Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy expressed skepticism Thursday that the World Cup will revitalize downtown Atlanta.
Torpy reported that on a walking tour of downtown, he found sparse lunchtime crowds at formerly packed CNN Center and nearly deserted streets elsewhere.
Once a popular tourist attraction and the busy headquarters of CNN and other media companies, CNN Center declined after the cable news network abandoned its longtime downtown home.
CNN Center's surviving bars and fast-food restaurants receive evening transfusions from Hawks games and concerts at State Farm Arena, but no longer draw steady daytime traffic.
As Torpy pointed out, downtown needs long-term development rather than the temporary boost of eight World Cup games.
While work has begun on the ambitious Centennial Yards project to transform the railroad gulch slashing across downtown, projects have stalled to renovate Underground Atlanta and restore a row of historic commercial buildings south of the Central Business District.
A project to upgrade the Five Points MARTA Station remains snarled in bureaucratic wrangling. Torpy reported that he found the MARTA station's desolate plaza nearly empty.
Downtown has never recovered from the Covid epidemic, registering the city's highest office vacancy rate. Developers are now converting nearly empty office buildings into residential apartments and condominiums. That will boost downtown's permanent residential population, the most important element of a downtown renaissance.
Torpy's own newspaper abandoned downtown in 2009, a huge commercial blow. Now the revitalized multi-media AJC will move back into the city, shunning downtown for offices in Midtown.
Other parts of the city are surging ahead and bringing back workers. Mailchimp recently opened a dazzling new office building on the Beltline. Workers crowd the streets in Midtown and Buckhead.
Downtown needs long-term commitments, not the brief shot from the World Cup.
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