Downtown Atlanta, it’s been a while.

Downtown Atlanta (at least on a normal, non-event Sunday Morning) is a strange sort of liminal space. It’s different than it was a few years ago. There’s so much big, new, shiny stuff and so many more empty store fronts. There’s so much potential and so much rot. Georgia State University’s expansion northward has brought clean up and “safety” to parts of downtown that were once pretty gritty. I didn’t even see all of downtown, not the most touristy parts. I walked about an hour down Courtland to Hurt Park, up to check out the municipal grocery store (Azalea Market), a little bit on some side streets, and then down Peachtree to Ralph McGill then home.

You damn near can’t get a cup of coffee downtown before noon on a Sunday. I passed three coffee shops that don’t open up until noon or 12:30. I did find a Dunkin that was open, but it’s tiny and not the kind of place you could sit with a cup. It’s a grab and go kind of location. Azalea Fresh Market has a Dope Coffee as the upstairs floor of that historic building, but it’s not even open on Sundays.