AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2005 > August > 29
Monday, August 29, 2005
Do ITP and OTP matter anymore?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I recall being at a lunch in Buckhead a few years back, as a group of us welcomed a new executive to town.
He had been buried alive on his new job and his family had yet to make it to town for a look-see, so he took the chance to ask us where he should house hunt.
“Inside the perimeter,” one woman barked. “Only rednecks live outside the perimeter.”
As a resident of Sandy Springs from 1962, I was dumbfounded. Had our quaint little Golden Ghetto been the inspiration for “The Dukes of Hazzard”? I didn’t recall looking next door and seeing Cooter washing his huntin’ dogs.
I was so shocked I almost swallowed my shrimp fork, but I could tell the silver was rented and I didn’t want my host to lose his deposit.
Then it occurred to me — I had been smacked with the dreaded OTP label, as in Outside the Perimeter.
If Mason-Dixon represented the physical, political and ideological line between the North and the South, I-285 divides metro Atlanta.
Or so it seems.
To those inside the circle, their lives are increasing property values, the High Museum and trendy eateries. From their pate-packed perch in Midtown, I suppose, they think those of us out in the frontier of Sandy Springs are waiting for indoor plumbing, the Model T and for the government to send federal troops to do battle with those pesky Indians.
Note to the ITP crowd: There is life beyond I-285 and Roswell Road. We have running water, picture shows with sound and our own little radio station. Near as I can tell, most of us wear shoes, get through all 12 grades in public school and attend college. What teeth we may have lost have been replaced by pricey implants.
And, yes, I know a portion of Sandy Springs is ITP, but most of what you think is a nouveau riche Buckheadresides north of I-285.
While you may snicker at the Turtles, they aren’t nearly as funny as that money pit you affectionately call Underground Atlanta. And while we don’t have a fancy-pants place like the Fox, neither did we ever build a white elephant like Fanplex.
I’l even concede the point that you have the well-known museums and performing arts centers, but do you think they’d stay open from just those folks ITP?
Now we can behave like a couple of puppies, whizzing on each other’s tree all day.
But wouldn’ it be better if we dropped this real estate-based spitting contest?
Shouldn’t the terms OTP and ITP go the way of the outhouse? Or Fanplex?
