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Old 10-01-2013, 09:59 PM
 
4,819 posts, read 6,047,205 times
Reputation: 4600

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Quote:
Originally Posted by emcee squared View Post
Opinion, opinion, opinion, not sure, opinion, fact, fact, fact, opinion, fact, fact.

5/11 on the facts there.

Why do many Atlantans dismiss criticism about the area and boast other nonsense instead of addressing the points raised by the OP? I understand they're opinions too, but the views of outsiders should be recognized and not shunned. Whenever someone says something not 100% positive about Atlanta, it is written off as another 'Atlanta basher.' It gets old.

The aforementioned rant is applicable to multiple threads, not just this one.
Dude obviously this a Troll thread...

1. Dude said ............

"Buckhead felt light a series of strip malls but with rail access. Like King of Prussia back home."

King of Prussia
http://goo.gl/maps/w3VFc

Buckhead.. where are the similarities?...
http://goo.gl/maps/sI5ar

2. He speaking about activity and Downtown Atlanta is more active than Downtown Charlotte. Also in addition to having more tourist More people live in Downtown Atlanta than downtown Houston and Dallas.

3. He said Midtown is office park like when it's in a grid...
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Old 10-01-2013, 10:08 PM
 
757 posts, read 1,090,771 times
Reputation: 1250
While the original poster was a little strong in his assessment and struck a nerve with many, there is some value in making a comparison to other southern cities and Atlanta's Downtown is facing some strong competition from other southern cities. First, take a look at the huge boom in development taking place in Downtown Nashville - with the recent opening of both the Music Center, and adjacent Omni Hotel (and the existing Hilton) combined with the Country Music Hall of Fame there is a real synergy and surge in development in the new south of Broadway district. The momentum is increasing with the announcement of a high end 24 hour diner opening just a block away. Atlanta's downtown doesn't have quite the synergy that those blocks of Nashville have. There is no 24 hour high end diner in downtown Atlanta either (no Waffle House doesn't count, LOL!). There is also a burgeoning residential and retail district developing in Nashville's Gulch which includes an Urban Outfitters as well as numerous restaurants. Atlanta's downtown doesn't have an equivalent retail district. Underground Atlanta in its early days had that, but is a shadow of its former self.

Memphis, also, has a burgeoning downtown with the large residential community of Mud Island on its northern end and the numerous condos and million dollar homes on the river bluff on its south end. The Main Street cable car connects both areas with Central Business District in between. The thriving Beal Street entertainment district towers over any thing comparable in downtown Atlanta.

Birmingham, has experienced a surge in residential development in its downtown with many older office buildings being converted to residential use. The new Regions Field baseball park has lead to the development of new apartments and retail in adjacent land. The new entertainment district being built adjacent to the Civic Center with new Westin Hotel is also impressive (Show me where this is taking place in Downtown Atlanta)? The Birmingham Museum of Art and the McWane Science Center are both located in the Downtown proper as opposed to Atlanta where the High Museum is in Midtown and Fernank is in Druid Hills. It is far more preferable for a visitor to have all the main attractions in a central area. While the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke are in an ideal location for visitors, several attractions are located at a distance - for example the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead.

In summary, while Atlanta is a far larger city and has a far more impressive skyline than other southern cities, from a visitors perspective, the other southern cities downtowns are coming on strong and the powers that be should take note of it. This is particularly true for the convention business which is a big part of metro Atlanta's economy.
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Old 10-01-2013, 10:16 PM
 
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,468 posts, read 14,904,169 times
Reputation: 7263
Quote:
Originally Posted by bhammaster View Post
The thing is not only that ATL lacks zoning but that it is for all intents and purposes a practical city with kind of a lack of quality of life
Uh, no. The city of Atlanta has more zoning laws than you can imagine. So much so, I'm pretty sure if you want to fart on the sidewalk you'd have to get approval from a city board of some sort. But seriously, we are one of the stricter zoning cities in the country from what I gather.

What has been the problem is that our zoning was OVERLY strict when it didn't make sense. Some areas were strictly residential, but not every kind of residential. Some areas were strictly commercial, and were built right up to older pre-zoning residential. Even something as simple as cutting down a tree (not necessarily a bad thing) requires approval by the city arborist...even if it's on your own property.

You must be thinking of Houston.
Quote:
Houston is well known as the only major U.S. city with no formal zoning code.
How Houston gets along without zoning - BusinessWeek



Quote:
Originally Posted by bhammaster View Post
it doesn't pride itself in solely seeking to create a quality of life for it's residents like most American cities in the country.
I wouldn't say that at all. Pretty much all of the top 20 cities or so put a major focus on balancing day to day residential life and attracting visitors with attractions. Or do you think your average New Yorker goes to Times Square more than once a year?
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Old 10-01-2013, 10:58 PM
 
225 posts, read 275,857 times
Reputation: 306
Quote:
Originally Posted by stuckinsj View Post

Is there some other urban area that people work/shop/go to because these areas totally didnt cut it for me. I have been to Dallas, Charlotte, Houston, NOLA, and others. I honestly thought that Atlanta had the worst downtown and that Midtown/Buckhead were poor substitutes compared to other places.
You are really trying to say that the downtown in Houston is more vibrant than Atlanta? I used to live in downtown Houston, and that is straight up false. Houston was a ghost town after 5pm. Downtown Dallas is a joke too. And Charlotte's downtown consists of about three blocks of anything.

I'm not trying to say Atlanta has a great downtown, but those cities you listed are definitely not superior.
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Old 10-01-2013, 11:23 PM
 
28 posts, read 37,866 times
Reputation: 28
Quote:
Originally Posted by LovinDecatur View Post
Pfft
Quote:
Originally Posted by gerrythesnake View Post
Whatever that makes u sleep better at night bruh


Face it, killadelphia is the armpits of the Northeast.
No comeback?
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Old 10-01-2013, 11:24 PM
 
28 posts, read 37,866 times
Reputation: 28
Quote:
Originally Posted by Staysean23 View Post
Sorry to burst your bubble. The numbers for visitation doesn't come from that. If that was the case it would be 92 million people as that's how many people came thru Atlanta airport last year. you can also check other sources if u like

Atlanta
List: America's Most-Visited Cities - Forbes

Philly
List: America's Most-Visited Cities - Forbes
No Mike and Ike 27..... Sorry to burst your bubble.

Let me repeat this - Layovers at your airport do NOT count as tourists. Understand?
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Old 10-02-2013, 12:02 AM
 
7,112 posts, read 10,084,241 times
Reputation: 1781
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJDeadParrot View Post
This is worth keeping in mind when setting expectations of what Atlanta will be like, especially for visitors from northeastern cities. This is not Philly or Boston, where you can easily walk from Cheers to Fenway. We're rather decentralized, and a car will be a necessity to see it all. I'll admit; I was a lot like the original poster when I first moved here from Up North [by way of Philly, I might add] in that I was confounded by how spread out things in town were ["Buckhead is way up there?!?" I asked from Midtown, having been pointed to high-rises many miles away].

As has been getting discussed in the Coca Cola Museum thread, Atlanta easily has the means to entertain almost any demographic of tourist. Some people might have to re-calibrate their urban entertainment compass, if you will, to find what suits them.
I guess Atlanta's difficulty it that it has no natural center. So stuff tends to spread out and places rise and fall. Sort of an endless tussle between Downtown, Five Points, Underground, Buckhead, Midtown, Little Five Points, Centennial Park,... What many places like Philly have that is aesthetically pleasing and a natural draw is some sort of body of water. Atlanta has it with the Chattahoochee but choses to keep its distance from it. Even Stone Mountain would do, but it's way out and not easily seen from city and not that easy to get to for a tourist. All that's special about Atlanta's location is that some railroad tycoons picked a strategic spot on a map.
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Old 10-02-2013, 12:08 AM
 
7,112 posts, read 10,084,241 times
Reputation: 1781
Quote:
Originally Posted by Staysean23 View Post
Sorry to burst your bubble. The numbers for visitation doesn't come from that. If that was the case it would be 92 million people as that's how many people came thru Atlanta airport last year. you can also check other sources if u like

Atlanta
List: America's Most-Visited Cities - Forbes

Philly
List: America's Most-Visited Cities - Forbes
Keep in mind though that the actual numbers are hard to gauge. isolated places like Hawaii and desert surrounded Las Vegas probably have an easier time with an accurate headcount.
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Old 10-02-2013, 12:25 AM
 
5,126 posts, read 7,365,593 times
Reputation: 8396
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saintmarks View Post
Having lived the majority of the last 30 years in either one of the two metro areas, I heartily disagree with the comment in bold above.

Fort Worth is in a different class, the kind of downtown of a much smaller city. But in all three cases, the most interesting areas are outside of downtown, Uptown in Dallas, the Museum district in Fort Worth and Midtown/Buckhead/L5P in Atlanta.
You missed my specific point. The point wasn't that the most interesting areas in both Atlanta and Dallas are outside of downtown. In fact, I said Atlanta has much to see and do outside the downtown.

The point was that even Dallas (which I hate) still has a better downtown than Atlanta. And that's saying something since Dallas isn't particularly known for it's downtown.
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Old 10-02-2013, 12:47 AM
 
7,132 posts, read 9,076,441 times
Reputation: 6333
Quote:
Originally Posted by AZ GUY View Post
No Mike and Ike 27..... Sorry to burst your bubble.

Let me repeat this - Layovers at your airport do NOT count as tourists. Understand?
And they don't count in those numbers. What's your point? If you're going to make an argument against tourism in Atlanta, a better argument would be that half of the visitors here are visiting because of conventions or events, not necessarily to see the city of Atlanta itself.

Keep in mind, Atlanta hosts big events nearly every weekend...We recently just had TomorrowWorld, BET Hip Hop Awards, and Anime Weekend just last weekend and those events probably drew 500k+ or so together.
Many of these people come from other cities in Georgia and the Southeast. That's the plus side of being by far the largest metro within a 600 mile radius. It isn't that hard to realize that Atlanta probably does draw more visitors than most would expect. It is the prime city of the Southeast. Many families and people come here for day/weekend trips, to shop, etc, etc from nearby states and they count as visitors.

Here's a rough 600 mile radius of Atlanta. There is no metro bigger than Atlanta or even above 4M...

Last edited by Ant131531; 10-02-2013 at 12:57 AM..
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