Atlanta Would Be the Perfect Place to Live, Only If....

[hokiehigh]

TrynaLearn -
You may want to start a new post with your question. You'll have better luck getting a response.

[MisterNY]

Originally Posted by neil0311

I was born and raised in Brooklyn and Queens, NY and lived outside Boston for 15 years, so I'm very familiar with the attributes of northeastern cities. I guess it depends on your definition of a "real" city.

Is it lots of tall bldgs? Is it crowded subway trains? Lots of traffic? A ton of clubs and bars? Having the UN or the stock market?

No doubt NYC is a special and unique place. I agree Atlanta is not NYC, but that's why many people like Atlanta. Other than the celebrity and movie factor, I'm not sure how you can make the case that LA is all that different from Atlanta. What makes Miami so much more of a "real" city?

Having lived in NY and having been brought up in that kind of urban setting....high rise apartment living for my first 18 years, parents didn't own a car, walked to elementary school, took a public bus to JHS in Queens and the subway to my HS which was in Manhattan... My HS in NYC didn't even have a football team....no field for the soccer team we did have to practice on...just a different experience. I appreciate the difference in places like Atlanta.

Is a crowded city the measure of a "real" city? Who cares? If you choose to live in Atlanta or the suburbs surrounding Atlanta, you know what you're getting. If you want to move to NYC or other older and more urban cities, then that's fine too. I just don't get the need to run one lifestyle down as "inferior" and hold up the other as the pinnacle of human existence.

Crowded urban living is great when you're young and your life has different priorities.

Well said.

Originally Posted by Londonlawyer

I'm also a transplanted New Yorker and a former Londoner.

I didn't say that those cities provide better lifestyles than Atlanta though they're clearly better cities. If you want an affordable place to raise kids, Atlanta is arguably far superior to those places.

However, as I noted, those cities offer things that Atlanta does not and those cities have an urban feel. When one walks through historic areas of the Upper East side, Upper West Side, Soho, Tribeca, the Village, Wall Street, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, etc. you feel like you're in a real city. When one walks through Atlanta's streets, it feels like White Plains or Stamford.

Agreed to a certain extent, but when you say Atlanta, you must be talking about its surrounding suburbs. Downtown Atlanta, although not Manhattan, is not a dead spot either.

Originally Posted by neil0311

We can agree...although your use of "better" states superiority. I would just say different and in some ways better but in others not. If the criteria are architecture and cultural sites...maybe. If the criteria are taxes, politics, and other quality of life intangibles, I would disagree with you.

Again, well put.

Originally Posted by blondandfun

I'm not hostile to anybody, if I stand out on my portch with my eyes shut 99% of the year it puts me in a bad mood. The heat and poor air quality just generally anger me... quite frankly I think the whole city smells like garbage.

I think everybody is same as me that's why everybody drives like they do everyone wants to get the hell home. Everybody is in a NASCARish race to get the heck home, I know I usually am.

For some reason, you seem to have good days and bad days like everyone else. The problems are not Atlanta per se, but from what I read they seem to be internal issues. There's always Greyhound, Amtrak, and Delta...

[jetgraphics]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Atlanta *is* a medium-sized city.

NOT if you count the local telephone exchange!

[PT 3000]

I wish Metro Atlanta would just break away from the rest of Georgia and form our own state and let them fend for themselves, between 65 and 70% of the taxes collected in this state comes from Metro Atlanta but when the state issues it back out we only get like 40 to 45% back, Governor Purdue is Robin Hood I guess, rob from the rich and give to the poor, maybe if we broke away the rest of the state would see how bad off they would be and beg us back, Atlanta is the only major city in the country that receives no transit funding from the state its as if the hicks want us to fail.

[cityhopper]

....had rivers that ran through the Metro or closer to the coast (just a personal wish here)
....had a true rapid metro transit system for all the counties
....had officiants that cared and wanted to improve public services
....had some type of system to improve the benchmark of schools throughout the counties

Improvement in the last three areas would also ease issues in other unmentioned areas. As many things as I dislike about Atlanta, overall, this is a good city that could be great with some work and dedication from the community. If Atlantans had the same mindset of NOVA residents, this would truly be a progressive city of the south. For right now, this is a city that merely accommodates for the expansion without true stance/meaning behind it.