kidchampion

I meant James Howard Kunstler. Although William Kunstler's book about Atlanta might be even more damning!

Thanks Dana, very insightful - and well illustrated. I bought William Kunstler's book "The City In Mind" at the Atlanta airport after a multi-day stay in the area you photographed. The book is a quick read, maybe overly provocative but pretty dead-on in it's damning of Atlanta's problems. I could always sense Raleigh picking up Atlanta's trends a few years later. There is a steady feed of Tarheels who move to Atlanta after college and then bring ideas, and businesses like Clarence Fosters, or Moe's from Atlanta to Raleigh. The tear-downs of smaller houses to build speculative McMansions was something I first saw in Atlanta 10 years ago. Raleigh used to be really modest about wealth I think part of the process of Atlanta-fiacation was the influx of flash and luxury goods. Atlanta's downtown is still a failure but it has succeeded in creating smaller downtowns within districts and maybe that's the goal with Wakefield, Brier Creek and North Hills.