Tag: ohatlanta

lol South Fulton #437

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I last took some time to write about some buffoonery going on in the Metro Atlanta area, but a combination of time, timing and often times the fact that I haven’t really been seeking them out nearly as fervently as I had in the past has led to this particular type of draft.

But I saw this particular article, and then like riding a bike, it all came back to me pretty quickly why I always liked writing about the bullshit that occasionally happens here, because they tend to hit levels and tangents that I really wonder if people living in other cities see like we do here in Atlanta.

Long story short, the City of South Fulton AKA the part of town I used to live in, bought a tank.  Despite their insistence that they didn’t buy a tank, they dropped nearly $400,000 on a heavily armored vehicle known as a “BearCat.”  It basically looks like the Christopher Nolan Batman version of the Batmobile Tumbler after Bane seized control over all of Batman’s shit after he drove him into exile.  The image above is the aforementioned Batmobile, but the link provided will take you directly to what the new South Fulton tank looks like, and frankly there’s not a tremendous amount of difference between the two.

Sure, I’ve made tons of jokes about the rapidly degrading, warzone-like conditions of South Fulton since I got the fuck out of dodge, and it’s no secret to anyone paying attention to local news that the crime rate and magnitude south of I-20 is a tad bit higher than the rest of the Metro area comparatively, but I can’t really agree that introducing a tank into the arsenal of the horrifically undermanned police department is really going to do much for the entire area other than make people think the wrong message is being sent and/or a tremendous waste of money.

Obviously, there’s a lot of speculation that getting a tank is more or less a great big toy expenditure by some bureaucrat trying to play politics and send some sort of bold messaging to whomever might be paying attention, and ultimately in the end, nothing consequential is probably actually going to happen to the buffoons who green-lit the purchase of a tank.  But in terms of the all-important perception-is-reality mentality of the world, it does seem like it would look a little embarrassing if there’s some pretty low-tier misdemeanor weapons incident, but then the Batmobile shows up with some regular cop cars at the scene of the crime.  More so, if the presence of a tank is interpreted as an act of aggression and it escalates the situation and then there are three dead black teenagers at the end of the day, laying slain in front of, a tank.

But hey, the whole thing is being sold as this “protecting the police” narrative, so that alone is going to easily garner a lot of support for it as a whole.  And I definitely am a proponent for protecting the police, but I can’t help but think that $377,000 might have been better spent hiring, several more cops, because I think strength in numbers might be more protective for police units than, a singular tank.  But hey, if the mayor of South Fulton wanted a tank, well now he’s got one.  I’d say I can’t wait for it to start showing up on the news, but the sad reality is that nobody ever hears of South Fulton on the news unless there’s some tragic killings or embarrassing faux pas, to where the existence of a tank probably won’t matter if it’s in the equation or not.

So yeah, the City of South Fulton has a tank now.  Neat!

Double standards sure are funny

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Came across this article about a restaurant opening up; named “Black Gurl Brunch Club.”

Pretty sure if any other demographic attempted to utilize a similar hierarchy, there would be some heads rolling.  White Guy Steakhouse, Latinas Tacos and Empanadas, Korean Guy Soju Shack and Bollywood Girl Street Food would probably wrinkle some eyebrows and ruffle a few feathers, if people from those respective demographics attempted to open businesses with such ludicrous names.

Despite the restaurant’s claim that the restaurant is “for everyone:”

Though Black Gurl Brunch Club’s name highlights a specific demographic group, Lavender said the restaurant itself is meant for everyone. 

“The majority of our fan base is black women,” she said. “So we wanted to be appreciative of that. Young black women are alienated a lot, so we wanted them to feel comfortable here. But the restaurant is about everyone coming together to celebrate each other. Everyone is welcoming, and everyone is welcome.”

When you use a name that sounds like you’re only welcoming a specific demographic, you’re basically pigeon-holing your expected demographic, and probably going to automatically scare off most people not in it, from ever visiting.  Most people aren’t going to check a website or social media to see if they’re allowed to come in, they’re just not going to come in.  I’d wager that is somewhat of a calculated expectation, and they’re saying they welcome all just to cover their bases, but in the end, it’s really a place meant for black gurls.

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If omens were a thing, it’s good I’m skipping Dragon*Con this year

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I’m sure I’ve written about it already, it’s hard to keep track when everything is kept offline, but I’m not going to Dragon*Con this year, and I’m frankly at peace with that choice.  At the same time, I don’t see the need to make an announcement over social media or anything because I’m really nobody, and nobody is going to care anyway.  I also don’t want to be perceived as a downer dunking on the con, because I don’t dislike the convention one bit, it’s just that I can’t seem to find the magic recipe in order to actually have a good time anymore.  So instead of risking impeding the anticipation and excitement for others, I’ll just keep quietly to myself writing my thoughts on a brog that isn’t even online.

But back to the point, if omens really did exist, then I think it’s a good thing that I’m skipping out this year.  I’m not sure how many outside of Atlanta actually heard, but at the Sheraton AKA the hotel where goers usually have to go pick up their registrations, there was an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, which is basically pneumonia on steroids not too long ago, and the hotel has been under a lot of fire and criticism about their sanitation and safety.  A lot of people were afflicted with the ailment, and there was one reported death attributed to it.

There was a lot of speculation on whether or not the hotel could get the green light before Dragon*Con or not, to which of course they would, because Labor Day weekend is such a cash meteor for the entire city, that the Sheraton is going to damn well make sure that they can take part in collecting from the money printer as well.  But the fact of the matter is that they did do a rush job in order to get cleared, which they supposedly are, but skeptics like me can’t help but wonder just what shortcuts were taken in order to get the green light, and honestly short cuts are what probably led to the hotel becoming a ground zero for Legionnaires’ in the first place.

Thankfully, I’ve never been a Sheraton guy, as most of my friends and I have always been Marriott people.  But I definitely know people who are staying at the Sheraton, and of course they’re going to be a packed house, and I certainly hope that nobody comes out of the weekend with any weird ailments or reason to believe that the Legionnaires’ outbreak wasn’t adequately taken care of, in pursuit of money.

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MLS is clearly the preferred white people sport

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Driving around Atlanta, there are often a lot of tells on peoples’ cars that indicate the race of the people driving them.  Some are pretty blatant, like how white people all love to have shit like stick figure family stickers, black people have big flashy rims or the content of Africa silhouetted in some way shape or form, or Hispanics having pictures of their trucks airbrushed onto their trucks, while being looked over upon by the Virgin Mary.

However, some tells are more subtle, but no less obvious to those who see them.  Like blackout license covers or (likely) illegal shades of tint or a box of Kleenex wrapped in an ornate satin box cover sitting in the back window.  But there’s no more obvious tell that a car belongs to a white person in Atlanta, than an Atlanta United sticker or emblem on it.  Because there’s nothing short of Ponce City Market and talking about gentrification and urbanism that white people in Atlanta like more than Atlanta United soccer.

And then it got me thinking beyond just Atlanta United, and about soccer in general, specifically MLS.  And how it really seems like MLS has become the de facto preferred spectator sport of choice for white people, even above the NFL, NBA and MLB.  The more cursory internet glancing I do, I’m seeing that in major cities like Toronto, Seattle, Portland and Philadelphia, if you take snapshots of the crowds, they’re unmistakably overwhelmingly white.  It doesn’t seem like a lot, but that’s really all the justification I need to make my snap judgments; I’ve been to enough cities to watch sports, and despite being in different states, they really aren’t that much different from one another.

Ultimately, I think white people loving MLS really boils down to two very obvious white people traits: racism and a lack of commitment.  A low-key third would be the fact that so many are hipsters, so naturally, they gravitate towards a lower-tier popularity sport, especially if it meant that there were fewer minority fans to have to mingle with.

But frankly, upon thinking about it, it kind of makes perfect sense why white people love MLS so much. Go to any NFL or NBA game, and it’s abundantly clear that black people love football and basketball.  And the average white person is often times afraid of the average black person, so it stands to believe that white people don’t like going to these sporting events, because it puts them in too close proximity with those that intimidate them.  When the home team does well and the black people get excited, it scares the white people.  But when the home team loses and the black people get butthurt, it scares the white people then too.  This isn’t to say that white people avoid these sporting events outright, but typically they tend to go when they have privileges like corporate box seats, or are in large enough numbers to where they manage to feel safe, but even still it’s not the same white safety as an MLS game would be.

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I will never understand people who leave guns in their cars

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A trend I’ve noticed in the general metro Atlanta area over the last few months is the sheer rise of car break-ins happening all around city proper, and the seemingly hopeless south side of the city that I once lived in myself but just a few years ago.  And not just any ordinary smash-and-grabs, where thieves are looking for whatever free shit that happened to be in sight which compelled them to break-in in the first place that they could flip for some quick cash, but thefts where thieves are searching out, and way more often than I thought should be considered normal, stealing guns.

My old neighborhood’s Nextdoor, that I’ve admitted to not being able to unsubscribe to for the sheer amount of unintentional entertainment I get out of it, has seen way too many threads over the last few months of people detailing all the cars that have been broken into, where among other things, guns were stolen.  Not just at their homes, but when they’re out at dinner, or out at Publix, or any of the nearby shopping areas where people would park their cars in public.

But it really boils down to the fact that I have to ask, why so many people even bother keeping guns in their cars in the first place?

Personally, I have no real qualms with the second amendment.  I do question why ordinary citizens would need SEAL team grade sniper rifles or assault rifles, but ultimately I don’t have a problem with people getting firearms with the intent to protect themselves.  It’s only when things go dark and people are using legally obtained weaponry to do bad things, is where I raise my eyebrows, but we can’t control the rest of the world no matter how much we’d like to be able to sometimes.

Back to the topic on hand though, I’m not so much flabbergasted at the repeated instances where people are having guns stolen from their vehicles, as much as I am curious to why people are bothering to leave guns in their cars in the first place.  License to carry, I get that, but that also implies that you’re actually carrying, and not leaving your firearms in vehicles that are one locked door away from being obtainable by absolutely anyone.

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I was hoping it would smell delicious outside

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Unfortunately, it did not, even with forty thousand pounds of chicken on fire not that far from where the office is.

It’s been a while since there’s been a good story of food getting spilled onto Atlanta highways.  I think the last time I wrote anything about the subject, it was the kind of self-conflicted incident where cows got loose on I-285 and I-75 where at first I wanted to make jokes about how there was free beef on the roads, but felt sad and empathetic for the actual living cows that were probably just scared beyond measure, wandering wildly around in search of safety.

In this time, it’s not a new realization, but I’ve found plenty of evidence that I’m far from the only person fascinated by the topic of trucks overturning on roads, spilling their cargo all over the place, although I try to keep it mostly local to Atlanta or just Georgia if I can.  I don’t have my own (still defunct) site to refer to for stories about trucks overturning, as much as I’d like to be an authority on the topic.

But this also isn’t the first time that chicken has been on the menu on the roads of Georgia.  However, this is still somewhat fascinating in the simple fact that there was just so much of it.  I mean, 40,000 lbs. of frozen chicken – that’s a whole lot of god damn chicken.  I can’t imagine the sheer number of chickens necessary to get 40,000 lbs. of it, much less the fact that that’s probably factoring in the lack of weight from the parts that aren’t meant for average consumption.

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Go home, Atlanta’s full – really

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Every now and then there will be some article about how the traffic in Atlanta is amongst the worst in the country or the world, or an article about how the housing market within the city proper is gradually climbing into San Francisco-like ascensions.  And then inevitably, like people flocking to the supermarkets for milk, bread and toilet paper at the news of oncoming snow, there will always be someone whether it’s through Twitter or any social media outlet, or in a comments section who says “go home, Atlanta’s full” or something of the like.

But then on the eve of the Super Bowl, which is being played in Atlanta this year, the city actually did become full; to the point where even the local NBC news outlet had no choice but to drop a headline that, Atlanta was full.  The meme became reality to where it had to not just be acknowledged by the media, but integrate it into the headlines.  And to prove that Atlanta was full, 11 Alive provided time-lapse video evidence of the clusterfuck of humanity that converged into Downtown Atlanta.

It looked like a more ghetto version of Shinjuku Station whenever the lights turned green and suddenly hundreds of people would cross the streets, filling up every inch of space in the process.

Frankly, when I knew that the Super Bowl was coming to Atlanta, not that I have a tremendous amount of business in the city anymore now that I’ve moved back out to the ‘burbs, but I knew that anything within two weeks of the Super Bowl was a definite no-fly zone for going remotely anywhere near the city if it could absolutely be helped.  And seeing video evidence of just how full Atlanta became, just a night prior to the Super Bowl justified everything I thought was going to be the case, and made me very glad that I no longer worked or lived remotely anywhere within city proper limits.

Needless to say, it’s still hilarious to me that the meme became reality, even if it just reached critical mass on one of the numerous nights in which people flooded the city.  But it’s official, Atlanta was full; now everyone go home.