Access Atlanta > The Newcomer > Archives > 2008 > September
September 2008
The Great Atlanta Gas Hunt ‘08
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hey folks, I’m over at the Talk of the Town blog for now, updating and aggregating news of the gas shortage in the Southeast.
Check back for the latest news and notes on the gas shortage and find tips on hunting gas, saving gas and how to live without it. Share your woes and ideas for how to get around in the comments.
See you there!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Every day is Election Day, until Nov. 4.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Absentee voter, it sounds so ugly, like absentee parents or absentee landlords. I’ve been one. It’s not pretty.
Now, early voter. EARLY voter. Up before dawn, getting down to work and finishing up with plenty of time to beat the traffic. Better, right?
Recent AJC stories pointed out that people are hitting the polls already, even pre-presidential debate. As long as you’re a registered voter, you don’t have to give a reason. Your pollworkers will thank you for easing the crush of people on Election Day, Nov. 4. You even get the sticker.
Here’s a list of locations where you can vote early.
And if you’re not that far ahead, here’s information about registering to vote and what you need to bring to your polling place. And don’t forget the AJC election guide, which can help to educate you about the races on your ballot.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Current Events
Job hunting? Here’s some help.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More than any other reason, more than “I’ve got a brother here…” or “I went to college here…” or even “There was this girl…”, newcomers seem to wind up here for a job.
Pretty scary now that our national unemployment rate is about 6.1 percent. “Unemployment claims spike in Georgia,” a Sept. 11 story by AJC reporter Michael Kanell, said 59,090 people filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance in August, up 72 percent from the same month a year earlier, he wrote.
And then there was this quote: “The advantage that Georgia had — compared to the national averages — has evaporated,” said Emily Sanders, president of Sanders Financial Management in Norcross. “And the trend line is pointing in a negative direction.”
Yikes.
It’s not the 25 percent unemployment rate of the Great Depression, but it’s not happy news.
So you’re here, maybe for family, school, love or a job that you used to have, and now you need another. Here are a few resources that might help you on the hunt.
AJCjobs: Seems like a plug for my company — job preservation, even — but just like everyone else, the first place I look for a job is the classified ads.
Craigslist: Yup, we all look at these classifieds, too.
Georgia Department of Labor: It’s got a job database, a guide to lay-off survival and unemployment benefit information.
The Georgia 100: This isn’t a list of the top employers, but rather a ranking meant to help investors. (Here’s how the rankings are decided.) For the job hunter, it’s a look at what companies do and what shape their finances are in. Something to help you sleep at night, or maybe make you look in another direction.
Did you come here for a job? Is it working out as you hoped? What other resources do you use for a job hunt in Georgia?
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Moving
See a different view of Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After my internship here five years ago, my mental vision of Atlanta had pretty low marks for memorability — a clogged highway that led to the gray innards of an office and a Gwinnett County cul de sac.
Jump five years. I would like to smack my little intern self upside the head, maybe repeat lines my dad used while I learned to drive (or rather, learned to hate driving, but that’s another story entirely): “Open your eyes! Look around you!”
I see it now, these different views of the city. It’s as easy as searching “Atlanta” and “Georgia” on Flickr.
Or spending about 30 seconds on AJC.com with its online galleries galore. A few recent favorites:
A series of now and then shots following the March tornado through downtown and Cabbagetown.
A beautiful collection by photographer Rich Addicks of Atlanta’s tallest buildings.
A rare kind of photo story by John Spink about Crystal Buchans, a homeless woman who sleeps near train tracks around CNN Center. (This story is particularly interesting because it relies only on photos, captions and space on the Web site — it hasn’t appeared in print yet.)
Images of Georgia by and for locals are everywhere. A little lurking in the Googlge searches and the newspaper’s archives showed thatAtlanta Celebrates Photography’s 10th annual festival is getting underway now. Groups like the Atlanta Photographic Society or the Atlanta Photography Group are full of opportunity to take a new view of the city.
Or, you can just open your eyes and look around you.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Post your comment | Categories: Fun stuff
The Sound of Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I had to concentrate to come up with a list of sounds that make me think of Atlanta: old-timey music at the coffee shop down the street, the honk of an arriving train, puppy sighs, ceiling fans spinning 24/7, keyboards clacking in the office, the hardly noticeable hum of bike chain slipping over a gear.
To isolate a sound and extract what it means requires silencing the cacophony of life around us. Not easy. For that reason, I love Atlanta Sounds on WABE, Atlanta’s public radio affiliate.
The short, focused sound clips began in August, 2007. They’re sprinkled through the day’s programming, “the oregano of our broadcast program,” used whenever spice is needed, says WABE content producer David Barasoain.
They captured otters at Georgia Aquarium, the Seed & Feed Marching Abominable, a pipe organ at Clayton State University and Georgia Tech’s whistle. Among my favorites is a stop inside the AJC pressroom, to capture a sound that makes me think of romance.
“We’ve got a staff of 10 producers and reporters here trying to cover 5 million people,” Barasoain says. “We can’t say this is Atlanta, but we can say that each individual Atlanta Sound is a pixel in the photograph.” (He even wanted to call it Audio Pixels. He was outvoted.)
You can submit your own ideas for Atlanta Sounds, too.
By the way, newcomers, if you want to learn more about what’s on your radio, check out Rodney Ho’s Radio & TV Talk blog and this list of Atlanta radio stations.
Share your ideas in the comments: what are the unique sounds of Atlanta?
The Feel of Fall in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I woke this morning burrowed in blankets. As I’m typing, it’s a sunny, breezy 64 degrees and I’m sipping hot tea.
All signs point to fall, and just in time: it starts today.
Readers advised before how they really know it’s fall in Georgia, then offered up their favorite fall festivals.
A handful of AJC writers put together their own feelings of fall: new school supplies, silenced cicadas, begrudging acceptance of leaf labor.
When you’re new here, it’s tempting to believe that it’s 95 degrees and sticky year round. From out-of-town friends and family, I get as many questions about the weather here as I did during a short stint in Iraq: what’s your electric bill like? Did you get rid of your winter coat? Pretty hot, huh?
Nope. It doesn’t feel at all like you’d think.
The Newcomer blog will check out Atlanta by the senses this week. Check back tomorrow for info on how Atlanta sounds.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Uniquely Georgia, Weather
Ready to laugh at yourself, Atlanta?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Second City players Amy Roeder, from left, Tim Stoltenberg, Michael Lehrer and Anthony Irons, rehearse a scene from the upcoming comedy revue, “Too Busy to Hate…Too Hard to Commute.” The revue opens in Atlanta tonight.
The Second City comes to the our city tonight to debut its Atlanta revue, “Too Busy to Hate … Too Hard to Commute.”
AJC’er Drew Jubera wrote in Sunday’s story that the show came into being after two writers from Chicago came on a three-day Atlanta zeitgeist binge. The writers’ list of stops: the Varsity, Lenox Square, Phipps Plaza and the Clermont Lounge, among others. (This list seems to come straight from Newcomer readers’ Places To Go, Things To See file.)
“Traffic, race and the influx of transplants became repeating themes for the writers,” Jubera wrote. “They stopped to talk with locals, finding them willing to open up on almost any topic. More often than not, after extolling Atlanta’s virtues, a local would then add something like, ‘But I just moved here from Baltimore.’”
Perhaps because it sounds like an echo of this blog, but I wonder what else they picked up on. I imagine a localized, improvised, on-stage “Daily Show,” the kind of stuff you’re only allowed to laugh at if you live here, maybe because it’s only funny if you live here?
We seem to see-saw every day between deep, defensive love for this place and extreme self-hate. Could this be our few hours to lighten up a little? Are we even capable of laughing at ourselves here?
I think Tim Stoltenberg, improv director at Dad’s Garage really got it when he made this point: “By laughing at ourselves we can identify what makes us special.”
Tell me in the comments why you’re going to see it. Better yet, tell me on Monday if it’s any good!
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment |
Find your favorite fall festival
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s opening night of the 2006 North Georgia State Fair, featuring David Smith, The Human Cannonball, and the Seattle Wheel, billed as the world’s largest portable ferris wheel. The 2008 fair runs Sept. 18-28.
I guess it doesn’t matter where you live, once fall rolls around, festivals follow with their deep fried delicacies, artists’ booths and blinking, whirling amusements.
In Michigan, every fair and festival seemed to follow the same pattern: The (year) (city/organization name) (fruit, vegetable or herb) Festival! In the case of the town where I went to high school, we celebrated booze. Rather, the elimination of booze via woman with ax. Never you mind the beer tent.
Here, the fall festivals seem geography-specific. Candler Park Fall Fest, East Atlanta Strut, Old Milton Country Fair, Gwinnett County Fair, North Georgia State Fair, Georgia State Fair.
Wow.
Don’t be overwhelmed. Here’s a map of some fall festivals and a list of many more.
What are the best of the fests? Newcomers, what’s your favorite part of a fair, and do you think you’ll find it here?
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Fun stuff
From parking pain to parking play…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I blogged before about the how sometimes baffling, always exhausting battle to park downtown. Aside from the discovery of the Central Atlanta Progress parking map — worth the Google, if you’re new here — there are two bits of news that might ease your parking pain.
First, the city will waive penalties and interest on parking fines for the next 60 days. It’s not because they’re nice. They expect it to net $4 million — and they wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t need the money. Still, quite a treat for those with ever-growing fines.
Second, Friday is National Park(ing) Day! It’s a little holiday created in 2005 by a San Francisco art collective to rethink public space devoted to storing cars. The Trust for Public Land list says The City of Atlanta will be participating at City Hall, “involving local artists, farmers, and a demonstration solar panel. It is a collaborative effort between, the Office of Sustainability, the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, and Park Pride.” Not sure you get it? Here’s a how-to manual that explains.
Good reasons both to consider leaving the car at home for a day? If you spot anybody creatively using a parking space, send a photo!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Getting Around
Attack of the magazine rankings!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s skyline doesn’t rank so high, apparently, but I’d hate to think a reader who doesn’t know better thinks it doesn’t exist. I think it’s beautiful.
Depending what you read and maybe the company you keep, Atlanta is a great city for singles because we can all get jobs and maybe ‘cause we’ve got good college educations? And North Druid Hills (yeah, I’m still looking for it, too) is particularly awesome. Except not, because we’re unromantic.
We’re affordable, but our winter holiday celebrations are bunk. (Ditto for Thanksgiving.) We have terrible traffic, but that’s OK, because we’re wired! Whatever that means!
MAKE IT STOP.
All these magazine rankings of the best-this and worst-that need to go away. At very least, give us a break from the reputation-defining data sets.
It’s an old publishing trick: if you want people to pay attention, make a list. If you want them to talk about it later, list them in some order that supposedly matters. I don’t blame a magazine for going with numbers and lists — statistics are convenient that way — but it’s not real.
This city is ranked, pigeonholed and judged in ways so far from reality, I wonder sometimes if we’re talking about the same place, good and bad. And every time one of these magazines hits news stands, I get a phone call asking/teasing: Is it true? Do you pick up your iPhone when you hit the city limits, locate the nearest semi-suburban Dunkin’ Donuts, meet Mr. Right over strawberry-filled pastry then hit the HOV lane together for a ride into the smog-induced sunset?
Yes. Absolutely. All true, down to the powdered sugar on the seats. Why do you think I live here?
It’s not that rankings aren’t fun. I’ve regularly pointed people toward these surveys and data sets in this blog. (Pretty over it right…about…now.) They’re good for a chuckle, a little argument, a vague sense of how things stack up — Best of Big A, anyone? — and really good for selling magazines.
I’m starting to worry that people really believe them. Even if they’re right, is that any way to learn?
Help me out: where do we really rank? I want to hear it from you, people who live here and know it well, or who came here to understand it. Never mind numbers — say it because you lived it.
Forget what magazines say: what’s Atlanta and the metro area really best and worst at?
Permalink | Comments (45) | Post your comment | Categories: Make This Place Make Sense
Cyclorama: site to see, or a site for sore eyes?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Keith Lauer, director of the Atlanta Cyclorama, stands in front of the panoramic painting of the Battle of Atlanta.
Our Cyclorama isn’t the largest, the oldest or even the most visited of the two massive paintings that remain on display in the United States. But it’s ours, and according to a Sunday AJC story by Bo Emerson, it might need an overhaul.
First, for newcomers: the Cyclorama is a giant painting — 42 feet tall and 358 feet long — of the 1864 Battle of Atlanta. It hangs in a building in Grant Park. It was painted from 1885-86 as a campaign promotional device for unsuccessful vice presidential candidate Gen. John Logan, and was first displayed in Detroit in 1887. It underwent a $15 million restoration in 1979-1981. About 100,000 people visit it every year.
Atlanta Cyclorama
It’s an attraction that one visitor quoted in the AJC story said was in his “native Atlanta tour,” the kind that seems to knock the locals over with a wave of nostalgia whenever you mention it. (No shame there: I have a soft spot for Greenfield Village.) If you’d grown up here, you would’ve visited it as a student — but maybe not since.
A $15 million, five-year restoration project of the Cyclorama showing the Battle of Gettysburg apparently showed what a Cyclorama can be. That one gets about 1.3 million visitors a year.
Gettysburg Cyclorama
For a side-by-side comparison, check out this story by Emerson from July: “Atlanta Cyclorama gets some competition from Gettysburg.”
Here’s what I want to know: Long-timers, is the Cyclorama a must-see? Newcomers, is it something you want to see? And what would you think if it were restored, or even moved to a new location?
Permalink | Comments (17) | Post your comment |
Best of the Big A is back!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth bringing up again.
It gave everybody a chance to name their favorite barbecue and wedding sites and thrift stores and ZIP codes. Now you can vote on the finalists. Just click the link above and click on the “Vote Now” button on each topic.
Give the nominations a read, though, newcomers. It’s a treasure trove of info if you’re new to town and going for an in-person meeting of your new Facebook friend. Booty call. Whatever. Give it a read.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
You know it’s fall in Georgia when…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
…I can expunge my wicked feelings of seasonal jealousy.
How’s home? I asked an old friend in Detroit.
Rough time, he said. “But it’s fall in the Mitten. Nothing like it.”
Sigh. It’s so true: the warm breezes, the endless view of red and gold, apple-picking and the smell of cinnamon and fire on every block. Fall doesn’t start till Sept. 22, but I guess it’s settling in quickly up there.
So here we Georgians are in summer’s death knell, when it chokes out its last 90-degree days. I’ve noticed one small change — I tug on a long-sleeved shirt for evening bike rides now, like fall is too shy to show itself in the light of day.
Otherwise, I’m not sure of the signs of fall here, or even how long it lasts. (Every little trick-or-treating princess and vampire in Michigan wears a winter coat. Maybe not here?) I found proof in this November 2006 photo that our leaves will show their season.
Lovely, but…November? November. Seriously.
Surely, surely there’s something sooner? You’d better believe I’m keeping a close eye on the trees in my neighborhood, and the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Color Report.
We’re putting together an appreciation of fall, and we’d like your input. If you’ve got a strong sense of signs of the season in Georgia, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail at jgumbrecht@ajc.com. Doesn’t matter if it’s football, raking or an undeniable craving for apple cider that does it.
Just finish this sentence: I know it’s fall in Georgia when…
Permalink | Comments (39) | Post your comment |
What to do downtown?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s interesting, sure, but do downtown visitors ever see more of Atlanta than the Hyatt lobby?
I’m downtown every day for work, but I don’t really play here. Every so often there’s a lunch on Broad Street or a trip to a museum with an out-of-town friend. I’m sure there’s a Braves game in the my future, somewhere.
When my best friend from college came to town last week for a conference, I so wanted to be helpful. But what did I have to offer? “The Zoo has a baby panda! But it’s not on exhibit yet.”
And that’s not even downtown. Ugh.
I could point out the obvious — World of Coke? That way. — but I had no recommendations for a good place to get a drink or find a moderately priced, more-than-edible meal.
Even when we ate out with a group of his conference folks, I was a little disappointed. They really loved the food, which is what counts, but as so many downtown, convention-drawing restaurants are, it felt like eating a stereotype of a Southern meal, followed with $12 hotel cocktails. One woman said it felt like eating at Disney World, one of Florida’s finest attractions. I think we ran into the usual convention-goers trouble of not being sure where to go or how to get there with a large group of people.
I’m closing in on six months here, so it’s not a problem I’ve negotiated often — but we’ve got a big airport and a lot of hotels, so I expect it’ll happen again. It’s not that you’d dislike what you saw in the tourist-heavy parts of city; it just doesn’t feel like Atlanta.
Here’s the official travel guide.
But I want to know where you go with downtown visitors, especially if they don’t want the Hard Rock version of Atlanta. What’s the best part about downtown?
And for heaven’s sake, be cheerful for once. Show a little love for your city.
Permalink | Comments (30) | Post your comment | Categories: Fun stuff, Out at Night
How to find truly Southern food.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday customers shop at the DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur in 2003.
I saw the DeKalb Farmers Market for the first time on Monday, while “working” on an assignment. (Rough life, I know.) The place is name-dropped constantly — oh, the giant boxes of tofu, the cheap ‘n’ tasty wine, the fresh, endless aisles of produce! — so I shouldn’t have been surprised to see 140,000 square feet of pure yum brought by distribution methods far different from my local Kroger’s.
I appreciate, too, that the market bills itself as “A World Market,” because it’s not the same as buying from a farmer sitting behind a booth at a parking lot in town. Which isn’t to say it’s not cool…it’s just not what I expected.
So what if you do want to buy locally grown food, maybe directly from the person that grew it? AJC reporter Katie Leslie wrote about one Georgia organic farmer, “the Ty Pennington of organic gardening,” who’s making it into big business.
He’s far from the only one making it possible, though.
Gwendolyn Washington of Phoenix Farms in Lawrenceville picks out some herbs for customer Sheryl Holmes of Lawrenceville at the first day of the summer season for the Lawrenceville Farmers Market in June.
Here are a few options for local shopping and eating. This, newcomers, is real local cuisine.
Community-supported Agriculture: There are many ways to organize these, but the general idea is that people can pitch in on a farm with cash or sometimes labor, and reap the rewards. The food might be delivered, or you might have to pick it up. The programs are often seasonal, and it means you partake only in the successful crops when they’re in season. (If a crop fails, nobody gets any.) Want to find one, or learn more? Check out Local Harvest for of the particulars.
Traditional farmers markets: Show up and shop. The spirit of the market is that farmers are selling their products directly to you. I have been to some markets with produce conspicuously labeled “Product of California,” or that type of things. If local is your goal, just move along. You’ll find something. Here’s an AJC-built map of local farmers markets. PickYourOwn.org has a pretty good list of local markets, too, in addition to lists of places to, well, pick your own.
Food co-ops: In town, I’m familiar with Sevananda, a consumer-owned spot to buy groceries, vitamins and such. It’s in Little Five Points and says it focuses on fresh, local, organic produce and natural foods. Local Harvest pointed out even more food co-ops in the state, too, including two in Marietta.
Look for local food, ask for local food: Nothing is more convincing to a restaurant or grocer than a customer seeking out a certain product, whether it’s a hard-to-find specialty item or foodstuffs grown a certain way somewhere nearby. (Wal-Mart is doing it. So is Whole Foods. ) Georgia Organics has a handy directory of farms, businesses and markets promoting local, sustainable food.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Yum!
We’re No. 1 — for singles?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lonely Atlanta, don’t panic: stats are on your side.
Forbes magazine just named us the best city for singles using its own methodology. (Take that, San Francisco, with all your coolness, culture and public transportation! How’s life at No. 2 in an arbitrary magazine ranking?! Preeeeetty rough, I bet.)
Out of the 40 largest urban areas, Forbes ranked us 14th in the number of singles, seventh in terms of nightlife, 12th for coolness — I’m sure there’s nothing arbitrary about that — 10th for culture, 12th for the cost of living alone, 24th for online dating and fourth for job growth.
It seems job growth and cost of living alone count for a lot, since our closest competitor, SF, ranked higher in several areas.
“For the first time ever,” the Forbes story said, “Atlanta tops our list of the best cities for singles. The capital of Georgia and home of Coca-Cola earns the top slot because of its hopping nightlife, relatively high number of singles and sizzling job growth. “To those who know ‘Hotlanta,’ the ranking should come as no surprise.”
Well, nobody who knows it calls it Hotlanta. But whatever, we’ll take it.
It makes more sense than Money magazine’s ranking, which inexplicably ranked North Druid Hills No. 9 on its list of top places for singles.
What do you say, newcomers and long-timers? Is this a great city for singles? Do these magazines have any idea what they’re talking about? Did it convince you to move here, or stay here?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Make This Place Make Sense
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.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Fun stuff
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.)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Weather
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.
Permalink | Comments (42) | Post your comment | Categories: Yum!
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?
Permalink | Comments (40) | Post your comment | Categories: Getting Around
