Living OTP

The view of downtown Atlanta from Piedmont Park.

The neighborhood you live in can sometimes mean more to other people than it does to you. This was the case in my hometown as were was a Northside/Southside divide which split the city's two public high schools and could influence what you thought of that person. The same is definitely true in Atlanta where there is certainly a premium put on living in one of the city of Atlanta's neighborhoods. Looking at a map of Atlanta you can see that it is encircled by Interstate 285.

If you live inside the circle you are ITP or Inside the Perimeter. If you live in the towns beyond that boundary you would be living in the OTP or Outside the Perimeter. It is considered best to live in Atlanta proper, if you can't do that then at least live ITP. I think it's fairly safe to say that it would considered a sin for anyone living OTP to say they live "in Atlanta."

We live decidedly OTP and although we were told many times to live in the city and not live OTP it has turned out fine. And although we've mainly stayed around our neighborhood since moving down here we've recently been spending a lot of time ITP near Grant Park. During one of our trips we were driving down one of streets bordering the park and I noticed that there was a woman sweeping the street, This is something you rarely see in America but a regular occurrence in Ukraine. It was commonplace to see a babushka sweeping the street with a bristle brush missing 2/3 of it's bristles.

I jokingly said "look, it's a babushka sweeping."

Driving further down we saw that it was a Eastern Orthodox Church she was sweeping in front of and the world came around full circle. This was St. John The Wonderworker Church of the Eastern Orthodox Church of America. I enjoy also how it is in a "Church Zone"...I'm not sure if I have ever seen a public sign like that before.