Urban planning commentator gives photo tour of downtown Atlanta, and boy do we look like crap! (Boston: car rental, rental)

[mike7586]

Originally Posted by akress

quoted post and related response removed by moderator as off topic.


But in regards to the original post: I work in Peachtree Center, and know the area fairly well. Someone already said this, but the guy did manage to take pictures of some of the worst places down here. In his defense, though, downtown is fugly.

But who cares? I feel like he makes a big point about this simply because the area is called 'downtown'. Typically, the 'downtown' area of a city is a city's focal point. In Atlanta, I don't think thats the case. Sure, there is a large Corporate America presence in downtown, but thats it.

So is that why nothing gets done in this city? Because everyone has the "who cares" attitude? Downtown Atlanta could be a great place if more people cared to improve it!

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by mike7586

So is that why nothing gets done in this city? Because everyone has the "who cares" attitude? Downtown Atlanta could be a great place if more people cared to improve it!

Positive things actually are happening downtown...there's a lot more life down there than there was 10 years ago...Centennial Park has continued to foment a resurgence of that area, and the historic Fairlie-Poplar has the potential to be one of the most attractive areas in the city. Sidewalk traffic can be downright chaotic at times, especially during conventions.
The city really needs to focus on rehabilitating Five Points, Woodruff Park and the Underground area, though...Woodruff Park should be the crown jewel of Downtown, surrounded as it is by some of the most historic highrises in the city.

[blondandfun]

Originally Posted by mike7586

So is that why nothing gets done in this city? Because everyone has the "who cares" attitude? Downtown Atlanta could be a great place if more people cared to improve it!

People on this forum are too good to hear what tourists or people from out of town have to say. Because "WE" love it here, then those other people are just ignorant to our greatness. You have a train connection to the largest airport in the world. Most of those riders have no freakin clue where to go, so they head downtown. Then they go straight to their hotels. They have plenty of money to spend, and that money stays in their pockets. They aren't going to rent a car and drive to Atlantic Station, and by the time they got to downtown they aren't going to hop on MARTA anymore other than to go back to the airport. And certainly not at night.

It's a complete utter failure of a city.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by blondandfun

People on this forum are too good to hear what tourists or people from out of town have to say. Because "WE" love it here, then those other people are just ignorant to our greatness. You have a train connection to the largest airport in the world. Most of those riders have no freakin clue where to go, so they head downtown. Then they go straight to their hotels. They have plenty of money to spend, and that money stays in their pockets. They aren't going to rent a car and drive to Atlantic Station, and by the time they got to downtown they aren't going to hop on MARTA anymore other than to go back to the airport. And certainly not at night.

It's a complete utter failure of a city.

LOL what nonsense. Why would someone rent a car to get to Atlantic Station when it's three train stops and a four minute shuttle away? Any hotel concierge can inform a tourist of this and anything else they need to know.
And why wouldn't a tourist utilize MARTA other than to arrive from the airport? It's a reasonably simple system to use, and I see tourists riding on it all the time.
Your consistently negative and baseless history of posting about this city betrays your credibility.

[blondandfun]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

LOL what nonsense. Why would someone rent a car to get to Atlantic Station when it's three train stops and a four minute shuttle away? Any hotel concierge can inform a tourist of this and anything else they need to know.
And why wouldn't a tourist utilize MARTA other than to arrive from the airport? It's a reasonably simple system to use, and I see tourists riding on it all the time.
Your consistently negative and baseless history of posting about this city betrays your credibility.

Ok. You are right and I and all the urban planning professionals are wrong. Atlanta should not change. The city government here doesn't need anymore tax dollars.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Positive things actually are happening downtown...there's a lot more life down there than there was 10 years ago...Centennial Park has continued to foment a resurgence of that area, and the historic Fairlie-Poplar has the potential to be one of the most attractive areas in the city. Sidewalk traffic can be downright chaotic at times, especially during conventions.
The city really needs to focus on rehabilitating Five Points, Woodruff Park and the Underground area, though...Woodruff Park should be the crown jewel of Downtown, surrounded as it is by some of the most historic highrises in the city.

Exactly right Lovin. Some on here are seeming to think that Downtown is just Five Points, Underground, the government center, the Hotel District and PTC. In reality, Downtown also includes Centennial Park, Centennial Hill, Allen Hill, Castleberry Hill, and Sweet Auburn.

All of those have experienced complete transformations in the last 20 years. It's hard to imagine now that the area around Centennial Park was just a rundown, ugly, warehouse district as soon as when I started high school in the early 90s. Now it's easily the most vibrant part of Downtown.

Or how about the days when Techwood Homes was around. I remember when my brother went to Tech you could see the gun fire coming out of the projects at night. Now, all of that is a long distant memory.

No doubt, Downtown still has a long way to go, but it's not as far as the naysayers seem to think.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by blondandfun

Ok. You are right and I and all the urban planning professionals are wrong. Atlanta should not change. The city government here doesn't need anymore tax dollars.

Oh, so you've got the urban planning professionals lining up behind you now?
At any rate, I don't believe I was addressing urban planning issues in my last statement, but simply correcting some erroneous statements that you had posted earlier.

[blondandfun]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

but simply correcting some erroneous statements that you had posted earlier.

Yeah, so I guess that ranking of tourist destinations which puts Atlanta near the bottom of the list is erroneous also? And my "erroneous" statement about how to get to Atlantic Station from downtown is funny, because I don't see a whole lot of foot traffic downtown OR on the 17th street bridge, NOR do I see packed shuttle buses. Those pictures in that blog are very representative of most of Atlanta. Would you like ME to go out and take some snapshots on this SATURDAY after noon on the 17th street bridge or or Spring, West Peachtree, or any other major street in this wonderful vibrant "cosmopolitan city"?

I bet Charlotte is more bustling right now than Atlanta is.

[PedestriAnne]

Originally Posted by blondandfun

You have a train connection to the largest airport in the world. Most of those riders have no freakin clue where to go, so they head downtown. Then they go straight to their hotels. They have plenty of money to spend, and that money stays in their pockets. They aren't going to rent a car and drive to Atlantic Station, and by the time they got to downtown they aren't going to hop on MARTA anymore other than to go back to the airport...

Why wouldn't they get back on MARTA? I sincerely don't understand why you'd think that. I just can't imagine anyone coming here and saying "This place isn't like where I came from or exactly like what I expected, so I'm just going to sit here in my hotel room and pout."

If they're accustomed to riding transit, they're sure to figure out MARTA quickly. Even if they're from a place where there is little or no transit, if they managed to get on it and get to their hotel, they'll probably be willing to try it again.

I see tourists on the Atlantic Station shuttle (which means they probably got a bus or train to Arts Center station) every time I use it. I use MARTA at least six days a week and I see tourists at least 50% of the time. I see people walking back to downtown hotels (yes, even in the unfathomable terror of *night*) with bags from stores in AS, Lenox or Phipps and even Target. I'm pretty sure they didn't fly there on a broom.

[blondandfun]

Originally Posted by PedestriAnne

Why wouldn't they get back on MARTA? I sincerely don't understand why you'd think that. I just can't imagine anyone coming here and saying "This place isn't like where I came from or exactly like what I expected, so I'm just going to sit here in my hotel room and pout."

If they're accustomed to riding transit, they're sure to figure out MARTA quickly. Even if they're from a place where there is little or no transit, if they managed to get on it and get to their hotel, they'll probably be willing to try it again.

I see tourists on the Atlantic Station shuttle (which means they probably got a bus or train to Arts Center station) every time I use it. I use MARTA at least six days a week and I see tourists at least 50% of the time. I see people walking back to downtown hotels (yes, even in the unfathomable terror of *night*) with bags from stores in AS, Lenox or Phipps and even Target. I'm pretty sure they didn't fly there on a broom.

Those aren't "tourists" sweetheart. Tourists don't go to cities for the lame shopping or lame museums of Atlanta... Most real tourists don't step off the plane and say "let's go to the mall!!!". What you are seeing is people who are stuck here on business and/or are just passing through. Generally they aren't here by choice or because Atlanta is greater than 30-50 other cities.

You must live under a rock or have never been to similar or SMALLER sized cities with active tourist industries.