Why would people think Atlanta is ugly?? (Lenox: 2013, live in)

[AnsleyPark]

Look at No. 10.

America's Ugliest College Campuses - Articles | Travel + Leisure

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by atler8

Goodness gracious! What's all of the mystery about the term "subdivision" I'm reading about here?
I'm nearly 60 & have lived here since 1979 but grew up in a very small town in the rural midwest & I certainly knew what a subdivision was by some point in junior (middle) high school. It's not as though it's a new or mysterious or regional word that we've been hiding down here in Atlanta.

Right. You grew up in the RURAL Midwest. Speaking as a Chicagoan (who has lived in both the city and the suburbs), Chicago and it's suburbs don't have them. Chicago's burbs are on a grid or has named and numbered blocks lined with individal homes and apt buildings just like the city. Not subdivisions. Not apartment complexes (again unless you are way out). The south and rural Midwest typically isn't planned on a grid system.

Those of us (at least on this forum) who grew up in the industrialized majors cities don't know what they are. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. If subdivisions don't exist where you live, there's no need for you to know what they are. I stated previously that the way out places in Illinois would most likely have them but definitely not the city and the surrounding burbs. I've never spent any time in the rural Midwest other than driving through it while traveling to know its housing stock; therefore, I'd never seen or heard of a subdivision until I moved to Georgia.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

They're great people. They're not Atlanta, though.

It was a joke, anyway.

I'm aware. But the topic here is one of aesthetics, not intelligence. We're not lacking in either.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by atler8

I'll also stake a claim that we easily beat many other areas of the south in tree cover, especially if you want to include Texas as part of the south.
I once tried to explain the differences as I saw them in general tree canopy, etc. between here & Houston on another thread & a certain writer from Houston was reduced to claiming that I had never been to Houston. My offense was that my personal view made from my own observations led me to conclude that Atlanta had a noticeably thicker & more lush general tree canopy.

As I recall, you didn't exactly make a very good case for your argument. Everyone who's been to both cities knows well that Atlanta has many more trees. I don't know anyone who's ever said otherwise.

Houston is a lush city, and, yes, there are parts of the metro and East Texas in general that are more or less equal to Atlanta in both tree coverage and height. Pretty much an inarguable fact.

[atler8]

Nairobi
Certainly there were areas of Houston that were more lush, such as River Oaks which was rolling in money, but I was mystified for example by the comparative barren look & lack of trees in the close-in neighborhood called Montrore. One of my hosts who lived in Montrose thought it was a beautiful neighborhood but the other host, a Houstonian who graduated over here from Emory University, disagreed with him. "Flat & barren" were the words that he used.
You say that I didn't make my case on that thread but it was more a situation where you, apparently, and other Houstonians simply could not accept a different point of view.
The insinuations against me on that thread erupted as a defense amidst the claim that I must never have been in Houston at all.
Additionally, I found the lack of zoning to have been offputting in the resultant uneven, cookie cutter clutter development evident on many major thoroughfares.

[atler8]

Atlanta_BD
In addition to growing up in the rural midwest, I also broke up my schooling into 2 segments & in between them moved to DuPage County, Il., i.e. suburban Chicago for those on the thread who do not know metro Chicago well.
At the time I worked & lived in DuPage County, Naperville, Il. was & still is, the fastest growing suburb in that large, suburban county.
Below find a link of a list of subdivisions found in Naperville alone. I think the residents in that area would be surprised to know that Chicago & it's suburbs "...don't have them."

[atler8]

Sorry about that. My link didn't attach the first time so I'll try it again.
Here is the Naperville, Il. subdivision list via it's url:

http://ayerstream.com/community/nape...-subdivisions/

There are perhaps as many as 150 subdivisions listed for that one suburb alone.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by atler8

Nairobi
Certainly there were areas of Houston that were more lush, such as River Oaks which was rolling in money, but I was mystified for example by the comparative barren look & lack of trees in the close-in neighborhood called Montrore. One of my hosts who lived in Montrose thought it was a beautiful neighborhood but the other host, a Houstonian who graduated over here from Emory University, disagreed with him. "Flat & barren" were the words that he used.

It sounds like the Emory grad doesn't know what the word "barren" means. It's hardly an appropriate term for a coastal city that has more annual rainfall than Atlanta does.

barren

This is the Montrose:
Montrose

...not Atlanta, but not exactly Amarillo, either. And if River Oaks is the first neighborhood to pop into your head concerning the subject of Houston greenery, then I'm sorry, but no you likely don't know Houston as well as you think you do.

Flat? Sure, but last time I checked that wasn't a crime. Some of the world's greatest cities are flat as a board.

You say that I didn't make my case on that thread but it was more a situation where you, apparently, and other Houstonians simply could not accept a different point of view.
The insinuations against me on that thread erupted as a defense amidst the claim that I must never have been in Houston at all.
Additionally, I found the lack of zoning to have been offputting in the resultant uneven, cookie cutter clutter development evident on many major thoroughfares.

I may have you confused with someone else, but I'd have to see that thread before I can even be sure what the initial disagreement was. Like I said before, I've never claimed all of Houston was as verdant as Atlanta, so it wasn't me you heard that from. I do stand by my statement that parts of Houston and East Texas are as lush as Atlanta, and, again, this is more fact than opinion.

"Lack of zoning...Houston's ugly...yadda, yadda." Broken record. Let's hear something edifying, now.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by atler8

Atlanta_BD
In addition to growing up in the rural midwest, I also broke up my schooling into 2 segments & in between them moved to DuPage County, Il., i.e. suburban Chicago for those on the thread who do not know metro Chicago well.
At the time I worked & lived in DuPage County, Naperville, Il. was & still is, the fastest growing suburb in that large, suburban county.
Below find a link of a list of subdivisions found in Naperville alone. I think the residents in that area would be surprised to know that Chicago & it's suburbs "...don't have them."

I already said with the exception of the further, newer suburbs. Naperville is one of the further out suburbs that has subdivision and apartment complexes. The closer in to the city you get, they don't have them and if they are there, they are new.

I'd never been to Naperville. I have an aunt and uncle who lives there who moved there after I left Chicago. But again, I'd never heard of them because I mostly lived in the city and the suburbs I lived in there did not have them.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Look at No. 10.

America's Ugliest College Campuses - Articles | Travel + Leisure

Not surprising as the school was sort of improvised from the start using whatever space that could be found in downtown, and even that preceded the conversion of a parking garage. From there they acquired what they could, where they could, and if it was built with state money, on the cheap as the legislature often underfunded projects. Not much planning can be done so future projects are hoped for acquisitions and funding. They have to react to unexpected opportunities and recover from disappointments when losing out to competing developers as they "wing it" in trying to create a cohesive campus environment.

I guess that's why I like Kell Hall. It embodies so much of what GSU has been about.