Economist.com Cities Guide: Atlanta Briefing - February 2006

News this month

Death of an icon

Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King, died on January 30th at the age of 78. Her body lay in state at Atlanta’s state capitol building, not far from Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her husband and his father had preached. Such was the reverence for Mrs King, who had been ill with cancer for much of the past year, that mourners lined up in the rain to pay their respects, and some 15,000 people (and four presidents, including both George Bushes) attended her funeral on February 7th at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, outside Atlanta.

Mrs King was a staunch supporter of her husband’s civil-rights struggles. After he was assassinated in 1968, she worked to establish a national holiday in his honour. She also raised their four children, who said after Mrs King’s death that it was their decision to send her to the alternative-therapy clinic in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, where she died. On February 2nd, Mexican officials shut down the clinic, alleging “high-risk” conditions for patients, although they said that the closure was not directly related to Mrs King’s death.

Campbell's day in court

The trial of Bill Campbell began on January 23rd, with the former Atlanta mayor (from 1994 to 2002) defending himself against charges of federal corruption and racketeering. Federal prosecutors spent five years investigating Mr Campbell before indicting him in August 2004, but whether they can get a conviction is unclear: he still has strong support in downtown Atlanta, where the trial is taking place, which could influence jury deliberations. The trial is expected to continue throughout February.

The court sessions have already made for plenty of drama. One former aide wept as he recounted how Mr Campbell had gone gambling in New Orleans with $10,000 in bribe money. Several businessmen have testified to giving money in exchange for favourable contracts when Mr Campbell privatised the city’s water system in 1994. And, according to prosecution plans, a former strip-club owner who has admitted to burning down rivals’ clubs will testify that he paid Mr Campbell $50,000 in cash. The former mayor, meanwhile, continues to plead innocent.

McReprieved

Shirley Franklin, Atlanta's mayor, won unexpected national attention when she decided temporarily to ban “McMansions” within the city. On January 20th she issued an executive order to prohibit developers from tearing down smaller homes and replacing them with much bigger ones. The ban halted “infill” construction in five popular neighbourhoods within the city—Ansley Park-Sherwood Forest, northern Buckhead, Virginia-Highland, Lake Claire and Morningside-Lenox Park—until February 6th, when the city council would vote on whether to extend the ban for 120 days.

But the city's zoning committee rejected the ban, with nay-saying committee members arguing that it was unfair to say that some neighbourhoods were more valuable than others. Indeed, the prohibition would have covered less than 5% of the city. Real-estate developers had also speculated that owners might see the value of their homes drop dramatically (as their greatest selling point is often their suitability for conversion). Supporters of the moratorium had suggested that it was a welcome measure to preserve the character of popular neighbourhoods.

Bible study

A bill that would allow for Bible classes in public schools was approved by a 50-1 margin by state senators on February 3rd. Regina Thomas, a Democrat from Savannah, was the lone dissenter. State Republicans had been trying to pass a version of the bill since 2000. The version that passed, sponsored by Tommie Williams, the majority leader, requires the state board of education to approve two new elective high-school courses (which are not required for graduation): one on the Old Testament and one on the New. The bill also requires that the Bible be used as a textbook.

A version of the bill sponsored by three Democratic members would have created only one course and would not have required the use of the Bible, but lack of support forced the sponsors to vote for Mr Williams’s bill. Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, observed that it was better to be seen “running and hiding in the rest room” than be accused of voting against the Bible. A spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, meanwhile, promised to watch the bill closely.

Hapeless

On January 23rd, the Ford Motor Company announced that its 60-year-old plant in Hapeville, south of Atlanta, would close by mid-2008. This did not surprise Hapeville residents, since local economic developers had been in talks to preserve the plant, which employs more than 2,000 people, for years. Speculation about the closure had been rampant since Ford’s announcement in August that it would be phasing out the Taurus, which is made in Hapeville. While Ford restructures to try to bring its car division back to profitability, developers already have their eyes on Hapeville, which sits near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. There are already talks about converting the 117-acre site into a mixed-use project.

Catch if you can

February 2006

Chuck Close: Self-Portraits 1967–2005 & The Quilts of Gee’s Bend

March 25th–June 18th 2006

Think of these two big, travelling and disparate exhibits as the High Museum of Art stretching and settling into its new space: a 177,000-square-foot expansion that opened last November. Chuck Close, an American painter, is known for his inventive take on portraiture. His often over-sized works are remarkable for the way they capture a likeness through an assembly of abstract, individually painted shapes. From a distance, his paintings have a photo-realism, but up close these faces dissolve into a grid of blobs, shadings or thumb-prints (in his earliest works). This exhibit traces Mr Close's technique in more than 100 of his works, beginning with a self-portrait from 1967, his first year in New York City.

Quilting is rarely the subject of avant-garde art circles. But “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” surely raises the under-estimated craft to something like high art. It features more than 40 gorgeous, innovative quilts, handmade by generations of resourceful black women in a rural community near Selma, Alabama. (The exhibit is co-produced by a non-profit organisation that raises funds on behalf of the quilters.)

High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. Tel: +1 (404) 733-4444. Open: Tues–Sun, 10am–5pm (Thurs till 8pm, third Fri of month till 10pm, Sun from noon). Admission: $10–15. For more information and for tickets, see the museum’s website.

More from the Atlanta cultural calendar