Atlanta's future sidekick... (Roswell, Marietta, Smyrna: hotels, homes, school)

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by Psykomonkee

I guess, the question really is which city nearby Atlanta will have the highest population and most influential business center 20 years from now?

Will there be a downtown Athens skyline comparable to other sidekick cities?
Will Cobb incorporate into a city and become that sidekick? Will Duluth become the 2nd city?

I agree that a sidekick city must be one nearby. Chattanooga and Macon may be a little too far. Check it out on a map in comparison to other cities with their sidekicks.

(I'm not saying Atlanta needs one or WILL have one. But if it were to have one, who?)

Cobb is incorporated in a few places:

Marietta - pop. 70,000
Kennesaw - pop. 32,000
Smyrna - pop. 50,000
Acworth - pop. 20,000
Powder Springs - pop. 15,000
Mableton - pop. 30,000


Athens is the quintessential college town...I don't see much of a skyline developing there. Athens is 73 miles from Atlanta - just a little over an hour away. Macon is only 78 miles from Atlanta - just a little over an hour away...and Macon has a bit of a skyline.


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[Psykomonkee]

Originally Posted by Spade

Newark is New York's sidekick?

Lol... Did you think otherwise?

[Psykomonkee]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

Cobb is incorporated in a few places:

Marietta - pop. 70,000
Kennesaw - pop. 32,000
Smyrna - pop. 50,000
Acworth - pop. 20,000
Powder Springs - pop. 15,000
Mableton - pop. 30,000


Athens is the quintessential college town...I don't see much of a skyline developing there. Athens is 73 miles from Atlanta - just a little over an hour away. Macon is only 78 miles from Atlanta - just a little over an hour away...and Macon has a bit of a skyline.

Got it. Hadn't realized that Macon is just as close as Athens. How close is Fort Worth to Dallas?
Or Baltimore to DC?

I am aware that there are many incorporated cities in Cobb Co., but my comment actually spawns from an article that I read years ago about a push in unincorporated Cobb County to incorporate all of the remaining county land into one city. Probably to be called Cobb City. I will search for the article.

[grindin]

Originally Posted by Psykomonkee

Got it. Hadn't realized that Macon is just as close as Athens. How close is Fort Worth to Dallas?
Or Baltimore to DC?

I am aware that there are many incorporated cities in Cobb Co., but my comment actually spawns from an article that I read years ago about a push in unincorporated Cobb County to incorporate all of the remaining county land into one city. Probably to be called Cobb City. I will search for the article.

DT Dallas is 30 miles from DT Ft. Worth.

DC is 38 miles to Baltimore.

So they're not as far from each other as Atlanta is to Athens or Macon.

Ft. Worth has some dependence on Dallas due to many people in Tarrant County commuting to Dallas County for jobs. Even though they're separate cities, they are a united front, the Metroplex.

Baltimore and DC are about as different as night and day. Most attempts to unite the two have been futile because they're two totally different areas in terms of culture and mindset. DC is White Collar, cosmopolitan and a bit elitist in a way. Baltimore is a more blue-collar, working class port city and has more in common with say, Philly than it does with Washington. However, there are people that commute from Balto to DC and vice-versa because Balto is cheaper than DC, and there are some places like Columbia and Laurel that are about midway between the two that are ideal for people who work in both.

As for Atlanta, the only city that I see that could be a 'sidekick' would be either Sandy Springs or Marietta. BUT, I don't see why a sidekick would come up anytime soon. This is like saying Gary, Milwaukee or Rockford or Schaumburg are "sidekicks" to Chicago. No dice. Atlanta is the dominant city in the region, whether people like it or not.

And unincorporated Cobb incorporating into a city may be the largest city in Georgia, but think about this, when you think of Florida, would you think of Jacksonville (largest city that got that way due to annexing the county) or Miami (part of the much larger South Florida metro area) first? Thought so.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by grindin

DT Dallas is 30 miles from DT Ft. Worth.

DC is 38 miles to Baltimore.

So they're not as far from each other as Atlanta is to Athens or Macon.

Ft. Worth has some dependence on Dallas due to many people in Tarrant County commuting to Dallas County for jobs. Even though they're separate cities, they are a united front, the Metroplex.

Baltimore and DC are about as different as night and day. Most attempts to unite the two have been futile because they're two totally different areas in terms of culture and mindset. DC is White Collar, cosmopolitan and a bit elitist in a way. Baltimore is a more blue-collar, working class port city and has more in common with say, Philly than it does with Washington. However, there are people that commute from Balto to DC and vice-versa because Balto is cheaper than DC, and there are some places like Columbia and Laurel that are about midway between the two that are ideal for people who work in both.

As for Atlanta, the only city that I see that could be a 'sidekick' would be either Sandy Springs or Marietta. BUT, I don't see why a sidekick would come up anytime soon. This is like saying Gary, Milwaukee or Rockford or Schaumburg are "sidekicks" to Chicago. No dice. Atlanta is the dominant city in the region, whether people like it or not.

And unincorporated Cobb incorporating into a city may be the largest city in Georgia, but think about this, when you think of Florida, would you think of Jacksonville (largest city that got that way due to annexing the county) or Miami (part of the much larger South Florida metro area) first? Thought so.

This pretty much sums it up well. Good post, meu amigo.

[Southlander]

Decatur.

Douglasville.

Stone Mountain.

Alpharetta.

Birmingham?

[Herr_Brush]

Originally Posted by grindin

And unincorporated Cobb incorporating into a city may be the largest city in Georgia, but think about this, when you think of Florida, would you think of Jacksonville (largest city that got that way due to annexing the county) or Miami (part of the much larger South Florida metro area) first? Thought so.

The idea of incorporating the remaining unincorporated areas of Cobb into a city was not to create a city that would impress anyone, the idea was proposed as a means to stop Marietta and other cities from annexing land to allow developments that Cobb would not have approved.

[atlantaATL]

Atlanta and Birmingham since is not far andits big enough. Cobb ANd sandy springs feels like we are still in the city of Atlanta

[gaflsc]

Originally Posted by Spade

Newark is New York's sidekick?

Agreed. What a silly thread.

[Saintmarks]

If there is such a term as a sidekick city, the unifying factor I see in the OP's list is that each of the sidekicks has at least a bit of history as an important city unto itself independent of the main city. I don't see any of these as historical suburbs. There are plenty of American suburbs that rival the city of Atlanta for population but you don't see them as "sidekick" cities to their central cities (Mesa, AZ over 400,000, Arlington, TX closing in on 400,000). These are just huge suburbs.

I can't see any of Atlanta's suburbs being considered a "sidekick" city except in use in population statistic for the census bureau. All the other sidekick city possibilitites that have some history are too far away.

Decatur could have been that city if it had expanded its boundaries to match suburban growth after WWII.

Perhaps that could be the subject of a new thread. What if Decatur had stopped Atlanta at the DeKalb County line all those years ago and all of Atlanta in DeKalb had been in the city of Decatur? If Decatur had then annexed the same proportion of land within DeKalb as Atlanta had in Fulton, we would now have twin cities in the south on par with the northern version.