Comments on: James Howard Kunstler’s Smackdown Tour of Atlanta

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:11:01 +0000

“Well, if your only options are to sit somewhere nice and stare at horribly ugly stuff…”

That’s not an accurate portrayal of downtown.

Everyone agrees that Atlanta made a lot of architectural mistakes in the past that we’ll have to live with for a long time. But where Kuntsler fails is that he willfully avoids the fact that vitually all of the development in downtown, from the buildup to the olympics to the present day, has been a huge step in the right direction. That’s 20 years worth of smart development. How can anyone who ignores that be taken seriously?

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:29:13 +0000

I could probably walk around downtown Decatur with a camera and take pictures of some of our more unattactive features like Church St. (from Ponce to Commerce), the stuccoed over Trust Building on the Square, the Holiday Inn, the CVS Strip Mall in the center of downtown, the Commerce Plaza office building or Dekalb Medical building, or just Commerce Drive in general, without taking pictures of some of our better features, and give a false imprpression of our Decatur as well.

Sure, downtown Atlanta has many, many flaws. But this was just unfair.

By: BB

BB — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:40:01 +0000

I find it a little weird that on the weekend – namely, when people generally have more free time – that downtown would look abandoned. I think it kind of proves his point.

And if these are the views you get from the street-level dining, then it’s no wonder that downtown is empty on the weekends. Jeff, you’re complaining that Kunstler left out the pretty stuff by pointing his camera in the other direction. Well, if your only options are to sit somewhere nice and stare at horribly ugly stuff or stand in a parking lot and look at a nice place to sit, then there’s no question why Atlanta is empty when people have the free time to go where they please.

And btw, anyone talking up the urban renewal of Detroit may need to visit Detroit.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:20:47 +0000

Actually, there is one photo of The Ellis. As we all know, the Ellis is in the old Winecoff building which sat empty for decades after a terrible fire. One would think Kuntsler would be thrilled that such a building would be brought back to life.

The photo also includes the Macy’s building, which is currently being transformed for reuse. One would think Kuntsler would be thrilled about that.

The photos also includes the Candler Building, one of Atlanta’s finest buildings.

Kuntsler’s caption reads:

“Down Peachtree Street, remnants of the Beaux Arts, circa 1900.
The center of Atlanta used to havre (sic) some charm and grace.
It has mostly been destroyed.”

WTF?

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:44:07 +0000

No pictures of the Centennial Park area. No pictures of the Ivan Allen Plaza area. No pictures of the new “Reading Room” at Woodruff Park. I guess he did not venture onto Auburn or Edgewood or Forsyth St or check out any of our newly renovated old hotels like the Glenn or the Ellis

Sure, downtown Atlanta leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of development mistakes have been made in the past 50 years.

But it looks like this guy went out of his way to make it look bad, when positive things have actually been happening over the past few years.