Natives Need to be Addressed
Recently, Gilda’s Club held an event at 2 Peachtree Street. The results tell a lot of about Atlantans. It turns out that White native Atlantans had no idea where this was.
This building used to be known as the First Atlanta Tower and the Woodruff Foundation paid to refurbish the building then gave it to the state. It now houses state departments and some offices of Georgia State University. For nearly 10 years it was the tallest building in Atlanta and it was the second tallest for another 8 years. Now, people have forgotten it completely.
Why? Because for many years, Atlanta wasn’t a city, it was Los Angeles East, and White native Atlantans abandoned downtown as soon as Mayor Jackson was elected. Part of the culture was the wholesale abandonment of downtown for the mall. Hence, Rich’s and Davidsons are long gone. Hence Underground continues to have trouble. Hence Fairlie Poplar still has not become the nightclub/theatre section of town it is perfectly laid out to be.
The result is that the people who actually knew, or at least deduced, where the building was were all northerners or African Americans. They were people who had thought about the actual street number and what it meant, something which the white natives apparently no longer do. They were also the ones who actually knew their way around downtown a little bit.
What Atlanta needs is for the current generation of native Atlantans to actually discover the city part of their city. They should know where 2 Peachtree is. They should know where 206 Washington Street is and what is there. The same goes for 84 Luckie Street. If Atlanta is to thrive, people need to be able to take advantage of these resources, and to do that, they have to be able to find them without a GPS.
September 9th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Wow, what a lot of BS. Underground struggles because (a) it’s populated by a shady element. (b) Crappy bars and (c) it’s difficult to get to not mention parking. While Fairlie Poplar may be perfectly laid out for nightclubs and theater, it’s populated by smelly, panhandling, lazy, unemployable, down on their luck trash. I’m still not sure where you would put these nightclubs, but if you believe it’s perfectly laid out, who am I to argue.
If downtown Atlanta continues to grow and thrive, the piss stained streets, chicken bones, and pan handling need to go. Then native Atlantan’s will rediscover Fairlie Poplar.
September 9th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I’ve always liked the Fairlie-Poplar neighborhood. The Rialto and the Balzar Theatre are good venues with excellent shows, and the parking lot on the corner has had good attendants. The Atlanta Ambassadors office is there in Fairlie-Poplar, and when they got the first Segways, they let us touch it and ooh and ahh.
We first started going there when I lived up in Gwinnett County. No problem.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Adam,
Underground is not difficult to get to. It sits on top of the Five Points Marta station. If you don’t want to take Marta there are tons of parking garages connected to the Underground.
The Underground does have a problem with being populated by a “shady element” as you call it. The City really needs to clean up the area and make it feel safe. It feels dirty and there are always a lot of people loitering around. The same goes for most of the core of downtown.
Look at what has been done to the Olympic Park area. It’s clean. It feels safe. And millions of people are going to the various entertainment facilities there.
But I’m really tired of Atlantans saying that downtown is “difficult to get to” of “difficult to park.” Yeah, if you live in Kennessaw it is a long way away, but downtown is the most accessible place in all of Atlanta. And no, in downtown there is not going to be a big surface parking lot in front of a store. That is why it is downtown, not the suburbs. Sheesh!
September 10th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
What is the context for this rant/article? Where is the story that White Native Atlantans don’t know where the building is?
I guess by your reasoning, the conditions of modern day Detroit, Newark and nearly every other major American metropolis after WWII are also the fault of white native Atlantans. This article is lame and has a whiff of snobby anti-Atlanta transplantery (I know that’s not a word, I made it up, just like your blanket accusation).
September 10th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
“Bloglanta: Fans of everything ITP - except that we’re not.”
September 11th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I know where 2 Peachtree Street is. Its the former site of Jacobs Pharmacy. Anybody know what happened there?
September 12th, 2007 at 4:52 am
SeemsYes JBV, it seems someone served up a tasty beverage there once.
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/chronicle_birth_refreshing_idea.html
September 13th, 2007 at 1:15 am
Interesting stuff. Will say that the Midtown Alliance has done incredible work for everything involving midtown ATL, but Atlanta Central Progress or whatever the name is of that similar group that focuses on downtown, has not been nearly effective. I think it has less to do with race and homeless dudes wondering around than it has to do with a lack of a plan, lack of marketing, lack of a lot of stuff. And ya have to admit that no one has ever figured out what to really do to make Underground Atlanta great.
There are cool places downtown like the Sidebar and the Rialto, but there is no cohesion, no leadership for downtown. I’m guessing downtown changes dramatically with that new 2000 person GA State residence hall. Get the college kids hanging around with their disposable income, and the coffee shops, bars, book stores, restaurants, boutiques, etc. all follow.
Shirely Franklin hasn’t really shown any leadership with this. That’s surprising and disappointing considering all the potential. Someone has to lead, and no one is. And then when it finally does become cool, unfortunately all the condo and apartment prices will skyrocket…
September 13th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Please don’t presume to speak for white (”European-American?”) Atlanta natives. I was born here, my family has been here for generations, and I certainly know where 2 Peachtree Street is. As it happens, an hour before I read this post, I was IN that very building, buying fruits and vegetables at the little shop inside. Please avoid such intellectually lazy generalizations about an entire group of people. (note: some longtime Atlantans still refer to that building as the “First Atlanta Tower”, which may account for some of the confusion. Just as some people draw a blank when you say “One Atlantic Center”, but if you say “The IBM Tower”, they know what you mean.)
Fairlie Poplar is actually doing rather well these days, although it has not yet fulfilled its potential. But people are paying high prices for condos in Fairlie-Poplar. The Rialto, Theatrical Outfit, and The Tabernacle form the beginning of a cluster of theatres/concert halls. The GSU classroom building which opened a couple of years ago has had a major positive impact. There are some parking lots which need to be developed, and a few empty storefronts, but there are coffee shops, bars, and restaurants (I just had lunch at Fleur de Lis Café - excellent!), and there are a few boutiques (not enough) and even a bookstore just across Woodruff Park (GSU bookstore - ripe for expansion).
To be fair, there are some white Atlanta natives who haven’t been Downtown in years, and I feel sorry for them. Good things are happening here (and Central Atlanta Progress has played a key role in many of them!).
September 13th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I would agree with BPJ’s comment that Fairlie-Poplar is doing well, and that CAP has been key to many of the good things that have happened downtown the past several years.
But I also agree with Robert’s comment that there’s a large population of Atlantans who would stand to benefit from (re)discovering downtown.
Considering downtown’s challenges (even compared to Midtown’s), I would say CAP has actually exercised tremendous leadership. Among its assets, Midtown can count a larger residential population than downtown.
Among its challenges, Downtown can count the entire east-west corridor, which includes the giant railroad gulch, and the government buildings — I like to call that area the Agglomeration of Modernist Institutional Bureaucracies. And for many years, the landowners have not had much of an incentive to build new residential units. Now, after a recent forum hosted by CAP, it’s an imperative.
There is more of downtown than Fairlie-Poplar that can be alive during non-business hours. It’s just going to take some time to keep all the players working together, assemble the land, and build the new infrastructure to make it happen.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
It seems like GSU’s expansion and transition out of being a commuter school will help bring grocery stores and even bookstores to the area (along with residences like 12 CP). This would certainly make it feel like a more liveable downtown.
At Tech, there are three Publix’s in a
September 17th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Building on what GT said, Chicago has expereinced a very similar revival on the south side of its downtown. 5 years ago the south loop was not an area to visit (day or night), but has really turned around in the last couple of years. This turnaround can be traced to the construction of student apartments and dorms for the largely commuter schools (Columbia College, Roosevelt University, etc.) that fulfill a similar need as GSU does for Atlanta. Since the students moved in the merchants have followed and created a thriving new part of the city. Hopefully we can see this pattern repeat here in Atlanta in the near future.
September 19th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I feel like Central Atlanta Progress “preaches to the choir”. I know they’re trying their best, but…
Would like to see more big events downtown that draw from throughout the region. Close down streets for big food festivals, concerts, special events, etc. Part of my job entails festivals. It’s amazing the market research on who goes to what festivals. People who go to the big food festivals spend much more than any group for any type of festival.
Yes, closing down the roads a couple of times a year is a hassle, but MARTA’s right there. I know there are some events in Woodruff Park, but not the big, big stuff that draws people in from the ‘burbs. I mean big name entertainment or a draw that people will make the effort to get down there to see. Close the streets down by Woodruff Park for a big event twice a year. Show off the area. Have tours of all of the cool condo’s.
And get the jackasses from the federal courthouse to stop parking on the sidewalks.
September 28th, 2007 at 10:12 am
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October 3rd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I know where 2 Peachtree is, and I’m white and not an Atlanta native. My question is…why would you have any kind of event at 2 Peachtree? It’s a state government building and looks the part. Not to mention the fact that some of the streets around it have been closed for the last year or so as they’ve worked on the bridge there. They were just recently re-opened without much fanfare. So it’s possible that some of the folks that do know where 2 Peachtree is looked at the address and said “nevermind.”
October 7th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Just one note (and I’m not being picky, it is just a thing I have)…. it was DAVISON’S, not Davidson’s stores. Thanks!
October 7th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Sure, you’re being picky! But next time you correct someone on the proper spelling of Virginia-Highland (no s), that is something I wouldn’t consider to be all that picky
November 15th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
i am a native Atlantan probably a bit older than the writer of the last post.
I as well as just about 125 native Atlantans neet monthly at one of the few remaiming High Schools that we attended in the early to late 1950s that is inside the City of Atlanta limits.
Granted we are mostly from the wrong side of Five Points (or better the wrong side of the railroad tracks.
for most of the readers but we all attended High School in Atlanta that were all white(non integerated) But we sure enjoy meeting and recalling our high School days. We represent a total of five Atlanta High Schoolswe would always like to have more folks join us especially from the North side of Five Points because after allit is the term “native Atlantan” that matters.
if anyone is interested you can even subscribe to our all FREE monthly newsletter, we have interesting old photos and many fond memories of what to a person we all call the Great City that we were fortunate enough to be raised in.
To ask for the free newslette juse e mail:
southside.newsletter@yahoo
Simply ask for the newsletter.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I wish for my fellow thespians! As 35 and native and Ga State MBA fellow American, Pull your head out of the rectum and observe the REAL ENEMY!!! All of the entirety of our politicianians and the sysytem that has been created! Not race you idiot!!!! LOOK CLOSER and you may see! Love You All!!!!!