Awhile back I had begun pulling together a series of notes called “Atlanta — how we got here” which I intended to post here on Bloglanta as a brief series. I have always had an interest in the history of Atlanta, particularly of Atlanta’s intown neighborhoods. But even though I’d lived through a great deal of Atlanta’s post WWII decades, I had very little real idea of why the city had taken on the form and character it had.
So I decided to think about and read about the major events and initiatives which had created Atlanta as we know it. The Airport, the expressway system, the Civil Rights movement, the shopping malls, convention centers, art complexes and urban renewal were all areas I wanted to cover. I initially got the idea from reading a book by Atlanta’s former police chief Herbert Jenkins, which had a few paragraphs on why onstreet parking had been removed from 10th Street. By the time he wrote the book, there was already criticism of the effects of turning 10th Street into a heavy traffic arterial. The traditional neighborhood businesses along the street were for the most part killed, and the street rapidly transformed into the patchwork of surface parking and mediocre utility buildings of today. But Jenkins’s explanation for why the policy had been implemented seemed plausable given the particular issues of the time in which he was operating. I wish they hadn’t done it, but it wasn’t nearly as idiotic as it seems in hindsight.
So I hit the books, and I was interested in getting a grasp of the broad traits, events, and trends which made Atlanta what we’re left with today. And of all Atlanta’s characteristics none stands out more than Boosterism.
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