Charlotte vs. Atlanta (Decatur, Buckhead: crime, homes, movies)

[WorldChamp]

Can someone compare these two cities? I have lived in Atlanta for w hile and now want something new. The AJC and other people always talk about Charlotte as Atlanta's main competition, and so I was wondering how equivalent the two are.
One of my friends compared them this way:

More transit friendly, less upscale, no Buckhead equivalent (with all the upscale shops and cosmopolitan feel), not really a 'big city feel', not as much of a corporate environment (besides banking), less traffic, smaller black population, more of a grid system, smaller and uglier homes.

Another person said its Atlanta without all the mistakes we made, but he didnt elaborate.

Can someone who has lived in these two places tell me if these are accurate discriptions? Thanks!

[Lemur2004]

My sister used to live in Atlanta (before I moved here) and now lives in Charlotte. She HATES Atlanta and LOVES Charlotte. She says the biggest improverment for her is the traffic. I have to admit it, downtown Charlotte is prettier. Other than that, I'm not sure. I did get the impression that the folks are a bit less "southern L.A." than Atlanta.

[LovinDecatur]

Charlotte is actually somewhat reminiscent of Atlanta in the 70's...there are some great suburbs, it's clean and has a vibrant downtown scene. It is growing rapidly, but seems to have learned what not to do by watching Atlanta.
Like Lemur, I have a sister that moved from Atlanta to the Charlotte area last year...she's been thrilled with the move and has no regrets.

[netdragon]

Charlotte is a smaller metro, growing quickly as well and is proactively developing transit, whereas Atlanta already has more transit. If Atlanta sits still, then Charlotte could overcome Atlanta. Hopefully the people in office get off their behinds and get some work done.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Charlotte is actually somewhat reminiscent of Atlanta in the 70's...there are some great suburbs, it's clean and has a vibrant downtown scene. It is growing rapidly, but seems to have learned what not to do by watching Atlanta.

I'm not sure that's a good thing - Atlanta was nice in the 70s - look what it became. Charlotte while appearing to have learned some lessons, may very well be todays Atlanta in 2025 (in the bad ways as well).

When I was up there a short time ago, I noticed a significant increase in bums downtown over the last time I was there a couple of years earlier. If they're not careful and don't control this carefully, they're going to have the same problem with this as we have downtown now, though hopefully they'll have a Mayor and police Chief by then that have a lot more brains than ours do.

Transit is another issue. Charlotte was late in the game to get on board, and they're simply developing a light rail system, which while good, is not as fast or efficient as heavy rail. If you do some searching in the Charlotte chat room for older posts, you'll find that there was/is A LOT of opposition to that light rail system as well - many, "we don't need or want this" types of people up there. Similar to the MARTA arguments when it was young, so I'd not call them "proactive" because many seem to be against it - it just got built anyway.

In my opinion, Charlotte IS nicer than Atlanta NOW, but in 25 years I see it as being just another Atlanta as it is today with the same problems unless they step back even more than they have to see what not to do.

[jillmaican]

My sister moved to Charlotte about a year ago. And though it is a nice City... very kid friendly.. I personally would not like it there. I think it may depend on your age. And though the traffic might be better than Atlanta (definetely not as spread out) they still have very localized (condensed) areas where their traffic is horrible.

My sister lives inside the "loop" and has no problems getting to work 25 to 30 minutes in the morning. But the area that she lives costs nearly $500K for a home built in 1997. From what I've seen getting stuck in their traffic on a Friday afternoon, you need to live close in to save on the traffic. One of her friends lives 10 miles down the road and his commute is 1.5 hours EACHWAY to and from downtown. I believe that many homes in the $150K to $250K will require at least a 45 minute commute downtown. Though you may be able to get something closer that is smaller/older.

[jillmaican]

Also... she has also stated that the crime in Charlotte is pretty bad considering the size of the city. And she is a lifetime New Yorker so that says a lot. In the past couple of months they have been having a lot of break-ins the upscale parts of town. Nothing major (not like the home invasions) but the robbery method of choice is to steal peoples garage door openers from their cars... and find their home address from the GPS unit or registration. By the time the home owners gets there they've been robbed. Its bound to happen everywhere but just some more info...

[nyxmike]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

I'm not sure that's a good thing - Atlanta was nice in the 70s - look what it became. Charlotte while appearing to have learned some lessons, may very well be todays Atlanta in 2025 (in the bad ways as well).

When I was up there a short time ago, I noticed a significant increase in bums downtown over the last time I was there a couple of years earlier. If they're not careful and don't control this carefully, they're going to have the same problem with this as we have downtown now, though hopefully they'll have a Mayor and police Chief by then that have a lot more brains than ours do.

Transit is another issue. Charlotte was late in the game to get on board, and they're simply developing a light rail system, which while good, is not as fast or efficient as heavy rail. If you do some searching in the Charlotte chat room for older posts, you'll find that there was/is A LOT of opposition to that light rail system as well - many, "we don't need or want this" types of people up there. Similar to the MARTA arguments when it was young, so I'd not call them "proactive" because many seem to be against it - it just got built anyway.

In my opinion, Charlotte IS nicer than Atlanta NOW, but in 25 years I see it as being just another Atlanta as it is today with the same problems unless they step back even more than they have to see what not to do.

The opposition to light rail was overblown by the anti-transit people. When the vote for the transit tax was put on the ballot this past November, 70% of people voted in favor of keeping the tax. I would say most people in Charlotte realize that it is important and are pro-transit.

Charlotte's South Park area is the closest thing to Buckhead. Charlotte's downtown is less spread out, more condensed, and has a brighter future than Atlanta. With all the projects and growth, Charlotte will be a very different place in the next 5 years. Yes, there has been a recent increase in crime, but people here will not tolerate it and it will change. I think Charlotte is changing for the better and I wouldn't rule it out as a nice place to live.

With that said, I also love Atlanta, I think that it is still a nice place, and I wouldn't mind living there either. The nightlife in ATL is better but Charlotte is definately improving.

[notorioustla]

You know, competition can be good as long as its healthy but I really hate how some Atlantan view charlotte as their competion when we are both in the south and in the same region. And i'm also baffled at how some Atlantans dont even consider Charlotte competition but feel threatened by us. Charlotte has everything Atlanta has but on a smaller scale because they have about half the metropolitan population. THey have Southpark as its Buckhead, a very big city/suburban feel (it's downtown has been used in a couple movies to resemble new york), a well planned layout that consists of more loops as opposed to Atlantas grids, and large beatiful million dollar homes that offer much more sq. footage for your money than in Atlanta

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by notorioustla

You know, competition can be good as long as its healthy but I really hate how some Atlantan view charlotte as their competion when we are both in the south and in the same region. And i'm also baffled at how some Atlantans dont even consider Charlotte competition but feel threatened by us. Charlotte has everything Atlanta has but on a smaller scale because they have about half the metropolitan population. THey have Southpark as its Buckhead, a very big city/suburban feel (it's downtown has been used in a couple movies to resemble new york), a well planned layout that consists of more loops as opposed to Atlantas grids, and large beatiful million dollar homes that offer much more sq. footage for your money than in Atlanta

I'm not aware of anyone who considers Charlotte to be in competition with Atlanta. If anything, we feel SORRY for Charlotte because in another 20 years, it's going to have turned INTO another Atlanta!

Charlotte is experiencing similar growth to Atlanta, and from what many have expressed, are not much better at managing sprawl and controlling what goes up where, than we did here, 20 years ago. On top of that, public transit in Charlotte is in worse shape - at least we had already started the limited MARTA rail construction by that stage, and Charlotte is only just now starting up a much more limited light rail system (which from what I've read many locals are fighting against).

I like Charlotte. But I think they're on the same path of mistakes, that Atlanta was on 20 years ago. They should be looking our way to say, "Now, don't do THIS like they did...", more than they are.