Atlanta Impressions Summary

I took a vacation in Atlanta, Georgia from March 24th to March 30th 2007. A friend and former apartment-mate of mine, Di Yin, came for part of the week; the rest of the time I was left to explore on my own.

Here's a summary of my overall impressions of Atlanta.

Friendliness:
People in Atlanta are friendly. On day three, Di Yin asked, "Are people here friendly, or do they just like you?" And I think people here are simply friendly. Their body language and expressions are more open than in other parts of the country. They're more willing to have conversations. And the effect is contagious. By the end of my trip, I found myself more willing to start and continue conversations with people I didn't know.

Culture:
Although it wasn't obvious to me whether any particular person I met was very religious or extremely socially conservative, it was obvious the preponderance of the media was. Many television stations that my various hotel rooms received broadcast preachers. Multiple billboards advertised radio or television stations that were "safe for the whole family." And the AM band was filled with conservative talk shows. (Of course, this might not be uncommon; I never listened to AM radio in other states.) But even on one such a show, I was still surprised to hear the extreme positions I did. One host encouraged people to "breed" in order to "fight Islamo-Naziism" (or "traditional Muslims in general"). That's pretty extreme. (It might have even been extreme for the host, as he got and took lots of calls disagreeing with him.) Another host advocated for denying bank accounts to illegal immigrants. In addition, one morning I woke up to a (Christian) television show explaining why embryonic stem cells shouldn't be used for experimentation, and interviewing scientists making progress doing research with other types of stem cells. It's possible all these conservative perspectives are to serve the communities outside Atlanta, as about half the people I talked to within Atlanta had moved there from somewhere far away that's not known for having similar social attitudes (Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, etc.).

In a possibly related note, I found I could only get limited reception of Atlanta's NPR station. In some parts of the city, I couldn't receive the signal well enough to comfortably listen.

Houses:
On day two, we drove through the east side of Atlanta on Ponce de Leon. We were struck by how pretty everything was. Mile after mile had mansions, ordinary single family homes, and rolling green parks. Every house was architecturally distinctive. We presumed this area must be special. However, as I drove around the city throughout the rest of the trip, I realized most of Atlanta is filled with equally beautiful houses, all appearing unique. Many were in the style of neoclassical antebellum houses. I never saw any neighborhoods made predominately of cookie-cutter houses like one sees often on the outskirts of cities in California.

Getting Around / Is Sprawl Bad?
Atlanta surprised me with the size of its interstates. Some has six lanes in each direction. In fact, I think the interstates are on average larger than those in Los Angeles, but with one important distinction: many interstates, even the ones that travel through Atlanta proper, are well forested. As such, they're very pleasant places to drive. (Yes, they become slow during rush hour and that makes them less pleasant at those times.) I can easily see why people are willing to live far out of town and commute to work (i.e., why there is sprawl). Indeed, it makes even more sense when one considers that the house one goes home to is not the typical image of a sprawl house (i.e., cookie cuter) but rather is distinctive and individual.

Judging from where I went, public transit appears of very limited use. Many people seem to drive. That said, I didn't use public transit, so maybe I missed the secrets.

I was amused to find many roads with Peachtree in the name. It's a popular and prestigious address, and apparently multiple times businesspeople have asked, successfully, that the local government change the name of a street to Peachtree so that their business has a better address. In other street naming oddities, I found a road simply named Boulevard.

I'm might as well drop this remark here, as it doesn't seem to go with any particular day: the rental car I used began beeping the instant I opened a door, and started the car alarm if I didn't get the keys into the ignition soon after. Only when I'd really hurried did I make it before the alarm triggered. When I failed and it went off a few times, I received some inquisitive looks.

Sights:
Atlanta doesn't have the quantity of cultural attractions of truly metropolitan cities like Montreal, San Francisco, and New York. Nevertheless, I had enough stuff to see to fill up the five full days plus change I was there.

An International City?
Near the end of Di Yin's visit, we discussed whether Atlanta was "an international city." She observed that it tries to be. (Case in point: see the series of pictures of flags on day three.) It needs more diversity (besides whites and African-Americans) to be truly an international city.

Food:
Atlanta has a growing food scene. You can find what you want if you look for it. Usually you do have to look. I was surprised and a bit disappointed to find myself agreeing with Frommer's complaint that, with the increasing incursion of international food into Atlanta, traditional Southern cooking is becoming harder and harder to find. Perhaps the diminishment of Southern cooking (which usually involves lots of frying) is a recent event or is limited to the restaurant scene (as opposed to home cooking)--people in Atlanta run on the large size. Di Yin observed at one point that big can be beautiful and that, in fact, some of these women wouldn't look good small/thin.

One guide book described a restaurant as "spicy but good." The little things, such as the choice of a conjunction, can reveal much about the attitude and expectations of the writer (and perhaps Atlantans in general) toward food. (When spicy food is edible and tasty, it's surprising?)

Peach cobbler was the only item on my list of dishes to eat in Atlanta that I did not get to experience. Georgia (and Southern Carolina, but that's another story and interesting battle) is famous for its peaches. Nevertheless, I couldn't find peaches or cobbler anywhere. I guess the season wasn't yet right.

Weather:
During my visit, it was unseasonably warm, but not uncomfortably so. Usually the highs this time of year are in the upper 60s; this week was more like low 80s. In fact, the weather supposedly went directly from winter to summer, making spring come at all once and causing everything to bloom simultaneously, which was pretty stunning. Pollen hit record levels. It made the local and even some national news. Surprisingly, it didn't bother me. Di Yin, on the other hand, sneezed quite a bit. In another weather anomaly, it didn't rain any of the six or so days I was in town. Thus, pollen remained in the air, irritating lungs and settling on cars, sometimes so much so as to change some car's (like mine's) color.

The first sentence of one guidebook's section on Atlanta is, "A warm embrace greets visitors to Atlanta." As I stepped out of the airport, I realized how true it was. (And, as I mentioned in the friendliness section, it's figuratively true as well.)

Neat Historical Facts:
Guide books often have neat tidbits that I wasn't aware of:

• Georgia borders North Carolina, not just South Carolina.
• Georgia was expelled from the United States in 1869. (Obviously, it rejoined later.)
  
• Slavery was banned in Georgia until 1750. The guide books claim the ban was primarily lifted for economic reasons.
• Georgia's been invaded by kudzu, a hardy Japanese vine. (Yet, I looked for it during my trip and didn't spot any.)
• The Appalachian Trail was made in the 1920s and 1930s. (I thought it was much earlier.)