Atlanta: Southern City of Business and Bums

Jan. 20, 2009 - PRLog -- Atlanta was the new city.  New York business savvy tempered by southern grace.  Of course becoming the next big city brings big city problems from crime, traffic jams and the most undesirable effect – street people.   Those panhandlers, hustlers and permanent park dwellers that use the sides of buildings as bathrooms and park benches as beds.  This weekend Atlanta will be the featured city on Street-people.com’s bum tour. Representative from Street-People.com, the online home for the homeless, will be walking the street, back alleys and parks of Atlanta seeing if the city lights and southern nights are a breeding ground for bums.

“Our road trips have become very popular with our readers and we receive a lot of response from fans of the site” commented one of the founders. Teams of bum hunters have visited various cities including Nashville, Boston, New Orleans, Springfield, New York, and Hartford. The website was created by two downtown office workers in Memphis, TN and has developed a strange collection of followers. The site creators where hosted by college students during a football game during which the students held a Bum Olympics inspired by the site, sorority girls hoisted banners for their favorite site on Good Morning America and the creators have been offered monthly columns by magazines in Dallas, Memphis and San Francisco.

“I think the interest is that we go beyond just getting pictures of the street people. We get stories behind that request for a dolla.” added the creators. “Being panhandled is something everyone that lives in a city understands. Our site is an outlet for that part of our culture showing that some people really need aid and others are just scam artist.” Under the banner of The Online Home for the Homeless, without the urine smell, the site questions whether the disheveled individuals who ask us for change are really in need or just scam artists. Atlanta was selected as the next stop on the tour after government agencies attempted to ban panhandling and the distribution of food to the homeless.

The site features a gallery of homeless people complete with photos and stories including Ray who was dubbed King of the Singing Bums to “Wheelchair Will” who uses a wheelchair as a prop to garner more handfuls of change from passersby.  The stories come from official agents who search out street people to learn more about their culture and special agents who earn code names by submitting stories to the site. The site has been featured on news programs, radio and magazines and was named one of the Top Ten radio interviews in 2008. “We feel the site uses satire to talk about this social phenomenon and we plan to have an interesting visit. We hope our trip will encourage residents to share the homeless hotspots in Atlanta.” added the founders.

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The online home for the homeless without the urine smell. True tales of bums, hobos, panhandlers and hustlers