn't put it where it would be utilized. Anybody know if it's still there?

[10scoachrick]

Almost answered my own question:
Fight on Over Olympic Tennis Center - WSB News on wsbradio.com (http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2009/06/fight-on-over-olympic-tennis-c.html - broken link)

That is a real shame in a city with the 'largest local tennis organization in the world'. If the center had been built at Windward(some of you know what I'm talking about), it would be packed daily. Oh, well.

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

There are too many to list, some of the obvious though:

• Olympic Stadium aka Turner Field
• The creation of Centennial Olympic Park which is still a center piece of Atlanta
• A refocusing on the City of Atlanta proper. Prior to the olympics Atlanta as a city was just barely getting by. Now it's the center of development and a national leader in Smart Growth and brownfield redevelopment.
• Increased foreign and domestic investment.
• The elevation of Atlanta from a city of national and regional importance to a Beta+ World City. Despite the criticism of the GaWC list, I think it rightly places Atlanta in the position of the 6th most important American World City.

and the biggest change. The population:

City of Atlanta in 1990, the year the games were rewarded: 394,017
Metro: 2,959,950

Today:
City of Atlanta: 537,958
Metro: 5,729,304

The Olympics paved the way for Atlanta becoming the City it is today.

The only one that did not make it that im aware of are like the velodrome,and the Tennis center.There may be some very small venues on the outskirts of town or even out of the state where some venues were held.But most of the one in the city are still here.
Centennial Olympic Natorium is now Georgia Institute of Technology Recreation center



TODAY


Centennial Olympic Village is now housing for Georgia Tech students


Field Hockey Stadiums given to Clark Atlanta University and Morris Brown College



Centennial Olympic Stadium

Is now Turner Field:


Techwood Homes(the nations first Housing Projects)




Today mixed income housing;

New Basketball Arena for Morehouse College:
http://www.morehouse.edu/athletics/facilities/pics/forbes_arena.gif (broken link)

It was kinda like a catalyst or an added push for inner city development all over.The city was always growing even before but afterwards it was in hyper
drive to this day.
Olympic Park was before a bunch of old parking lots and warehouses.Now there are the Aquarium(the worlds largest),the World of Coca-Cola,and soon to be the new Civil Rights and College Football Hall of Fame museums.The are hotels, restaurants, hotels,and condominiums.http://http://www.hotelsbycity.net/blog/usa/georgia/atlanta/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/gaqua1.jpg (broken link)

Here is an interesting article that is recent discussing how Atlanta has actually become the model for future Olympics to prepare for after the Olympics after they have hosted them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/..._feature.shtml

[atlantagreg30127]

The City benefited from the venues they acquired in the process. The growth patterns changed around and after the Olympics, too. In years past, the people migrating to the City were coming here from other, smaller, Southern cities. A few from other parts of the U.S. Once we were on the "Olympic map", then the transplants changed and took on more of an International theme, moving here from all over the world.

[johnnyboy2008]

What changed is the population skyrocketed which is a negative if you are a native, a positive if you are in the business community and want more customers.

In regard to the pictures above, the housing projects were already going to be demolished and rebuilt.
Atlanta fulton stadium was falling apart and a new staduim was planned for many years, however they held off when the olympics were announced in 1990 knowing that they could get the olympics to pay for the new stadium.

And yes they did have lots of planning, but when eric rudolph called 911 and openly told them "there is a bomb in olympic park" the 911 operators ran around like headless chickens cause they did not know the address of olympic park which was required for the computers. I think there was a major delay in even passing the info to the thousands of security people.

The olympics were lots of fun but I prefer the old small atlanta.