Quote Originally Posted by FUBeAR View Post
Front page of the AJC today.

If you’re a SoCon Fan and you haven’t been to Macon and a game @ Mercer yet, you’re just not doing it right…

Today, there are about 1,000 residents living in 734 lofts. The 83 blocks that make up downtown have roughly 200 storefront-level businesses, 80% of them locally owned.

More than $958 million has been invested in the immediate square-mile heart of downtown since 1996.

The most-noticeable signs of revival are at night. Over two dozen thriving restaurants, bars, breweries and sidewalk cafes dot the streetscape. And, in a telling sign of modern vibrance, there are enough clear-bulbed, outdoor string lights twinkling over gathering spots to stretch to Savannah.

The Otis Redding Center for the Arts is being built on a corner near the City Auditorium, across historic Cotton Avenue from a one-time office building that in recent years was turned into Hotel Forty Five, a 94-room boutique space.

Just down Cherry Street, the Tubman African American Museum and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame anchor the district’s eastern edge, along with another loft development at the famed Capricorn Studios, preserved as a museum and still-in-use recording venue.
I was in Maconga for two weeks to train a new hire back in '13. Then it wasn't the best or worst place I had been, it was just meh.... However, I was in the midst of training for an Ironman, so I went for a 10 or 12 mile run that took me all around the area...the next day I told the local where all I had been, and she informed me that I was very fortunate to not have contracted a case of Accelerated Lead Poisoning. I really didn't think it was that bad...but I've also lived in Memphis!!!

I should probably check it out, I love thriving downtowns. I never thought I would live in a downtown area, but I'm glad I do now. I love being able to walk to restaurants and walk home after a libation or 3.