Southerners Know How to React

NewsMax.com ^ | 07/30/03

[honeygrl]

"We need plays and museums so that our wives and girlfriends have something to do while were are at Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Giants Stadium, and the Continental Arena, watching big-time, major league sports, and I don't mean the demolition derby and sack racing contests. "

Well, there you go right there.. down south, you'll see a lot of the women going with their men to the ball games. If we don't go, we don't need to find other things to amuse ourselves. I can have just as much fun sitting on my front porch watching people go by as I do going just about any place else. I've been to NYC and it was fun to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. There is just too much going on at once for me to keep up. I live in a reasonable size town right now, but not huge. (Athens, GA) Hopefully though we will live out in the country one day when we have the money.

[honeygrl]

"So do the big towns like Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte, Orlando, Richmond, Houston, Norfolk, and Dallas, which is probably the result of the relatively high crime rates in those cities (as compared to NYC and Boston) and the lack of anything meaningful to do after 6:00 p.m."

Well, here in Athens, GA (an hour away from Atlanta) I've been downtown with lots to do until 3am before. There were still quite a lot of people there when I left too. We have a lot of late night concerts here on the weekends. I've also found plenty to do in Atlanta until 4-5am after I went to a concert there. Maybe you just weren't with the right people to take you to the right places?

[honeygrl]

"Football I agree with, but baseball??? We have the DETROIT TIGERS....nuff said! "

I love going to an Atlanta Braves game. ;) I don't like pro football and know very little about football but I really enjoy going to UGA (Bulldawgs) football games. The people there are just a lot of fun.

[AnAmericanMother]

You just don't KNOW where to get a good meal after midnight in Atlanta. And downtown is the business district -- nobody hangs around there unless they're finishing up some work.

I could name 5 absolutely top flight restaurants off the top of my head -- some of them are tiny and local and the chef is on a first name basis with his regular clients. But I don't want to divulge my favorites' names - might get too crowded. Just to pick two, McKinnon's and Bacchanalia are the equal of anything in New York, actually McKinnon's is the only place I know of anywhere outside Louisiana where you can get the genuine old French Creole cooking (which I prefer to "Cajun").

The secret to most southern cities is that there are two cities -- the one that Yankees and transplants know about, and the one that the locals know about. You have to live here for awhile to learn where the best wine shop is (the owner is an internationally renowned taster), where the good jazz bands are, where the best dancing is (Johnny's Hideaway), etc.

This is ESPECIALLY true in Atlanta, because it seems like three quarters of the people in the city are corporate types on their way through from somewhere else to somewhere else, they stop maybe 3-5 years which isn't time enough to get to know a Southern city. Things take more time down here, you can't rush it.

[AnAmericanMother]

Also, the crime stats for Atlanta are very deceptive. Most of the crime is concentrated in Zone 3 and Zone 4, SE and SW Atlanta. Lots of causative factors, including corruption, apathetic police dept., Bill Campbell the scofflaw, etc. Outside City of Atlanta, the metro counties have very distinctive crime patterns. If you know the places to stay out of, you will never have a problem. Cobb County Police Dept is unbelievably efficient, alert, and helpful, they have a 3-5 minute response time in our neighborhood. Douglas County is another good area, malefactors from Atlanta in high speed chases have been known to stop and surrender to the city police at the county line - they know that the Douglas Sheriff's posse is licking their chops on the other side and that once the jury is through with them they will be doing hard time at Jackson.

[Labyrinthos]

McKinnon's and Bacchanalia are the equal of anything in New York.

I've been to Bacchanalia, and yes the place is excellent. But in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and other first class cities you will find dozens of restaurants of that caliber and not just a handful.

When I travel, I go out of my way to visit neighborhoods and to stay away from the business and tourist districts. But unlike NYC and Boston, for example, there aren't any decent neighborhood hotels in Atlanta. You can stay downtown which is deadtown after 7:00 p.m., or near Peachtree Center, which is more corporate than neighborhood, or in Buckhead, where the good hotels are attached to shopping malls and the real Buckhead is a $12 taxi ride away. Even in Mid-town Manhattan or Backbay or the Financial District in Boston, the neighborhoods and all they have to offer are only a few blocks walk.

[Labyrinthos]

From your response, I think you understand what I'm saying. I love Atlanta, but its not a first class city, but rather, a bunch of first class suburbs with first class people that are strung together in a ring around a second class city. Houston and Dallas are the same. In Atlanta, the burbs are the attraction; in NYC and Boston, as nice as the burbs are, the city is the main attraction.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think it depends on whether you are a city mouse or a country mouse. My mother, being a professional dancer, is definitely a city mouse, and Manhattan is her preferred venue. I on the other hand am perfectly conversant with city life but prefer suburban or country life -- probably because I am a mother with teenage and preteen children, and there is nothing more pitiful than a city child. (Think of all those awful trendy kids raised in coop condos and hotels with room service - what you get is stuff like Al Gore. Ugh.) We live in the Cobb County suburbs and many of our activities are directed towards West Cobb which is still very much rural - horses, hiking, camping, etc. I haven't eaten out after midnight since my oldest was born.

Of course, we USED to have a first class city in my lifetime, until Andy Young, Maynard Jackson, and Bill Campbell messed it up well and truly for us. High taxes, bad services, and no crime control drove the residents and businesses out of the central city. That's not a function of it being in the South -- that's a function of the same incompetent corrupt management that brought us Newark, N.J. and NYC under Dinkins.

[AnAmericanMother]

There ARE some decent neighborhood hotels in Atlanta, but they are a very well kept secret and usually full up with regulars. Think the small old-fashioned private hotels in Chelsea (London).

[Labyrinthos]

There ARE some decent neighborhood hotels in Atlanta, but they are a very well kept secret and usually full up with regulars. Think the small old-fashioned private hotels in Chelsea (London).

There are nice ones in Chelsea (NYC) also. If you tell me the names of the neighborhood hotels in Atlanta, I promise I won't tell anyone else.

[stainlessbanner]

Who are all these wussy guys wanting to go to plays and museums? They would have much more fun at a baseball or football game.

LOL Honeygrl! : )

[AnAmericanMother]

Yeah, that's like the guy at the deposition who said, "Well, this is just between you and me, but . . . " LOL!

I used to send people to the Habersham at P'tree & W. P'tree, very much a small European style establishment, but I drove by there Tuesday, and dog my cats if there isn't a huge hole in the ground where that hotel used to be! Ansley Inn (in Ansley Park) and Emory University Inn (over at Emory) are old standbys. I haven't sent anybody to the Emory place since I graduated law school in 1980 . . . there's a more modern small hotel up at the top of the hill in Vinings (just above the railroad track), believe it's one of the Wyndham chain, a very nice place with a big rocking chair porch out front to watch the trains go by . . .

[Labyrinthos]

Thanks for the info. As a fellow member of the bar, you probably have a greater appreciation than most as to the points that I was trying to make in my posts. My practice doesn't allow me to eat dinner at 5:00 p.m. whether I'm hungry or not. I worked last night untill mid-night, yet was able to grab a wonderful meal at this little Irish Pub near the train station. Last time I was in Columbia, SC, I couldn't even find a decent restaurant open after 10:00 p.m., and I have had similar problems in Savannah during the week, as well as in Norfolk, Richmond, and Greensboro.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

Tex, bring me my gun,please.

[webstersII]

Let?s see these people walk the aisle in some NYC schools bumping into people and insulting them and see what the response is. That would be violent, too -- and I?m just talking about the women.

Or how about L.A. schools? In that case the dude that got insulted is gonna bust a cap on somebody.

These losers who did the study are so pathetic that they have to make themselves feel taller by standing on someone else?s head.

[webstersII]

?That?s because the south still lacks first class cities. If a person became aggressive every time they were bumped and/or dissed while walking the streets in Manhattan, he or she wouldn?t last a city minute.?

This is how you define class? Keep your class, loser.

[stand watie]

true.

free the southland,sw

[webstersII]

You sound like one of those hip Manhattan Metrosexual guys. Part man, all sissy. Fundamental to your basically poor self-image is the premise that you are above certain people.

This gives you a feeling of superiority but it doesn?t really improve your life, does it?

[Charles Martel]

Name me one.

The point is, your definition of "first class city" is not universally accepted. If you want to believe that some of the overpopulated, festering ratholes that you adore are "first class", then that is your choice. Other people might have very different ideas about the qualities that make up a fine city, such as: "Never, ever smells like an open latrine".

[Labyrinthos]

You must be one of those polite, respectful southerners that I've been reading about.