Image Citation: The Avenue Peachtree City, www.avenuepeachtreecity.com/.

Peachtree City, GA is a Metro Atlanta city, and, according to the city’s official website, it has a population of 35,262 people with approximately 1 in 3 people owning a registered golf cart (“Facts & Figures”). Established in 1959, Peachtree City was a preplanned community; however, this was to its detriment. The city has since fallen victim to tight-knit neighborhoods with small yards and a plethora of dead-ends; these dead-ends would have made the city a walking nightmare, but virtually every family owns a golf cart. One of the fun facts realtors like to flash around is how the city has “94 plus miles of multi-use paths provided for walking, jogging, bicycling, or golf carting” (“Transportation”). From every grocery store, every school, and every park, you can find your way back home on a golf cart. However, this quirk can get old—there’s only so many times you can go on a golf cart rid for fun.  

When golf carting gets monotonous, one can hang out at The Avenue, a popular landmark near the center of town. Classified as “an outdoor lifestyle center,” The Avenue hosts 43 different restaurants and stores ranging from GAP to Williams-Sonoma to Marble Slab Creamery (“About Us”). There are benches along the brick sidewalks and bronze sculptures in front of the stores every so often. In the winter, the town Christmas tree with fake presents gets set up in the middle of all of the stores; there are arches wrapped in white Christmas lights and giant classically-styled ornaments all around the plaza to serve as beautiful props in that perfect winter picture. The Avenue is central to Peachtree City, and because of this, it reminds me of all the shops mentioned in David Copperfield. Every shop David goes to, he has a significant experience: he sells the clothes off his back in the clothing store, reunites with Emily at the tailor’s place, and attempts to prove himself as a man when he “[goes] out with the butcher, and gloriously [defeats] him” in front of the butcher’s shop; without experiencing all of that, David would not have been the person he is at the end of the novel (Dickens 281). It is safe to say everyone who lives in Peachtree City has valuable memories that take place somewhere in The Avenue. 

The only significant difference between The Avenue and the shops mentioned in David Copperfield is modernity. Because the similarities are so striking and the differences are negligible, the importance of capitalism and community is something that has endured for over 150 years. The continuation of the tradition of main streets shows that capitalism will always exist in some capacity; however, it also highlights how people will continue to need a place to congregate and feel like a tightly bonded community.

Works Cited

“About Us.” The Avenue Peachtree City, www.avenuepeachtreecity.com/about-us/.

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. Penguin Books, 2016. 

“Facts & Figures.” Facts & Figures | Peachtree City, GA - Official Website, peachtree-city.org/66/Facts-and-Figures. 

“Transportation.” Transportation | Peachtree City, GA - Official Website, peachtree-city.org/64/Transportation.