Monday, September 15, 2008
News Center for Civil and Human Rights to be in Coke's shadow
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 7:07 PM
The site for Atlanta’s planned Civil Rights Cola Museum, um, we mean the Center for Civil and Human Rights, was unveiled Monday next door to the World of Coke in a ceremony long on corporate plugs and short on civil rights figures.
Broadcaster and activist Xernona Clayton was in the front row of observers, along with the widow of the late Ralph David Abernathy Jr. and such familiar businessmen as developer Herman Russell and life-insurance magnate Jesse Hill. But no John Lewis. No Joseph Lowery. No member of the King family.
Mayor Shirley Franklin says Lowery asked her to undertake a formal site review after Coke offered in 2006 to donate 1.2 acres alongside its soft-drink shrine. Last year, an advisory panel appointed by the mayor recommended the Coke site be chosen, but there was no public announcement of the final site selection before this week.
Although Auburn Avenue, in the heart of the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, was an obvious alternative, no specific land there was ever identified.
“If you look at other possible sites,” Franklin says, “You don’t get the number of visitors as this centrally located place, which is in the middle of the activity center for downtown.”
Franklin estimated that, aided by its proximity to the World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium, the $125 million center could draw 800,000 visitors in its first year.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Comments (3)
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The concept of a civil rights museum in Atlanta has incredible potential, but it's hard to have much hope for this given the way it's playing out so far. If we want this to be a dignified and intellectually stimulating tribute to the city's civil rights legacy, there is no question that the museum belongs on Auburn Ave, nowhere else. The fact they are so hell-bent on putting it in the Centennial Park tourist ghetto suggests that they want the aquarium and (especially) the World of Coke to set the tone for this thing. If that is the case, then we can expect the worst. Expect a dumbed-down Mickey Mouse approach to this most serious of subjects. For the building itself, expect yet another fake-stucco architectural disaster that turns its back on the street in favor of a soulless corporate "plaza." Maybe this current effort will just collapse and in 5 or 10 years we can try again (under different leadership) and get it right.
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Lawd Jayzus! Another waste of money. First it was Brand Atlanta (still waiting on Creative Loafing to do some investigative reporting on this), then the telecommunications upgrade for APD, now this? Quote me on this, that this idea will not turn a profit. What type of transportation effort will be put in place to get the "tourists" in the area...MARTA? Come on. This is pathetic. We have spineless City Councilmen/women, and a mayor who is now a lackey of the business community. We need better representation in City Hall. We need a City Council and a Mayor with true business management experience. Sidebar: Creative Loafing can you find out what the members of our beloved City Council do for a living, and also who all voted for the Brand Atlanta campaign?
" What type of transportation effort will be put in place to get the “tourists” in the area…MARTA? Come on. This is pathetic." Unlike Auburn Avenue, the tourists are already on the block where the museum will be built, so no transit is needed. I must have missed something here....
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