Panacea or Fools' Gold? Reinventing Downtown Atlanta After the Olympics

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Versel, David
- Other Affiliation: Associate Consultant, Haddow & Company, Atlanta, GA

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Atlanta has long been a city that placed more emphasis on boosting its image than on confronting its day-to-day concerns. Beginning in the early 1980s with then-Mayor Andrew Young's efforts to transform Atlanta into an international city, Atlantans have worked to construct the necessary improvements and facilities to achieve Young's goal. These efforts culminated with their hosting of the Olympics in 1996. There is no doubt that, as a result of the Olympics, the city of Atlanta is now known worldwide. However, now that the Olympics are over, the "boosters" who were so instrumental in cultivating an international image of Atlanta have begun to acknowledge that developing that image was only the first step in the process of Atlanta's emergence as a worldwide hub. As Georgia State University President Carl Patton observed, "To be a truly international city, Atlanta cannot roll up its sidewalks at sundown." With concerns like Patton's in mind, the most pressing planning issue facing post- Olympic Atlanta has become the transformation of its downtown from an office and hotel district into a 24-hour environment in which people reside, work, and play.

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