I hate the way we kill the things that make the city unique: the trees and creeks and dirt roads, the old buildings and funky businesses, the laid-back charm and easygoing attitude that comes with the heat, the porch sitting, the barbecues in the park.

I hate how the city was located — most places, you can see why they were founded there: it’s a spot of natural beauty, usually by water or other landmarks. Atlanta was going to be on the Chattahoochee, but railroad engineers decided it would be easier to lay the tracks on flat ground. Our city was located by engineers! Contrast that to this observation of Augusta, made by William Bartram during his travels:

“The village of Augusta is situated on a rich and fertile plain, on the Savanna river; the buildings are near its banks, and extend nearly two miles up to the cataracts, or falls, which are formed by the first chain of rocky hills, through which this famous river forces itself, as if impatient to repose on the extensive plain before it invades the ocean.”

The focal point of Atlanta is the interstate system, which also tore up our city neighborhoods so that they are only now recovering. If Bartram had to travel through Georgia today, one turn around I-285 and he would pull out his blunderbuss and commit an act of road rage, colonial style.

Still, I do love this city. There’s a new group of folks living here now who are fierce and creative and visionary, and I hope they will help forge some change that, for once, is positive. Atlanta, unlike New York, is still malleable — we can be a part of what it will become.

That said, I agree wholeheartedly that the stereotype of Atlantans being hillbillies is unfair and incorrect. Thing is, though, if Atlanta keeps on its current path of obliterating any connection it has to the old south then the only authentically Southern people and places will, indeed, be those stiocked with hillbillies.