Underground Atlanta has weathered almost as many ups and downs as the neon peach that drops upon it every New Year's Eve. Depending on the year, it has been a center of the city's festivities or a byword for urban decay and neglect.
Now, in the midst of a fragile economic recovery, city leaders are searching for ways to prevent the downtown property from becoming a drag on the central district of the Southeast's linchpin city.
The six-block, 12-acre, three-level property remains one of the region's major tourism draws. Roughly 5 million people visit the retail and entertainment complex every year, more than four times the number claimed by the sleek World of Coca-Cola museum a mile away.
But many Atlanta residents and suburban visitors express deep dissatisfaction and suspicion of Underground.
In Sunday's newspaper, the AJC describes the struggle to improve Underground and why it's seen as critical to the region's jobs and tourism. You'll only find the story by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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