Name: Scenes from a Closed Atlanta, as Georgia Reopens
Brand: newyorker.com
SKU: newyorker-com-76
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Scenes from a Closed Atlanta, as Georgia Reopens

preview

In the sixties, Atlanta was dubbed “the city too busy to hate,” by a mayor hoping to distinguish it, positively, from the rest of Georgia. A friend of mine recently wondered whether Georgia’s Republican governor, , is now “too busy to wait.” A good question, but a bad joke. Atlanta, where I live, is home to the and some of the top research universities in the United States; its mayor, the Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, has embraced messages of caution coming from scientists and academics, near and far, since the began. Meanwhile, Kemp was one of the last governors to issue a shelter-in-place order. He finally did so on April 2nd, ten days after Bottoms had issued her own stay-at-home order for the city. By early April, there was already a —a region one doctor living there characterized to me as “a third world country”—and cases were climbing in Atlanta and elsewhere. The death toll in the state is now approaching a thousand.Nonetheless, three weeks later, on April 24th, Kemp was . Bottoms responded to this news . “As I look at the data, and as I talk with our public-health officials,” she said, “I don’t see that it’s based on anything that’s logical.” The businesses Kemp had chosen were curious—they included tattoo parlors, barbershops, and bowling alleys—but the timing was the most inexplicable element of the plan. I spoke with a well-known Atlanta hairdresser who would not be reopening on April 24th and did not mince words about Kemp’s decision, calling it “asinine.” Even , who has tweeted that other governors should “liberate” their locked-down states, said Kemp’s decision was “just too soon.”Still, from late March until late April, Atlanta was a decidedly closed city. Images of the city—sent to me in Oregon, which I happened to be visiting when everything changed—have felt like glimpses of a familiar but new planet. A bizarro home. There’s the emptiness of streets and public spaces, of course. But also smaller things. For instance, there’s a two-lane tunnel under a former rail yard near my home, in a downtown neighborhood, where graffiti artists are allowed to paint. Some remarkable murals have been made in and around the tunnel through the years, and, as a backdrop, they’ve attracted aspiring rappers, models, and smartphone-wielding teens alike. Now, along one wall, there’s an image of a frazzled-looking scientist with a microscope, under which is sprayed “It’s a pandemic.” On another wall: “All My Homies Hate COVID-19” and “Wash Your Damn Hands.” Not far away, on the BeltLine, a former railway corridor that’s now a popular pedestrian and bicyclist thoroughfare, a different message has appeared: “Wuhan Plague,” under which, in Chinese characters, it says, “China lies.” Elsewhere in the city, a locally cherished slogan, “Pray for ATL”—which appears alongside praying hands—has been repurposed: “Wash for ATL.”It’s the same with the city’s rail line, museums, churches, malls, and tennis courts, as captured in the film above. Some of this change isn’t so terrible: a nine-hole golf course in town—popular among folks, including me, who enjoy drinking beer and meandering in the grass more than playing golf—has instead become a place to fly kites and throw down a picnic blanket. It’s quiet. Birds sing. To them, at least, this is not the cruellest month. is a staff writer at The New Yorker.The best of The New Yorker, every day, in your in-box, plus occasional alerts when we publish major stories.

In the sixties, Atlanta was dubbed “the city too busy to hate,” by a mayor hoping to distinguish it, positively, from the rest of Georgia. A friend of mine recently wondered whether Georgia’s Republican governor, , is now “too busy to wait.” A good question, but a bad joke. Atlanta, where I live, is home to the and some of the top research universities in the United States; its mayor, the Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, has embraced messages of caution coming from scientists and academics, near and far, since the began. Meanwhile, Kemp was one of the last governors to issue a...

public

Charles Bethea

 Unparalleled reporting and commentary on politics and culture, plus humor and cartoons, fiction and poetry. Get our Daily newsletter: http://nyer.cm/gtI6pVM

Scenes from a Closed Atlanta, as Georgia Reopens

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS