5 Pros & Cons of Atlanta metro (Savannah, Smyrna: transplants, high crime, how much)

[Go Blue 99]

Pros:
1) reasonable cost of living, when compared to other big cities
2) awesome climate Nov-March (we had a few 70 degree days in Dec)
3) business capital of the southeast
4) great restaurants & sporting events (Final Four coming this year!)
5) good diversity..not just racial, but geographical. You meet people who have moved here from all different parts of the US

Cons:
1) traffic
2) summer heat
3) strip malls in the city (let's face it, strip malls in suburbs are always going to be the norm. But here you get strip malls even in the city)
4) Atlanta's location. You gotta drive forever to get to a beach. There are no fun cities nearby. When I lived in Boston, I was very close to a ton of beaches, and a short drive from NYC.
5) lack of great pizza (being from Boston, I am spoiled)

[jxu66]

Pros:
1. Diversity in ecomony. A lot of different industries. No prone to crash like my previous places like Dallas.
2. Diversity in people and nationalities. Maybe that's because I live in Duluth. I haven't noticed any discrimination and/or separation in Duluth. People tend to comes together a lot here.
3. Weather, specially great in the winter.
4. Shopping and restaurants. There are a lot of options here. With coming of Trader's Joe and whole Food market, there are a lot of food selections too.
5. Affordable in housing. It is a little more expensive than Dallas, but a lot cheaper than FL and CT.

Cons:
1. Lack of planning. Too much growth everywhere.
2. Lack of communication between the city and County. The difference between incorporated city in Gwinnett and unincorporated part is huge due to lack of code enforcement and understaff in the Gwinnett county government.
3. Traffic and lack of mass transporation. I love to go to Atlantic station/midtown a lot. Unfortunately, I was stuck in traffic 3 hours one time when I tried during the weekday.
4. Although in general, Atlanta is affordable place, the desirable neighborhood (good schools, nice neighborhood) are pretty expensive. So I was stuck the choice between 1) buy a single house in bad neighborhood, 2) buy a nice single house 45 minutes away or 3) buy a townhouse in my desirable neighborhood and face the fact that townhouse has tough time to sell in suburb.
5. Crime. There are a lot of undesirable neighborhoods in Gwinnett. Gwinnett village of south Gwinnett is huge area. It contains part of Lawrenceville, norcross and Lilburn.

[coolyfett]

Cons

1. interstate traffic

2. fragmented gas companies to heat your home

3. Metro V. State issues ie Marta v. Georgia

4. Polluted Pollen

5. Segregated nieghorhoods

Pros

1. Female population

2. Transit System

3. Sports venues near each other and downtown where they should be in any city.

4. Transit Oriented & Adjacent Developments on Marta lines, Fox Theater, Phillips Arena, GA Dome, Woodruff Arts Center, Peachtree Center, Central Library, Underground Atlanta, Lenox Mall etc etc

5. Busy Airport

[atlantaATL]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

My list:

Pros:

1) If you can't find a job here, you're dead.
2) Retail - if you can't find a THING here, you're also dead.
3) Geography - near mountains, not too far from ocean, etc.
4) As someone mentioned, "trees". Trees vs contrete is better here than in some other larger cities (such as Dallas).

5) Winters - rare snow, rare ice, fairly mild since the climate changed.


Cons:

1) Crime, crime, oh and did I say CRIME? The evening news is a combination of Thunderdome and some kind of post-WWIII reality show.

2) Reverse descrimination common in the city (city appointed positions, etc). There's a certain "payback time" attitude among certain city leadership offices. You will rarely if at all see a Hispanic/Latino, Asian, or white person in an important appointed position in the city.

3) Traffic. It's insane. Our governor recently sent in his budget which gives no more money for public transit expansion as well. His spokesman has said on tv.. "there doesn't seem to be a need for it". Yes, really.

4) Air quality. L.A., here we come!

5) Total lack of atmosphere here. It's just a bunch of generic retail strip centers with the same stores, cookie-cutter stampled every few miles over the entire region. There is a lack of a lot of unique "village" areas here short of Virginia Highlands, etc.

I'm adding a "6": Number of vagrants downtown make it very unattractive to visitors and residents alike. It's not at all an enjoyable "walkable" downtown without being bothered for money, etc.

#2 sounds personal to me your negative post

[thedudewiththeplan]

These are my "personal" ones-


Pros:

1. Fairly nice intown neighborhoods with liberal feel.
2. Several very nice Universities close by.
3. Fairly affordable home prices
4. Very large airport with a direct MARTA connection
5. Pretty good diversity

Cons:

1. Very sprawled out suburbs
2. Some of the most conservative outer suburbs (exurbs) in the country
3. Very hot and humid summers
4. Bad traffic with very little public transit to the outlying areas
5. Crime rate is fairly high

[FromCLTtoATL]

Pros:

1. For a large metro area, a relatively low cost of living.
2. Trees
3. A con for most people, but I LIKE a hot summer!
4. A really nice selection of CD and bookstores
5. Lots of interesting neighborhoods.

CONS

1. Sprawl
2. Downtown is something of a mess (though I have hope for better days to come)
3. Traffic
4. MARTA isn't 24/7 or extensive enough
5. Crime

[Alicia2111]

dforce59: I like the way you write and put things in perspective.
You are so right, sometimes, we have to make the change as people, and not just criticize. I guess I fall guilty of that sometimes, but to live in a city that don't offer good transportation to those who are less fortunate, is a cruelty. And racial segregation is sad to me. It must be The South that constantly reminds us that we are "different".

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Alicia2111

I guess I fall guilty of that sometimes, but to live in a city that don't offer good transportation to those who are less fortunate, is a cruelty. And racial segregation is sad to me. It must be The South that constantly reminds us that we are "different".

Atlanta has a phenomenal public transportation system to serve those who are less fortunate. It's the 7th largest system in the country in terms of ridership.

List of United States rapid transit systems by ridership - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[tonygeorgia]

Originally Posted by xxman777

Negatives:
1. Weather (too hot)
2. Doesn't feel like a city, it feels like a giant suburb
3. Traffic
4. Racially segregated
5. The "Walmart culture" which is anti responsible planning or good social services

Positives:
1. Growth, I love the growth spurt that the region is going through, I find it very exciting
2. Big city, decent amount to do
3. Trees (again from Denver we don't have trees)
4. Rain (once again from Denver, the change is great)
5. Job opportunities (again big city a lot of opportunity)

Every city in the United States is racially segregated including NYC, Chicago, LA, DC, etc

[DTL3000]

Positives:

1. Lots of Diversity-Plenty of opportunities to expose yourself to different cultures in the city if you are willing to do the work. Different expat communities are usually very eager to share their culture with us "native" Americans.

2. Lots of big name events-All the major sports and most major tours pass through town. A lot of really cool smaller scale stuff tends to pass through as well.

3. Nice natural setting-Although I'd trade a few million trees for a beach, I really can't complain about Atlanta being an ugly city. You can drive 5 minutes out of downtown and be in straight up "woods."

4. Fairly nice people-Although I occasionally run across some genuine turds, there are some genuinely friendly people here.

5. Close to family-I know. The city itself doesn't really have much bearing on that.

Negatives:

1. Lack of active public spaces and street culture-Piedmont Park and Centennial Park are about the only two that can really be considered lively. The rest either get taken over by bums or provide little as far as amenities. In many cities walking the sidewalks can provide as much entertainment as anything else. Not so much in Atlanta(unless you count the bums).

2. Few Inexpensive or Free Options for Entertainment-You usually have to spend some dough to have a good time in Atlanta. Some places are downright overpriced(Aquarium, Botanical Garden, High Museum, etc.). I think some small art galleries or mini museums in some of those huge corporate behemoth skyscrapers would be nice.

3. Too Spread-out-Atlanta is mostly a collection of rather small, unconnected business districts. Downtown/Midtown has a handful of disconnected patches of activity after business hours. There's no central area where people of all types from all over congregate. Each type of person seems to have their own little village, none of which are really all that impressive in size or uniqueness. This sort of ties in with #1.

4. Bums-Sometimes it seems like you can't walk 10 feet in this city without some guy asking you for change.

5. Poor city/state leadership/dynamic-The city ignores major problems until they become impossible to ignore and much more costly to fix. The state treats Atlanta like a red-headed stepchild. People who live ITP view folks in the suburbs as lame/socially irresponsible and the country as ignorant, intolerant hicks. Those outside the city view ITPers just as negatively it seems.