The NY Times: Stars Flock to Atlanta--Reshaping a Center of Black Culture (Forest Park: best cities, homes)

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by muxBuppie

Most will move back into the city when schools get better and crime drops but it is slowly happening now.

You keep claiming blacks are moving here becuase of hype but do you know that? How do you know they don't have jobs lined up or a plan?

What do you want us, on this forum or as citizen of the city to do to stop the media from influencing people who don't think?

I have never claimed that the sole reason for people moving to Atlanta was due to hype or any other sole thing. I initially said that I was never impressed with Atlanta and I was puzzled why so many people, sight unseen, wanted to move to Atlanta. I don't claim to have anything but an anecdotal analysis based upon MANY young people, and some older folks, who have plans or desire to move to Atlanta. Again, from where I am, geographically, people see Atlanta as the place to be for whatever it is that they are looking for. I do not see it as a wise move for a lot of young people....when there are places with lower unemployment, better social services, better schools and the like, for young families to get started. However, again, if people are not moving for quality of life reasons.....ignore what I am saying.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I think it's a fascinating and enlightening thread. I don't know why oldschoolChevy says white people are laughing. I'm not.

You should be.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

I don't think the American urban landscape is going to be a duplicate of Europe's for a lot of different reasons. Firstly, the concept of the suburb is an American invention and is completely hardwired into our psyche; suburbs aren't going anywhere and people of means will still gravitate towards them. While I understand that city centers are staging something of a comeback, those who are populating them still come from pretty limited demographics: yuppies, DINKs (including gay couples), and empty nesters (why Blacks tend not to comprise a significant share of these groups is another subject that I have some theories about). Families will still by and large opt for suburbs.

Suburbanization, in America, is really the product of the automobile, super highways and.......most importantly.....cheap fuel. Europe has very high taxes on gasoline and valued public mass transportations systems much more than here in the US. The automobile and oil lobby colluded to discourage mass transit and to promote the use of automobiles historically here in America. Its all about maximizing profits and GDP for corporations here.

The thing that is going to change America is when gas prices hit what they are in Europe. When we start paying 6 and 7 dollars a gallon for petro.....it’s going to radically change the way we live....and commute. Living out in the far flung suburbs and exurbs is going to be a very expensive commute and people and metropolitan governments are going to promote smart growth and curtail the outward expansion of exurbia and start promoting people to move closer at higher densities to conserve energy and make public transit more cost effective.

Thus....I am not talking about a trend that is born from it being "cool" to move into the city. I am talking about the trend being the result economic pressures to conserve and live more energy efficient.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

When I think of Detroit I think about burned out blocks and houses, dudes wearing fake Cartier glasses (10 years after they went out of style might I add), people smoking ganz weed calling it high grade when its really just Canadian mid grade, ugly women, dudes running scams at the casinos, blind pigs with burned out old heads who always talk about "their glory days", ugly women, dudes walking around with ink lines in their and beards, ugly women, I mean I could go on for days. Detroit is so run down thre are still streets up there where you can see the tank tracks in the pavement from when the riots happened-and the riots happened almost 50 years ago. Detroit is a dump, plain and simple. It's like a bigger version of Gary Indiana.

I thought this vid is apropos....given that your handle is "oldscholdChevy". Its ironic that you value the Old School Chevy.......yet you disparage the "D" for their syle.....lol. Its a clean vid....the faded the foul language. However.....this is "D" boy style....with the yea's ....and can't forget the gators


Stretch Money f/ Crane Novacane - Talkin Bout Fresh - YouTube

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by BajanYankee

You know I spent a semester down there, right?

Here's a sample of some of the ridiculousness I've seen down there:

1. Cars with "spinners" and Gucci/Louis paint rolling down Peachtree Street with trunk-rattling bass. Five Points to Midtown was nothing but a parade of pimped out vehicles with scantily-clad girls dancing through the moonroof. This would be the case every Friday night.

2. LOTS of gold fronts. I don't think I've ever seen more gold teeth in my life.

3. Grown men wearing basketball jerseys EVERYWHERE. Throwbacks may have started in Philly, but Atlanta took them to a whole new level.

4. Guy in Cadillac Escalade throwing money from his windows onto Peachtree while sitting in traffic. I've never seen more Escalades, Navigators and Suburbans in my life. I think "spinners" were standard issue.

5. Morris Brown and CAU students making every effort to live up to the image of black colleges portrayed on BET's College Hill.

6. All-Star Weekend/Player's Ball. Nuff said.

7. Went to a "professional" event down there where the DJ figured Travis Porter's "All the Way Turned Up" would be appropriate.

8. Wet Willie's? Seriously?

9. Bouldercrest Mall? Whoa.

10. "Aye, aye, shawty!"

If that's not living a rap video, I don't know what is. There's a level of gaudiness down there that can only be matched by Detroit. P.G. County has some of that, but it's not nearly as pervasive, and for the most part the hood crowd and the buppie crowd are pretty separate (Bus Boys & Poets is a good example). Not so in Atlanta. You could be wearing a blazer with nice shoes at a nice bar and then some dudes stroll in with matching UNC Tarheels outfits.

DC is BY FAR a classier and more cosmopolitan scene. Atlanta's better if you're young (18-22), into the "industry," or married and want a cheap, big house with a lot of land to raise a family. For the mid 20s to early 30s crowd, I think DC and NYC have a much greater range of options.

You know man...Atlanta has issue but this post is really overboard. cmon man...you letting these Atlanta boosters get you riled up. In a way you are kinda getting trolled. Damn man they are getting to you.

[BajanYankee]

Why does everyone have this idea that Europe is so different from America? I think many Americans have this idea in their heads that the typical Parisian lives in the 14th Arrondisement and walks to the local boulangerie every day to pick up fresh baguettes before jumping on the "Metro" to commence his four day work week. My experience living there was quite the opposite.

I lived in a small suburb called Le Blanc Mesnil a good ways north of the city. The family I lived with drove everywhere (on freeways) just like Americans do. You couldn't even catch a cab from the train station and the bus service was terrible. The French version of Walmart called le Carrefour was nearby and people bought a whole bunch of unhealthy stuff in bulk just like Americans do. I think people read magazines and watch television and think it's so different there. It's really not. Paris proper is full of rich people and African ghettos like Chateau d'Eau. Then you have poor Arabs and blacks in outer fringe banlieue like the neuf deux and neuf trois. And then there are more middle-class whites in places like Mee Sur-le-Seine. So in essence, American cities are very much like European cities where you have extreme income disparities in the inner city with the bulk of the middle class living in suburbs (as well as some poor suburbs).


Banlieue - Booba feat. RimK - YouTube

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

The thing that is going to change America is when gas prices hit what they are in Europe. When we start paying 6 and 7 dollars a gallon for petro.....it’s going to radically change the way we live....and commute.

That would make sense if jobs were concentrated intown and people had to commute to the central city to work. However, that's not the case here in Atlanta. The vast majority of jobs are in the suburbs, and most city residents commute to work in the suburbs..

Thus my take is that rising gas prices will cause the suburbs to become increasingly urbanized. Businesses will likely keep locating the suburbs, since that's the workers are.

While some people may move back toward cities due to increased gas prices, on the whole I doubt that will be the dominant pattern of migration. The situation is complicated by a number of other factors, such as superior schools in the suburbs. That's an extremely powerful factor for people with school age children.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

So what Detroit has a bigger population, what do you want a cookie or something?

Yeah and those ugly women get no play here either, If I had a dollar for every chick I knew who moved here from some other city where she was the baddest thing around, only to move here and be depressed because she doesn't get play here because as Atlanta standards go she really isn't bad. Detroit chicks are burned out, only thing they're good for is hiding some dope boy's stash and driving whatever brand new Chevy Impala or Pontiac Grand Prix that comes out. And that was tongue and cheek but there is a lot of truth to that.

DOG!! Man you aint never lied...and not talking about your Detroit blast. Im talking about small town pretty girls moving to Atlanta and havin their egos ripped out, chain sawed, cremated, smashed with a hammer and put back in to have low self esteem. I saw it a few times when I was down there. Matter of fact that reminds me of the dating thread that is on this forum.

[muxBuppie]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

I have never claimed that the sole reason for people moving to Atlanta was due to hype or any other sole thing. I initially said that I was never impressed with Atlanta and I was puzzled why so many people, sight unseen, wanted to move to Atlanta. I don't claim to have anything but an anecdotal analysis based upon MANY young people, and some older folks, who have plans or desire to move to Atlanta. Again, from where I am, geographically, people see Atlanta as the place to be for whatever it is that they are looking for. I do not see it as a wise move for a lot of young people....when there are places with lower unemployment, better social services, better schools and the like, for young families to get started. However, again, if people are not moving for quality of life reasons.....ignore what I am saying.

Quality of life is subjective. Everyone isn't looking for the exact same things.

[muxBuppie]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

Suburbanization, in America, is really the product of the automobile, super highways and.......most importantly.....cheap fuel. Europe has very high taxes on gasoline and valued public mass transportations systems much more than here in the US. The automobile and oil lobby colluded to discourage mass transit and to promote the use of automobiles historically here in America. Its all about maximizing profits and GDP for corporations here.

The thing that is going to change America is when gas prices hit what they are in Europe. When we start paying 6 and 7 dollars a gallon for petro.....it’s going to radically change the way we live....and commute. Living out in the far flung suburbs and exurbs is going to be a very expensive commute and people and metropolitan governments are going to promote smart growth and curtail the outward expansion of exurbia and start promoting people to move closer at higher densities to conserve energy and make public transit more cost effective.

Thus....I am not talking about a trend that is born from it being "cool" to move into the city. I am talking about the trend being the result economic pressures to conserve and live more energy efficient.

Everything you say is happening now. Gas is rising and people are moving closer to either the city or where they live/wor/play not just becuase it is cool but becuase traffic sucks and gas is high.