What would you Do ? Boston or Atlanta ? help ME !

[superdoc]

thank you...i think all this helps..you and holden125 are right..I guess we should buy in the right neighborhood...

[cohdane]

Sorry for chiming in late...

I've lived in both towns. It comes down to what you like. For me, Boston was an easy winner. Someone here posted the word "souless" to describe Atlanta. That's not entirely inaccurate. After living there awhile, I nicknamed it "Transplanta" because very few people who live in Atlanta are FROM Atlanta. Hence, empty seats in the stadium when the Braves are in the playoffs and an inherent lack of pride/roots/connectedness/whatever to the town itself.

I'd also caution you on the whole political/religious thing. Atlanta/Georgia is ABSOLUTELY conservative Bible belt. If you toss out the idea of getting together on a Sunday, you are often reminded (with hairy eyeball expression), "I'm going to CHURCH on Sunday." To which you sheepishly reply, uh, yeah, I meant after church, of course. The radio stations are all Bible thumping and liberal bashing. If you're into that, great. If not, you may end up living in a religious/political closet.

Culturally, Boston felt northern industrial to me (working class roots, straightforward, basically friendly), while Atlanta felt oddly "Los Angeles" (the 40+ female population down there has had more reconstruction than the entire town did after the Civil War), kind of superficial and new for the sake of new. That said, there are lots of nice folks down there. Keep in mind, the true locals (when you find them) are the ones who have an unbelievably gentile way to basically tell you to go to hell. For the first few months down there, it took me a minute to realize if I was being corrected on something, disagreed with or insulted. A local told me there's a saying, "A southerner will be polite right up until they kill you." Pretty much true.

Also, I know you said you're Asian, but how much HEAT do you like? I thought Atlanta in August was like Chicago in February-- you just don't go outside for a whole month. I'm dead serious.

As for kids-- I found the whole paranoia/keep your kids inside post very disturbing. We lived in the city, in a family-oriented neighborhood and there were absolutely kids playing in the streets. Not much problem there other than the occasional ball stuck under a parked car.

To give you a long distance idea of who in Boston has what for kids, check out a website called BostonCentral. And order up a copy of the Boston Parents Paper (they also have a site online). Sometimes, seeing which areas have a higher density of kids' activities can be a thermometer of which areas are good family towns. Also, don't rule out the beach! Something else you won't have in Atlanta.

Bottom line: If you like LA, are vocally Christian, politically conservative and don't mind HEAT, forgive this post and enjoy Atlanta. It's a nice town with lots of nice people.

If you are more progressive, go to church or synagogue or mosque when you're not too hungover, and don't mind RABID sports fans, enjoy Boston. It's a nice town with lots of nice people.

[superdoc]

Originally Posted by cohdane

Sorry for chiming in late...

I've lived in both towns. It comes down to what you like. For me, Boston was an easy winner. Someone here posted the word "souless" to describe Atlanta. That's not entirely inaccurate. After living there awhile, I nicknamed it "Transplanta" because very few people who live in Atlanta are FROM Atlanta. Hence, empty seats in the stadium when the Braves are in the playoffs and an inherent lack of pride/roots/connectedness/whatever to the town itself.

I'd also caution you on the whole political/religious thing. Atlanta/Georgia is ABSOLUTELY conservative Bible belt. If you toss out the idea of getting together on a Sunday, you are often reminded (with hairy eyeball expression), "I'm going to CHURCH on Sunday." To which you sheepishly reply, uh, yeah, I meant after church, of course. The radio stations are all Bible thumping and liberal bashing. If you're into that, great. If not, you may end up living in a religious/political closet.

Culturally, Boston felt northern industrial to me (working class roots, straightforward, basically friendly), while Atlanta felt oddly "Los Angeles" (the 40+ female population down there has had more reconstruction than the entire town did after the Civil War), kind of superficial and new for the sake of new. That said, there are lots of nice folks down there. Keep in mind, the true locals (when you find them) are the ones who have an unbelievably gentile way to basically tell you to go to hell. For the first few months down there, it took me a minute to realize if I was being corrected on something, disagreed with or insulted. A local told me there's a saying, "A southerner will be polite right up until they kill you." Pretty much true.

Also, I know you said you're Asian, but how much HEAT do you like? I thought Atlanta in August was like Chicago in February-- you just don't go outside for a whole month. I'm dead serious.

As for kids-- I found the whole paranoia/keep your kids inside post very disturbing. We lived in the city, in a family-oriented neighborhood and there were absolutely kids playing in the streets. Not much problem there other than the occasional ball stuck under a parked car.

To give you a long distance idea of who in Boston has what for kids, check out a website called BostonCentral. And order up a copy of the Boston Parents Paper (they also have a site online). Sometimes, seeing which areas have a higher density of kids' activities can be a thermometer of which areas are good family towns. Also, don't rule out the beach! Something else you won't have in Atlanta.

Bottom line: If you like LA, are vocally Christian, politically conservative and don't mind HEAT, forgive this post and enjoy Atlanta. It's a nice town with lots of nice people.

If you are more progressive, go to church or synagogue or mosque when you're not too hungover, and don't mind RABID sports fans, enjoy Boston. It's a nice town with lots of nice people.

To Cohdane..thanks for the comments..very helpful

I do however find some irony in your statments..You state it is "transplanta" and then state - "If you like LA, are vocally Christian, politically conservative and don't mind HEAT"...

If it is truly inhabitated from people from all over then why call it the bible belt which is mostly conservative ?

[miu]

Originally Posted by superdoc

If it is truly inhabitated from people from all over then why call it the bible belt which is mostly conservative ?

Because people from all over the south tend to gravitate towards Atlanta. I used to have to visit Atlanta monthly for work. I could never live there. The beltway traffic and the sprawl. And the bad areas are just so depressing should you have to drive through them. And it does get very hot down there in the summer. And with global warming, it will only get worse. Isn't a big chunk of southern Georgia under drought conditions now?

With MA, if you live in the right towns, the public schools are very good. So no need for private schools. And there's a lot of good culture in the Boston area.

[jayrandom]

People tend to overstate how conservative or liberal a particular area is. Yes, Georgia as a whole is much more conservative than Massachusetts as a whole, but Atlanta is a city is much less conservative than Georgia as a whole. For instance, in the 2004 election, Fulton County voted 60% Kerry, 40% Bush. There are some liberal, free thinking, non-proselytizing areas around Atlanta just as there are some very conservative areas of Massachusetts, both it just takes a bit more work to find these. The red state/blue state map looks much different if you plot it by voting district, where it becomes blue dots in a red sea (of course, MA is the rare blue sea, but Atlanta is one of those blue dots).

Depending on where in India you are from, I don't think you'll have any problem with Atlanta's heat. The heat there can be bad, but no worse than Mumbai and with significantly more air-conditioning. I've found as stoic as New Englanders are with cold, they are considerably less than stoic when it comes to heat and humidity.

So all that being said, I wouldn't choose Atlanta over Boston unless the choice were jobless in Boston, for most of the reasons listed above. I'm just trying to let you know that not everywhere in Atlanta is full of vocally Christian conservatives, you'll just need to look a bit harder.

[cohdane]

Originally Posted by superdoc

To Cohdane..thanks for the comments..very helpful

I do however find some irony in your statments..You state it is "transplanta" and then state - "If you like LA, are vocally Christian, politically conservative and don't mind HEAT"...

If it is truly inhabitated from people from all over then why call it the bible belt which is mostly conservative ?

Understandable point.

My observation while living there was that the city itself and close-in suburbs had a very high percentage of transplants (with natives mixed in). Get a bit to the exburbs or further, and you're in the thick of Georgia. Bible belt and mostly conservative.

In 1956 (height of the Civil Rights movement) Georgia redesigned their state flag to largely feature the Confederate Battle Flag. It took till 2001 for them to change it. The new Georgia flag? It's basically a copy of the original Confederate National flag-- really.

Georgia is also where Eric Rudolph went on his little bombing spree against gays, abortion clinics and socialism (he attacked socialism by bombing the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta). When he went into hiding, there was a lot of support for him down there. Really.

It's also the home of Max Cleland, former Democratic senator and a decorated veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam. In 2002, a Republican candidate painted him as soft on national security and unpatriotic. Guess who won?

If that's who you (or anyone) is, then it's a great place to live. Birds of a feather and all. It's just not for everyone. I had more of a problem with the souless feel. My husband-- a big NPR fan-- had more of a problem with the ardent conservatism. He found it a bit oppressive (and he's pretty mellow).

[cohdane]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

People tend to overstate how conservative or liberal a particular area is. Yes, Georgia as a whole is much more conservative than Massachusetts as a whole, but Atlanta is a city is much less conservative than Georgia as a whole. For instance, in the 2004 election, Fulton County voted 60% Kerry, 40% Bush. There are some liberal, free thinking, non-proselytizing areas around Atlanta just as there are some very conservative areas of Massachusetts, both it just takes a bit more work to find these. The red state/blue state map looks much different if you plot it by voting district, where it becomes blue dots in a red sea (of course, MA is the rare blue sea, but Atlanta is one of those blue dots).

Just wanted to affirm this is true. There are a few neighborhoods in Atlanta with alternative lifestyle folks, crunchy granola folks, etc. They are islands, though.

Also, just for the record, some of the proselytizing conservatives are very nice people and fun to hang out with-- it's easy not to bring up politics or religion since Southern gentility dictates social affairs remain civil and pleasant. You gradually figure out who's who (fundamentalist, liberal basher, whatever...and they figure out who you are) and there's just an unspoken agreement that it won't come up in conversation. If anything, it took more practice for me as a transplant to remember the circles I was traveling in and keep a lid on my progressive opinions.