My Hometown

People know how much I love Greensboro, and often assume that it’s my hometown. And it has been for 26 years. But my hometown is actually Atlanta, Georgia, The Big A, Hot’lanta and more recently da A, The ATL, the Hollywood of the South. A filmmaking mecca, a music mecca, a foodie mecca, a Black mecca.

My dad still lives in Atlanta, so I try to visit every 6-8 weeks. After all he is 89 years old and has defied the odds. He’s still very good company, as long as we don’t discuss current politics. In his day he was one of many civic leaders who loved to call Atlanta the city that was “too busy to hate.”

So whatever happened to the Atlanta that I remember from the 1960’s? The Atlanta where the population billboard on Peachtree Street reported a citizenry numbering in the hundreds of thousands, where there were not many good restaurants but the fried onion rings at The Varsity were world famous. The Atlanta where we were proud to be Martin Luther King’s hometown, but where he probably never felt embraced by the city. The Atlanta where Coca Cola cured every illness and Lenox Square shopping mall didn’t want teenagers like me to “loiter.” And above all, the town where driving around town was a popular pass-time and where stand-still traffic was confined to 5:00-6:00pm on weekdays.

That Atlanta is gone, just like my dad’s depression-era childhood Atlanta was gone as I was growing up, and the Atlanta two generations before that was “Gone With the Wind.” What is left has flickers of the slower paced past, but has maddeningly become a puzzle to navigate because of the terrible consequences of …TRAFFIC. You cannot plan your day around family, or work, or recreation. You plan your day around the traffic. You know better than to drive certain places certain times of day. And because of the enormous footprint of the city, you cannot walk to get to most places. Although MARTA is pretty good, it’s complicated and covers scores of square miles, suited well for long east-west or north-south commutes. Locals look knowingly when they tell you that “Atlanta is an hour away from …Atlanta.” The city is so spread out that you wouldn’t even consider driving to a friend’s house on the spur of the moment. Spontaneity is dead.

So what are Atlantans doing to make living there worth the hassles? Many have found a pretty good solution: neighborhoods! Officially, Atlanta is divided into 242 neighborhoods. From Five Points to Ansley Park to Cabbagetown to Grant Park to North Buckhead, your neighborhood is your village, and often includes signage, sidewalks, shopping, a small park, walkability, and a unique history. Many neighborhoods have a library, a brewery, and a Saturday Farmer’s Market. You meet your neighbors when you walk your dog, everyone has a dog, and dog parks are springing up all over town.

If you want to leave your neighborhood to go to work or to school or to another neighborhood there are short windows of time during the day when the traffic abates…but departing from your ‘hood requires thoughtful planning. If you must go somewhere during the congested times of day, you’ll find that Atlanta is a great town for Uber and Lyft…if you’re a passenger, not a driver. Those who bike for transportation are aware that most of the traffic lanes are not even wide enough for today’s cars trucks and buses. One of the most stunning ironies occurred a few years ago when the transportation official in charge of promoting bike riding was hit and almost killed while riding his bike to work.

So if you are tempted to explore Atlanta, here’s my advice: pick a neighborhood, learn its history, google search its hot spots, and find a dog friendly Uber to deliver you there at 10:30 in the morning. Stay until 2 and then rush back to where you came from before the 5 o’clock traffic revs up at 3:00pm. Bit by bit, discover Atlanta: the city that should have been “too busy to hurry up and wait.”