This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 17th, 2005 at 5:02 AM and is filed under In The News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I heard this story on the way home yesterday on NPR about the new The Georgia Aquarium, a 200 million dollar gift to the city of Atlanta from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus. The aquarium will host 100K animals representing 500 species in 5 million gallons of water. There are expectations that the aquarium will attract approximately 2 million people per year and create 200 new jobs.
Located in ATL’s contested “Tourist Triangle” there is already controversy with ALT’s residents & homeless population because the city counsel passed a new ordinance banning panhandling in the area of the aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center, Centennial Olympic Park, etc. The ordinance was probably passed on the insistence of business leaders who wanted a more sexy/appealing tourist Mecca/destination.
I have already made plans in my mind to visit with the family next summer, hopefully while there I will not be harassed or have or see any homeless drama.
Link to NPR Story