Its true--Buckhead did used to have some activity. Sorry to hear it is all crickets now.
Why do you call them "boobie bars", as we all know in Atlanta, full nude was legal? Oh well, guess you can't call it the proper name in a family forum.
I also agree with your discription of driving through a pretty much vacant downtown area at night. Great as long as you didn't stop. The fed pen while not actually downtown was at least "imposing" at night.
There used to be some pretty good cruising on Cobb Parkway, but no real activity other than that. And believe it or not--for a good while the best cruising to look at "rides" used to be on Forest Parkway in Forest Park. It used to be a redneck enclave in the area and would attract rods along with lowriders and just ordinary creative cars of all kinds. Unfortunately the city fathers finally stopped it even though there was never any real problems. Just traffic and people looking and talking and not buying from local merchants. Which of course was the rub.
Lee