Stumptown, GA

Bury me in red clay

(photo from the AJC, 11/15/09)

point:
Old African-American cemetery relocation takes slow, delicate work

counterpoint:
Woman doesn't want rediscovered graves moved

Just when I get too whiny about losing my homes to the airport, it gets worse.

Drinking at the Airport

Last weekend I visited my Grandma for Thanksgiving and we ended up talking about the years when the family lived in Riverdale (in the luridly-named subdivision Villa Rouge) and how she could stand in the back yard and wave at the passengers on incoming flights. She shared this detail with a tinge of pride, which made me think of how differently our generations regard the prestige of air travel, our proximity to jet fuel and "Progress" and all that.

She also told me there was a time in the '60s when you could get a cocktail on one side of the airport but not the other. Even then, the airport sprawled across both Clayton and Fulton County and parts of the City of Atlanta, College Park and Hapeville. Maybe Mountain View too. It seems like within the same compound, opposing blue laws were enforced... a tricky political situation, to say the least. Does anyone remember this?

(Segmented city, as seen by the Atlanta Regional Commission)

Which all brings to mind a number of head-scratchers:

• Who owns the airport? Who profits from it?
• How much can the demise of Mountain View be contributed to provoking the ire of the Clayton County Commission by rewriting their charter to allow alcohol sales in an otherwise dry county? Was it an economic issue masquerading as a moral issue? (The economics and morality of booze retail are still hotly debated in Georgia.)
• How do competing municipal interests continue to stall/complicate sprawling city-wide transportation initiatives (the Beltline, marta)?
• Where is this Villa Rouge, and who lives there now?

Secret Blight

(photo from Lilacina)

Last weekend we hopped the roadblocks and biked around the 42 acres of contested land by the airport. The city of Atlanta bought it in the '70s as a buffer zone and removed the houses. It's been cultivating kudzu ever sense.

It was weird and magical to see these long stretches of land quarantined from the city– and to think that they were once neighborhoods. College Park sees it as a big hole in their tax map. Re-development might mean a parking lot or warehouses. But we were dreaming of a way to keep it green and off the grid... like an urban farm or a park with a swimming hole.

All that kudzu, looking apocalyptic in the nicest way, maybe inspired our dreaming.

Home

From this week's New Yorker.

Stumptown: The Book

Through a series of intricate "small world" connections, we discovered that our neighbor is from Forest Park. Did we know there's a book about Forest Park? she asked. No we did not. She let us borrow her copy. It was a thrill to find it in our mailbox. It's official! I thought, Our story!

The book is from Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series. It was published for the 150th birthday of our hometown.

I was impressed by the production quality– perfect bound, matte finish, stately colors and slick design throughout. The book has lots of great old photos and follows the history of a few original Clayton County families who kept good records. The writing seemed vaguely promotional and focused on the heyday of white Forest Park. The final chapter is called "The Final Chapter," as if the city itself had a beginning, middle and end.

It didn't take me long to figure out that this was a publishing template, written by proud locals. And while I found the history exciting, this doesn't seem to be the final word. There was nothing about the encroaching airport and white exodus. I didn't really see my story anywhere in there... the book I want to read about Forest Park is still unwritten.

Now I'm seeing these books everywhere. The Oxford & Ole Miss edition at Square Books. The Inman Park edition for sale at a coffee shop. And last night, at a special table at Barnes & Noble, one called Gay and Lesbian Atlanta.

It made me think this would be a funny way to tell the story of Mountain View. There is something magical about book making– the finished thing in your hands feels timeless and legitimate. Like, if there's a book about it, it must be real.

Mountain View Historical Tours

This used to be the post office of Mountain View, GA 30070.

This was Mrs. Goss's house. She always used to plait her hair and wear it in a bun. Her son was a plumber. He did everyone's plumbing.

These are maybe the only 2 identifiable buildings left from when this area was the city of Mountain View. Jason and I are gathering up the details and plotting some kind of documentary project.

How to protest airport expansion

Here's one way to protest airport expansion in your backyard: climb a tree. Charlie Joyce, Jr has been hanging out in a civil war era oak tree that's too close to the Wilmington International Airport in North Carolina.

It looks like his family will end up losing the legal battle over the tree, but Charlie Jr is definitely winning the public relations war:

Thursday morning, supporters he didn’t know brought him Starbucks coffee, iced tea, granola bars and cinnamon rolls. In spirit, he’s not alone in that tree.
    Tania Lamarre stopped by with a friend Thursday afternoon to offer words of encouragement, calling Joyce “an amazing man.”
    “It’s just a beautiful thing,” she said.

Check out the comments from the local paper. Here's one of my favorites:

This action and unfeeling shown by the airport authorities makes me sick. I can't even sleep at night thinking about it and how a human being could be so cold and show no compassion at all for these old, old trees... I pray the airport officials will strive for a tiny bit of compassion and leave this one civil war era tree standing... PLEASE??? I am so proud of the Joyce children. God bless them and their Dad.
–paidy

Cinnamon rolls? People get really sentimental over trees! And sweet, college-educated, 2nd generation white kids. Compare this supportive response to the reaction that AJC commenters had to College Park residents protesting airport expansion.

Complaining about the noise is like complaining about flooding if you live in the flood plain of the Chattahoochee or Nancy Creek. Do your homework when you move.
–Eye B Talking

I would think that airplane noise would be an improvement over gunfire and rap music.
– TroothsayerTrot

Are you kidding me??? Residents who choose to live near an airport are complaining about the noise? huh???
The airport brings in money to ATL... the residents of that area only take money from ATL. Let those bottom feeders drown in the cesspool of their poor choices. First the school system falls apart and it's someone else's fault, now they want to cry about the airport?
– alohagator

Clearly, we should be treehugging instead of attending public hearings.

The Roving Eye

Todd sent me a link to some beautiful decay at it's finest. This is a Flickr set of Atlanta Prison Farm, which is somewhere near the (now closed) landfills between Moreland and Bouldercrest in Southeast Atlanta. I tried to find the location on Google Maps, but I was distracted by the accidental beauty of these Street View images.

Google Maps' Satellite View and Street View are creating these crazy generic generation-defining visuals, like the first images of Earth from outer space.

Stumptown Walking Tours

photo from Urban Hiking Atlanta's Beltline Tour

Lila and Brennan enjoyed a recent tour of Atlanta graffiti and we’ve been loosely planning a nice Sunday trespass of the blighted acres of College Park. She proposed that we start a European style neighborhood “walking club” or volksmarch. Then Christy’s guide to Poncey-Highland got me thinking about other walking tours we could organize this Spring and this photo project on abandoned houses renewed my infatuation with crummy ATL. Like a Tour of Homes & Gardens, we’d have a theme, a docent and a map of points of interest. Choose from these exciting hikes:

Seasonal Blossoms 

Does kudzu blossom? What’s native and what’s a weed? This walk would teach you to distinguish all the exploding dogwoods from the cherry and tulip trees, gardenias, azaleas, camellias, lilacs, wisteria, lilies, honeysuckle, forsythia, etc. 

Meet at: Connolly Nature Preserve 

Tour led by: Mom? Or Rashid, my "personal farmer."

Railroad History 

There’s something sneaky and romantic about walking on train tracks. And you could learn the whole history of Atlanta by studying the railroads. I wonder what’s in all those train cars that pass through East Point? We probably don’t really want to know. 

Meet at: Corner Tavern 

Tour led by: Grizzled CSX veteran in striped overalls. 

Faux Castles of EP 

The tri-cities has a high concentration of homemade starter castles. Rooflines of crenelated cinder block and mini turrets and concrete lions guarding entryways. Let’s map them and ask the homeowners what they were thinking. 

Meet at: Arden's Garden

Self-guided 

Houses of Worship 

We could visit 15 churches in 2 square miles of downtown East Point. I’m curious about the music and hairstyles. Why are churches so secret-looking and closed off? 

Meet at: Church Street and Washington Ave

Tour led by: Me

Hot Wing Tasting 

You can get hot wings at almost every restaurant on Main Street. They even sell hot wings at Taco Pete. But are they any good? 

Meet at: VFW 

Tour led by: Mug 

Foreclosure Properties 

My neighbors told me that they bid $1500 on a cute little forclosure property on our block. The winning bid was $2000. With taxes and auction fees, the house cost around $5K. Not to shame anybody, but I’d be curious to know what other houses around here are selling for less than I spent on closing costs. 

Meet at: My house, apparently 

Tour led by: A real estate agent? 

Meth Distribution 

I’m kind of kidding about this one. I just think my neighbor is selling drugs because shifty looking people come from far and wide to bang on his door. Where do they come from– the drugs and the users? Can this be mapped? 

Meet at: Also my house 

Tour led by: My neighbor 

Plane Watching 

There are a few spots in College Park where it seems like you could reach up and touch the bellies of departing planes. Bring ear plugs. 

Meet at: M & R Thrift Store

Self-guided

Cemetery Stroll 

East Point has a few forgotten/overgrown cemeteries that you could miss unless you were looking for them. Both Roseland and Hillcrest are now maintained by non-profits after years of neglect. And there’s a mysterious row of graves off Cleveland Ave, isolated in a loop off I-75, that's been bugging me for years. 

Meet at: Hillcrest Cemetary 

Tour led by: EP Historical Society guy 

Repurposed Fast Food Architecture 

You can always tell what used to be a Burger King, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen or Zesto. Okay, Zesto isn't as obvious, but still. Learn the fascinating history of corporate fast food restaurants that are now independent eateries.

Meet at: Former Taco Bell on Washington Ave

Self-guided

The Plan and The Myth

Driving home from Florida last weekend, I was fascinated by a This American Life podcast called "Human Resources." You cannot beat that show for sheer weirdness in nonfiction. The episode was broadly themed around the shadowy forces that control our lives or "the uneasy interaction between humans and their institutions." Act 2 was an epiphany for me and probably for a lot of white listeners:

Act 2: The Plan
American cities have gone through a massive wave of gentrification in the last few decades. To some people, it's not a natural ebb and flow of the real estate market, but a plot, by rich, mainly white people, to take over the neighborhoods of poor, mainly black people. This American Life producer Jon Jeter reports on how, in neighborhoods all over the country, the plot has a name, "The Plan," and most people you talk to know about it.

Jeter talks to black people in Oakland, DC, Chicago and New Orleans, but he certainly could've found the same sentiments in Atlanta. The Projects get torn down and replaced by loft condos. When white people show up - inevitably walking their dogs - there goes the neighborhood. When long-neglected sidewalks and streets and public parks are suddenly the focus of repair and revitalization, look out. "It's not for us," they said. It's for the white people who are moving in, gentrifying the neighborhood. "Hey, I walk my dog," I thought. And, "So this is why Stumptown's city council fought so hard against restoring the Velodrome!"

On the other hand, I was reminded of the same stories I've grown up with about "blockbusting." My parent's generation still mutters about how some powerful institution- the housing authority or the federal government - starting moving black families into white neighborhoods to force integration. The culprit was some heinous mashup of institutional racism and the "natural ebb and flow of the real estate market."

Only so much of this can be written off as "conspiracy theory" talk. Whether there's a well-funded, sinister "plan" or not, the myth and the net effect are the same. Poor tribes, black or white or indian, always get pushed out. We occupy ourselves with racist theories about the cause while real estate developers laugh all the way to the bank.