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I just saw a list Top 101 cities with the most people below the poverty level and was amazed to see Atlanta at #28, 24.4% of its citizens living below the poverty level. http://www.city-data.com/top2/c3.html
Nearly one quarter of all the people of Atlanta living in poverty!
Living there I knew there were more poor people than I was used to but I thought that was just a "southern thing" and all down south cities were that way, I just didn't know how much.
No wonder the crime rate is so high.
I just saw a list Top 101 cities with the most people below the poverty level and was amazed to see Atlanta at #28, 24.4% of its citizens living below the poverty level. http://www.city-data.com/top2/c3.html
Nearly one quarter of all the people of Atlanta living in poverty!
Living there I knew there were more poor people than I was used to but I thought that was just a "southern thing" and all down south cities were that way, I just didn't know how much.
No wonder the crime rate is so high.
You have to look at metro areas. Because for some large cities, all the poverty is concentrated in a few neighborhoods within the city proper (like Atlanta). For others, it is concentrated in far-flung suburbs or more evenly distributed throughout the metro (like Los Angeles).
This chart, from the US census bureau paints a much more accurate picture:
You'll see the Atlanta area's poverty rate is 15.9 percent and dropping.
You'll also see that the Seattle area's poverty rate is 12.6 and rising.
There is only a 3.3 percent difference in the poverty rates of these two cities. AND the gap is closing because Atlanta's rate is dropping while Seattle's is going up.
You'll also see that Atlanta's poverty rate is lower than a host of larger cities, including Houston, which is a jobs monster.
Your notion about crime is equally misguided. The SF metro area has a slightly higher murder rate than the Atlanta metro area. Yet, the poverty rate for SF is 11.5 percent, even lower than Seattle's.
Ultimately what this means is, more of the impoverished Atlantans live inside the city proper. More of the impoverished Seattleites live outside the city proper in places like Renton, etc. The poor don't live in Seattle because they can't afford to. They've been priced out of the city entirely.
Last edited by paris-on-ponce; 04-18-2015 at 11:57 AM..
I just saw a list Top 101 cities with the most people below the poverty level and was amazed to see Atlanta at #28, 24.4% of its citizens living below the poverty level. http://www.city-data.com/top2/c3.html
Nearly one quarter of all the people of Atlanta living in poverty!
Living there I knew there were more poor people than I was used to but I thought that was just a "southern thing" and all down south cities were that way, I just didn't know how much.
No wonder the crime rate is so high.
Look deeper and you see this is because Atlanta is 53 % Black. Blacks in the U.S. have much higher poverty rates. Even in the City Data perceived paradise that is Seattle 35% of Blacks live below poverty.
This is an "American thing" not a "southern thing".
The majority of Metro Atlanta Blacks live in the burbs and have incomes and poverty rates that are better than the national average for Blacks.
Whites in Atlanta are 30% less likely to live below poverty than Whites in Seattle.
A Child in Seattle Has a Much Better Chance of Escaping Poverty Than a Child in Atlanta.
Regionally, the research shows that lower-income children living in cities in the Northeast, Upper Midwest and West Coast (New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco) stand a much better chance of reaching higher income brackets in adulthood than children living in Southeastern cities and the industrial Midwest (Atlanta, Memphis, Indianapolis).
More specifically, this means that a poor child in Seattle, raised by a family in the bottom fifth of national family income, has about a 10.4 percent chance of becoming an earner in the top fifth of national income by the time he's 30. For a child in Atlanta, that figure is only 4 percent. A Child in Seattle Has a Much Better Chance of Escaping Poverty Than a Child in Atlanta - CityLab
To say Atlanta transit is superior is a bit of a stretch. MARTA has low ridership and the transit lines are ineffective in taking commuters to major destinations. The vast majority of atlantans drive everywhere out of necessity due to our infamous urban sprawl and the failures of MARTA. Atlanta is improving rapidly with the beltline, streetcar, and promised light rail that (may) become a reality in the future. In contrast, Seattle has more compact and livable downtown. It's center isn't nearly dead like it is in Atlanta and the bus rapid transit in Seattle has a designated lane with considerable ridership. The pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure is more complete and developed. The light rail there has a long way to go but the city in general is better positioned to grow a transit network in my opinion. In Atlanta we have sprawl and transit negative citizens to contend with although the cultural opposition is changing. MARTA has been granted its first major expansion project last year, an occurance that has been absent for decades.
A Child in Seattle Has a Much Better Chance of Escaping Poverty Than a Child in Atlanta.
Regionally, the research shows that lower-income children living in cities in the Northeast, Upper Midwest and West Coast (New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco) stand a much better chance of reaching higher income brackets in adulthood than children living in Southeastern cities and the industrial Midwest (Atlanta, Memphis, Indianapolis).
More specifically, this means that a poor child in Seattle, raised by a family in the bottom fifth of national family income, has about a 10.4 percent chance of becoming an earner in the top fifth of national income by the time he's 30. For a child in Atlanta, that figure is only 4 percent. A Child in Seattle Has a Much Better Chance of Escaping Poverty Than a Child in Atlanta - CityLab
Maps line up with race. Just saying. Atlanta has a higher black population than Seattle. This is the unfortunate truth.
To say Atlanta transit is superior is a bit of a stretch. MARTA has low ridership and the transit lines are ineffective in taking commuters to major destinations. The vast majority of atlantans drive everywhere out of necessity due to our infamous urban sprawl and the failures of MARTA. Atlanta is improving rapidly with the beltline, streetcar, and promised light rail that (may) become a reality in the future. In contrast, Seattle has more compact and livable downtown. It's center isn't nearly dead like it is in Atlanta and the bus rapid transit in Seattle has a designated lane with considerable ridership. The pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure is more complete and developed. The light rail there has a long way to go but the city in general is better positioned to grow a transit network in my opinion. In Atlanta we have sprawl and transit negative citizens to contend with although the cultural opposition is changing. MARTA has been granted its first major expansion project last year, an occurance that has been absent for decades.
Several incorrect statements you've made.MARTA does not have low ridership,Its 8th in the country.Not to mention had the highest increases out of all systems recently.
Clayton county now has MARTA and you can bet Gwinnet and Cobb will come around within the next 2-3
years for sure.
Seattle traffic from what I heard is horrible.Many ranking have it in the top 10 at #8 whereas Atlanta is not in the top 10
I think ATL has better weather 9 mos of the year, the only mos Seattle has better weather is mid June to mid Sept. ATL has really beautiful balmy weather spring and fall and gets a lot more winter sunshine.
One thing that bothers me about ATL is the lack of views as you drive around town and live your daily life. This is the same in Charlotte and Raleigh, all you see is trees, trees, trees in every direction. They are beautiful lush green trees, but you don't get any long distance vistas. It starts to get kind of claustrophobic. I would think people from the West or mountainous parts of the East would have a hard time adjusting to this. In Seattle in your daily life as your drive to work, do errands, walk around, you constantly see vistas...mountains 50 mi away in distance, lakes and sound in distance, vistas of other parts of the city, etc...
ATL and Seattle have totally different overall vibes. Seattle has more of the hipster, outdoorsy, organic local food, environmental types, indie music type, brainy software engineer, type vibe.
I eat healthy, so I like how Seattle has more healthy cuisine in it's restaurants (less deep fried, etc...) and more Veg and Vegan options.
ATL is underrated I think for access to the Appalachians to the north, you can get up to some nice hills pretty quick. Also in ATL you can get to warm water beach areas in FL and the GA and SC coast. The beach areas of the PNW are very wild and beautiful, but they are freezing cold and windy even in the middle of summers. You can't get that real "beachy" experience of being in shorts, sandals, umbrella and lounging in a beach town community in the PNW as you can in the SE U.S. Savannah and Charleston are really cool historic towns that are neat getaways from ATL.
I think people are nicer and friendlier in the south than the PNW, but less so in ATL than smaller southern cities.
I think when people talk cheaper housing it can be deceiving. ATL has much, much larger swaths of run down low income neighborhoods (to the south, southeast, west) that bring down the overall median price. But is it really that much cheaper than Seattle if you want to live in VA Highlands, Druid Hills, etc...?
I think ATL has better weather 9 mos of the year, the only mos Seattle has better weather is mid June to mid Sept. ATL has really beautiful balmy weather spring and fall and gets a lot more winter sunshine.
One thing that bothers me about ATL is the lack of views as you drive around town and live your daily life. This is the same in Charlotte and Raleigh, all you see is trees, trees, trees in every direction. They are beautiful lush green trees, but you don't get any long distance vistas. It starts to get kind of claustrophobic. I would think people from the West or mountainous parts of the East would have a hard time adjusting to this. In Seattle in your daily life as your drive to work, do errands, walk around, you constantly see vistas...mountains 50 mi away in distance, lakes and sound in distance, vistas of other parts of the city, etc...
ATL and Seattle have totally different overall vibes. Seattle has more of the hipster, outdoorsy, organic local food, environmental types, indie music type, brainy software engineer, type vibe.
I eat healthy, so I like how Seattle has more healthy cuisine in it's restaurants (less deep fried, etc...) and more Veg and Vegan options.
ATL is underrated I think for access to the Appalachians to the north, you can get up to some nice hills pretty quick. Also in ATL you can get to warm water beach areas in FL and the GA and SC coast. The beach areas of the PNW are very wild and beautiful, but they are freezing cold and windy even in the middle of summers. You can't get that real "beachy" experience of being in shorts, sandals, umbrella and lounging in a beach town community in the PNW as you can in the SE U.S. Savannah and Charleston are really cool historic towns that are neat getaways from ATL.
I think people are nicer and friendlier in the south than the PNW, but less so in ATL than smaller southern cities.
I think when people talk cheaper housing it can be deceiving. ATL has much, much larger swaths of run down low income neighborhoods (to the south, southeast, west) that bring down the overall median price. But is it really that much cheaper than Seattle if you want to live in VA Highlands, Druid Hills, etc...?
Yeh but you can get house in popular up and coming neighborhoods like Peoplestown,East Atlanta,Colier Heights,College Park,etc from $150,000 to under $300,000.These are not bad neighborhoods but they range in popularity.
The median price of homes currently listed in East Atlanta is $229,000 while the median price of homes that sold is $195,676.
Only 83 sq miles of Seattle is on land which makes land more valuable.Its confined by water so you wont have many areas that are even "up and Coming" which tend to be more affordable.Seattle does not have many neighborhoods like this.Even the bad neighborhoods in Atlanta are changing.
Several incorrect statements you've made.MARTA does not have low ridership,Its 8th in the country.Not to mention had the highest increases out of all systems recently.
Clayton county now has MARTA and you can bet Gwinnet and Cobb will come around within the next 2-3
years for sure.
Seattle traffic from what I heard is horrible.Many ranking have it in the top 10 at #8 whereas Atlanta is not in the top 10
I have to disagree. Atlanta has horrible traffic. I have seen it ranked up with Los Angeles.
Also, MARTA is not a good transit system. The heavy rail segment does have high ridership in that category for 2 reasons: most cities don't have heavy rail instead of light rail so it is in a smaller subset of systems. Second, connecting the busiest airport to downtown Atlanta boosts the ridership.
Outside of that the system is trash based on meaningful metrics. How many jobs are accessible by transit in Metro Atlanta? How many rapid and express buses serve commuters?
Then answer that and understand my assesment of MARTA.
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