Why is there still an Atlanta Vs. the rest of Georgia divide in 2009? (Columbus: home, subdivisions)

[AcidSnake]

I have to ask this question. To all of those who love Atlanta and love the state of Georgia, why does there seem to be this divide? I have relatives in Waverly Hall, GA and they don't seem to get it either. I want to embrace the future, so my question to you guys is, do you want the same? What will it take to nip this nonesense in the bud once and for all?

[nature's message]

The rest of Georgia is jealous of Atlanta's success.. LOL JK

In all seriousness though, I wonder the same thing too. It also seems that a lot of Georgians who don't live in Atlanta have some hostility towards the city and Metro Atlanta.

[ambersmom722]

I believe that this is an excellent question. I just recently started thinking of that myself..like this morning while reading about 2nd tier cities. I found myself realizing then that I had not thought of areas outside of metro Atl.

I was born in Albany and left at age 11. Although I would LOVE to leave metro Atl..let alone Ga, I found myself being surprised when I read posts from others who are looking to move to other cities in Ga. In my mind, I asked.."WHY on EARTH would they go there?" I think this is largely due to not hearing much about other cities, let alone seeing them advertised to make one want to visit.

[DeaconJ]

It's not an uncommon feeling in states with one (or even more than one) major city...I know that there a similar feeling in Illinois toward Chicago.

[johnatl]

^And it is perpetuated continually by our rural Legislators. It plays well back home when you bash Atlanta.

They also have convinced many, many of their constituents that Atlanta sucks the State dry, when in reality it is the exact opposite.

[neil0311]

This type of dynamic does play out in many states, as DeaconJ mentioned. NY State has a similar dynamic with the "apple knockers" and in my old state of Massachusetts you had the Boston versus western MA dynamic.

Some of it boils down to a rural verus urban thing, with people in the rural areas believing that as urban centers grow, they gain political and economic strength and that threatens the rural way of life. To some degree that might be true. As we see on this forum, there is a divide even between the ITP and OTP folks in the metro area. People who live ITP are trending more liberal, and that takes them further away politically from many rural residents. I think the other cities in the state like Savannah, Macon, and Augusta are probably more in line with Atlanta.

I think in Georgia there is also a feeling that metro Atlanta is just a bunch of "outsiders" and "yankees" and some of the more traditional southerners in the rural areas tend to view that with skepticism and sometimes with disdain. They see the influx of newcomers as bad and contributing to a "dilution" of what they see as "southern culture" and adding to traffic and taxes.

[Chadro77]

The traffic Atlanta creates pisses me off.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

It's not an uncommon feeling in states with one (or even more than one) major city...I know that there a similar feeling in Illinois toward Chicago.

Same with outstate Minnesota and the Twin Cities. The two groups of people tend to have different priorities and sometimes take a very different position on various issues.

[Georgia]

This is not just a Georgia issue, one can find the same thing around the country. Travel to upstate NY and listen to the folks on NYC. Same for California and Los Angeles, Maryland and Baltimore, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, etc., etc.,

There are wide variances and reasoning for the attitudes, some rather odd based in generational beliefs, and others that hold merit.

All in all it isn't going to matter much anyway if the economy ever comes back as we will be known as Miamatlvillecharlottaraleighville

[reet4587]

My family and I all grew up in northern & western Cobb. As the metro are has expanded and developed, most of them have moved out further (I'm the odd duck -- I moved to Midtown).

I know that by moving further away what they're looking for is the chance to live in the same kind of sparsely developed, slightly county environment they grew up in. To them and to, I suspect, many others, Atlanta represents an ever-expanding city that is swallowing up the vestiges of quiet, southern life that used to exist not far from the city. Many US cities have grown over the decades, but not many have grown in such a sprawl-ish, land-hungry way as Metro Atlanta -- chewing up the remains of nearby southern charm with ever expanding developments of office parks, subdivisions and shopping malls.

A lot of that expansion is just bad land use -- speculative over-development unnecessarily hogging the acreage and spreading horizontally into seeming infinity. This understandably angers natives who resent having their quiet home areas changed so drastically.

I've considered that one way to temper the anti-Atlanta attitude among many Georgians would be to move the state capitol to another city so that the clout (and the target of rural Georgian's anger) might be spread out a little. Rome and Columbus are two cities that come to mind as being places that could both support and benefit from housing the state capitol.