Travel and Leisure just called Atlanta a Dump ... seriously

Welcome to Atlanta, where the players play err, where the players are dirty and have not culture?  Read this article (AJC) and now look at the numbers (all out of 35). Atlanta ranked:

• 30 out of 35 for dirtiest (we beat New Orleans, Baltimore, LA and New York) ... ouch
• 29 out of 35 in nightlife - ouch ... I bet the hip hop community is pissed
• 30 out of 35 for cultural getaway -- shocked we didn't get 35 but then again, the High Museum had a Monet not to long ago so that's gotta get us in the top 30.
• 31 out of 35 for dining -- I'll actually argue this one b/c we do have some fantastic restaurants.  I travel a lot and would certainly put us above some of the other cities mentioned. Then again, there is an Applebee's and Ruby Tuesdays every mile or so which could have contributed to the poor ranking.
• 32 out of 35 for shopping -- Ever since they turned Lenox into a club, I can't argue. Perimeter and Mall of Ga are good but who goes to malls when you have Amazon, Eastbay and North Face.com? 

Back to the article - I feel bad for the spokesperson for the Mayor's office. She's great and I can only imagine the difficulty to come up with some of those responses.

The sad part, Travel and Leisure has a point. Kinda curious about the nightlife but if you aren't to sitting on a porch or going to a "hip hop" type club, then maybe they have a point.

I work Downtown and the street are either under construction or gross / covered in lots of disgusting garbage. I regularly walk to another building across Downtown and frequently pass by homeless sleeping in the streets, people doing meth next to abandoned building across the street from the court house (ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE COURTHOUSE), lots of abandoned buildings, dead rats, restaurants with health ratings in the 70s ... none of these things really dispute what T and L said and don't really inspire me to spend anytime in Downtown Atlanta unless I'm at work -- and most of us are lobbying that we move to midtown.

Atlanta does have some great restaurants, shopping and what not, but none of it is in Downtown Atlanta.  I've said it before and will say it again, Downtown Atlanta would be greatly improved by gutting everything, bulldozing what's left and starting over.

So ... who's coming to visit?