What Happened to Downtown Atlanta?
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- Опубліковано 7 чер 2024
- Downtown Atlanta was once a vibrant city center -- now it's a hollow shell of it's former self. Honestly, it kind of sucks, unless you're here for the touristy things. I grew up always wondering why downtown didn't feel quite right -- in today's video, we find out.
Read the written version here, with complete citations: nathandaven.substack.com/p/wh...
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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
Low, Setha M. “The Anthropology of Cities: Imagining and Theorizing the City.” Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 25, 1996, pp. 383-409. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2155832. Accessed 23 Oct. 2023.
Free reference: archive.org/details/theorizin...
Media
sites.gsu.edu/rcagle2/2015/03/...
digitalcollections.library.gs...
digitalcollections.library.gs...
digitalcollections.library.gs...
digitalcollections.library.gs...
www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/a...
www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/ob...
www.atlantamagazine.com/news-...
www.artsatl.org/10-years-of-a...
• Savannah River Street ...
• Chicago West Loop to M...
• [4K] SEATTLE City Walk...
www.pexels.com/video/aerial-f...
www.pexels.com/video/view-fro...
www.pexels.com/video/aerial-v...
• Techwood Homes Public ...
Music
Sourced from UA-cam 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 - Розваги
"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.
Very few local live downtown which is overwhelming students from GSU.
Woke ideology that every city becomes a tourist stop for all the foreign immigrants, both investors, scalpers, and illegal aliens, milking the country dry. Won't be long now before this country turns into a 3rd world trash heap. And everyone can be complacent in saying they watched it happen and let it happen and did nothing.
No, we're still here, they just keep us in isolated seclusion after dark.
Yep, we still here but 😢 for the "disneyfication".
EXACTLY! They gentrifed the culture out and now cities are super boring.
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.
Weird but gd 😂glad your ok
Depending on the part of town, You can still get that sweet, savory southern hospitality down here :-)
For some reason the curbs in Atlanta have sharp edges. I’ve popped my tire on a curb while making a turn.
Some of those homeless dudes around downtown are cool. I was on probation in fulton county came out of the probation building and I was smoking a cigarette and this homeless guy said hey man i saw where you came out of so I ain't gonna ask for no dollar but let me get one of them 😂
Atlanta has the best homeless people haha. I’ve been to every major city. None come close.
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.
The lack of downtown housing is the number one cause. Downtown will be better than Midtown when they finally build more apartments downtown.
Racism destroys a lot of areas in America
I said the same thing. If they would’ve kept those streetcar lines, they could’ve easily either still used them as streetcars or light rail and the transportation would’ve been even better. Now you got a bunch of parking lots every where. They need to make Downtown more attractive for locals to want to live in downtown. Centinnial Yards is really the only hope downtown has. Once that is complete, that will bring in more development but it’s going to take over a decade for that to even happen. Atlanta tends to move slow on things like this while Midtown is developing buildings left and right
@@JWill951 Those were previously better areas of Atlanta back in the day when things were more affordable
Let's be frank, the ghettofication of Atlanta is the real reason. Downtown has always sucked. Buckhead was ok, Midtown was ok. Little Five, the same. I moved away long ago and don't even like to visit. It's too bad Atlanta used to be a great city.
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.
The City of Atlanta really didn't grow much. Gwinnett and Cobb Counties grew and added to the traffic problems.
Atlanta is not a real city. It’s like a suburb with buildings added. A real city is like Boston and the other cities in the Northeast or the cities in Europe and Asia
Savannah honestly feels like europe with the walkability and architecture
This is the best summarization
@@larrys4618agreed
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.
Yeah. Isn't that something we should fix?
@@robertlloyd122 absolutely
And Edgewood, I love Edgewood.
@@robertlloyd122I agree. I think finally there are plans h fee way with the civic center and old CNN building.
Midtown is the real downtown of Atlanta. But hopefully downtown can return to its former glory and attract thousands of new permanent residents. But the city needs to do something about the homelessness in the meanwhile.
Midtown is def way more liveable as a neighborhood for sure, but right, Downtown's got the architecture & history you just cant really recreate!
Every downtown in every city has a way worse homeless problem…and they still is more vibrant…That’s not the issue
All they have to do is build apartments on all of the parking lots. Problem solved because everyone in their 20's and 30's want to live downtown.
Atlanta will not help the homeless into housing. Because most of Atlanta homeless aren't from Atlanta. They will just leave them on the streets to die
@@nathandaven Midtown has a lot of vacant "luxury" apartments if you can afford them, but they shut down all the play, its just live, work. Going to Dollar General is about as exciting as it gets.
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.
Yeah now everybody us moving to Athens & Oconee. I hate it. Too much traffic & too many people.
What is a 5 to 1?
@@katelynbrown98 5 over 1 is the term for these general apartment buildings with 5 floors over a ground floor of mixed use and retail.
@@boldporcupine sounds nice
@@SPCv4they’re generally overpriced & oftentimes the actual storefronts sit vacant for years OR are niche businesses that the actual tenants dont have an interest in - so it just draws in traffic & kind of defeats the purpose of having storefronts on your ground floor. This, coupled with the fact that most usually don’t have dedicated parking for the people that actually live there - meaning they have to share parking with the shop’s patrons - just results in this being better on paper than when it’s actually put into practice
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
or even midtown seems like it’s the polar opposite as well!! it’s crazy
It's intentional
Agreed a lot of Buckhewd buildings are mirrored glass sometimes blinding at a stop light lol but the air flow is good there too
Likely from the commercial airplanes. They cause clouds and rain. It's kind of sad, and some of it is intentional.
YES! driving thru buckhead, the feeling is completely different. the temperature is always cooler, more of a breeze, way more sun
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.
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
Midtown is a much more liveable neighborhood these days. But it's a problem downtown has that reputation, theres so much history!
Happy to see 1 person that still likes Atlanta! 😂
@@nazmoking3171 im pretty sure that most of the 6.2 million people that live here likes it too. Other than that we would be somewhere else my friend. 😊 Most people choose to live where they enjoy it or even like myself (here in Atlanta where i LOVE it 🙂)
@@emincey7108 I'm glad people like it in Atlanta. A lot of people seem to really like Detroit too since there are millions living there also (and that's apparently what you use as your barometer). I hope they stay here when I move out in Feb to a much nicer area.
@@nazmoking3171 the only difference is Atlanta's population is in the top of fastest GROWING in the NATION not declining. Expected to reach excess of 9 million. That seems like a place where people enjoy living. Im a Realtor... I would know. But anyway, i hpe you move to an area you DO enjoy. Much success. 🙂
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.
Go to Midtown/Westside/Buckhead/Sandy Springs instead. Why do people have to go to a place that only carry the name of "downtown"?
@onetwothreeabc, a city's downtown is supposed to be its historic heart and center. It's fine if there are other areas that are vibrant, but city planners should not ignore the city center/birthplace.
Yea most businesses are closed because their main customers are students and no one really takes classes on Saturdays I noticed the same when I went to campus on a Saturday
You’d be surprised out how vibrant it is outside downtown
There’s a lot more to do in midtown, buckhead, Atlantic station, and Edgewood. You would’ve loved Krog Street Market and Ponce City Market (both are right off the belt line).
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.
How is the Epic Centre in Charlotte? I visited there several times and it has went down since I visited in 2018. I was there during the CIAA tournament and Charlotte doesn't host that anymore.
Downtown is VERY dangerous!!!!
Midtown Atlanta is better than Uptown Charlotte and Atlanta has other walkable neighborhoods like Virginia Highland, Old Fourth Wark, Inman Park, Reynoldstown, and Glenwood Park while Charlotte really only has South End, Plaza Midwood, and NODA. Atlanta just has a lot more walkable areas and better transit than Charlotte
So you lived in Mariettaz not downtown?
These days I just go to Buckhead for everything lol
Downtown Atlanta just feels so weird you’re totally right. I live up 85 in Greenville and our city is way WAY smaller but it is so much more lively. Every weekend feels like a festival.
No it's fucking not lol Midtown is where it's at in Atlanta, not downtown and it's a whole lot more lively than greenville
been there a few times.....Haywood Mall is very nice but Greenville needs to expand its city limits to make driving up 385 less monotonous
Greenville is awesome versus Atlanta
Greenville is overrated. I hope it's crowdedness "weekend festival crowds" lessen as it's growth plateaus.
I live in Greenville and I agree. I was surprised at how dry downtown Atlanta was when I walked there one time. With Atlanta’s overall reputation, I expected it to be Downtown Greenville on steroids lol
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.
Nope . The mayor of Atlanta is now bringing in 129,000 plus illegal aliens headed to the Southern Border and transferred from New York and Chicago ,the city will take the 7 million dollar loan to house free in all city hotels .
There was a thriving scene of artists back in the 80s living in lofts. The city stupidly kicked all of us out, rather than giving an AIR, artist in residence, designation to the lofts, which is done in most cities. Seems nothing has changed. Atlanta hates artists. I left shortly after and never looked back. Good riddance.
Hey bro I live in Macon thinking about moving up to ATL starting up some jobs opening up a shop and gathering barbers and artists for my shop. What’s the cost of living and ROI like up there?
Like everywhere, it's gotten a lot more expensive. But places with the most opportunity are like that. I'm actually considering a move away to a place less expensive. Lot of considerations to weigh though. No easy answers.@@lennyface5540
I own a condo Downtown right at the Five points intersection. I am confident within 10 years this area will be sought after. Lots of investing is happening. Centennial Yards, underground, Five point Marta station, south downtown hotel row are all in the making. I actually enjoy ALL the many restaurants in the area and being in the cities center alleviates traffic commutes. I’m happy with my purchase. Can’t wait till the city get the homeless people under control, to much littering causes the rats to live like kings.
Atlanta was a city I wanted to love, but I never felt it. I grew up outside Atlanta and when I finally moved to the city, I found it lacking and stressful. MARTA Buses were unreliable, the Trains were limited in their reach, and it just demanded more and more driving. I made a lot of great friends in Atlanta, and there are pockets of the vibrant Atlanta my friends always talked about, but in the end, the city just felt draining. The Car is the tool that strangled the life out of Atlanta, and until the state and city government finally get their mouths of that tail pipe, then I don't know if it'll ever truly be fixed.
I sold my car and moved to Philly. Philly has a load of problems, but it's got a lot of charm and I don't need to drive.
Also fuckin hell Atlanta got expensive. All y'all need to stop moving to Atlanta, they are full. That Atlanta y'all were sold on hasn't been around for 10-15 years. (Gotta help my friends and family out and divert people away from Atlanta. It's hard enough to afford rent!)
Lacking and stressful is a perfect way to explain Atlanta. If I’d ever go back to north Georgia I’d visit Athens on a game weekend and that’s it
As someone who has lived in Georgia my whole life. Im sick of people moving here. We are 100% full and the more people come in here, the more negatively communities are impacted by higher rent, food cost, etc. They say the economy is going up, hah sure it is. For the wealthy. As usual. I used to make 70K and have enough. Now I make 110K and I still don't have enough. ATL is not the move.
How's living in Philly compared to Atlanta? I've been considering moving up there during my gap year
All of this is very true I grew up in Atalanta . I moved to Oakland and man between that Berkeley and San Francisco you don’t need a car it’s fantastic.
@@bloodaonadeline8346 Not having a car has changed my life. I never want to go back. Owning a car sucks
I visited Atlanta in 2019. I noticed even then how empty downtown felt just by walking around. I hope they make it more livable and walkable.
Honestly, would you want to walk around the inner city at midnight on a Saturday night? After some drinks and fumbling with your car keys?
Well done. I've lived in Atlanta for 10 years and I can count on one hand the times I've gone downtown when not forced to (jury duty, dmv, etc).
“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.
Crime, traffic, crime, a lack of parking, and crime is what makes Atlanta a city to avoid.
Atlanta is the opposite of avoided. Atlanta stays jam packed year round and it's one of the premier tourist locations in the southeast. I delivered pizza and Chinese food in downtown/midtown for almost 10 years. ALL the hotels stayed full booked year round and there's people galore, 365.
Also humidity, don't forget humidity
Every blue city is a shithole
Underground Atlanta's "creepy underbelly". lol You've got that right, I always felt a little claustrophobic like what if I get trapped in here when I'm down there.
For sure! MJQ moving down there will be reallll interesting
@@nathandavendoes mom cut your hair or is it supposed to be ironic?
Underground Atlanta back when the World of Coke and Fudruckers existed was the spot....not anymore. To symbolize it all...the old clock tower still has an "Airtran" logo on it. That's likely the last time anyone gave a damn unfortunately
Most cities in America morph into lifeless ghost towns during the overnight with little signs of life. Suburban sprawl, time consuming traffic, increasing crime and a lack of enticing dining options have dented the once promising prospects of Atlanta.
I used to live in midtown and it was great. Plenty of people around and stuff going on well after dark.
Downtown is just too heavily populated with office buildings where 90% of the people leave and go home at night. It's a problem with lots of cities that treat downtown strictly as "the business district" and the forget that zoning and approving a variety of uses such as shopping and residential keeps an area lively versus a mono culture of office buildings that basically guarantee the area will be dead after the office workers go home and there's not enough shops and restaurants and people living nearby to keep the area lively.
That may be true, but ATL's sprawl is pretty extreme.
@@Strideo1 I wonder how this can be fixed if these business are already settled there and established. Probably the only thing to get businesses to clear way for other things is monetary government incentive. Ironically, it feels kind of on the par and course for ATL to be set up this way. Almost poetic in a disturbing, metaphorical capitalist way.
I visited from Sweden a few months back and walked from piedmont park to downtown, you can really feel the differences
Nice! I've been to Malmo for a day or so, it was quite nice! Thanks for watching
Glad you made it out unharmed!
@@user-ek1qt2le5n You can tell someone is a bit sheltered when they think you can't walk from Piedmont Park to downtown without coming to harm. 😂
Man I really wouldn't recommend making that walk
Never do this
I attended GA Tech in the early 90's. Techwood Homes was a warzone -- the worst of it usually didn't spill onto campus, but we could hear the gunfire followed by sirens most any night of the week. If you think that leveling Atlanta's version of Mos Eisley was a bad idea, you are an ignorant fool. Making people grow up and live in that ****-hole was the greatest injustice of that place and time.
Great video. I love these deep dives into our city. Now, time for us to act so that downtown is revitalized. Keep it up!
Thanks so much 👊👊 Yeah, the development is coming, although unfortunately it may be quite a few years before it really kicks in
@@nathandavenA series that looks at the neighborhoods around the downtown area & identifies the opportunities (especially where corporations haven’t bought it up, still in local hands) in them would be a great service, if that’s of interest. Comparing improved areas like the east side to the rest, with plans & vision from the city, could lead to a lucrative career to support your music, if desired.
Centennial Yards is moving at a snails pace and it will be the game changer when it's done.
Downtown had always been centered around corporate office spaces where Midtown / Inman Park just north of Downtown has that vibrancy with in-town neighborhoods and connected beltline. Atlanta is pockets where Buckhead is it's own vibe compared to say East Atlanta Village. Downtown needs to follow Midtown's approach to have more of a residential live / work / play lifestyle
Honestly, most cities' downtown are & should be meant for offices and businesses, but they should embrace locals and encourage stimulating the local economy.
i'm active in the local music scene in Atlanta and i go into the city for pretty much every show i play/see. the biggest thing i've noticed in the downtown area especially (some of the shows i go to are in underground Atlanta) is that it's so uninviting. whenever i go out for some fresh air and just take a walk around the area, it's so empty. no pedestrians, the only people i see are the homeless people trying to get some sleep. it's depressing to look at, and in terms of the general vibe it's such a stark contrast from here to my hometown of San Francisco
little late to the party but I've lived in suburban ATL my entire life, have great memories growing up and going downtown via MARTA to see the touristy shit. I'm now a GSU student and yeah it's basically just us students, the business folk, and the homeless. then when the business folk go home at night its just us students and the homeless.
Bro you know the struggle
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate this content. I have been looking for Atlanta-specific urbanism content for a while, so I look forward to seeing when you post next.
Thank you!! Yeah, me as well, a lot of the youtubers i watch seem to avoid talking about Atlanta (and the south), hopefully will have my next one out within the next week!
How can you miss the tons of "Atlanta ain't sht" videos on UA-cam put out by black folks in their 20's?
@@laryanryan9170 I was refering to urbanist content, but I find that content insightful as well :)
It’s because many of us work in Atlanta but don’t live in Atlanta - we live in the outskirts get our money and go. They made it too expensive and hard to get around. I had an apartment in downtown Atlanta that was 1500 when I moved in by the time I was about to move out they wanted me to renew the lease for 2000. For that price I got a 3 bedroom house in Snellville actually less than that. By the time I get off I don’t want to go out all the restaurants etc are cash grabs and taxing with hidden fees and gratuity this is just some of the issues of Atlanta and it keeps getting worse…
Yeah most of us live outside I-285 aka the perimeter
I suspect that the World Cup games being hosted here will accelerate the development downtown, but I’m worried for the homeless community who lives there and may not have anywhere else to go. I know it’s wishful thinking, but I hope the city can come up with a revitalization plan that supports and doesn’t exclude them.
For sure, especially since the recentish closure of peahctree-pine there needs to be some investment in these people. They are doing that temporary shelter thing by garnett but I'm not sure what else is happening: atlanta.urbanize.city/post/marta-parking-lot-rapid-housing-homeless-shipping-containers
Missed this actually! atlanta.urbanize.city/post/funding-homelessness-500-micro-units-city-housing-approved
Unfortunately there will always be homeless people in every major city.
Hopefully the Centennial Yards development will help solve this.
No one wants to live next to homeless people.
Downtown Houston is similar. Even before COVID a lot of businesses were closing. I think automobile traffic also plays a part in keeping people away from downtown areas as well.
The automobile is absolutely a reason. Might be the biggest reason.
I remember years ago there was a plan proposed to expand the Marta to Gwinnett. However a lot of people voted/protested against it. And the the plan never went through. I’ve lived in Atlanta for years now and it seems like the people out in the suburbs don’t want any expand of public transportation and new homes. I always thought that was very odd. Basically NO to everything lol
@@1space-man497well just a month ago we finally got Gwinnett Transit bus on Highway 78/Stone Mountain out to Memorial Drive. Plus they are building apartments on 78
@@1space-man497if they did that the homeless would come to Gwinnett to commit crime and take the train back to the city 🤷🏾♂️
Great quality editing and informed me on stuff I didn’t even know!
Real one 🫡
57 seconds in and I can already feel the anxiety knot in my stomach about the aggressive levels of question begging and causality denial I'm about to hear. Wish me luck.
Urbanism in a nutshell. "Why don't people want to live in cramped apartment complexes next to violent drug addicts??"
@@TheSeandog1234 well you see we still need to dismantle the legacy of white supremacy (#1 threat to Americans as per fact checkers) first so we need to get cracking on that.
@@TheSeandog1234 "Why don't people want to spend a lot of money to live in cramped apartment complexes next to violent drug addicts??" Fixed it for you.
Lol somehow I think he may be driving at something else.
@Pekora-nb6cz Such as?
Love the new format. Great content and information
Great deep dive, and I'm super happy to have stumbled onto your channel! I actually hadn't realized the removal of Techwood, etc was right around the same time as the Olympics. No wonder the residents of cities tend to so vehemently oppose their Olympic bids.
Thanks for watching!! Yeah, theres a lot to read about the olympics and their effects on the host cities.I really like this photography project: www.olympiccityproject.com/
The postwar mentality of rampant consumerism, car-centric commuting, and "urban renewal" have still really not been healed from, and in some ways, have gotten worse. I appreciate this local look! It's really informative
one day it will all be retrofitted, mcmansions will be side by side with 4 story mixed use buildings and strip malls will have the parking lots converted, turning them into arcades, strip malls alone have so much potentional without disturbing original architecture (not all of them are equal, for every 100 that was a cheaply built box theres one outlet center that tried to look nice), the architecture from car centrism, atleast in the 60s-1990s doesen't look to bad and is worth preserving excluding shit like big box stores, many japanese mixed use areas that were upzoned still have old structures
Great video, just found your account. Love that you're bringing awareness to atl urbanism!
Yo thank you! I think I follow your account on IG, appreciate you checking it out!
Imagine ATLiens complaining about traffic when they chose to live in the suburbs
That’s not how it happened. Locals got priced out of their own city.
@@meganharris583traffic was still horrible back when Atlanta was cheap.
@@meganharris583it's a mixture of both those things
I haven’t been into the downtown/midtown area since February 2020.
It’s scary during the day and even scarier at night.
It’s not safe.
I don’t watch local news because it’s all “someone got stabbed”, “someone got shot”, “some apartment building burned”.
The city isn’t what it was when I moved here in the late 70’s and I’m working on getting farther away from it.
It's not scary! I enjoy downtown during weekday business hours but it is unfortunately very dead otherwise unless theres a show or game happening.
The news is always going to zero in on violence. I've been there several times and felt safe. There's a ton of ordinary people during business hours but like others say it gets boring and mostly empty when it's late.
You are just being exposed to it more than you have ever had to, cause of 24/7 news that focuses on that
Don’t ever lump Midtown with downtown again. The two areas could not be more different.
Lol Atlanta was much more dangerous from the late 70s - early 00s
I went to ATL back in 2016 for my birthday. It was the same weekend as GSU and the Falcons opened up their new stadiums for the first time to the public It took an hour to get back to my hotel from Downtown. And I was staying across the street from the GSU Stadium. Literally a 10 minute walk. Nobody local clubbed downtown. They all went to the surrounding areas like Decatur and etc .
(edit) I want to note that in the intro, I say downtown feels "dark" in reference to the lighting, and I'm sorry if it seemed like I meant race negatively, wasn't my intention at all. I had some comments calling this out on the other platforms so wanted to address it -- this is one of my early videos and have made sure to proofread my scripts in future videos for things that can be misinterpreted! Apologies again, thanks for watching, did not expect this video to get so many views!
(original comment) Let me know what y'all think of this new style for the videos, tried to make it much higher production quality! thanks again everyone for watching appreciate y'all 👊
Algorithm boosting
It’s noticeable. Just came from Insta cause it looked pretty interesting. You def need some more over the top extravagant titles if you wanna make the yt algorithm help ya unfortunately
Something like “WHAT Happened to DOWNTOWN ATLANTA??” (not exactly this, but you get it, you already nailed the Upper case on the first words part lol) and a thumbnail that gets more attention. But me personally, this was awesome, keep at it
You have an eye for composition of shots. I liked the camerawork a lot.
Great quality bro
Love the editorial style! 🌟
Well the UA-cam Urbanist-algorithm brought me here. Can't complain though.
Great job on the video, dude! Top notch production quality for just 400 subs. Love to see what's next.
Kind regards,
Subscriber 401
Thanks so much! Really appreciate it, look forward to future videos :)
Me too. I remember all the 1996 Olympics excitement and read Charles Rutheiser's Imagineering Atlanta (Setha Low's urban anthro reader has a chapter from Rutheiser's book which you quote) -- the book is a critique of boosterism Atlanta style. It resonated with me maybe because 20 years earlier I'd met a young woman who couldn't stop talking about how great it was in Atlanta, everyone should move there, etc. John Portman got a lot of good press back in the '70s, maybe that was part of her enthusiasm. Now we know better. Good analysis!
5:47 I love this way of visually citing your sources, definitely makes the materials more readily accessible, thanks!
I’ve lived in Atlanta all my life and I’ve always felt like something was off. Great video!
Thanks for watching!
“The more I think about it, I realize locals view downtown as a theme park instead of a downtown.”
That’s how locals in Las Vegas feel too lol
It's a Destination, not a place to live.
Atlanta is s business center. You go there to work; then you drive out of the city to go home.
Yeah - that's the problem!
As someone who has spent years downtown on weekdays but never on weekends, this captured my feelings pretty perfectly. I hope we can get some actual revitalizing so locals actually go again. We’ve got some progress going with underground, but we need more public transport!
Also amazing production quality bro! I thought for sure you’d have at least 100k subscribers or more!
I love underground! But it's sooo closed off by itself. If only it was surrounded by more of that energy.
Great video man! I totally enjoyed the documentary style format. Very informative in its delivery.
There's an elephant in the room
That elephant is so big you can hear it breathe…but everyone else pretends they dont hear it
I'm missing the reference. Can you elaborate please? No sarcasm, I'm honestly asking
@@krystalkasprzyk1789Republican maybe? Not sure
Blks?
@@olimacluna6987precisely
Back in the day when many folks moved from the small small towns and moved into boom town Atlanta. Like all boom towns it attracts the other elements too seeking to cash in without the buy in. Affordable housing was a HUGE draw and folks could live and work close by and still have fun.
But when lots of folks GET wind of a good thing folks rush in like the gold rush, prices go up, those who can't make it legitimately hustle and con, crime rises
and then the bough breaks and folks head for the hills for affordability and to get away from what they flocked to in the first place.
I just left Atlanta 4 days ago and I stayed in college park and in downtown. The airport was bustling, my hotels had plenty of guests and the one downtown had 3 conventions going on.
Atlanta is NOT dead but is thriving. There was lots goung on but it was refreshing that it was not overwhelming and over crowded.
I think in America we are fixated on the idea that to be relevant, ther must be hordes of people, lots of noise, lights and cameras and people hooping and hollering into the wee hours of the morning.
Nonsense. I walked around downtown and actually felt fine.
There were,a couple of dusties who tried to finesse me with a sob story. I handed him a five and kept going.
Met some interesting people as well. Also bear in mind about Atlanta. It only has 400k residents so no one should reasonably expect it to be on a par with Chicago, L.A. or New York. Be realistic.
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. ✅🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
@kellycoxcicanco5806---Quito is not safe at all at night and questionable during the day. Todo ciudad grande esta mismo.
Thanks for the video! Very informative😊
Thanks for watching!
I went to GSU up until like 2015-2016 and yeah the idea of downtown being "user" focused matches my experience perfectly.
I didn't feel like there was anywhere to go or just "be",
if I wasn't sitting down somewhere to spend money on something or be inside a school building, downtown felt like shit and was just a stressful intermediate location to get anywhere else lol
At this point whatever downtown should offer is probably done better by the BeltLine and everything branching off it right?
The safety issues really killed student life for me. I felt like I didn't miss much out being a commuter when most of the people I knew on campus stuck to their dorms or went outside of downtown to hangout. I would go out with friends in Midtown and GT late in the night but you wouldn't catch me on GSU past early evening.
The campus has certainly gotten a bit better since your time and I liked the restaurants but yeah areas outside just offer more. Not much the school can do imo when it's so integrated into downtown. Which is unfortunate since there's a lot of potential for a school that's integrated into the city.
Man I had some people visit from Europe and we went to Ponce and downtown and I was like “dang there really is nothing to do around here, I feel bad” I’m from the Atlanta suburbs originally but jeez it hit me how much Atlantas downtown really is lagging
Hahaha ponce is def always everyones first pick!
If your go to places are ponce and downtown....
The only excitement I get living in Atlanta is going to Publix😅😅
@@johnappleseed8146 uh yeah because I don’t live in Atlanta and only had like 3 hours to spend. I was expecting more downtown, like an actual European city center, but there’s nothing there. Oh yeah and we were walking, so nothing outside of those ranges is in good walking distance anyway…
Compare almost any American city to almost any European city (including Montreal) and you start to feel like this place is just a flimsy facade.
Sometimes I wish my ancestors has just ridden it out and stayed where they were.
Yk, I normally don’t watch yt from Instagram, but this was just too good! Nice vid man!
Hey thank you so much! appreicate it 👊
Great video man!
This was a great video. I just recently visited Atlanta for the first time and I completely agree. One of the weirdest part was it being night yet so quiet. There was not much to walk to in the downtown. Not many coffee shops or restaurants, though I enjoyed midtown.
Yeah downtown closes down basically after 6pm.
Lived in a suburb of ATL for nearly 25 years. Went to Downtown twice - once for Underground (it was loud, super-packed and yet had almost nothing to do - I think it was Freaknic or something, pre-2000) and once to visit City Hall for some business in which I could find 0 parking in the area (which baffles me to this day) and got a ticket.
I moved away in 2021, over 1000 miles away.
I don't regret it. I like to say about Atlanta it's too hot, too crowded and too expensive.
Exceptional Video, Nathan!
This popped up on my feed and made me smile. I am a proud Georgia State Alumnus, and one of my final and favorite electives was Urban Sociology. I studied there all four years and saw downtown change from 2012 to 2016.
Eyes on the Street is a concept that allowed for mix-use development, meaning residents lived above, and businesses were open below; that way, throughout the day and night, there is movement and visible eyes on the street, which would prevent crime and be more welcoming. John Portman practiced the City Beautiful concept, which aimed to make significant, unique skyscrapers for aesthetics but needed to be more welcoming for people who lived there after hours.
I hope Centennial Yards will bring the residential population up to redevelop most of Downtown, especially next to Georgia State's campus.
You can learn more from Urbanist Jane Jacobs.
well made video thank you for covering this. i’d love to see more content on atlanta 🔥
I've lived in Atlanta for many years, and no matter what the City of Atlanta has tried, nobody - and I mean, nobody - wants to live in downtown. Not even Georgia State students, which has increasingly taken over and absorbed more properties. Downtown exists primarily for conventions, businesses, and tourists hurriedly getting back to their hotels. Midtown has become the true downtown of Atlanta.
You can't get people to live in places where there's no residential development either. There's entire sections of Downtown that are nothing but commercial and office with no residential buildings whatsoever. This is how areas feel "dead" after business hours because literally every one in those areas goes home at night and leaves entire sections of the city almost completely empty. You can't have somewhere around 30 square blocks of city that are overwhelmingly office with hardly any residential buildings and not expect the area to turn into an abandoned husk after hours. It's just bad city planning.
Growing up in the Atlanta metro area in the 2000's, I remember downtown being filled with people & activity at all times. Underground Atlanta was a destination spot, with the original World of Coke and many shops/restaurants making it a family friendly place to visit. Fast forward to the 2010's and everything changed. We had a rule in our family...you don't go downtown unless there's a sporting event, concert or convention. Unfortunately that's all that mattered to the city, because if none of those 3 things were happening, downtown was NOT the place to be. Many businesses tried to revitalize the area but the city made it clear they only catered to event attendees
Now that I've visited elsewhere, both in the US and UK, it's a joke that a city like Atlanta has such a wasted space downtown. Hopefully my kids one day can walk the streets without fear
"Hopefully my kids one day can walk the streets without fear". When the homeless are expelled from the city. And it won't happen.
I'm young and I walk downtown Atlanta without fear as it is. Nearly everyone I see out seems normal. It didn't seem like nearly as much homeless as, say, Bakersfield CA, which isn't even really a "city".
I came here early 2000s… it has definitely changed. It doesn’t feel the same. I like being here but downtown is not appealing to me
Downtown St. Louis is like that also. A ghost town on the weekends except for the arch area or sporting events
I’ve been in Atlanta my whole life and rarely ever go downtown.
Dallas has totally reinvented its downtown over the last 20 years. Old abandoned office buildings were converted to residential and hotels. New Residential was added. New parks were created. Surface parking lots were re-purposed. Police keep it safe. The key is to bring more residential downtown. Everything else will follow.
It really is, it's jsut extremely expensive I think so thats why its slow going. Office to residential conversions are in the works though
When I lived there, you'd go out to Greenville Avenue. Why does the government keep pouring money into places nobody wants to go?
Downtown ATL isn't fun or interesting unless there is a specific event going on. And then the traffic makes you wish you never went.
Great video just got yourself a new subscriber. I hope that UA-cam and social media can allow us younger generation to come together to improve our cities in the US.
Super interesting video, and very well done. Thanks!
Love your channel. Keep it up!
thanks so much!!
Downtown has always rolled up the sidewalks after business hours.
I worked for a local driving school in the late 90's. I used to run my students downtown so they could get some one-way street practice.
Actual exchange:
Student: Wow, I've never been down here before.
Me: Yeah? Where ya from?
Student: Roswell.
Atlanta was a great place to live , work and play, years ago! between all the Gentrification and all the transplants bringing in there drama and criminals coming from all over the US, that city has lost its Flair, cost of living expense and no southern culture at all, many other things that made it worth the city. It has hit it's peak. Now it's going backwards
enjoyed watching, nice production
Absolutely love this video and am so so excited for this channel! For my money, Downtown ATL is THE most promising area in the city. I appreciate your shoutout to the Fairlie-Poplar/Broad St Promenade area. I dream of a day where those streets are pedestrian-only stretches of markets, restaurants, and bars.
I'm concerned that all of Atlanta's kitschy "Disneyfication" is unfairly maligned. While I understand that John Portman and the Olympics wiped out tons of street blocks and history, I think there's a lot of amazing ideas and fun quirks in Peachtree Center, Underground Atlanta, and Centennial Olympic Park. Architecture that's 30-40 years might look ugly or tacky now but it'll fall into fashion in another 20 years and look awesome and historic if we maintain it. Old-Atlanta Fairlie-Poplar is great; kitschy, dorky Peachtree Center is great; new ideas like Centennial Yards are great, and we can have all of it. Thrilling!
Also, Underground Atlanta is creepy and weird, but that's what makes it perfect for Atlanta's weird underground culture. It's maybe the most exciting part of Atlanta, and many aren't aware of the amazing artists spaces there. Please anyone go see a show at The Inner Space or come by on a First Friday market.
The first time I went to Atlanta I found it strange that no one was walking in downtown. Florida has vibrant downtowns of all sizes. Tampa, stpetesburg, Dunedin and Sarasota just to name a few.
Counter point: Miami.
@@totorobenA couple other counter-points: Orlando & Jacksonville
I've been to downtown 3 times this year and found a lot of people walking around. But perhaps it's sporadic.
the best part of atlanta is buckhead and midtown
There’s a good reason for that - hopefully you figured it out.
The people that live around Atlanta know why you don’t go in the city at night it’s a shame you didn’t get some feed back from the locals to show on your video to warn people
Randomly found your videos and really enjoy the content!
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
This was how I felt about downtown LA when I visited on a Sunday. The office areas and restaurants nearby were all just closed at 1 pm. Only found signs of life when I went to the area near Grand Central market. My Idaho city of 25K at the time had a livelier downtown than LA...but now I'm in downtown San Diego and it is far more active too with markets on the street, Petco Park and Gaslamp, and the Embarcadero.
I stayed in downtown LA recently and it was one of the worst decisions I’ve made in my travels. Their downtown is terrible on so many levels. There were rats everywhere, they have a sad homeless crisis and it becomes very dangerous at night. Not a good place to enjoy a vacation😑
@@Mark-oy1wv l was lucky to not stay the night there, but yeah sounds awful with the homeless population
Good analogy. I would say downtown LA is very comparable to downtown Atlanta. Neither is the heart of their cities. I live in Midtown Atlanta but work in downtown Atlanta, and even I don’t know what people do downtown after 5pm. I visit LA often and always stay in West Hollywood. I just know that downtown LA is not a thing, whereas those visiting Atlanta don’t know that the same is true for downtown Atlanta.
@@Mark-oy1wv everyone knows you dont stay in downton la lol. its a 9-5 center with some good mexican food thats it
I’m from Nashville tn and our downtown always has something going on major concerts and back to back bar hopping with lots of roof tops . It’s nothing for us to have a few hundred thousand at a time or more on bigger events or several going at one time .. I would have thought ATL would be the same with the way people hype it up
I went to that very same wheel last year. Within 20 minutes, I was asked for money 4x, saw a guy fight a homeless guy, some guy yelling at the road, and another guy running a parking scam (even had signs saying pay here, dont listen to other people) I was on edge the whole time
Good job, Nathan appreciate your efforts
The sharpie people ruined it
I don’t think you can blame “policing” for the problems, but a lack of policing that kills certain neighborhoods. Atlanta at least has a lot less homeless people than other cities I have lived in, but there are some sections in or near downtown that are basically ruined with excessive crime and poverty. The problem for business downtown I’d say mainly stems from Covid 19 and all the people who relocated out to the suburbs and exurbs to get away from the extremely restrictive city laws… plus many people could then work from home. This devastated the economy downtown by taking away a lot of its business, as well as the 2020 riots and looting which killed even more businesses. Now Atlanta has a lot more commuter activity with highways like the 75 chronically choked with traffic, often just as bad as Los Angeles. Surrounding bedroom cities like Marietta, John’s Creek, and Woodstock are exploding like crazy with development but Atlanta remains a victim of its own bad policy.
After 6pm is starts to feel a “little dark”
Your channel showed up in my feed. Good urban insights, and you have a engaging writing style. I have family south of the city, in Newnan, and have been to ATL several times (Piedmont Park is terrific- we have nothing like that in Seattle). Amtrak needs to have a downtown station- the current station hard by I-85 up north is sorry indeed!
I’m from Newnan (30 min south of Atlanta) and all that’s in Atlanta is braves games, concerts, and the aquarium. Everything else is lackluster, and awful nightlife (which is crazy because 20 years ago that’s a huge part of what it was known for). Fun to come home and visit, but glad I’ve left
Great video Nathan! The voice of the people for Atlanta urbanism??
Thanks dog great seeing you here!! 🫡
Downtown Atlanta is basically just one big office building. People drive in a 8 am and out at 5 pm. There aren't enough mixed use properties to support any other activities. Plus the city is actively hostile to pedestrians and any form of transport other than cars.
In 2022, I went to Underground for the first time and it was completely dead. Nothing was open, a lot of businesses closed, and nobody else was down there. I felt like I entered a weird liminal space. This video is great and super informative!
Someone told me once "Atlanta is more like a fake city" he was rigth
Fulton County taxes, Fulton County crime, Fulton County corruption...for a start.
Those who actually live in metro Atlanta, such as Buckhead, Virginia Highlands, Ansley Park, Brookwood Hills, Peachtree Hills, Morningside, etc. rarely venture into midtown at night and even fewer go downtown unless they have work.
Many of the suburbs have vibrant areas that are safer, less of hassle/cost for parking, etc.
Atlanta is a victim of its own stupidity.
We lived in P-tree Hills and would often visit Buckhead, L5P, Virginia Highlands, Midtown, etc, before things got worse, we couldn't get out of there fast enough to the northern suburbs, thankfully before the Fulton County property taxes went insane.
Left the northern suburbs too, shortly after the Mall of GA was opened and sprawl from the north met sprawl from the south, east and west, with the traffic, taxes and crime increases.
If I never have to go to Atlanta again, that's a win. Even connecting through the airport is a dystopian nightmare.
Out of curiosity, would you have actually stayed here in Atlanta if the sprawl didn't require that you drive for all the things you need? You moved from one low density neighborhood, to an even lower density area of the metro area.
If that was too busy for you then I don't think you're the target audience of this video because it sounds like you may just not like cities at all. Which is totally fine!
I think the point here is the urban core of the city basically rotted away and ended up in the sorry state it's in because we willingly destroyed the human scaled built environment that existed prior to the 60s/70s to serve people driving in via cars from their low rise single family neighborhoods. In other words, we did this to ourselves.
@@ACDog100 Originally from NYC, and lived in other cities; so no problem with cities. Having kids was a key reason for moving outside of the perimeter.
I'd live in a city again but it would have to be the right city for me, which isn't Atlanta as it was around 10 years ago when we left.
Living on a coastal island since leaving metro-ATL where I can walk to the beach and enjoy ocean activities mostly sailing/boating. Great place to raise kids too!
Been going to Atlanta since I was little. I really do like the level of journalism you put into this video and go into detail on the causes affecting the decline of downtown.
I really enjoyed watching this video. I lived near downtown Atlanta in various places between 1992 and 2020. I saw the changes that the 1996 Olympics brought, and I saw them as mostly positive. Centennial Olympic Park is a lasting improvement. There were infrastructure and streetscape improvements, as well as rapid new development on the Georgia Tech campus. In fact, in 1992, I lived in the Techwood Housing Project, a building of which was a Georgia Tech dorm. In 1993, I lived across the street and saw the demolition of the housing project and the start of the Olympic Village construction. During the 90's and early 2000's, a lot of older downtown buildings were renovated and turned into condos. I felt a lot of excitement at the time, and I thought that some parts of downtown might become more residential. Since I worked near downtown, I bought a nearby, newly built condo. The logic was that I would have less traffic to fight, and gas prices would only go up. Gas prices never went up as much as I expected, but it was still nice to have a 10 minute morning commute.
I ran the inflation calculator on my salary, and it has barely outpaced inflation over the years. Meanwhile, property values have gone up significantly over the past 20 years as people are moving into the area. An apartment that I used to rent for $532 a month including water and parking, now goes for $1,360 plus parking and water. It increasingly gets more difficult for people to afford housing, so they have to live farther away from downtown.
Homelessness in Atlanta has always been an issue, both before and after the Olympics. I wouldn't necessarily say that the homeless were dangerous, but there was persistent panhandling through the years. I don't personally have the answer on how to solve the homeless problem, but I think almost nobody does. I would say that most are homeless due to mental illness or substance abuse issues. To solve the root cause of each person's issues would cost a lot of taxpayer money for in-patient treatment. The city can't maintain its streets properly, and I figure that the city prioritizes street maintenance over improving conditions for the homeless.
Remembering how the city quickly transformed during the Olympics, I kept waiting to see more improvements. When I bought my condo, the area was transitioning. Over the next eight years, everything around the condo was torn down and rebuilt, and the sidewalk was improved. After the mortgage crisis of 2008, progress seemed to stagnate for about 10 years. Things were just beginning to recover until the pandemic hit. Ultimately, the timing was right for me to move to the suburbs. I'm not going to live forever, so I moved to an area that was designed for the people living there.
Pretty spot on! It’s kinda embarrassing too. When companies hosts events here they go downtown and book their hotels and it doesn’t give the best impression of the city. Downtown feels neglected, seedy and unsafe. It’s sad no mayor tried to invest since the Olympics. I’m optimistic as things are trending in that direction however it’s still gonna take some years of investment.
As an Atlanta resident I can assure you. You will get your car broken into
My car was broken into at six flags in
You sure? I was thinking about going lol
@@Ellie80681Its the car jacking capital of the world
@@matttheradartechnician4308 I went after I sent the picture and nothing happened. I parked on the street and have a newer car.. left it for 3 days. sooo…. I think some ppl over exaggerate.
Great presenttion! Thanks for keeping it real
Well documented. Good job
This is a problem in a lot of American Downtowns. Even the Chicago Loop, while better than Atlanta, is highly office focused and dies out a lot on nights and weekends. Luckily The Loop population is rapidly growing, even since Covid, as we realize having downtown dedicated to offices only isn’t sustainable. I hope to see this trend continue in other major American cities like Atlanta!
The Loop is just the southern part of downtown Chicago. North of the river, it's less "office focused."
Chicago downtown is dope.
@@JdeC1994 true. You could say a similar thing about Atlanta, Midtown is just north of Downtown and is much better
When I first visited for a convention in 2003, I chose to walk to in the opposite direction of downtown, going by south of the GA Dome into a “real” neighborhood that looked ready for revitalization, & certainly not where a tourist was expected to go! Still looks like it’s ready despite some new housing.
Thats cool you did so! Its changed a lottt since then. Summerhill is seeing a ton of redevelopment. The braves moved to Cumberland, so GSU bought the stadium. Now the parking lots surrounding areas are seeing a lot of dense development, and MARTA's first rapid transit line since 2000 is being built through there (BRT) www.itsmarta.com/summerhill.aspx
Good vid keep it up
I remember when Maynard Jackson was elected the first black mayor of Atlanta back in the early 1970s. The white residents fled in record numbers to north Atlanta and downtown Atlanta devolved into a war zone reminiscent of Bruit...