Jeff Delp's Blog
A Neighborhood Joint? / 12.17.08, 10:39 PM
In the past 9 months, several things have happened in our community that has enabled me to live life more locally. One of our cars has been retired, a coffee shop has opened, a new soul food restaurant has opened, we moved to a more central location in the neighborhood, MARTA has improved its service, and our church has become more planted in its building. I have thoroughly enjoyed my new lifestyle because it fits more closely with some of the ideals that I moved to Atlanta with: living life without a car and keeping the money I spend in my community.
However, there has been a problem that I have been wrestling with. In our neighborhood, there is a place called Harold’s BBQ. For those that are familiar with Atlanta, you have probably heard the name. It is probably one of the 2-3 most famous BBQ joints in Atlanta, along with Daddy D’z and Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, and it only sits 7 blocks from my new house. People such as Jimmy Carter, our current Governor Sonny Perdue, and Jeff Foxworthy have been known to frequent this establishment. This makes it an attractive place to visit. The problem is, while these famous people eat there, my neighbors do not eat there. The people who live closest to Harold’s rarely eat there. So here is this landmark that resides in our community, and yet, it is rarely seen as part of our community. Is Harold’s a community restaurant just because it happens to reside a few blocks from my house? Or is there something else that makes it a community location?
When I spend money at the local coffee shop, I know that that money is going to the people who work at the shop, the owners of the shop, and causes that the owners support. All of which are centered in the neighborhood in which I reside, so my money gets spent several times over in my neighborhood. I also see people that I know when I am there, and am able to build community with them. It feels like a holistic experience when I am at the coffee shop. That differs vastly from my experience at Harold’s, where everything other than the location is geared towards people outside my community. I saw no one that I knew from the neighborhood (I did see my server walking through the neighborhood later that day), I know that the owners do not support local causes (they have been asked several times, and they state they support causes where they live), and I felt like I was a stranger in a place that was only a few blocks from my house.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch at Harold’s from a food perspective, I am unsure whether I will go back or not. What I am sure of, is that I desire for a place like Harold’s to be embracing of the community around it. Our neighborhood has enough eyesores and negative aspects to it (tow lots, recycling plants, chemical plants, etc..) that it would be wonderful if a positive element in the neighborhood was actually beneficial to our community. It is not hard to tell that Harold’s is not a community joint, but I wonder what it would take to get it there. How could our community embrace Harold’s? Often we expect elements in our communities to embrace the outside community, but what if the outside community embraced the elements inside of it. What if people from our neighborhood started eating there? Would they be more willing to support neighborhood causes? Sam (my son) and I are known widely throughout our neighborhood at the bank, post office, coffee shop, and soul food restaurant. What if we were as known at Harold’s? Could I convince them to be more supportive of neighborhood? I would hope so, and maybe that is my responsibility.
It is one thing to think about the “local” BBQ restaurant and talk about whether or not it is a local joint or not, but it is entirely different to talk about churches. While Harold’s is one restaurant in our neighborhood that is not local, there are at least 15 churches that have buildings in our neighborhood, but are not part of the neighborhood. As much as I would like Harold’s to be a neighborhood joint, I would love for the churches with buildings in our neighborhood to be neighborhood churches with doors open to our community. But just like Harold’s no one from our neighborhood attends most of these churches.
One day, my hope is that we will restore this community, and communities across our nation, to the type of communities that existed only 50 years ago. Communities where geographical place meant something. People were rooted where they lived, and places did not exist in your community that were not a part of your community. I hope we can have that in South Atlanta, with places like Harold’s, and with our churches. We have a long way to go, but it is an exciting road to travel on!
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