Tagged with Atlanta …

May 03 2012
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links of the day

The New International Terminal at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport

The new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta will open on May 16, 2012. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has some details about the “dry run” that took place to test the terminal:

More than 1,600 volunteers streamed into the new $1.4 billion complex bright and early for the dry run. Hundreds had signed up to participate within hours of the airport’s call for helpers in March.

Many were eager to get a sneak peek at the gleaming 1.2 million square-foot terminal and 12-gate concourse — and give some constructive criticism.

The airport gave each volunteer a trip itinerary and script, which they used to get to the new terminal off I-75, check in for a flight, get a fake boarding pass and check bags, pass through security, report to a gate and go through boarding.

Arriving test passengers went through Customs and immigration checks and claimed bags at the new terminal. They were also directed to look for restrooms, duty-free shops, concessions, the information desk, baggage office, taxi stand, shuttles or other amenities.

The terminal is almost four years in the making and comes with a $1.4 billion price tag. The 1.2 million square foot terminal and concourse will facilitate direct flights to 45 countries

I think the biggest benefit of the new international terminal will be the elimination of the need for arriving Atlanta-bound travelers to recheck bags upon arrival (and having to go through security after clearing Customs).

Still, it’s amazing the huge turnout this practice run had. One person interviewed in the story has been following the terminal for ten years and took a vacation day from work to participate.

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Jan 31 2012
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links of the day

The Woes of Atlanta’s Housing Market

The New York Times has a story on Atlanta’s depressed housing market. It paints a dire picture of my hometown:

The reasons for Atlanta’s housing woes are both representative of the nation’s troubles and special to this former boomtown, where housing appreciated handsomely, though not to the lofty heights of Las Vegas, Miami and New York.

Where the region once attracted thousands of prospective home buyers drawn by plentiful jobs and more affordable living, that influx has dwindled. Local unemployment, at 9.2 percent, is slightly higher than the national rate, in part because one in every four jobs lost was connected to real estate, a much higher rate than in the rest of the country. Those jobs have yet to return, while even people with work are having trouble qualifying for loans.

The region, plagued by mortgage fraud and developers who dotted the exurban landscape with large luxury homes that never sold, is inundated with foreclosed properties. In fact, Atlanta has the most government-owned foreclosed properties for sale of any large city, according to the Federal Reserve.

Quite simply, it’s a buyer’s market right now:

Atlanta has suffered greatly from a contracting pool of home buyers. The number of people moving from within the United States to Atlanta peaked at 100,000 in 2006 and plunged to just 17,000 by 2009, the latest census figures available.

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Nov 01 2011
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personal, reading

Are Southern Manners on the Decline?

For those of you living in the South, would you agree that the Southern charm is fading? Today’s piece in The New York Times asserts so:

The Tavern at Phipps case, and a growing portfolio of examples of personal and political behavior that belies a traditional code of gentility, has scholars of Southern culture and Southerners themselves wondering if civility in the south is dead, or at least wounded.

But what is the reason for the decline in Southern manners?

Newcomers still get much of the blame. In the past decade the South has seen an unprecedented influx of immigrants from both other states and other countries. The population in the south grew by 14.3 percent from 2000 to 2010, making it the fastest growing region in the country.

But there is more behind the social shift, scholars say. Digital communication and globalization have conspired to make many parts of the South less insular. Couple that with a political climate as contentious as anyone can remember and a wave of economic insecurity rolling across the region, and you’ve got a situation where saying “thank you, ma’am” isn’t good enough anymore.

Anecdotally speaking, I would agree (living in Atlanta) that living in the South is less about “Yes, sir” and “Thank you, ma’am” than it used to be. However, since there is no stringent way to test this assertion, your experience will probably vary.

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Oct 18 2011
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links of the day

Atlanta, Zombie Capital of the World

How fast can you say “Braaaains”? My hometown, is getting some nice press coverage in The New York Times… Namely, Atlanta is the zombie capital of the world!

That, at least, is what Atlanta Magazine, the glossy monthly, has dubbed this Southern city [editor's note: the feature in Atlanta Magazine is really worth your time].

It’s not only that “The Walking Dead,” the hit zombie show that began its second season on AMC on Sunday, is filmed and set here. Or that Atlanta holds some of the nation’s largest zombie film festivals, zombie paradesand zombie haunted houses. Or that even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that staid Atlanta-based federal agency, joined in the fun with a tongue-in-cheek guide to surviving a zombie apocalypse.

So why Atlanta as the setting for The Walking Dead?

Robert Kirkman, the Kentucky native who wrote the graphic novel on which “The Walking Dead” is based, wanted the story set in a large Southern city. One of the largest annual gathering of zombies, DragonCon, a fantasy and science fiction convention, happened to be founded by an Atlanta resident. And this sprawling city, with swatches of foreclosed or abandoned property, is easy to make look spooky.

I’ve watched the first season of The Walking Dead. Personally, I think it’s an okay show, but nowhere near as good as, say, Breaking Bad or LOST.

What do you think of The Walking Dead? Is it just a big hype of a show or does it have something special going for it?

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Aug 06 2011
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links of the day, longreads, reading

On Living in Atlanta

Atlanta has been my home for most of my life. It’s a massive, sprawling city unlike any I’ve lived or visited in the world.

In the latest issue of More Intelligent Life, a correspondent for The Economist, Jon Fasman, reminisces about living in Atlanta, after having lived in New York City, Washington D.C., Hong Kong, London, and Moscow (Russia). It’s a great read.

Ah, the big ice storm in February of this year which shut the city down:

The weekend after we moved down, it snowed. Not much—an inch or two over a full day—but it shut the city down. Something similar but worse happened this year: a three-inch storm coupled with a week of below-freezing temperatures shut the city down for nearly a week.

I like this comparison:

Different cities are suited to different seasons: a few years back I was posted to Moscow, which blooms in the winter and wilts in summer. New York’s summer days are repulsive—walking outside feels like swimming through garbage soup—but there is no place I’d rather spend a summer evening. Atlanta is built for spring and fall—the pleasant seasons, and Atlanta is a profoundly pleasant city. 

Vivid descriptions in this paragraph. Though I suspect you can extend the relaxation into the weekends in Atlanta (at least, in my view, more so than you would in New York City):

That is not as easy as it seems. New York is thrilling, Hong Kong a marvel of density, Moscow the closest a city can get to a cocaine level of jitteriness and excitement, London endless: I love all four places, but I would never describe them as pleasant. They are none of them as comfortable and human-scaled as Atlanta. Social life just sort of happens here. In New York and London my calendar filled up weeks in advance; here it is not unusual to look forward to a relaxing, empty weekend on Thursday and then find that Saturday and Sunday are frantic.

Lastly, I have to agree with the author’s assessment here. Atlanta has terrible traffic (I believe Atlantans spend more time in traffic getting to their jobs than anywhere else in the country), our public transportation system (MARTA) is severely limited, and schools ITP aren’t on the same level as those OTP.

 Atlantans divide the area into “ITP” and “OTP”—Inside the Perimeter and Outside the Perimeter, the highway that rings the city and its closest suburbs. Most of the area’s population is O; most of its charms are decidedly I. One quirk of Atlanta’s development is that urban areas like mine feel rather rustic, while suburbs that were rural 30 years ago are now strip-malled, parking-lotted and planned-communitied into blacktopped uniformity. For all its charms, Atlanta provides an object lesson for mid-sized cities today in how not to grow. It sprawls, it really does have bad traffic, and thanks to a befuddling stew of overlapping city and county governments, it has negligible public transport and dysfunctional state schools. Better to treat the perimeter as a national border, and cross it only on trips abroad.

Do read the whole article and don’t miss the solid recommendations on what to do/see at the bottom of the piece.

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If you’re a native to Atlanta, what’s your opinion on the author’s take of Atlanta? If you’ve only visited Atlanta, how does it differ from other cities you’ve visited?

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