What Happened to Downtown Atlanta?

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Social Media
Youtube - @nathandaven

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:09 Comparisons
2:14 Suburbanization
3:15 Architecture, Street activation, John Portman
4:36 Safety, Homelessness, and the Olympics
6:30 Downtown today
7:48 Optimism
9:02 Closing thoughts

Primary sources

Media

Music
Sourced from Youtube Audio Library:
Candelabra - LATASHA
Strollin' - TrackTribe
Intellect - Yung Logos
Kirwani - Teental - Aditya Verma, Subir Dev
Hiatus - RAGE
Soothsayer - John Patitucci
El Gavilan - Quincas Moreira

Equipment
Camera: Panasonic Lumix G85, iPhone XS
Microphone: MXL 990 (voiceover), Behringer XM8500 (on camera)

#urbanplanning #cityplanning #urbanism

[driley]

"Locals don't live here."

That summed it all up perfectly. At some point we decided that cities and towns of all sizes should cater specifically to the people who refuse to live in them, instead of creating in-town places where people actually want to (and can afford to) live, work, and play.

[flouserschird]

First time in downtown Atlanta, I ran over a curb and popped my tire right as the sun was going down. I was in a super sketchy area and this homeless guy like an angel came out of nowhere and helped me change my tire with lightning speed.

[Swampzoid]

The original streetcars in Atlanta were removed in the 1940's to promote car usage. First mistake. Then in the 1950's I-85/75 split downtown off from the more affluent sections of the city. Many walkable surface streets and neighborhoods were destroyed that once connected downtown with midtown. As far as Underground.Atlanta goes, Atlanta has struggled since the 1960's to keep that area inviting but it always fails.

[frankbranham]

One of the weirder fails was Underground Atlanta. That was a 2000's era downtown shipping district. I was there a couple of years back, and the place could totally be a Fallout level.

[eddietrejo]

Me and my family recently took a weekend trip to Atlanta and we decided to spend the Saturday afternoon in the downtown area and we quickly noticed how eerie it was to see how empty it truly was as there was no crowds of people and most of the businesses were closed. It was not as welcoming and vibrant as we thought it would be and it’s truly sad to see how outside downtown Atlanta is just never ending traffic jams and suburban sprawl.

[greenbrown]

I'm a resident of downtown ATL. Things were slowly getting better here until the pandemic. 2020-22 were really rough. I think we've bottomed out and are back on the upswing, but we have a long way to go. The city is very unsupportive of us who live down here. You might be surprised how many of us are down here, though. We're hidden in plain sight.

[rare_medium]

I've always found Atlanta very alienating. Athens and Savannah have always had much more character. I was there in 96 just before the Olympics and it sucked back then too. Unfortunately a lot of American cities are filling their downtowns with chain stores, 5 over 1s, and bullshit stadium/commercial centers.

[DeniDays]

As a Chicago native, I was shocked to see how underdeveloped downtown Atlanta is. Downtown Atlanta is full of run-down buildings and drug addicts.

[hudson]

Atlanta is a city that grew too big too fast and in the process sacrificed its historic downtown neighborhoods to the demands of the automobile. Had Atlanta preserved these old neighborhoods like other southern cities ( e.g. Savannah, Charleston, and Richmond) have done, it might have something to work with in creating a nicer downtown.

[leadingauctions]

At night in Downtown Atlanta I had to run for my life from a homeless gang near Grady. Thankfully a pair of police officers on bikes saved me.

It is not a race-based misconception. It is sadly the truth.

[gtgw]

The sun never shines in that downtown area. As soon as you start going down Pryor and Court something, see all those mini parking lot blocks and no turn signs, it just gets dark. It’s tacky and creepy. The roads always look like spilled spread out trash everywhere after a messy rainstorm. It has bad energy that needs to be purified or something. It’s the opposite of Buckhead, if you go to parts of Buckhead it’s like the sun is always shining. It’s weird

[maryflanagan]

I got lost in Atlanta at around 5:30pm after leaving jury duty. I had know idea how to get back to the Marta station…becoming increasingly concerned because it was getting dark and I was alone…this absolutely wonderful homeless black man who noticed my nervousness came walking up to me and asked me if I was ok and if he could be of any help. I told him my problem, well, this wonderful man walked me all the way to the entrance of Marta. I gave him a hug, thanked him and gave him a hug. He didn’t want to take the $20 dollar bill that I gave him.… all he asked me for was my umbrella…☂️ … gladly giving it to him and making him accept the $20.00 🥰

[pc]

Locals do not go downtown. Downtown is mainly federal buildings and tourist attractions that close at a certain time. We go to Midtown for entertainment.

[r.patrickcraig]

I was shot and mugged downtown in the 90s, still occasionally go down there, but would NEVER live there. Why overpay for poor services and terrible traffic? Atlanta isnt run by people that make real efforts to fix these things

[sereysothe.a]

anyone who lives here knows that midtown is where everything is. there's basically no reason to go downtown unless you go to GSU or work in one of the office buildings. despite all of its obvious problems, I honestly love atlanta

[kellycoxvivanco]

I migrated to this city but my husband always lived in the suburbs. At the beginning it surprised me how little he knew about places to visit in “his city” as opposed to me coming from a city (Quito) highly touristy, with easy access to public transport, able to walk mostly everywhere and with people in the streets connecting somehow with you. It really broke my heart to not find this at all in Atlanta, or have to be so hipper-aware of where you are cause it can turn pretty sketchy pretty quick.

So thanks for this video explaining more of this context I did not know about. ✅🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

[TheTlewis]

This is one of the reasons I moved away from Atlanta after being there a short time, to Charlotte, which has a nice vibrant downtown. You expect a big city to have an active downtown at night, but not ATL. Everyone lives in the suburbs which are big enough to have their own shopping and entertainment. They don't need to come downtown. Marietta had everything I needed.

[sirtavion]

I'm from Atlanta. Was born at Grady and this is spot on. Every time I go to other cities I see how much this city drops the ball. I don't think it'll ever be the same

[ayecordaye]

“More equivalent to a theme park than a downtown”. That perfectly sums it up. I was born here and lived around the city all of my life, and that’s exactly how it feels. The post pandemic era has really ripped the mask off this city and exposed it for what it really is. Atlanta has so much wasted potential.

[robbybertu]

That downtown Walgreens, by Georgia State, was recently closed due to excessive shrink from theft.