atlanta now a liability to the other georgia...

from the 10.30.07 print edition of the herald-gazette.

By Walter Geiger
The railroad town first dubbed Terminus in the 1830s has gone through a vast transformation. It became Atlanta, Hotlanta, the ATL.
For most Georgians - this one included - a trip to Atlanta was once exciting. Those days are gone now.
Atlanta is like an aging Southern Belle who has let herself go. She’s lost her looks - lost her appeal.
Our capital city is like the heavily made up hooker at the end of the bar whom only the drunkest and most visually challenged of the those still around at closing time will proposition.
Atlanta sits down at the buffet that is our state’s natural resources and makes a glutton of herself. She consumes far more than her fair share of water and replaces it with untreated sewage dumped into our streams and rivers.
Her ever expanding waistline grows relentlessly despite the danger to her health and that of those around her - those of us in the other Georgia.
Atlanta’s assets are turning to liabilities.
Grady Hospital boasts a world class trauma unit but is so poorly managed the state will have to take it over or it will die on the vine. Those of us in the other Georgia go elsewhere if given a choice.
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is the world’s busiest. It is also a cesspool of graft and corruption. We second Georgians avoid it like the plague and would rather drive four hours than spend the same interval parking our cars and navigating security operations that refuse to profile those most likely to blow us up in flight.
Atlanta claims to be a major league sports city but the Atlanta Braves won one World Series, played bridesmaid for a decade and half and now can’t make the playoffs. Tickets are pricey and concessions are exorbitantly expensive. The experience is not worth the hassle of getting to the stadium. So, we other Georgians rarely go.
As for the Atlanta Falcons, the team’s fate was scripted early when the kicker whiffed on the team’s first-ever kickoff. One Super Bowl appearance - a loss - since 1966 just doesn’t get it done outside I-285.
The grease at the Varsity will kill you dead, Georgia Tech has to give away pizza and Cokes to sell football tickets, the Atlanta Hawks are among the worst teams in a dying league and the Atlanta Thrashers, well, those of us in the other Georgia just don’t care.
With many of the jewels in her crown tarnished or pawned, Atlanta has drained her water reserves nearly dry yet refuses to take responsibility for her actions.
She blames Alabama and its power plants. She blames Florida and its mussels. She even blames Mother Nature and the Corps of Engineers when the blame lies squarely on her own shoulders.
There were countless warning signs of her fall into morbid obesity, disgrace and disrepair but Atlanta ignored them, gorged herself and now must pay the price.
When she begins to die of thirst, Atlanta will come to we other Georgians with her bonnet in hand seeking forgiveness. She will want to utilize interbasin transfers to steal our water to quench that thirst.
She should not be surprised when those of us in the other Georgia turn our backs on her.