Atlanta's not a world class city[CL Article] (Decatur: schools, universities)

[ATLTJL]

I bought a house half a mile from a MARTA station, half a mile from the future Beltline trail for about the median home price for the Atlanta area.

That's really awesome, for now. And hopefully you are in a stable job, or an industry that provides plenty of jobs that are also close to MARTA.

But what if that isn't the case? What if 5 years from now, or maybe next month, through no fault of your own, you lose your job? What if the only comparable job you can find is in Alpharetta?

Or what if you just decide you want to move up and the best paying and most idea job happens to be in Alpharetta?

Should you feel like you can't accept that job, or that you HAVE to move? Suppose you do move....then in 3 years, you lose that job and find a new one in East Atlanta?

See what I'm saying? For many people, living close to work isn't always an option because for a variety of reasons, jobs change and you can't just expect people to pick up and move every time that happens. You also have situations where one spouse works in Buckhead and the other works in Kennesaw. What do you do then?

I don't know the answer. But if I were a city leader and it was my job to have answers, I'd do my best to find one. Good public transit and actual incentives for flex time or teleworking would be a good start. I think we've seen incentives for carpooling pretty much don't work, especially since the carpool lane is often just as backed up as the others.

[Wayr2go]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

we definitely need to make dealing with them top priorities, which we clearly don't.

Totally Agree. While I'm not familiar with the administrative/political hurdles that Atlanta faces, I think the residents must collectively lead this front through regular town hall discussions or council meetings or whatever other methods are available to push for the state/city reps to take appropriate steps in that direction. But that is where the challenge is - its going to be simply impossible to pick up panhandlers and shove them away elsewhere -elsewhere where ? and how ? Also, traffic will improve if there is infrastructure that eases the volume on frequent routes used -there has to be an alternative -either another highway that can allow spreading of the traffic and/or public transportation that is reliable and well connected which will encourage people to utilize it more often. Many historical events are a great learning example to this point -erstwhile industrial meccas -Flint,MI, Buffalo NY and current industrialized (and ofcourse overpopulated and in many senses inhabitable) places like NYC have been extremely reliant and functional due to reliable transportation system.

[bornjacksonian]

Originally Posted by afdinatl

I'm calling bs. Every major city has traffic and panhandlers. Even cities with great rail still has traffic. Every city has bums downtown.


People can continue to hate on Atlanta all they want. If we are considered world class or not we will continue to have world class developments opening like BA, PCM, KSM, Avalon, etc opening soon. We will continue to have a world class airport (most flights in America), world class restaurants, world class entertainment (TW, MM, Etc) world class nightlife and strip clubs, beautiful women, cheap cost of living, great weather with little snow, low taxes, no toll roads, Hope Scholarships, etc. Continue to hate that we had more visitors than Vegas last year, we have the top colleges in the country, etc. No city is perfect but I'd rather take our shortcoming than the shortcomings of most other cities.

Can I get some help with those initials lol ? What is BA, PCM, KSM, TW, MM? No you didn't say strip clubs, we do have those every where. They also attract tourist

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by DaBurgh

Meh, 150 years ago nearly 50% of Atlanta homes and businesses were destroyed and the few thousand citizens it did have were forced to evacuate. Now take a look at what Atlanta has become today, and I'd say it's quite a feat.
How many of the "world class cities" were in near ashes 150 years ago?

Before Atlanta gets all "full of itself". Berlin was rubble only 70 years ago,

post war berlin destroyed - Bing Videos

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Wayr2go

IATL has 4 really good universities (I won't take any talk about MIT/Harvard etc. I've seen/lived closed to them and I was utterly unimpressed).

You must be hard to impress. Atlanta's universities don't measure up to Harvard and MIT. I mean they are world beaters, nevemind Atlanta.

Its doable -needs a plan an a push from the residents + politicians. Politicians alone wont and cannot make decisions as much as you'd like them to. Public must collectively mandate this agenda

Sort of "mob rule"?

[Wayr2go]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

You must be hard to impress. Atlanta's universities don't measure up to Harvard and MIT. I mean they are world beaters, nevemind Atlanta.


Sort of "mob rule"?

Sure Harvard and MIT have their own standing and it is boosted consistently by the tech funding, innovation etc but Georgia Tech, Emory and UGA are good universities that produce quality students who would have just as much ease landing a job as an MIT or Harvard grad - I know many a Harvard and MIT grads who aren't doing anything exceptional in their lives so -I'm sorry, you seem too overly impressed by these institutions.

Mob rule ? you want to complain but do nothing ? sit back relax, have a beer, have a pizza (or two) and watch football ? and do nothing ? Well, unless the public takes ownership of 'public welfare' nobody is going to offer you anything on a silver platter. Your job does not end after you cast your vote (if you do at all)

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

I pretty agree with this article. Small Excerpt below with link to full article.

Atlanta's not a world-class city | Opinion | Creative Loafing Atlanta




You can't tell me Atlanta's a world class city when:

1)Downtown is dead past 5:30
2)Lack of vibrant urban, walkable neighborhoods.
3)25%+ of your downtown is just parking lots.
4)Subpar public transportation system that struggles with corruption and improvement
5)Half of the downtown area won't get development because of the 'riff raff' element

BINGO!

I'm a native rural Southerner who doesn't care whether I ever see Atlanta again. Period. I've visited twice for several days at a time and have gone all over--downtown, midtown, Buckhead, Decatur, and even way out to Austell and Gwinett County.

It is a Southern-class city, a city for suburbanites who hate real cities. A sparkling series of skylines do not a real, cohesive, user-friendly city make.

MARTA is filthy, too. The Georgia State Legislature needs to get off the peanut farm and actually fund it.

Even Oakland is honestly more world-class, even with its crime problems which are worse than Atlanta's. Long Beach is demographically similar to Oakland, but better managed and safer. Long Beach and Sacramento have both been ranked at some point has having the most "diverse" population among all American cities. Oakland, LBC and Sacto have functioning and at least somewhat vibrant and attractive center city areas, both on ground level (unlike DT Atlanta) and when viewed from afar (like DT Atlanta). And we're not even talking about L.A., San Francisco and San Diego.

Having a major world airport and a large convention base doesn't matter when there's not much that is interesting to do beyond Decatur, which is a nice town but a dirty train ride away, as well as downtown and midtown, where men can be aggressively approached by panhandlers (I know from experiences) and women can be catcalled like crazy at any time of day. It's a shame; there seems to be an ongoing battle there of (a) wealthy businessmen with some civic pride, (b) good ol' boy politicians from south Georgia, and maybe even some of Atlanta's far suburbs, who don't even want "no real big city" in their state, and (c) Atlanta residents who seem to be well split between upper class and poorer class.

[MattCW]

MARTA is filthy? MARTA is one of the cleanest transit systems in the country! What part of it is "filthy?"

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by MattCW

MARTA is filthy? MARTA is one of the cleanest transit systems in the country! What part of it is "filthy?"

Five Points

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Wayr2go

Sure Harvard and MIT have their own standing and it is boosted consistently by the tech funding, innovation etc but Georgia Tech, Emory and UGA are good universities that produce quality students who would have just as much ease landing a job as an MIT or Harvard grad - I know many a Harvard and MIT grads who aren't doing anything exceptional in their lives so -I'm sorry, you seem too overly impressed by these institutions.

I'm fine with my impression because Harvard and MIT also have their exceptional alumni. They also get the best faculty.