What city will replace Atlanta as the new black mecca? (Perry: appointed, school)

[WilliamM]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

Tell that to me. I'm Black and I love the cold weather. Temperatures 30 degrees F and lower make me happy because it can snow. I just enjoy snowball fights and stuff like that. I live in GA and the summers are one of the things that make me detest living in GA.

A man/woman after my own heart.

Well, guess that makes two of us in this town.

[coolyfett]

Cold weather is good if you have the right gear on. I think too many people want to make fashion statements all the time lol. The Air is better, nights are longer, no bugs around when it is cold. Although I do hate when it rains on a cold day, Then I want no parts of outside.

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Well actually blacks are leaving the west

Due to cost. They are relocating to the South due to cost/weather combination.

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by coolyfett

Cold weather is good if you have the right gear on. I think too many people want to make fashion statements all the time lol. The Air is better, nights are longer, no bugs around when it is cold.

Except the flu.

Originally Posted by coolyfett

Although I do hate when it rains on a cold day, Then I want no parts of outside.

Cold and any high level of humidity is a horrendous offense to the senses. Dry cold with no winds and plenty of sunshine, now THAT's the kind of cold to have if you're going to have it.

[DoveDiva]

Originally Posted by atlantaATL

Obama is from chicago not DC anyway people hype things up according to there experience and people bash atlanta according to there experience Atlanta is a great place for young black professionals. The reason why it is hyped so much is because there are so many black owned buisness here in atlanta the entire gorverment in atlanta is ran by black nearly half of atlanta is black. Me myself had never seen anything like this before. This doesnt happen in miami where i am from..ALot of the black kids i went to school with left miami to go to places like houston and atlanta because they figure they have a better opprotunity in those areas after seeing how well blacks are living.. ALL these things about atlanta are somewhat true if not then people wouldnt be moving here in large numbers. Why would i move to seattle where i would pay 500,000 dollars for a 4 bed room house when i can get a 4 bedroom house here in atlanta for 150,000 to 200,000 My mother always told me get more for your money and thats why i think alot of blacks are moving to places like houston and atlanta because of that reason

I too, am from Miami, and I wholeheartedly agree with your response. A good chunk of people I know moved up here and didn't look back because success is the norm, rather than the exception up here. I don't care what anyone says, but the sheer magnitude of successful Black people up here was mindblowing when I visited for the first time as an adult in '03. I can honestly say there's more of a drive amongst Blacks here to do better, to achieve, etc. versus in South Florida.

That reason alone is why I'll always consider this to be ONE of the Black mecca's (who says there has to be only one?). I also consider the DC metro area to be another Black mecca...another place where success is the norm rather than the exception.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by atlantaATL

Obama is from chicago not DC anyway people hype things up according to there experience and people bash atlanta according to there experience Atlanta is a great place for young black professionals. The reason why it is hyped so much is because there are so many black owned buisness here in atlanta the entire gorverment in atlanta is ran by black nearly half of atlanta is black. Me myself had never seen anything like this before. This doesnt happen in miami where i am from..ALot of the black kids i went to school with left miami to go to places like houston and atlanta because they figure they have a better opprotunity in those areas after seeing how well blacks are living.. ALL these things about atlanta are somewhat true if not then people wouldnt be moving here in large numbers. Why would i move to seattle where i would pay 500,000 dollars for a 4 bed room house when i can get a 4 bedroom house here in atlanta for 150,000 to 200,000 My mother always told me get more for your money and thats why i think alot of blacks are moving to places like houston and atlanta because of that reason

Perhaps there might be a higher quality of life in Seattle. You could always live somewhere for cheap, but is it always a good place. Judging from my own experience between Seattle and Atlanta, I can say this: My family liked living in Seattle. The reason my family left did have to do with the expensive housing. Other than that, my family did well there. My father had decent work and didn't have to worry about layoffs. My father moved to metro Atlanta in 1996 and then he had a layoff a few years later. He had to leave Georgia a few times to get a job. He is working in another state now because he had trouble finding work after his latest loss in employment. Whenever he works in another state he gets paid better as well. IMHO,a place might BE cheaper, but does it have the higher quality of life? Now I will give Dallas and Houston their props. I lived in the DFW metroplex before and the pay was very good for my father considering it wasn't that expensive.

[kdogg817]

Originally Posted by Jeff Jarrett

I have never been to Charlotte but I have been to Dallas and all of the affluent neighborhoods that I saw there were predominantly White, so how can that city be considered a Black mecca when the majority of the wealthy elite there are White.

Dallas southern suburbs are very affluent and predominately black. So your comment are not accurate and many affluent African Americans are spread throughout DFW suburbs.

[kdogg817]

Originally Posted by Jeff Jarrett

There are no affluent upperclass suburbs in Dallas where Blacks outnumber Whites.

Jarret I live in DFW and there are a couple of Dallas suburbs that blacks make up the majority.

[kdogg817]

Originally Posted by WilliamM

Absolutely right.

I don't know what specific statistics you're pointing to (maybe you can share) but the notion that Atlanta's black population is shrinking is a total misconception. As other posters have pointed out, there are several different demographic changes going on here. The city is becoming more attractive to high income residents, many of whom are white (but not all), while at the same time the burgeoning African-American middle class here is discovering the attractiveness of the suburban lifestyle and thus are going through their own suburbanization movement. Meanwhile, the city of Atlanta proper recently surpassed its previous all-time high population and is now over a half million. So one thing to look at in deciding whether Atlanta will remain a key African American stronghold is the black population of the metro area as a whole. And I don't have any numbers handy at the moment but I would suspect there's NOTHING to suggest that Atlanta is losing any ground in this regard.

And of course, all of this is just accepting your initial presumption (a very debatable one) that it's population alone that decides whether a place is a "mecca" of this or that. In this particular case, there are other factors in play, such as the fact that Atlanta is almost unrivaled today as the new "Motown" of the day and it's the only place I can imagine being compared to a Harlem of the early 20th C.

The bottom line is, if you're young and black and wanting to be where it's really at, I would say to you that, as always, you basically have two choices: NYC and Atlanta.

The bottom line is your wrong Atlanta is not the only city in America that offers great opportunities for black people. Every U.S. cities offer great opportunities some offer more than others depending on your field. This is a Atlanta thread so bias will exist.

[tman12]

Originally Posted by kingtat

new poster here! I have read many articles saying how the black population of atlanta is shrinking. Its even on the wikipedia page! I am just wondering what city do you guys think will take the place of atlanta as the "new black mecca?" i am thinking maybe charlotte, or dallas. Both cities saw a rise in african american population the same years atlanta saw a decline.

I am only 16, but when i graduate college i wanna move to the new black mecca. By then (2015) atlanta will have been dethroned. But by what city?!

well i really did not think that alanta was the black meecca,and to be honest i never new why it should be