Trip to Atlanta, GA (Part 2)
Day 2 in Atlanta. The weather outside is 18 F. The high is expected to reach 40 F in mid-afternoon. I went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Auburn St, several blocks away from Downtown. The memorial is built around the neighborhood Martin Luther King Jr grew up as a kid. The actual house is still intact, and the museum makes sure the other houses on the block is kept in pristine condition. However, there's still the homeless person by the small church on the corner, the small deli next to the hole-in-the-wall, and the downtown feel of constant cars zipping down the street. Even though Martin Luther King Jr had accomplished so much in his life, it makes you wonder how Auburn St might look like today had he lived a long and prosperous life.
The poverty in Atlanta is astounding in retrospect to the amount of poverty that you see in suburban California. At every street in the whole downtown area, there's a homeless person walking down that street during the day. Since I traveled to downtown on an off-day (Sunday), it seems like the whole place was marching with homeless persons. It's quite...unnerving. Even the homeless guy that i asked for directions knew I was a bit nervous. Walking alone as a tourist full of money in the downtown of an area I'm not familiar with and has the clear signs of homelessness is probably not the safest position that I would like to be in.
I spent most of the afternoon indoors to hide from the cold. I'd be a bit more motivated to venture out further into the city had I brought along someone else to share the experiences that I've had over the last couple of days. Ah, well there is always next time.
The poverty in Atlanta is astounding in retrospect to the amount of poverty that you see in suburban California. At every street in the whole downtown area, there's a homeless person walking down that street during the day. Since I traveled to downtown on an off-day (Sunday), it seems like the whole place was marching with homeless persons. It's quite...unnerving. Even the homeless guy that i asked for directions knew I was a bit nervous. Walking alone as a tourist full of money in the downtown of an area I'm not familiar with and has the clear signs of homelessness is probably not the safest position that I would like to be in.
I spent most of the afternoon indoors to hide from the cold. I'd be a bit more motivated to venture out further into the city had I brought along someone else to share the experiences that I've had over the last couple of days. Ah, well there is always next time.