Members of R.E.M., Drive-By Truckers and Widespread Panic Team Up to Protect Downtown Athens From Wal-Mart

The city of Athens, Georgia has always been known for its beauty and vibrant musical heritage. A plan by an Atlanta-based developer to build a massive mixed-use development anchored by a Wal-Mart has threatened to cut into the beauty and vibe that makes the city special. Patterson Hood has fought back by writing a song about the threat of a Walmart in the heart of the downtown that nurtured the band’s career and assembled the Downtown 13, a musical collective made up of some of Athens’ finest musicians to record and film a video for the tune, named After It’s Gone.

R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, members of DBT and Todd Nance and John Bell of Widespread Panic all participated in the making of After It’s Gone along with members of Futurebirds, Hope For Agoldensummer, Lera Lynn, Justified True Belief and The Quick Hooks to draw attention to this matter. “This Atlanta developer wants to clog our cultural heart and build a bunker the size of three city blocks next to the vibrant downtown scene,” says Hood in a press release. “They hit The Easy Button: a big box store in our downtown district is clearly misguided and a somewhat ridiculous notion. Downtown Athens is a dynamic network of local businesses–Athens already has a meaningful brand and we are extremely protective of it.”

Head over to protectdowntownathens.com to download the song and to read more about how the proposed development will hurt Athens.

Related Content

One Response

  1. While not a fan of the “I hate walmart” crowd…this is how it should be done. This is how to protect your neighborhood in the ongoing fight to retain “good” urban design (or your urban design). Good work.

    It remains ironic these good folks appreciate and use local, grassroots politics to defend the home turf, but (often) many of these same people are quick to decry states rights as a “dogwhistle” for racism. Mo Local, Mo Better.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter