Population jumps within city of Atlanta (Decatur: school, college, median income)

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by plessthanpointohfive

There are vast areas of Atlanta just waiting for those 50K a year earners to come and make it home. It's just not being promoted. I wish the city would offer incentives for buying homes in these areas.

Didn't we have this conversation once before? Where are these $150k homes in areas with decent schools (notice I didn't say "good"- even "decent" schools would be a start- after all, you can't have everything on 50k/year, right?) and an acceptable level of safety?

[plessthanpointohfive]

It's my opinion that if the city starts really advertising it's housing programs and tries hard to get the real middle class to move here that the schools will rapidly increase in quality.

School quality is 99% of the parental demographic. If you've got a really large middle class in one school system the school will be okay and the poor kids will benefit, too.

[plessthanpointohfive]

But I do think this will happen but it will be out of a financial necessity to stop driving so much...for the middle class.

[jnth118]

People are in their own world in the forum sometimes. Who in the hell is really going to move to vine city?

90% of the metro area does not live in Atlanta. There is a reason why, and that reason is very valid.

I think this forum doesn't represent this area's majority very well.

[blackrabbit]

Is 50k a year family income considered middle class? Seriously? I would have thought most familes where two people worked were pulling in way more than 50k?

[plessthanpointohfive]

Hmm...you know, 30 years ago someone would have asked the same question, with the same disdain, about Candler Park or Decatur.

Also, we KNOW most of the metro area doesn't live in Atlanta...that's why it's called the metro area. What we're talking abotu is getting those people who work in the city, who are MANY, to live in the city.

It, of course, would make no sense for someone who works in Duluth to live in Vine City.

And, by the way, Vine City is currently a popular place for young gay couples....which means in a decade it will be a popular place for yuppies...

This forum is an Atlanta forum and it represents Atlanta and it's metro area very well. The current topic is the population of the city proper and how we can get it to increase. A valid topic.

[plessthanpointohfive]

The median income for a family in this country is something like 43K or maybe it's now 46K.

I would guess that around here 50K would be representative of many families where one parent stays at home. And I think that's a lot of families...

[Iconographer]

The crank population of Atlanta is well represented on this forum.

[plessthanpointohfive]

American middle class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This shows that we have no idea what the middle class really is. All I know, personally, is that I am part of it...

[onemanarmy]

Originally Posted by plessthanpointohfive

It's my opinion that if the city starts really advertising it's housing programs and tries hard to get the real middle class to move here that the schools will rapidly increase in quality.

School quality is 99% of the parental demographic. If you've got a really large middle class in one school system the school will be okay and the poor kids will benefit, too.

I hope so, but I have my doubts. Classism is a natural byproduct of capitalism. This classism even exists in Scandinavian countries I have visited. The target markets for these programs are never fulfilled. The programs the City Of Atlanta offers usually does not go to the middle class families they are intending to reach, they are sucked up by young professionals who are fresh out of college, well informed and qualify with their starting salaries out of school. 10 years later you have an upper middle class person, who is starting a family in a school district where the population has drastically changed.