8 random reasons to be thankful for Atlanta right now

Josh Green

Tue, 11/26/2024 – 12:27

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection, gratitude, and gluttony. And for ATL lovers, it’s an apt occasion for self-promotion, too!

There are thousands of good reasons, for those who can still afford it, to be thankful for living in the American South’s capital city right now. It’s a time of relative prosperity in a modern-day boomtown where none of the local sports teams are sniffing last place, though the Hawks are trying. It’s currently sunny, T-shirt weather in late November. And oh by golly, the famed Pink Pig is finally back (sort of).

Below are eight other random reasons to be thankful for calling Atlanta home right now. Please, in the comments below, feel free to add to the list with your own personal ATL thanksgivings:

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1. We’re No. 6! No, seriously, since the pandemic, metro Atlanta has leapfrogged three other metros to firmly stake our claim as the sixth largest in the U.S. Which is pretty impressive.

2. A YouTuber/city planner/engineer with an international following just wondered aloud if the Atlanta Beltline isn’t America’s best urban trail. He also said this: “It’s hard to spend any time in Atlanta and not feel like you’re in America’s city of the future.”

The latest Beltline section to open this month, in relation to Piedmont Park’s dog park. Photo by LoKnows Drones; courtesy of Atlanta Beltline Inc.

3. The amount of places for Atlantans to live that are still comfortably affordable is hardly meeting the need, as post-pandemic housing costs have shot through the roof. But as new and forthcoming projects from Decatur to the doorstep of MARTA’s Hamilton E. Holmes station prove, affordable housing initiatives across the ITP universe are more than just lip service around here.

4. Gulch redevelopment Centennial Yards make take lumps for its monumental tax breaks and lack of affordable housing (so far), but damn it’s nice to see that soul-sucking downtown chasm finally becoming something else.

Here it is, as seen from an airplane, earlier this month:

5. Yes, haters, it’s not Germany, but the Atlanta Christkindl Market in Buckhead Village is becoming a fine tradition—one that’s more than capable of conjuring that warm feeling of holiday sentimentality. Go ahead—fight us.

6. The dazzling Atlanta Botanical Garden this time of year. Enough said?

Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

7. Day-brightening characters like Kevin “the singing Rollerblader” Randolph are now Beltline fixtures. Yes, please.

8. If you ride a bike in the evening, heading east into Midtown, sometimes a reflective, golden-hour scene like this happens:

Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta