Threads where someone mentioned Phillips as unsafe?

[taz]

The Hawks have always had attendance problems. I could only find once in 30 years (87-88) where we were in the top 10 in attendance. We are typically in the bottom third.

I almost think it's the Southeast in general. We just don't support our teams the way the rest of the country does. Miami is a very comparable size to Atlanta and they can't put anyone in their seats either except for when the Heat recently loaded up on stars. But looks at the Marlins, Hurricanes, Dolphins. I've seen more people at high school games. Tampa Bay has been dead last every year recently in MLB attendance, they are typically low in the NFL Carolina is low, Jacksonville (understandably) is low. But these are their cities ONLY professional teams, but they aren't supported as well.

I also think it has to do with the fact that Atlanta's population has virtually doubled since the Olympics. A lot of people have flocked here and they still root for their home teams. As their kids are born and raised in GA we will have a lot more Atlanta fans IMO.

Right now it's something like 60% of Atlanta's population is not from Atlanta.

And tbh theres more stuff to do here in the winter because its not always 10 degrees and snowing.

[curtmcgirt]

My full opinion of the canard of the Omni/Phillips being unsafe goes back to the mid-90's. Back in the days before the area is what it has become it was a light industrial area. There was talk of building a new arena and the Sandy Springs/GA 400 area was determined to be the best spot. Two things stopped that. 

 

1) The Olympics

2) Ted Turner

 

Ted was committed to downtown. In the way Arthur Blank is now. That era was also the genesis of the "arena as urban renewal". You could say in the case of Phillips it worked when combined with the changes the Olympics brought. The Georgia Dome is on the back side of all of that development and arguably worse off because it faces Vine City. However the Falcon's haven't experienced anywhere NEAR the attendance problems of the Hawks. White fans didn't stay away from the Thrashers in the same building, but I'd add that knowing what we know now ASG intentionally marketed the hockey team to white fans only. Other than the 2 Live Stews doing "Soul on Ice" nights, which I think they did themselves, there wasn't a real attempt to engage the city as a market rather a portion of it.

 

I believe for a season or two the arena league team played in Phillips as do the Dream. None of them have ever reported any problems.

 

So this idea of Phillips being a "dangerous" place is really only brought up when it comes to Hawks basketball. Its a reason people give to stay away. 

[EazyRoc]

I have NEVER heard anybody say the CNN center is in a dangerous place.

[AHF]

That begs a different Anchorman clip with the CNN news team out to brawl.

[LamarHampton]

I've personally spent a lot of time around there. I went to GSU for undergrad in the early 2000's, law school in the late 2000's, and have worked around the Fulton County courthouse area for 12-13 yrs. I've personally been threatened and almost mugged in Barbara Asher Square (coincidentally two cops came around the corner and the guy ran), which is just a couple blocks away from Philips. I've had my car broken into in parking decks on more than one occasion. I've personally witnessed two dumbass kids smoking weed a stone's throw away from the police station that's on Pryor. (Not that I really care about weed - just sayin' that's pretty ballsy to be doing right behind a police station.) I've seen LOTS of crackheads; lots of other people wigging out on something or another. I've had friends who were robbed. I've seen all kinds of crazy people doing crazy stuff. And as a GSU alum I was still getting Campus Alerts until about a year ago when I asked them to stop sending me that crap. Some of the stuff I read there was nuts - people getting held up in broad daylight; break-ins; assaults; etc.  So let's not pretend downtown Atlanta is Mayberry or anything. It's not. And granted, I have seen a lot more of this sort of thing than the average person because I am down there all the time. My wife works downtown. I am and have been down there a ton for school and work. I have friends who live down there (on Mitchell St) that I visit regularly. But none of that stuff has really phased me. I still go to games. I still go down there for work and alumni events. But the stuff about downtown by Philips not being safe isn't just made up. It's part of being in a big city.

[EazyRoc]

The area around Phillips is relatively safe because you have the dome between it and vine city. Atlanta is no Mayberry, but my worst experience (of course I catch Marta) is a homeless lady preaching the gospel against the wishes of most of the passengers. Maybe ive jusg been lucky.

[CODHAWKSFAN]

I've personally spent a lot of time around there. I went to GSU for undergrad in the early 2000's, law school in the late 2000's, and have worked around the Fulton County courthouse area for 12-13 yrs. I've personally been threatened and almost mugged in Barbara Asher Square (coincidentally two cops came around the corner and the guy ran), which is just a couple blocks away from Philips. I've had my car broken into in parking decks on more than one occasion. I've personally witnessed two dumbass kids smoking weed a stone's throw away from the police station that's on Pryor. (Not that I really care about weed - just sayin' that's pretty ballsy to be doing right behind a police station.) I've seen LOTS of crackheads; lots of other people wigging out on something or another. I've had friends who were robbed. I've seen all kinds of crazy people doing crazy stuff. And as a GSU alum I was still getting Campus Alerts until about a year ago when I asked them to stop sending me that crap. Some of the stuff I read there was nuts - people getting held up in broad daylight; break-ins; assaults; etc. So let's not pretend downtown Atlanta is Mayberry or anything. It's not. And granted, I have seen a lot more of this sort of thing than the average person because I am down there all the time. My wife works downtown. I am and have been down there a ton for school and work. I have friends who live down there (on Mitchell St) that I visit regularly. But none of that stuff has really phased me. I still go to games. I still go down there for work and alumni events. But the stuff about downtown by Philips not being safe isn't just made up. It's part of being in a big city.

Obviously we have all had different experiences downtown... some good some bad. My point is no matter how "bad" people want to say downtown is, it still doesn't stop them from going to falcons games, concerts, parades, bowl games, Oprah, etc... bottom line, is that the excuse of it being to dangerous to go to a hawks game makes absolutely no sense, considering the fact that it doesn't keep them from coming to other events in the downtown area. Can we agree on that? I mean are the Falcons or any other event doing anything that the Hawks aren't doing to make sure you make it to the event safely?

Edited September 10, 2014 by CODHAWKSFAN

[CODHAWKSFAN]

I've personally spent a lot of time around there. I went to GSU for undergrad in the early 2000's, law school in the late 2000's, and have worked around the Fulton County courthouse area for 12-13 yrs. I've personally been threatened and almost mugged in Barbara Asher Square (coincidentally two cops came around the corner and the guy ran), which is just a couple blocks away from Philips. I've had my car broken into in parking decks on more than one occasion. I've personally witnessed two dumbass kids smoking weed a stone's throw away from the police station that's on Pryor. (Not that I really care about weed - just sayin' that's pretty ballsy to be doing right behind a police station.) I've seen LOTS of crackheads; lots of other people wigging out on something or another. I've had friends who were robbed. I've seen all kinds of crazy people doing crazy stuff. And as a GSU alum I was still getting Campus Alerts until about a year ago when I asked them to stop sending me that crap. Some of the stuff I read there was nuts - people getting held up in broad daylight; break-ins; assaults; etc. So let's not pretend downtown Atlanta is Mayberry or anything. It's not. And granted, I have seen a lot more of this sort of thing than the average person because I am down there all the time. My wife works downtown. I am and have been down there a ton for school and work. I have friends who live down there (on Mitchell St) that I visit regularly. But none of that stuff has really phased me. I still go to games. I still go down there for work and alumni events. But the stuff about downtown by Philips not being safe isn't just made up. It's part of being in a big city.

Obviously we have all had different experiences downtown... some good some bad. My point is no matter how "bad" people want to say downtown is, it still doesn't stop them from going to falcons games, concerts, parades, bowl games, Oprah, etc... bottom line, is that the excuse of it being to dangerous to go to a hawks game makes absolutely no sense, considering the fact that it doesn't keep them from coming to other events in the downtown area. Can we agree on that? I mean are the falcons or any of these other events downtown doing anything that the hawks are not doing to make sure you make it to the event safely?

[Sothron]

I've personally spent a lot of time around there. I went to GSU for undergrad in the early 2000's, law school in the late 2000's, and have worked around the Fulton County courthouse area for 12-13 yrs. I've personally been threatened and almost mugged in Barbara Asher Square (coincidentally two cops came around the corner and the guy ran), which is just a couple blocks away from Philips. I've had my car broken into in parking decks on more than one occasion. I've personally witnessed two dumbass kids smoking weed a stone's throw away from the police station that's on Pryor. (Not that I really care about weed - just sayin' that's pretty ballsy to be doing right behind a police station.) I've seen LOTS of crackheads; lots of other people wigging out on something or another. I've had friends who were robbed. I've seen all kinds of crazy people doing crazy stuff. And as a GSU alum I was still getting Campus Alerts until about a year ago when I asked them to stop sending me that crap. Some of the stuff I read there was nuts - people getting held up in broad daylight; break-ins; assaults; etc.  So let's not pretend downtown Atlanta is Mayberry or anything. It's not. And granted, I have seen a lot more of this sort of thing than the average person because I am down there all the time. My wife works downtown. I am and have been down there a ton for school and work. I have friends who live down there (on Mitchell St) that I visit regularly. But none of that stuff has really phased me. I still go to games. I still go down there for work and alumni events. But the stuff about downtown by Philips not being safe isn't just made up. It's part of being in a big city.

Watch out, some people will call BS because it doesn't fit their agenda.

[lethalweapon3]

I truly hope that, among the piles of calls Koonin and The Gang have received to this point, one of the first they've received is from Central Atlanta Progress. They're our downtown improvement district (bizzes in the district get taxed, and the revenue gets used to do stuff the City would be too slow to do by itself.) Hardly any group around town should be more peeved than CAP at Levenson's 2012 screed.

 

We all know the pre-Olympic years were truly roughneck times around the Omni and the railroad gulch. Then, propelled by the Olympic Games, literally the entire rundown Luckie neighborhood of old industrial buildings got razed to make room for a giant public parkspace. Then Techwood Homes, America's first public housing projects three traffic lights to the north of the Omni, got swindled into the Housing Authority's grand plan to eliminate all projects and turn them into market-rate townhomes. Post-Olympics, Centennial Olympic Park added their own police force in concert with the convention center. Then the world's largest Aquarium came on the scene, and World of Coke moved from their Underground pavilion to join the party. Now across from the park, a ferris wheel. Coming soon, a trolley connection from Peachtree Street.

 

Central Atlanta Progress and its business partners continued to facilitate the turnaround of the Luckie-Marietta district. The bars and restaurants got less seedy and the streetscape has never been better. Georgia State University began building new classroom buildings and massively expanded their student residential base intown, starting in this area across the street from Georgia Tech. Dilapidated office buildings got flipped into condos, and downtown gets a significant concentration of residents for the first time in forever. At Peachtree near Luckie, The Winecoff Hotel, the burned-out hulk of building that was host to America's deadliest hotel fire back in the 1940s, finally gets a makeover and is a classy place to stay and/or dine, as is the Glenn Hotel now one block up Marietta from Philips. While still imperfect, the Peachtree Center area has never had such variety in dining and bar options off the street for after-work crowds as it does today.

 

Philips arrives and a pedestrian walkway is constructed to facilitate people walking from the Five Points area, particularly beneficial for employees at the largest Federal government office building outside of metro-Washington D.C, situated at the other end. Legendary watering hole Taco Mac moves in to add some local flavor. The Omni hotel expands across the street, as does the convention center. Improving the experience for MARTA riders, a contactless card system that makes train-surfing more arduous for the shady fare-jumping crowds, and electronic boards identifying the next arriving trains. The city enacts an anti-aggressive panhandling ordinance, outlawing begging for money within 15 feet of ATMs and parking fare boxes, later expanded to include areas within 15 feet of any building entrance or exit.

 

Further west along Marietta, a sports bar, a German biergarten, a sushi bar pop up. Parking decks are built for those tired of settling for gravel lots. Across from the Aquarium, Johnny Rockets and Legal Sea Foods join Ruth's Chris Steak House in the one part of downtown where new hotels are getting built from the ground up. The W and Twelve Hotels fill in the once desolate areas between the Aquarium and Peachtree. Back on Marietta, the College Football Hall of Fame is now open. A mile northwest of that, the Marietta Street Artery and Howell Mill Road is bustling with eateries and shops like never before.

 

Artists flooded the area south of the gulch and revitalize the Castleberry Hill district, now home to popular local restaurants and monthly art walks amid the condos.

 

As with most major city downtowns, Downtown Atlanta is certainly no one's idea of a utopia. Still, there are ample places to hang out before games, after games, and without games around Philips Arena, far more than ever before.

 

Even if many of these features and services were not in place at the time of Levenson's pondering to Ferry about the reservations of his most desired ticket base, even as a Maryland guy, he and his fellow owners should have known enough to get on the horn with Central Atlanta Progress and get a clue as to what was coming to make the experiences of Arena attendees not only safer, but more fascinating. Levenson's discussion of his desired constituents' fears represented seven years of built-up ignorance, where the tenants fail to get to know their neighbors. Instead of trying to figure out ways to make the in-house experience (discount hot dogs? really?) make up for the perceived discomfort on the outside, A$G needed to seek ways to better integrate their fans' experiences with the burgeoning scenes happening within a walk or short drive around them, in almost every direction.

 

Unlike the Falcons, the Hawks need fans willing to come to the arena on any of seven days of the week, more often during evenings than on afternoons. It is in their unique business interest to help their fanbase learn more about ways to make their trips to Philips more adventurous and pleasurable, about the ways they're becoming so, and about facts that help fans refute misconceptions.

 

An awful lot has improved just from back when A$G came on the scene. One place the whole gang would do well to visit: the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, now open right behind the World of Coke. Don't worry, it's safe to walk there.

 

~lw3