Word: atlanta
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...riddle at the heart of Atlanta has always been how to balance the bright new equality envisaged by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with the "don't-give-a-damn" romance of the Old South immortalized by Margaret Mitchell. And how to capitalize on a past that is the source of both its magnolia-scented allure and its shame, while marketing itself as a place of the future...
...most surprising thing about Atlanta, in fact, for a first-time visitor, is that the Civil War is being re-enacted here every day, and the issue of racial harmony is the main issue in town, even (or especially) among those who claim it is a non-issue. For decades the city has managed to generate hopeful visions of bodies reaching out to one another across racial lines, from the stories of Brer Rabbit to the 1989 movie Driving Miss Daisy. The Commission on Inter-racial Cooperation was set up here in the 1920s--but at almost exactly the same...
...city's practical response to such social divisions has always been to put its faith in economics: Be good for business, the so-called Atlanta Spirit reminds its citizens, and business will be good for you. Even the oddly defensive tag Atlanta gives itself--"The City Too Busy to Hate"--rearticulates the hope that busy-ness can paper over resentments. And, to a remarkable extent, the city has made good on its promise: Atlanta is famously the center of the Cable News Network, Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola; and for four straight years in the '90s, "Hotlanta...
...Atlanta's status as a suburban, almost rural city means that it does not have as many cultural amenities as one might expect, it makes up for that with natural resources. Indeed, the Interstate City is an eminently comfortable place in which to live, and houses on pleasant, leafy streets can be found, at relatively low prices, within a 10-minute drive of downtown. Hills, lakes and mountains are only 25 minutes away, and, at a phone booth, a flyer advertising for a roommate states matter-of-factly, WANTED: MALE TO SHARE RUSTIC 75-ACRE FARM W/STABLE AND LAKES...
...plushest district--and the center of the gracious, almost antebellum Atlanta that the city likes to show to visitors--is Buckhead. In Buckhead magazines like Peachtree ("The Guide to the Civilized South") feature special sections on "The Women of Polo" and glossy pages full of charity balls and coming-out parties, cosmetic dentists and a young woman actually called Memory. One Buckhead mall--Lenox Square--advertises itself on a list with St. Peter's Square, Union Square, Red Square, Trafalgar Square and Times Square; another ("World Class City. World Class Shopping") boasts sweeping staircases and wooden elevators, polished brass...