Atlanta, urban development, and peach milkshakes

Atlanta is a wonderful city! In my two days here, it's been great to see the sights and enjoy the weather, among other things. And oh yes, the food. about that.

So tonight I decided to try out Zesto's, a famous eatery with a delicious double decker and great milkshakes and ice cream. Little did I know that I would also recall something that I read about atlanta before as well.

My walk began in the heart of midtown atlanta, a place where atlanta has prospered and grown in the last half century. immediately after world war II, racism became a point of contention, with the bombing of a synagogue in the 50's, due to the rabbi being a major proponent of integration. the civil rights movement started shortly thereafter, with the city gaining a reputation as the city as "being too busy to be racist". This is evident in the plethora of fortune 500 companies that currently reside here, notables including AT&T, Coca Cola, Home Depot and the USPS. Rubbermaid, Arby's Chick fil-a, Georgia Pacific, etc. also have HQs in the area. The city's midtown hosts many of them.

At any rate, I went to Zestos, which is a mile from the midtown rail station. After a couple blocks of nice highrises and luxury apartment complexes, things changed. immediately. The first thing I saw was the Atlanta transitional center. it was interesting, and I moved on, oblivious of what was to come. then I saw Chico and Changs.



It was the beginning of a transformed city. Places like these are indicative of a bad area, along with the other following places i've observed. There was a KFC, followed by a taco bell, a macdonalds, and a popeyes chicken on the same block. on the other side of the street, a mattress retail store, a hot wings place, broken glass, and, among other things, apartments with yelling going on from the balconies.

So, if you go back to wikipedia, you'll find that with the success of fortune 500 companies in the downtown and midtown, middle-high class white people came to inhabit the central areas of urban densities. Urban developments did force poorer black people to the periphery, leading to atlanta becoming a place of gentrification, even though racial tolerance became a mode-de-vivre in the words and images of the city.

It was getting dark and I was beginning to be the most scared i've ever been.



But it was worth it. best burger i've ever had, as well as one of the best milkshakes (peach!) ever.



^_^.