Tomorrow is Another Day

created 12/21/2002, posted on 12/21/2002

"I'll think about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day."
- Scarlet O'Hara, Gone with the Wind -
(郝思佳，亂世佳人)

"If the nation boomed in the 1990's, Atlanta exploded."
- New York Times, December 16, 2002 -

I moved to this boomtown out of necessity because my job brought me here. Since I did not expect too much out of this city, it actually gave me a lot of surprise: much friendlier people (compared to New York, that is), "better than dull" ethnic restaurants (in this case, please don't compare it to New...) and a very good access to the airport (when I needed to get out of town fast). However, after living in a city I neither like nor dislike for more than 8 months, I started to feel very bored. Maybe I was just born with those serotonin imbalance problems, which makes me "boredom-intolerant."

When I lived in Baltimore, at least I could still find out a lot of creative ways to complain (call me Balti-moron, but don't bore-me-more anymore). When every self-entertaining way failed, I still could hop on next train to Washington DC to bother my friends. It is good to escape to a place you feel home when feeling bored. I have tried this in Atlanta, this time by flight and not by train of course. The result is a premium frequent flier membership on Delta Airline (and an emptier wallet).

Anyhow, this is the first ever city in my life I have ever lived that has no view of mountains, or water (sea, lake, bay or even river). When I really want to take a long stroll, the best I can do is walking from one side of a shopping mall to another. Though I am never really sure which mall I just visited. They are all look the same.

Living in a place like this, tomorrow is just another day. Just a day as same as today. Of course, that actually made my works more exciting than any other thing in life (except hopping on next Delta flight to...).

Now my fellowship is finally over and there are no permanent openings here at CDC. Isn't it finally the time to say good-bye?

When my mother came to stay with me and finally made this her first ever trip to the American South, she thought she would see an Atlanta as described in the movie "Gone with The Wind," the charmed life that Scarlet O'Hara (“亂世佳人” 中的郝思佳) lived through. What she saw were a lot, a lot of cars and very, very vast parking lots.

"I have never been to any city with so many big park lots everywhere." She said, as we walked across a lot to reach Ansley Shopping Mall.

"So they can accommodate those cars." I said, as I kept sweating under the suffocating Atlanta heat and almost breathless with the smog.

"I think I will always remember those vast parking lots long after I leave." My mom said.

"And the buses that always miss their schedules." I said. "And the heat..."

Heat actually is not the main problem. Lack of shades for pedestrians and severely polluted air are. Later that same summer, I took my mother to New Orleans for a weekend gateway. That city is even hotter and more humid than Atlanta. We also visited there at a scary time, when the West Nile Virus crisis was raging on.

However, New Orleans is just a more pleasant place to be than Atlanta. It is shady, and very walkable. Even the public transportation feels better (this might not actually be true, but we enjoyed the St. Charles Street anyway) and people there just don't drive as ruthlessly as Atlantans (just don't get me started on this topic!). So a city hot and humid can still be pleasant to be in the summer, as long as it is not like Atlanta.

For a while, I thought I might settle down in Atlanta. I even tried to get another fellowship at CDC. But job offers in New York just bring me back to where I escaped from, once again.

A boomtown like Atlanta has outgrown what it can afford to be. It is estimated that there were 150,000 people every year moving to Atlanta in 1990s. In other words, there were 1.5 million "new Atlantans" in 1990s alone! No wonder there are just too many cars for the roads they have. Maybe it is good things for this city to lose some residents. I feel fine to be the one they gonna lose.

Just like Baltimore Orioles lost Mike Mussina to New York Yankees in 2000 (and they lost me to NYC that year too), now Atlanta Braves will lose Tom Glavin to New York Mets (and me too, not to the Mets though).

Strolling around the streets of Midtown (okay, okay, there ARE actually places to stroll in Atlanta outside the malls), I saw a lot of high-rise being constructed. Most of them will be residential instead of office buildings. Maybe a few years from now, there will be more people moving into downtown areas. More restaurants, coffeehouses, boutiques will open and people can walk from one shop to next. More street life will happen, just like what they have in New York, Boston, and Chicago. People will accept that it is a possibility to walk from one point to another, instead of driving all the time (and then complaining about the traffics and smog). If that day really arrives, Atlanta might finally become a real world-class city, not just a city that people move to because their job necessity. And not just a provincial city with a world-class airport.

But that will be another day, possibly will be another decade.

Before that, I think I have to move on with my life to somewhere more interesting. Hopefully if I really need to move back here in the future, this city will be a more livable place.

But that will be another story, I don't want to think about it until, another day.