Access Atlanta > The Newcomer
Shark bait?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This has turned into a busy little week.
I’m swamped, but here’s a video of a uniquely Atlanta experience. And if you like to learn about things the (slightly) old-fashioned way, here’s the story, with photos.
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Hurricane preparedness for the land-locked
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When I think Atlanta, I think hot, but not tropical hot. Crazy storms, but only about 20 minutes at a time.
Hurricanes? No.
And I’d be wrong, kind of. Atlanta’s not New Orleans, Galveston, the Carolinas or even Savannah, but the hurricanes around our land-locked metro area still impact us and not just because evacuees bunk here for a while. (This story by reporter Stacy Shelton, “Georgia lucky but not immune to hurricanes,” provides even more background info.)
Robert Beasley, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, filled me in on what newcomers should know as we approach peak hurricane season.
We’re not impacted like a coastal area, but we have our own problems. Namely, high winds, floods and tornadoes. Wind here is generally tropical storm-level or less, which can still do plenty of damage. Watch for flooding especially in areas around the Chattahoochee. (Here’s Chattahoochee River Flood Tracking by the U.S. Geological Survey. Bookmark it.) Which brings us to…
Tornadoes, tornadoes, tornadoes. But not like those we have in spring. Those big F4, F5 tornadoes are quite dramatic, but these F1s and F2s are hard to detect with plenty of opportunity for destruction. (For perspective: the tornado that swept through downtown in March was an F2.) Hurricane Katrina holds the record for kicking up 18 in one day. Remember too: Atlanta is filled with old trees prone to falling. Be mindful of where you’re driving and parking during hurricane season.
Tornadoes spurred by Hurricane Katrina extended into Carrollton in September, 2005. Here, farmers work to clean a chicken farm.
- The hurricanes worst for coastal Georgia aren’t so bad for us. No, the worst-case scenario for Atlantans is a hurricane that comes inland in Alabama, then move Northeast. (Long-timers, remember Ivan? Remember how bad that was? That’s what I’m talking about.) The Northeast quadrant of a hurricane is where you’ll find the worst weather, so we tend to get the comparatively gentle western side from a hurricane that hits the Georgia coast.
The Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags in Austell was surrounded by flood waters from the Chattahoochee River on Sept. 17, 2004, thanks to Ivan.
- Hurricane season runs June 1-Dec. 1. September is the peak month, and Sept. 10 is the peak day. By October and November, we’re slipping into fall weather patterns that make it harder for mighty hurricanes to form. The good news: some of those storm systems can create enough rainfall here to help out the drought, just like Fay.
Long-timers, any other tips to prepare for a storm and crazy weather? Newcomers, did you know what you were getting in to?
(On a completely different topic, the AJC just launched a Web channel to connect folks to non-profits and volunteer operations. You can find that information at dogood.ajc.com. For more volunteer opportunities and ideas, check out this Newcomer post from July.)
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Greasy spoons of the South
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Amanda Bailey and her sister Melinda Ingle of LaFayette, Ga., wave to Kid Rock’s bus as it pulls into a Waffle House in Duluth in March. Oh, those wacky diner memories…
Not counting a few fishing boat forays into Canadian waters and expressway dips into Ohio, I really left Michigan for the first time at age 9, on a spring break pilgrimage to Florida that all Midwesterners make at some point in life or near death.
Ohio? Pretty much the same with less to look at. Kentucky? Empty, I thought, with none of the truly blue grass I was promised.
Tennessee, I think, is where I noticed it first: the constant repetition of Cracker Barrels — didn’t we just pass this exit about 20 times? — the ubiquitous Shoney’s buffet ads and the glowing yellow beacon of the Waffle House.
I grew up in the land of the Elias Brothers’ Big Boy, Hungry Howie’s pizza and Ram’s Horn restaurants. I had no idea these weren’t the universal family dining alternatives for when dad charred the taco shells beyond edibility.
When a Cracker Barrel showed up in my university town, we raised a collective Midwestern eyebrow so to say, “Why are your blueberry pancakes better than that of Denny’s or Theio’s?” I never would’ve ventured into a Chick-fil-A (or pronounced its name correctly) if my Georgian cousin, then a high schooler, hadn’t informed informed me that it was the best food ever. Even now, should there be another unfortunate taco incident, the nearest Huddle House to my dad would be 146 miles away, somewhere in Ohio.
But to be a newcomer here is to accept change, to understand that the all-night diners and pizza spots of my teens is not and never was the hangout here. To live here is to eat waffles.
Eat and love, adore them enough to make them into history: behold, the new Waffle House Museum. It opens this week in the original waffle house space on College Avenue in Avondale Estates.
I tasted my first Waffle House breakfast-at-night earlier this year, on a road trip of sorts, somewhere South of Dalton off Interstate 75. It’s not the malted mix of Ram’s Horn or the strawberry Belgian of Big Boy, all the waffles of my past, but I can see why sometimes it’s the best food ever.
Whether you’re from here or just learning, what’s your regional road-trip, late-night, greasy-spoon food stop of choice? Newcomers, which ones do you miss from your past?
Yes, people here loooooove their Waffle House.
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Walkable Atlanta: is it really out there?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Larissa Bradburn, her son Andrew and daughter Erin walked to Morningside Elementary School last April. They left their home at 7:20 a.m. and made the 10 minute walk to school.
Every morning, I walk about a mile to my MARTA station for my commute to work. During the week, I might walk to the downtown library, the coffee shop, some veggie-friendly lunch spot or some meeting. (Driving requires I check out a mid-’90s AJC Blazer. After a few too many failed attempts to start or roll out of the parking lot without the gas tank hitting empty, I avoid it.)
Outside work, I frequent a small number of bars and restaurants almost entirely because they’re in walking distance. I walk to the grocery store, the ATM, the post office, most of the stuff I need to get by.
So yeah, much of my Atlanta is walkable. What about yours?
Of the 40 largest cities in the United States, Walk Score rates Atlanta as the 22nd most walkable city. (Our overall score is 52, on the very low end of “Somewhat Walkable: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.”) The site lists our most walkabout neighborhoods as Five Points, Poncey-Highland and Sweet Auburn. Their ranking doesn’t seem to include even the close-in suburbs, though, which can have a very different dynamic on foot.
There seems to be a lot of talk, planning and even some action on walkability.
A July AJC story pointed out that as the numbers of pedestrians increases, many police departments are paying more attention to laws that protect them.
The local advocacy group Pedestrians Education Drivers on Safety provides information about how to improve walking conditions from requesting a sidewalk fix, to reporting a non-working pedestrian signal, to seeking a curb ramp installation.
The Walkable Atlanta Task Force presented a “The Plan for a Walkable Atlanta” in 2004. With only six months of Atlanta living experience, it’s hard for me to know how much has changed since this was presented.
What do you think the Atlanta metro area’s most walkable spots are? Is it more walkable than it used to be, and do you walk here more often? And what can we do to make the area more ped-friendly?
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Atlanta’s best annual events? Dragons, drive-ins and more.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Chicago family visited Atlanta for its first Dragon Con in 2001. They’re Kathy , Quincy 9 and Vincent Newkirk. Kathy made the Star Wars costumes. I SO want to see this in my city this weekend!
In typical Labor Day, live-it-up-it’s-a-long-winter fashion, there’s a lot going on this weekend.
Starlight Six’s Drive Invasion
I pull out these three because they’re seriously unique events that apparently happen here every year? I had no idea! Dragon*Con seems like the kind of thing that could travel from city to city, but clearly found a home here. The Decatur Book Festival is new since I lived here last. And the Drive Invasion? Well, it takes something special to sustain a drive-in, let along a drive-in celebration of kitsch and cinema.
So what are the other yearly events here — big and beloved, underground and underappreciated, growing and changing — that I don’t know about? I suspect they’re happening all the time, not just holiday weekends.
What’s your favorite Atlanta area annual events?
Speaking of holidays: I’m sleeping in on Monday. Catch you at 7 a.m. Tuesday!
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The thing that I found most interesting about Atlanta’s Aquarium is that they show at least a thousand different species of exotic marine life, and yet do you know what they serve in the cafeteria? Fish Sticks. How do you like that?... read the full comment by The Way | Comment on Shark bait? Read Shark bait?
I remember when Krystals were a nickle apiece. Then they went to seven cents. Once at a party I took a thorazine and we went to the Krystal on Buford @ Clairmont. I fell face down in a bowl of chili. Oh, the good old days.... read the full comment by rocketdog | Comment on Greasy spoons of the South Read Greasy spoons of the South
Best late night place to get some chili dawgs is Zesto’s. Check out the Litte Five Points location and Ponce, too... read the full comment by pbred8 | Comment on Greasy spoons of the South Read Greasy spoons of the South
If they would let me fish in the aquarium. I would pay them hundreds more. I would round it up to a thousand if I could keep my catch and have it mounted.... read the full comment by Mike D | Comment on Shark bait? Read Shark bait?