Impetus: Residents of English Avenue, near the site of the new Falcons Mercedes-Benz Stadium, express their staunch unwillingness to sell their properties in light of potential progressive development
Honestly, I’d take this whole campaign a whole lot more seriously, if it weren’t called “Unite or Die.”
Unite… or die? Death, as a result of not joining others in a subjective cause? That seems kind of extreme, and under the right (or wrong) circumstances, potentially extremely illegal.
Seriously, it sounds as absurd as the old Nintendo game, Skate or Die, and about as silly of a premise there as well.
Delving a little bit into the Unite or Die campaign and their subsequent website (unlinked, because I don’t really want to promote something that can be easily Google’d), I get what they’re trying to do. The voice is a little too black militant and tiptoeing a little too much on the racial fault line for my comfort, but I understand their goals and objectives.
But seriously, their name is so stupid, I just can’t take it seriously, or get over the fact that taken literally, are saying “everyone should join together to fight The Man, or else die.” By whose hand? The Man? The Man doesn’t want to kill people, people are the biggest source of income for The Man. Are the people who are trying to unite people going to whip out guns and knives and murder people who wish not to unite? I mean, some people are loners, or don’t care, and don’t want anything to do with the affairs of others. If that’s the case, then those seeking uniting should be looked at with skepticism.
Why does it have to be death as the alternative to choosing to not unite? What if people disagree with those affiliate with Unite or Die? Are those people condemned to death? Should they fear for their lives? Could they, legitimately get people arrested for conspiracy to murder, or at least threats, because they do not wish to Unite?
I can’t get over how stupid the name is. But doing my best and getting back to the story at hand, I’d be willing to hypothesize that residents of English Avenue haven’t been offered jack shit, and at this stage in the game, probably won’t for quite some time. I feel like this is some preemptive reverse psychology attempt to make it look like the people who live there wouldn’t sell their dilapidated homes within the shantytown known as the Westside, to kind of attempt to manufacture interest and potential defiance from those with deep pockets who might actually want to own the land within the next few years.
Seriously, I’ve driven down English Avenue before (there’s an AMAZING fried chicken restaurant near it, as terribly racist it may sound, it’s so true though), and believe me, there’s no homes on the street worth the cost of a Toyota Camry, much less being worth big, get-the-fuck-out-of-here money. I feel like by putting up a front that they refuse to sell, they’re basically crying out that they want to be offered money to sell, because usually in cases like this, early attempts to displace existing residents often times goes in favor of the residents, whom usually have a few rounds of negotiating available before shit like imminent domain is pulled out and forcible eviction can emerge.
But yeah, I think people living on English Avenue are basically trying to create buzz about their existence, and hope that the right people catch wind of them, and realize “shit, we have to get that land, so we can have parking garages for our stadium that will house a team that will never win a Super Bowl.” And if they’re lucky, developers will offer them $175,000 for their $90,000 properties, and they’ll take the money so fucking fast, it’ll leave a trail of smoke like Road Runner.
It would be funny to see them actually stand true to Unite or Die and actually turn down the money. I could see Mercedes shelling out the money to alternatively build essentially, the Great Wall of Atlanta to wall off the Westside from even being able to look at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium rather than pay a bunch of obtuse money grubbers anything for their ghetto. And if something like that were to occur, then it would be more like United to Death, lol.
