Georgia: Home of peaches, CNN, and an Olympic park

I was in Atlanta for just a few hours on Tuesday morning before the bus left for Toronto (well, the bus to Chattanooga, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Detroit, London, and -- 24 hours later -- Toronto).

But I got the chance to walk around a bit and check some things out. I recorded this video in the Olympic park. It was cold and windy.



You'll notice I talk about the CNN Centre. Clearly, I was excited to see it. Walking inside, this is what confronts visitors:

CNN is an empire. The lady at the ticket booth volunteered that information. She probably noticed how obviously wide-eyed I was at the whole scene. I didn't care that the tour cost $12 -- this was CNN, everyone's favourite mainstream-media punching bag!

Well, the tour was just what you would expect: longish (about 45 minutes) and polished to the last detail. We walked past -- above, really -- some of the studios and hung around atop the newsroom for a few minutes as the tour guide, Anne-Claire (or Claire-Anne?), talked about how each worker bee contributed to the hive's uber success.

OK, so CNN doesn't have the best coverage of international events. I'd still kill to work in that newsroom. In the end, worth the $12. Maybe not for everyone, though.

AC did mention something towards the end of the tour that piqued my interest. She informed us all about the majesty of CNN's iReport system -- YouTube for citizen journalists. Her shining example of iReport at its finest was when one college student at Virginia Tech relayed his photos and videos very quickly after the shooting there. CNN was able to break the story before anyone else.

I asked AC if the kid was paid anything for his efforts. She said when people submit material, they allow CNN the right to use it but retain the right to sell it elsewhere. Answer: no. Interesting, I thought: CNN has created a means of working around freelancers, acquiring breaking news without paying a cent, and even giving the "iReporter" a few seconds of fame.

My partial diagnosis as a struggling freelancer: lame. The rest of me says it's smart business.

**

Last stop before the bus: the State Capitol. Why not, right? It's yet another dome. It's not as pretty or foreboding as some of its counterparts in other states. Here it is, in sunny glory:

Atlanta: First impressions

I walked out of the subway (called MARTA) after getting into Atlanta at about 11 p.m. and, almost immediately, three people asked me for money. And they were willing to help me out by showing me the way to the hostel where I had booked a room.

Two notes:
a) I had almost no money (one American dollar, five Canadian dollars)
b) These people clearly had never heard of the hostel ("You mean hotel?")

So one guy, Tyrone, insisted that he would help me. I knew the address of the place already and could probably guess just as accurately as he where it was, but what the heck. He seemed nice and I was too tired to say No Thanks.

We got to the place, which was seven or eight blocks from the subway, and I said I could really offer very little. I didn't want to insult him by giving him pennies. I did find that dollar bill and also gave him the five bucks. Hell, he had gone out of his way and was down on his luck.

Times like this on the trip, I realize that I still do have some money in the bank. Not too much, but enough that I don't have to help clueless quasi-tourists as they linger outside of a subway close to midnight.

A little later on, I was walking by a hotel a few blocks from the hostel. Another lady asked me for some money. Then, several very well-dressed people walked by, looking like they were on the way somewhere important.

I don't know too much about Atlanta -- 16 hours isn't much time to assess the situation -- but it seems like it's just one of many American (and Western, really) examples of poverty and wealth confronting each other each day, block after block, neighbourhood after neighbourhood.

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Also, Atlanta has a lot of security cameras and what seemed like a pretty substantial presence of guards and police officers. Again, maybe it's where I was in the city (Midtown, looked like Yonge/Eglinton or Yonge/Sheppard), but I never felt entirely uncomfortable.