Atlanta---Underground, Off the Ground

As a complex of shops and restaurants where warehouses once stood, Underground Atlanta was meant to be a symbol of the city's new vibrancy when it opened in 1969. Instead, it became a study in urban failure: thieves and rowdy teenagers patrolled abandoned storefronts as shoppers fled to the suburbs. The place was shuttered in 1982.

Now Atlanta is trying again. Nearly 5,000 boosters braved a thunderstorm last week to celebrate the reopening of Underground after a 2 1/2-year renovation that cost $142 million, including $85 million in city-backed bonds. The complex, decorated in turn-of-the-century style, will eventually boast 140 stores, restaurants and nightclubs -- as well as dozens of security guards meant to reassure the suburbanites and tourists who are essential to the downtown's revitalization. Critics charge that the city's money could be better spent elsewhere. Protesters disrupted Mayor Andrew Young's opening address by chanting "Atlanta keeps the homeless underground." But if the project succeeds, it will create 3,000 new jobs and generate $5 million a year in additional tax revenues.