Turning Right on Red: August 2017

The speed of life has picked back up as school has started back up again, Helena is in day care, and I'm back to the daily grind. Living in any city you sometimes forget about how much of a bubble you can live in. This is especially true in large cities or places like Atlanta with such a diverse demographic.

I recently went to a teacher training where I was one of the few white males. They advertised teacher association discounts with companies such as Papa John’s, Popeye’s, & Dairy Queens while the crowd cheered. I tried to remember the last time I went to one of these restaurants. I couldn't remember although I recently did go to an Applebee's on a vacation where there were few other late night alternatives. NPR reported that Applebee numbers were down quite a bit due to millennials (like myself I suppose) who just weren't that into it. But back to the teacher meeting; I felt a little bit out of touch when I realized that I never went to these places, or even anything else like it while others applauded and cheered the discounts. Almost all of my friends though are more like me and can't imagine living in the burbs. A few of my friends have made that leap and lately I've questioned why I've become so urban focused now that many suburbs have nice walking areas and independent businesses I tend to patronize more. I could say that it's environmentally more efficient, more diverse, and more thriving from an arts and culture perspective, and those things are probably on the whole true, but we also pay much more to live in cities.

Being back at school and once again dealing with 1 hour long drives sitting while stuck in traffic has me thinking about all of this again. In my case with the terrible commute even though it's theoretically a reverse commute, suburb life would make more sense. But I haven't quite come to grips with my identity around where I live, how much (if at all) it really matters, and what I want to do as Helena grows up, we consider having more children, and needing a bigger house.

The other interesting thing about many cities is how neighborhoods are oriented and we've become so partial to those neighborhoods. And the differences sometimes can be real with completely different demographics, safety (crime) levels, school quality, and grocery and commercial property proximities. But other times I think we become so micro-focused that that we lose sight of the bigger picture. For example, I recently got a pizza at a Midtown restaurant where the bartender and a customer talk about how much they dislike Buckhead and they commented that people in Buckhead really don't like Midtown either. While they are definitely different, they are much more similar than different than compared to a rural Georgia small town vs. anywhere in Atlanta. These same people hadn't even heard of East Atlanta Village (EAV), another popular Atlanta going out location. EAV is only 4-5 miles from Midtown but it caters to a very different crowd and I guess some people just stick to their small world and don't venture out into new or different neighborhoods. I like to think that I am a little more open to exploring different places (after all I'm a world traveler who's seen many different places and experienced many different cultures) but I know there are many worlds in Atlanta (like the underground rap scene) which I know nothing about.