Tag: ohatlanta

lol South Fulton Renaissance

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Because nobody on the planet but me is interested: Renaissance, Georgia has their new name vetoed by mayor; cityhood reverts back to the City of South Fulton

Well slap me around and call me Susan – I would never have imagined that this was actually going to happen.  I also have zero idea of how the political system works, because last time I counted, the name was officially voted on and in both cases, Renaissance won out, regardless of how much opposition it got from the contingent who didn’t believe their opinions weren’t represented.  So despite all the voting, it ultimately still was shot down by a singular person: the mayor of Renaissance/South Fulton, who decided that the naming of the city was basically unimportant in comparison to other priorities, like creating a police force and infrastructure.

So it’s back to the City of South Fulton, which sounds as ghetto now as it did a month ago when it was phased out for Renaissance.  The people who were very pro-Renaissance are probably very disappointed, and those who weren’t so much fans of “the City of South Fulton” as much as they didn’t like the name Renaissance, well they’re probably very satisfied with themselves, in getting what they want.

Personally, I think the whole thing is an ironic joke which was a microcosm of just how much of a dead end the south part of the metropolitan Atlanta area actually is, and the perpetual spinning of wheels being done in the area I used to live in, which are always reminders of just how fortunate I am to have left when I did.  Basically, the City of South Fulton just wasted the better part of the last six weeks trying to get a name change, succeeded for a hot second, but then ended up with no change at all.  God only knows how much money was flushed down the toilet in this exercise in futility in wasted effort and labor towards a sinking ship.

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lol South Fulton Renaissance

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Not that anyone except for me and like two people who are following this actually care, but the City of South Fulton AKA “Renaissance” is having their new city’s name contested, protested and put back onto the chopping block by of all people, a 16-year old.

This is my surprised face.

Long story short, to the surprise of nobody who lives there or had lived there, the local government can’t even do something as traditionally democratic as including all involved parties to a vote, and allowed a segment of the City of South Fulton to decide on the name of ALL of the City of South Fulton, which ended up being “Renaissance.”  On behalf of a lot of people who had no involvement in the naming of the city, this segment of people went ahead and declared Renaissance to be the new name anyway.

Naturally, whether it’s the fact that people object to the questionable practices in which the name was decided upon, the fact that they simply don’t like the name “Renaissance,” or perhaps both, the whole thing is turned controversial, and in like a week or so, there’s going to be yet another meeting or town hall or whatever gathering of people necessary in order to iron out the city’s name, among other bullshit.

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Oh, MARTA #100

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Obviously, I can’t have entitled this “Oh, MARTA #1,” because I’ve been chronicling MARTA fuck up stories for a few years now, but at the same time, I didn’t feel that this particular incident could just be summed up in the arbitrary numbers that I make up on the fly that make it sound like MARTA fucks up way more often than they actually do although it’s not really that much of a stretch to believe if they did.

So much like they do in comic books or any sort of regular periodical, I figure to just let’s just call this commemorative #100, because it truly was a MARTA incident that can’t simply be recognized with some made-up number.

As the story goes, since it all happened while I was overseas, the long-awaited implosion of the Georgia Dome, as covered by The Weather Channel, had their video feed utterly and completely ruined by a MARTA bus that just so perfectly timed its arrival into the shot right as the initial charges went off and the Georgia Dome came crumbling down.  Usually, I like to believe that I’m capable of coming up with way better headlines and descriptions of events than popular media does, because I don’t have to play by the rules of censorship or any sort of policing.  But when scuttlebutt declared the event as “The most Atlanta thing to ever happen” or something along those lines, I simply had to shake my head and just agree.

Seriously, I can’t really think of something more symbolic of Atlanta than a MARTA bus photobombing a momentous occasion.  And you know the driver had no fucking clue of its actions, as it was probably some wage slave just doing their daily job, trying to keep to the schedule and continuing to move . . . people, routinely through Atlanta.  But to the people at The Weather Channel who were completely banking on this footage, this was a cockblock that not even a Michael Cera film could have possibly executed. 

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New names don’t always equate to new beginnings

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

File this under “shit nobody but me will really give two shits about” – the fairly, newly formed City of South Fulton has voted on its official name moving forward: Renaissance, Georgia.

I don’t hide the fact that I’m extremely guarded on the internet when it comes to stating anything that discloses my general locations, but I have openly disclosed that my previous place of residence was most definitely on the southern side of the Metropolitan Atlanta area.  I’ve also said that this is a mistake that I vow to never make again, and that I’m confident that I could not even be given money to live down there again, and it would be a safe bet that it would be a snowball’s chance in hell that such ever happens again.

However, despite the fact that I no longer live on the south side, I can’t help but still be somewhat interested in the happening that occur down there.  Sure, most of it is usually crime related or other things that are tragically ironic, but now that I don’t live there, I can witness the things that go down there in something of an anthropological manner, because it really is fascinating to me the sheer disparity in quality of life the south side is privy to compared to just about all other reaches of the Metropolitan area.

One of the hot topics in my fleeting days in the south side was the proposal that the southern chunk of Fulton County, so ironically endeared as simply “South Fulton,” was trying to attain unincorporated city status.  And with just cause too, because it’s about as secret as sexual harassment in Hollywood that the allocation of Fulton County resources was like 65% to the northern half, 25% to the area surrounding the airport, and a paltry 10% towards South Fulton.  South Fulton had the worst infrastructure, the most promises that went broken and unfulfilled, and a general sense that nobody gave a shit about the south end of the county.

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Awareness is pointless without action

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I read this interesting article that brought up the topic that if Atlanta’s Jesus Sidewalk AKA the BeltLine, continues to grow without much regulation, then it will effectively re-segregate the city, due to the aggressive gentrification that’s it’s bringing in spades as it churns merrily along.

The funny thing is that this isn’t the first nor will it be the last time articles like this emerge, but it is admittedly one of the more data-driven articles, as it links to a 60+ page case study about the effects and repercussions of the gentrification which is a pretty good read in its own right.

The harsh reality about all this information is that just about everyone paying attention knows this is going on, and no amount of awareness of the situation is going to change the fact that it is happening, will continue to happen, and be a potential reality, because in spite of all of the information, nothing is happening to stop it. 

But that sounds about right as far as the objectives of the BeltLine are concerned – beautify, gentrify, and then profit; repercussions of any failed promises of affordable housing or the guerilla eviction of existing residents can be suppressed and brushed under the rug later, preferably one that exists in the lobby or the ornate dining area of one of the expensive buildings built along it at a later date.

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Didn’t see this coming not

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Shocker of the century: a Publix supermarket built in the ghetto is having crime problems

I used to pass by this place on a routine basis, but when it was still under construction.  However, the signs were up, lauding the future arrival of a brand-new Publix supermarket, and I remember thinking “they’re building a Publix, here??”

“Here” was basically in the epicenter of a very ghetto area.  The corner of Marietta and Moores Mill is an area where one cross street is a pretty substantial truck route, on a road with lots of industrial companies, flanked by several buildings enshrouded in razor wire.  I get that the side opposite Marietta from the Publix is the notorious west side that is predominantly African-American but also unfortunately mired with the most substantial crime rates, but it doesn’t absolve everything east of Marietta Blvd. from being squeaky clean and safe.

I get that the some of the backbones of gentrification are strong and prominent anchor entities like major grocery stores like Publix, but there’s always a tremendous amount of risk when it comes to being the first ones to the party, because they’re almost always the sacrificial lambs when it comes to the process of trying to improve a rough area.

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Now that’s what I’m talking about

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Complain about there being nothing noteworthy to write about, and the world shall provide – a truck carrying 40,000 lbs. of chicken manure tips over on busy Atlanta highway

Yes, a truck full of literal chicken shit has spilled onto the highway, and that’s apparently far more interesting to me than the usual dregs of well-beaten topics in the news otherwise.

No, this does not get added to the highway buffet of things spilled onto Georgia highways, because what kind of sick fuck would remotely consider eating the dung of chickens?  For the matter, why does chicken shit require the necessity to be transported in the first place?  Shouldn’t the farms or plants in which the chickens are producing it have some way to dispose of it?

Is it like bats, where if there’s so much shit present at once it can essentially become toxic?

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