What would make Atlanta more festive during the holidays?
Rachel: We need a river that runs through town, because it brings a lot of opportunity for additional festivities. That’s life running through the city; bridges and connecting neighborhoods, people, boats give you another way to live — lots of fishing. It just livens up the city. In Little Rock, it really livens the city up. Almost any opportunity to celebrate, they have gigantic fireworks along the river. It’s just awesome. And the Lenox Rich’s celebration needs to be brought back downtown. It was much more appealing.
Oscar: Being from New York, I’m used to “bigger.” So I make the comparison between Atlanta, New York and, let’s say, “Mayberry, R.F.D.” When Mayberry has a parade, it’s the sheriff’s car, one fire truck, the town band of five [to] 10 people, and the convertible from the local auto dealer with the celebrity in it — and that’s what you have. Then you have Atlanta, where you don’t have much more than that. You have several fire trucks, you have a couple of high school bands. In New York, you have the big floats, Snoopy’s floating in the air. We need to have a bigger to-do.
Libba: The kids loved the decorations at the Centennial Park. But the skating rink needs to be bigger and it needs to be swept up every 45 minutes, not every hour-and-a-half. There’s too much powder on the ice. To attract more people downtown, there needs to be valet service. Parking for $10 downtown sucks. And that cafe at the park was already closed at 10 p.m. There should be hot chocolate stands and hot cider stands outside at the park. And where’s Santa Claus? There were lots of little kids out there.
Oscar: Being from New York, I’m used to “bigger.” So I make the comparison between Atlanta, New York and, let’s say, “Mayberry, R.F.D.” When Mayberry has a parade, it’s the sheriff’s car, one fire truck, the town band of five [to] 10 people, and the convertible from the local auto dealer with the celebrity in it — and that’s what you have. Then you have Atlanta, where you don’t have much more than that. You have several fire trucks, you have a couple of high school bands. In New York, you have the big floats, Snoopy’s floating in the air. We need to have a bigger to-do.
Libba: The kids loved the decorations at the Centennial Park. But the skating rink needs to be bigger and it needs to be swept up every 45 minutes, not every hour-and-a-half. There’s too much powder on the ice. To attract more people downtown, there needs to be valet service. Parking for $10 downtown sucks. And that cafe at the park was already closed at 10 p.m. There should be hot chocolate stands and hot cider stands outside at the park. And where’s Santa Claus? There were lots of little kids out there.