Macon, Georgia Will Ring In The New Year By Imploding A Vacant Hotel

It's hard to believe, but we're just weeks away from New Year's Eve, a day that is without question, my least favorite holiday. However, the city of Macon, Georgia has decided to jazz it up with something New Year's has always been missing: a controlled demolition.

According to WMAZ, Macon-Bibb County commissioners decided this week that the county would be celebrating the start of 2025 by imploding an old hotel building that used to be known as the Ramada Plaza but has been sitting empty since 2017.

"We acquired this property to blow it up, and I think a lot of people are going to have a problem with it," Mayor Lester Miller said.

It'll cost $2.4 million to bring the building down.

I love this idea.

I'm from Central Pennsylvania, and ‘round those parts, a lot of towns "drop" items with some local significance, a la the ball that famously drops in Times Square.

Lancaster — the Red Rose City — drops a red rose, Harrisburg drops a Strawberry as a tip of the cap to Strawberry Square, while Lebanon drops a big ol' edible Lebanon bologna.

I had assumed that this was the norm, and in college, I asked a group of people what their towns dropped on New Year's Eve, and they all looked at me like I had asked that question in a dead language.

At least Macon gets it, and they're killing two birds by cleaning up their town to boot.

Macon, Georgia may have hit on a genius way to ring in the New Year. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

I think every town in America should do this. Every year, you find the ugliest abandoned building in town at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, you demolish it. 

It's exciting and it's also symbolic of new beginnings… also controlled demolitions are fun to watch.