Creative Loafing Answers Readers’ Questions About Atlanta
Decatur Metro | June 13, 2013OK, so I don’t usually post a million links to the same site, let alone the same feature. But Creative Loafing’s recent “Answer’s Issue” deserves to be linked to death. And in case anyone hadn’t picked up an issue from one of Decatur’s mandated green newspaper boxes, I thought I’d provide some easy access.
Here’s a sampling of questions/demands asked/stated by readers and then diligently answered by CL’s staff…
- Can we flood I-75/85 and create a waterfront for Atlanta?
- Why does Atlanta radio suck?
- What is the oldest multi-story building in Atlanta?
- Who is the Junkman’s Daughter?
- Why does 10th Street between I-75/85 and Northside Drive get resurfaced seemingly once a year, yet is still in a constant state of disrepair?
- Compare and contrast the Atlanta and Athens music scenes.
- What is the true story of how Murder Kroger earned its nickname?
- Why did it take so long for MARTA to get serious about having transit-oriented developments built around train stations?
The solution for Atlanta’s lame radio is SiriusXM satellite radio. I was forced to drive Lady Headbanger’s SiriusXM-less car the other day, and I seriously considered puncturing my eardrums with an ice pick.
Plus one
speaking of readers’ questions:
Q: why did the chicken cross the road?
A: to get to MAR because their shrimp and bacon taco is so damn good you’d bounce a check to pay for it.
Who cares why the chicken crossed the road. The important thing is, did it use the crosswalk?
We went there recently and I also loved the shrimp and bacon taco. Others seemed to like their tacos as well. Really liked the fried oyster appetizer. We liked the atmosphere. It’s true that it’s a bit cavernous with reverberating sound, but the hearth makes the place cozy. The gazpacho is not the tradtional chunky style–just a word to the wise. There’s a spice in the salsa and seafood soup that dominates–I think it’s cumin. So if you don’t like cumin or whatever that spice is, you shouldn’t order those items. This is definitely high quality fusion cuisine so not the place for someone wanting routine seafood or routine American-style Mexican, especially little kids who want cheese quesadillas or popcorn shrimp.
Lobster taco was also fantastic as was the cebiche. I also had a delicious sangria…yes, I drink sangria…ya wanna make something of it?
They still need to find their groove in other respects. We arrived at 7:00 with no reservation. They said they couldn’t get us in until 8:30 even though most tables were empty. They made no attempt or suggestion that we could sit at the bar until we saw two seats a number of stools away from each other and made due for ourselves with a little shuffling. When we left, half of those once empty tables were still empty and we watched them turn away at least four other groups. Curious.
i went at lunch and had:
chips and salsa: meh
shrimp & bacon taco: possibly the best first bite of a taco I’ve ever had, and that’s a lot of ever.
lobster taco: the squid ink hard shell was double-thick, too chewy, and way out of balance for the filling. took one bite and asked for a soft tortilla–refilled that, and enjoyed it.
verdict: it’s not cheap, but what’s good is very good. nice interior design, good service at the bar though i only ate; no sippy sippy. will return.
Our service was a bit slow but not so bad that anyone got to the complaint stage. We were in no hurry. Lots of appropriate apologies from our server. Might have been nice to get a refill on chips while we were waiting. But then again I hate filling up on chips when there’s high quality, kind of expensive food coming.
yes, overchipping can be dangerous to one’s appetite.
think i’ll pass on the chips/salsa next time–at $3 it was not a winning choice.
I remember reading some years back (well before satellite radio was available) that owning a radio station in Atlanta used to be a license to print money. The story put forward was that when the FCC was assigning frequencies to cities, Atlanta received the same number of frequencies as places like Chattanooga. As Atlanta grew into one of the major media markets in the country, it still has the same number of outlets as smaller markets like Birmingham. As a result, there was very little competition within each demographic, and we would have one C&W station, an R&B station that skewed towards younger listeners and an R&B station that skewed older, one classic rock station, one modern rock station, etc. and each of them would pull a lot of advertising money.
What I would like to see happen is for somebody to take a shot at a commercial classical format like the old WQXR in New York and then have WABE drop virtually all of its classical programming for NPR stuff and perhaps local talk/news.
“…and then have WABE drop virtually all of its classical programming for NPR stuff and perhaps local talk/news.”: Agree. Whenever I go to other cities and listen to their public radio stations, there’s a lot more NPR and other variety than what WABE has.
so true. listening to NPR on the drive to and from Tybee lets one know how deprived we are in ATL. there are at least three different public radio stations–all with far more diverse and interesting programming than WABE has ever had, except on the weekend.
Just the fact that there is not a GPB affiliate radio station in ATLANTA, when their headquarters is in MIDTOWN, is enough to make my head spin. GPB has some good programming.
I would fully support a renewed “let’s change WABE” movement like the one that started and fizzled 8-9 years ago.
I have coped with streaming, podcasts, and Sirius/XM. But WABE still does Atlanta a disservice.
Every time I go to DC (I love WAMU) or nearly any other major city, I am jealous of just their public radio selection, not to mention even their regular radio selection …
I’m so glad to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way. How is it that towns like Chattanooga and Tuscaloosa and other small cities have great public radio and we don’t? I recognize that we are lucky to have WRAS, WREK, WCLK and if you wiggle the dial right, Peach State. Still, it’s dumb that I look forward to listening to other people’s NPR when I travel for business.
I guess y’alls Bach and Tchaikovsky is Haggard and Husky? No love for the classical music? What about H. Johnson’s awesome Jazz Classics on Saturday evening? You guys do know that “Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers” is all reruns now, right? I think I have heard all those stations between here and Tybee and don’t feel like I am missing some magical NPR talk radio show. Wait, wait, don’t tell me, you want to hear more recipes for Schwetty Balls? Mmmm, good times…
My own discontent with WABE’s classical music programming is not based on quantity or frequency–more wouldn’t hurt–but the fact they play the same things over and over, especially during weekdays. I also think the daytime classical hosts are affected and call too much attention to themselves. But I also enjoy listening to other public stations whenever I go on a road trip (which is a jaunt to the FL Panhandle, more often than not). You can hear more variety between Newnan and Panama City than you hear in a week on WABE. Seriously, whose idea was it to air “A Prairie Home Companion” TWICE every single week?
+1
I still listen to Car Talk, even in re-runs…
There, I said it! So whatcha gonna do, you NPR snobs? Huh?
And you know what else? I actually LIKE Prairie Home Companion! (though if we are going to run anything twice weekly, it really should be Bob Edwards Weekend)
I like Car Talk and Praire Home Companion too. I know Car Talk is reruns but I never heard many of them the first time. I like all the NPR news shows and features. I’m a vote for more of them. I don’t happen to be a big aficianado of classical music. I don’t mind listening to it but I enjoy the greater variety of music and non-music shows that I hear when I’m traveling and listen to other public radio stations.
Well, that was a thoroughly gratifying time suck.
A body found in 2002? We were calling it the Murder Kroger in the mid-90’s. Story goes back further than that!
At least further than that. We had to have a way to distinguish it from the Disco Kroger, the Ansley Kroger, the Ga Tech Kroger, etc.
+1. In ’92 I had a friend who lived just up the street and I distinctly remember referring to it as the Murder Kroger at the time. And we weren’t calling it that because it was some funny new thing. We were calling it that because that’s what everyone was calling it.