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Location: Techified Blue (Collar)-Rooted Bastion-by-the-Sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Londonlawyer
New York, the country's financial and cultural capital, actually has the best museums.
This must be the case since you say so ....
However I wanted to ask you: Why would a lawyer based in London (UK I assume) be so concerned about the status of Atlanta and Charlotte in the U.S. ranks of cities? I've never been a lawyer (although I have just as much education, just in a different field), but I have been to London. Let me just say that if I were in London currently, I would be snickering to myself about the majority of U.S. cities (if I had the time to think about them) but I would be snickering even more at the thought of one of my fellow London residents logging-in to city data for the purpose of getting a rise out of residents of such non-cities as Atlanta and Charlotte ... Wouldn't that be rather unbecoming of a Londoner? Why even bother? Perhaps you need to take that level of sophistication a bit higher and move to say, Paris?
New York, the country's financial and cultural capital, actually has the best museums.
Interesting. The way you phrase that suggests you think it follows from the fact of being "the country's financial and cultural capital" that it has the "best" museums. And of course I'm sure you're aware of the special status of that second term you cite ("culture capital"). Being an unofficial "culture capital" is of course quite a different thing than being an official one like London or Paris.
So how is it possible to have suburbs with an urban center to sustain it? That in itself makes no sense.
Port St Lucie, Florida, which is less of a recognizable city than an agglomeration of lifestyle concepts, special purpose bond-issue districts, census tracts and service zones, is nonetheless - OFFICIALLY - a larger city than Syracuse, New York. There's also all of those mysterious California cities (they're all called Rancho [somethingoranother]), which no one has ever been able to precisely define.
Wow you were the one that said Atlanta is not anymore cosmopolitan than charlotte. Now you want to switch up cities.
Culturally? Culture is subjective your not going to find much southern culture in DC, SF, and Boston. No to mention with the exception of DC theirs not much African American culture in SF and Boston. It deepens on what someone is looking for.
Umm I posted a link of numerous research studies… reality is? LOL. You disagree and feel they need psychiatric treatment you should contact these universities and organization.
Hmmm. I agree with London - to a point, but there is more to it. I'm a native of Charlotte, have lived in the NC Triangle for more than a decade, have had family in the Atlanta area for my entire life. I know all three cities well.
Culturally, NY, Boston, SF are a league beyond pretty much anywhere else in the US. Atlanta and Charlotte have vast differences, but are a lot more similar to each other than either of them are to NY, Boston, or SF (much less London). In terms of culture and diversity - those places are the world. They don't ever have to call themselves world-class. It goes without saying. Bragging about airports or hip-hop or high-end shopping centers or racetracks? That stuff is Mickey Mouse.
Diversity in the South usually seems to mean black and white, and advances between the relationship between the two. Diversity - in a cosmopolitan city - is having the whole planet there, in microcosm, and not just in an "I can get Ethiopian food whenever I want kind of way," but in a "there are integral civic leadership/institutions/history/contributions flowing continually from large, rooted Asian/African/African-American/Latino/White/South Asian/et.al. communities" kind of way. You don't have to look for it, because it's everywhere. Except for DC and maybe Miami (and that's a big maybe), that ain't the South. Not yet.
This is not a slam directed Charlotte or Atlanta. Here's why. At the end of the Civil War, both Atlanta and Charlotte were small - a few thousand people in Atlanta, considerably smaller than that in Charlotte. Charlotte wasn't even a blip on the radar in NC until the early 20th century. Several cities in the South - Charleston, New Orleans, Mobile, Memphis, Norfolk - were all larger and more influential than either.
In cities, physical growth can happen very quickly, as can swift influxes of populations - look at the growth of Los Angeles between 1880 and 1910. Culture however develops from human interactions - art, business, immigration and assimilation, etc., and that can't be forced. Genuinely deep cultural development usually takes centuries - in this regard, even SF, Washington or New York are rare exceptions to that general truism (as someone once said about even Los Angeles: "There's no there there."). Atlanta, and Charlotte (and for that matter, Houston, or Raleigh-Durham) are all very much on their way - and there's a considerable amount of distinctive culture in each of those metros. They simply haven't had time to move beyond the adolescent phase of culture development. They will. All of them will.
All of the above noted, there is one aspect of Atlanta that curiously hasn't been mentioned: it's status as a mecca for the African-American middle class/professional class (and it's with this distinction that Atlanta differs historically from northern cities with majority black populations). In this Atlanta, represents something unique, and in this one area, it probably leads the nation. This is definitely historic, and a point of great pride. There IS much, much more to 'diversity' than this very notable accomplishment, but it is a historic and important start.
Hmmm. I agree with London - to a point, but there is more to it. I'm a native of Charlotte, have lived in the NC Triangle for more than a decade, have had family in the Atlanta area for my entire life. I know all three cities well.
Culturally, NY, Boston, SF are a league beyond pretty much anywhere else in the US. Atlanta and Charlotte have vast differences, but are a lot more similar to each other than either of them are to NY, Boston, or SF (much less London). In terms of culture and diversity - those places are the world. They don't ever have to call themselves world-class. It goes without saying. Bragging about airports or hip-hop or high-end shopping centers or racetracks? That stuff is Mickey Mouse.
Diversity in the South usually seems to mean black and white, and advances between the relationship between the two. Diversity - in a cosmopolitan city - is having the whole planet there, in microcosm, and not just in an "I can get Ethiopian food whenever I want kind of way," but in a "there are integral civic leadership/institutions/history/contributions flowing continually from large, rooted Asian/African/African-American/Latino/White/South Asian/et.al. communities" kind of way. You don't have to look for it, because it's everywhere. Except for DC and maybe Miami (and that's a big maybe), that ain't the South. Not yet.
This is not a slam directed Charlotte or Atlanta. Here's why. At the end of the Civil War, both Atlanta and Charlotte were small - a few thousand people in Atlanta, considerably smaller than that in Charlotte. Charlotte wasn't even a blip on the radar in NC until the early 20th century. Several cities in the South - Charleston, New Orleans, Mobile, Memphis, Norfolk - were all larger and more influential than either.
In cities, physical growth can happen very quickly, as can swift influxes of populations - look at the growth of Los Angeles between 1880 and 1910. Culture however develops from human interactions - art, business, immigration and assimilation, etc., and that can't be forced. Genuinely deep cultural development usually takes centuries - in this regard, even SF, Washington or New York are rare exceptions to that general truism (as someone once said about even Los Angeles: "There's no there there."). Atlanta, and Charlotte (and for that matter, Houston, or Raleigh-Durham) are all very much on their way - and there's a considerable amount of distinctive culture in each of those metros. They simply haven't had time to move beyond the adolescent phase of culture development. They will. All of them will.
All of the above noted, there is one aspect of Atlanta that curiously hasn't been mentioned: it's status as a mecca for the African-American middle class/professional class (and it's with this distinction that Atlanta differs historically from northern cities with majority black populations). In this Atlanta, represents something unique, and in this one area, it probably leads the nation. This is definitely historic, and a point of great pride. There IS much, much more to 'diversity' than this very notable accomplishment, but it is a historic and important start.
Actually During the civil war Atlanta was a little bit larger than Charlotte 9,554 to 2,265 however by the year 1910 Atlanta was 154,839 and Charlotte was just 34,014. Atlanta has been a major city for over a hundred years Charlotte hasn’t. To even class down Atlanta and pare with charlotte is a slam on Atlanta.
You do realize Atlanta is top 10 in foreign population right? Yes the southeast has a lower number Asians, Latino and etc this is true but with saying that metro Atlanta's Latino pop is over 500,000 does charlotte even have 100,000? In fact there’s more Asians here then Latinos in Charlotte. And oh yeah Atlanta is more diverse than greater Boston.
Another thing. Did you just reduce Atlanta to an airport and just music? even better, did you just compare NASCAR to Hartsfield? Do know Atlanta is top 10 Mass media, education, technology, Medical, and etc? It’s kind of funny besides hosting world events like the Olympics, if the US wins the world cup bid Atlanta is recommend to be the media hub. I Like Charlotte, I lived there for a few months. I even still have family and friends there whom I visit time to time. Is Atlanta culturally like Charlotte in the sense of being in the same region yes, but when you said Atlanta is more like Charlotte than Boston, SF and etc in the sense being a world city you really lost me.
Rather than me debating over something subjective I'm going to just repost this link.
41Latitude - The Most Important Cities in the United States (http://www.41latitude.com/post/400972984/most-important-cities-united-states - broken link)
But I will say this Atlanta is lacking in monuments.
Diversity - in a cosmopolitan city - is having the whole planet there, in microcosm, and not just in an "I can get Ethiopian food whenever I want kind of way," but in a "there are integral civic leadership/institutions/history/contributions flowing continually from large, rooted Asian/African/African-American/Latino/White/South Asian/et.al. communities" kind of way. You don't have to look for it, because it's everywhere. Except for DC and maybe Miami (and that's a big maybe), that ain't the South. Not yet.
Think I know what you're saying, but I'm still not entirely convinced. There are SOME groups that you see "everywhere" in a place like Los Angeles, for example. But that's just in the sense that they have enough in numbers that one frequently sees shop signs in those languages (e.g. Thai, Iranian, Korean, etc.). But that's already the case to a large extent in Atlanta, too, and it has been for some time now. Illinois has had a huge enough Mexican American population long enough that they now have elected representatives from that community. Is this what you mean? So if you mean it in THIS sense, then I might grudgingly grant you the point. But still ...
Nowadays you have a Louisiana governor who is of Indian descent and now a goober- (sorry, guber-) natorial candidate in SC who is of Sikh descent. So I'm not so sure you can say that you don't see it in the South.
I am from Atlanta but now live in Charlotte. When I told everyone I was movin everyone thought Charlotte was in SC. People in Atlanta hardly think of Charlotte. But I know before I moved here when I did think of Charlotte (and still do since I live here) think about NASCAR and hillybillies and a "wanna be city that really isn't anything". Charlotte is decades behind Atlanta and will have the prominent role in the US
I love Charlotte and think it's a delightful, progressive city. A good complement to Atlanta and the region.
This.
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