This week’s Time and Place photo was shot on top of Stone Mountain. It was one of those images that I was hypnotized by when I saw it and just kept on shooting. In the 17 minutes between when I first saw this image and when I stopped taking pictures I shot 307 images. I have posted a selection of them here.
[imagebrowser=3]
(Photos by Joeff Davis)
The following Home Base article is part of the Urban Living section, CL’s monthly focus on city home life. If you know of interesting events in your neighborhood, submit them to soapbox@creativeloafing.com or urbanliving@creativeloafing.com. We’re always on the lookout for cool homes to feature, too. So send us an e-mail today!
By Steve Wells
(Photo Stone Mountain State Park)
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you read, “Stone Mountain”? The park? Memorial Drive, sprawl, unincorporated DeKalb County? Well, in case you didn’t know it, there’s a city of Stone Mountain nestled right up against the back of the mountain, just out the west gate, a city with a great Main Street and downtown area we call Stone Mountain Village. But if you’ve been to the city lately, you might be surprised by what’s happened here in recent years. Stone Mountain has experienced a downturn that affected many towns in the ’70s as a result of malls, the advent of suburbs and changing socioeconomic reasons. Downtown areas became less and less shopping centers of necessity and instead began a period of decline. Although Stone Mountain’s proximity to the park, a tourist destination, delayed its descent for 30 years, it has followed a path similar to many other once vibrant downtown areas. The question is: What’s the city doing to reverse the trend?
From a kind phone operator at Stone Mountain Park:
“Stone Mountain Park, in conjunction with the Stone Mountain Memorial Association and DeKalb County Government, has made the decision to cease snow-making for the Coca-Cola Snow Mountain Attraction. While the park is considered a commercial entity and had all required approvals to develop and open this attraction, we understand the concerns of our local citizens. We will consider all options for how we can continue to bring this snow park to Atlantans.”
One option: Fly us all to Breckenridge.
Calls to Christine Parker, Stone Mountain Park’s press contact, went straight to voicemail. We’ll update when we hear word.
Kudos to Jeffry Scott at the AJC for catching the dissonance between the record-setting drought and Stone Mountain’s plans to waste 106,138 showers’ worth of water on “Coca-Cola Snow Mountain.”
I received a press release yesterday from the private company that manages Stone Mountain Park trumpeting the planned “winter wonderland.” Apparently oblivious to the drought, the release proclaimed: “Atlantans and other southerners will get the chance to play in two feet of snow the size of three football fields, slide down ten tubing lanes, and make igloos, snow balls and snow angels in a 32,000 square foot snow play area.”
It’ll be interesting to see if Stone Mountain and Coke back off of what seems an obvious violation on the state’s drought restrictions. What was missing from the story was whether DeKalb County or the state would put the big “nyet” on this particular piece of wetness (maybe our own Thomas Wheatley could find out … eh, eh, Thomas?)
The first comment on the AJC story was the most pertinent. It suggested letting Stone Mountain and Coke know what you think of them Bogarting the hose. They’d be fools not to cancel this thing.
