Cityscape

The past year hasn’t been awful. Meteors didn’t pummel the 17th Street bridge to dust. Locusts didn’t swarm the samosa tray at Your DeKalb Farmers Market. Mounted Mongol invaders didn’t sack Grant Park and eat Mei Lan. Yet.

But a spike in crime, a dip in the housing market, careless missteps by police and city leaders, and, well, Michael Vick have turned our civic mood ring from blue to gray.

What better time, then, to seek solace by reflecting on some of the things old and new, trendy and timeless, that we love about our town — whether it’s the diversity of Buford Highway or the charm of our distinctive intown neighborhoods.

Maddening though it can be sometimes (witness the last session of the General Assembly), Atlanta is a profoundly interesting place to live. In a generation, it’s morphed from a provincial podunk to a behemoth of international business and a cultural mecca.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a hipster in an ironic tee, a scenester clubbing in designer duds, a company foot soldier producing stacks of TPS reports or a refugee fleeing an African war zone. Atlanta has a job for you, a place to live and a bar for you to hang out with your friends.

— Andisheh Nouraee

Best Local Blogger BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Section » Archives » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2007 » Cityscape » Critics Pick

Griftdrift

Since starting Drifting Through the Grift in March 2006, GRIFTDRIFT has attracted a loyal following with his easygoing online persona and his trenchant commentary on important local news stories. His finest achievement: his posts this spring and summer that chipped away at the mountain of political,more...

Since starting Drifting Through the Grift in March 2006, GRIFTDRIFT has attracted a loyal following with his easygoing online persona and his trenchant commentary on important local news stories. His finest achievement: his posts this spring and summer that chipped away at the mountain of political, legal and media hypocrisy surrounding the Genarlow Wilson case. When the U.S. attorney in Atlanta ripped the Douglas County prosecutor for having distributed a video of Wilson and an underaged girl having sex, his statement was uncannily similar to the ones GriftDrift had been making for weeks.www.griftdrift.blogspot.com less...

Best Local TV News BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Section » Archives » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2007 » Cityscape » Critics Pick

Monica Pearson

TV news anchors aren't reporters. They're readers, tasked by TV stations with the job of lending authority and likability to the copy scrolling up their teleprompters. In Atlanta, no one does it better than MONICA PEARSON. Longtime Atlantans remember when she arrived in 1975 from Louisville, Ky., asmore...

TV news anchors aren't reporters. They're readers, tasked by TV stations with the job of lending authority and likability to the copy scrolling up their teleprompters. In Atlanta, no one does it better than MONICA PEARSON. Longtime Atlantans remember when she arrived in 1975 from Louisville, Ky., as Monica Kaufman to anchor the morning local-news breaks during "The Today Show." less...

Best Columnist/Journalist BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Section » Archives » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2007 » Cityscape » Critics Pick

Monica Pearson