Adventures in Bankhead
January 23, 2008 at 7:41 am by Lianna Shen in Randomly Noted(Editor’s note: Lianna Shen is one of our newest interns at CL. She’s not only new to Atlanta, she’s new to the U.S. Below, she shares her thoughts about some of what she’s seen on her way to the office.)
I have a confession: I’m Canadian, born and bred.
I moved to Mableton from Toronto this month to intern at Creative Loafing. The quickest route to the office from my home is Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, aka Bankhead Highway.
On my first day at CL, my boyfriend insisted that I take something other than “Hood Road,” but I refused. I didn’t want to get lost on my first day. When I got to work, my supervisor made some comments about Bankhead Highway, notably that he remembered hearing about some guy getting pulled out of his truck and stabbed awhile ago.
Driving home from CL on Tuesday afternoon, I saw a group of about eight men crossing Northside Drive together. Some had garbage bags slung across their shoulders like they were runaways. One had a drink in his hand, concealed ever so cleverly by a paper bag. It looked like they were going on some kind of hike — a nice, leisurely hike to Bankhead Highway.
I locked my doors.
I am not usually afraid of sketchy areas. Sure, I’m from the great North, but I’ve seen rough, I swear. My apartment in downtown Toronto was right on the border of the “right” and “wrong” parts of town, which meant I sometimes had to step over the sleeping bum before crossing the street in the morning. We may offer free health care, but we do not house (all) the homeless.
But now in Atlanta, I find myself getting nervous driving at 6 p.m. and avoiding eye contact with pedestrians. I make weird decisions like staying in the right lane behind a slow, sputtering old Chevrolet just to avoid cutting off the wrong guy. I’ve become a wuss.
So I did some research. I figure the more I know, the less I fear. And I found out that I’ve been driving through some pretty cool pieces of American history and culture, without even knowing it.
The highway was named for John Hollis Bankhead, a once-upon-a-time Alabama congressman, and advocate of good roads.
Bankhead Highway used to run from Washington, D.C., through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, and all the way to California. It was once called the “Broadway of America” as it was thought to bring prosperity and plentiful business to the places it ran through.
The remnant of Bankhead Highway running through Atlanta doesn’t evoke feelings of a glorious old highway. It does have places like the Poole Palace, home of the popular hip-hop dance, that gives the road a different kind of glory.
While it makes me feel cool to know that T.I. and Monica have braved this street and that Hollywood has even made use of it and partially shot this month’s One Missed Call in the surrounding neighborhoods, I still have yet to stop for gas along the highway. But I am curious about the place called Toy’s Rainbow. Perhaps one of these days I will see what it is all about. It has a hand-painted sign that looks charmingly bohemian.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Lianna, has it occurred to you that it would have been COMMON COURTESY on the part of your co-workers at CL to tell you NOT TO LIVE IN FREAKING MABLETON? Couldn’t they have politely steered you to someplace hip, closer and maybe even safer? East Atlanta? L5P? But Mableton? What kind of MONSTERS work at CL? I wouldn’t let a wayward pet move to Mableton, for God’s sake.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
That commute is indeed a problem. Why so far away? I grew up around NW Atlanta, traveled up and down Bankhead Hwy.(while it was still Bankhead) and never once felt threatened, even as a teenager. I think it is really about perceptions and some people have to work harder than others to change them. I have friends that live along Bankhead with no complaints other than the typical property crimes you find in any Atlanta neighborhood. While I’m glad you found this little piece of history, I would still encourage you to move closer to CL so you can take advantage of Marta and other great things about in-town living.