Is Atlanta Boring?

While the competition to host the Super Bowl is fierce, Atlanta appears to have won. Could its location in the Sun Belt be a critical factor? And for those traveling there, is there anything else to do?

Atlanta has proven a master at bringing huge events to town: the 1996 Olympics, the 2000 baseball All-Star Game, Sunday's Super Bowl and countless conventions every year.

But when the event is over, just try to find a good time around all those downtown hotels and convention centers. The action is in neighborhoods outside of downtown.

Unlike other cities, Atlanta has no Broadway, no French Quarter, no dazzling casinos. After dark, downtown has more in common with a Midwest farm town than an Olympic city.

"When I lived there, you could shoot a cannon through downtown after 10 o'clock and not hit anybody," said Patti Shock, former chairwoman of hospitality management at Georgia State University and now chairwoman of the tourism and convention department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Local partyers generally prescribe Buckhead, a well-to-do enclave five miles north of downtown with several theme-oriented bars and chain restaurants.

Downtown, there is Underground Atlanta, a subterranean mall foundering near bankruptcy. A near-empty Hooters was the only establishment open this week in Kenny's Alley, a once-bustling collection of bars at Underground.

"You get every chucklehead in town saying, `Oh, you've got to go to Buckhead, you've got to go to Underground,' and then they go away saying, `That's it? That's Atlanta's downtown?'" said Robert Holland, the city's best bartender, according to a local alternative newspaper reader poll. "What a hellish vision of Atlanta (visitors) must have."

Mark and Kathryn Carpenter of Jacksonville, Fla., said they had more fun partying in Miami before last year's Super Bowl.

"Everybody said go to Buckhead, so we went to Buckhead. But we weren't impressed," Mark Carpenter said Wednesday. "Too many bars and lots of traffic."

Officials at the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau insist that the city is a complete entertainment package and that no one cares whether the socializing occurs downtown or somewhere near it.

Besides Buckhead, areas such as Little Five Points, east of downtown, and Virginia-Highland, northeast of downtown, command most of the nightlife.

"We're not talking about sending you an hour away. We're talking about a five-mile radius of the core city," said Bill Howard, the bureau's vice president of marketing, tourism and communications.

"What you really find in Atlanta is not that much dissimilar in what you find in other major cities," he said. "Atlanta is a city that has a business district, a convention district, a sports district and a local entertainment district."

Billy Paye, who successfully steered the city's bid for the 1996 Olympics, argues that the games helped Atlantans rediscover downtown and spurred a renaissance of urban development. As people return to downtown to live, he said, nightlife is sure to follow.

"The migration back is slow. It's slower than we would all like," he said.

Downtown is dominated by offices and hotels. The Georgia World Congress Center, Georgia Dome, CNN Center and new Philips Arena sit on the western edge, while hotels anchor the east side. Centennial Olympic Park, the focal point of much of the Olympic celebration, has fountains, benches and acres of concrete.

But visitors coming to town looking for other remnants of the 1996 Olympics are often disappointed. Many of the venues have been torn down, and the Olympic Stadium was turned into a baseball park. The cauldron that housed the Olympic flame didn't fit aesthetically and was moved to the far edge of an outer parking lot.

One industry that has thrived near downtown Atlanta is nude dancing. Atlanta is one of the few cities in the nation that allow completely nude dancers - no G-strings or pasties - and alcohol in the same establishments, and there are several clubs near downtown that run shuttles to large hotels.

"When there's a big show or convention in town, they'll pull up by the busloads," said Sophia, a 31-year-old dancer who gave only her stage name. "I guess when these guys get out of town, they feel they can let their hair down. I have no trouble taking advantage of that."

Find out more about Atlanta's industrial past at The Marietta Street Artery Neighborhood Site.