Black mecca vs the queen city (Atlanta: high crime, employment, neighborhoods)

[kirk902]

What do you guys think is better. Atlanta, GA or Charlotte, NC

[mrlc48]

Atlanta is much better people from the midwest swamped there for a change in senery and opportunity

[Bebop]

I prefer Atlanta. I like the big city feel it has.

[Loiyan]

Prefer Atlanta, pay is better, more to do. I know people who ended up in Charlotte instead of Atlanta and what do they do every weekend? Drive to Atlanta. According to them, Charlotte still has a long way to go, especially if you are single and under 40. Even if you are family focused with children, Charlotte has several pockets of problem schools and they are not meeting the demand of growth and the county is WAY over extended. Granted, that is occuring all over the south as people are leaving Northern areas, but according to several teachers and parents who live in Charlotte and have also lived in Atlanta, its much worse. For the single people, two female friends who left Florida and moved to Atlanta are constantly complaining about how "country" people are and how the clubs are pitiful, worse than Orlando, and that is very hard to imagine, there is only like one or two places to go and EVERYBODY goes to those one or two places. Now they are talking about hip hop/r&b clubs. But still. I have heard that if you are in the Banking industry, Charlotte is like the banking capital of the south, even more so that Atlanta, but in almost every other field, pay is much lower.

[chitown68]

Speaking for myself, I would probably say Atlanta has several advantages over Charlotte in several areas.First, Atlanta offers a diverse variety of neighborhoods/suburbs in which to live. Second,as someone has already pointed out in an earlier posts, pay tends to be lower in Charlotte unless you are in the banking/finance industry. And third, Atlanta has a wider range of cultural/leisure offerings than Charlotte.

[backfist]

Originally Posted by kirk902

What do you guys think is better. Atlanta, GA or Charlotte, NC

I experienced a let-down coming to the ATL--primarily because my expectations were too high. I expected to see Black influence and empowerment at the upper eschelons of business and government. But we appear to have power and influence only in the areas with high crime, high poverty, and low school performance. Thus, in communities where I'd want to live safely, quietly and with good schools, we don't have the power and influence that one would think. Disappointing. And Charlotte isn't going to be too much different.

On the upside, Atlanta has much better employment opportunities and, depending on where you buy a home, it's going to be a good investment.

[70Ford]

Originally Posted by chitown68

Speaking for myself, I would probably say Atlanta has several advantages over Charlotte in several areas.First, Atlanta offers a diverse variety of neighborhoods/suburbs in which to live. Second,as someone has already pointed out in an earlier posts, pay tends to be lower in Charlotte unless you are in the banking/finance industry. And third, Atlanta has a wider range of cultural/leisure offerings than Charlotte.

That's the size of it.

[Georgia]

Charlotte is catching up and putting on steam!
Currently, the state of NC is now the most "moved to" state in the union. Under current statistics, NC may pass Georgia as the 9th most populus state by 2015, with Charlotte and the Tri-Cities gaining most of the strength.

Granted the City of Charlotte is larger than Atlanta by 200,000 folks, however, it is the surrounding counties that make the Atlanta are dwarf the Charlotte metroplex by 3 million folks.

There is one advantage to Charlotte over Atlanta and one major disadvantage of NC over GA. The advantage of Charlotte is "smart growth" compared to developer contol of counties like we have here. Gwinnett is a good example. The disadvantage is taxation. NC is now, for the south, considered by many as North Taxalina. With the Dem's taking over the statehouse a few years ago, NC has experienced increases in property taxation, income taxation that can now eclipse 8%, and fuel tax, which is now one of the highest in the nation. Of course the other issue they do not have as Atlanta is becoming well known for, rampant "spread out" crime issues.

I don't know if you could lable items as a "Black Mecca" as the majority of the SE states may be labled as such considering the majority of the black populations reside in NC, SC, GA, AL, and Mississippi, compared to the rest of the US. With this said, Georgia as of the census estimated release of 2006 has the largest migration of the black population from other points nationwide.

[qc dreamin]

and there it is. Charlotte and Atlanta we need to come to some kind of reconciliation!!

[FromCLTtoATL]

I prefer Charlotte, but there are advantages to Atlanta. It's all so personal.