Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If you wasn't so pro DC, you would have told the truth about these facts:
Diversity: Right now DC has the edge, but Atlanta is catching up
Transportation: DC has a better subway system, which explains why people north of VA can't drive because they are so dependent on subways.
Museums: I really don't care who's museums are better
Cosmo Feel: Atlanta all day, DC feels like a military district to be honest and there's mutiple securtiy guards everywhere.
City Feel: Atlanta: DC's downtown looks like a bunch of BLVD's with monuments everywhere.
Fast paced: both of these cities are about equal in this category, neither is too fast or too slow
Nightlife: Atlanta all day
Education: DC has better schools (colleges)
Tourism: Atlanta and DC are both in the top ten for America's most vistied cities
Affluence: DC
Sports: DC? There's no way because they have pratically two new teams there in the city (Wizards and Nationals) that haven't been there 12yrs to date. I would give that to Atlanta
Neighborhoods: Toss up, both have bad and good sides
Employment: DC has better government jobs, Atlanta has more fortune 500 companies than any other city except Houston and New York.
Real Downtown: Atlanta has taller buildings, larger expressways. DC has one of the worst skyline in the nation for a city over 500,000. The tallest building is a monument.
Restraurants: DC has the edge, but people in the south cook their own food and ATL has pretty good food also.
Job Growth: Atlanta ranked 4th, DC 19th
Cost of living: Atlanta
Overall, you can't say that DC has the better of everything between Atlanta because we all know that's not true. Atlanta is doing pretty well and people are moving there at rapids rates because of it.
I can't even believe somebody would use larger expressways to justify a city having a more "city feel". Like I said before. some people judge cities on what it is like to drive through them. There are actually people on this forum (a forum about cities ) that don't understand that neighborhoods with real urban, historic architecture, and unique lowrises make a city.
Streetscapes like this is what makes a real city, but hey, to some it is giant expressways that take them out to their subdivisions.
all photos by me
I actually explore the uptowns of cities before judging and comparing them. I don't judge D.C. from what I learned going to monuments in the 5th grade, or driving the belt way on my way to Myrtle Beach.
Yeah, that's what weird me out too Vancouver looks pretty gorgeous without being intersected by a spider web of freeways.
Like most things, I think this whole Atlanta vs. Philly thing comes down to individual preferences. Also, I'm wondering what some of the specifics are in comparing the two.
For example, are we including the suburban areas of each city? If so, that changes things a bit.
One of my best friends moved to Atlanta way back just before it "boomed". He was just married and wanted to start a family, and suburban Atlanta was perfect for him. He bought a huge beautiful home for 100's of thousands less than it would have cost in suburban Philly. He is in the landscape business and had more opportunity there because of the longer season. For him, Atlanta was the way to go.
I have been to both Philly and Atlanta. I would choose Philly. The seasons are a little better (Philly's winters aren't that bad), Philly is close to the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City, and Philly's suburbs in South Jersey are nicer, to me, than the Atlanta suburbs, as nice as the Atlanta suburbs are.
When I went to Atlanta for work, I was in Dunwoody, and it was very nice, but nothing different. Malls, shopping, same big-box and retail, same chain restaurants as everywhere else. It was easy and comfortable to live there and spend time there but nothing unique or interesting. When I tried to venture out of Dunwoody I had to wait until well after rush hour or else sit in over an hour of traffic (more if I were going downtown).
When I finally got downtown it was rather desolate, rather seedy, and while there were some restaurants and clubs, it wasn't anything I'd expect from a BIG city. When I went downtown during the daytime I discovered that there wasn't a whole lot other than CNN (no interest in that), Coke (which disappointed - not a whole lot different than visiting the Coca-Cola in Vegas), and Centennial Park. It's nice, but honestly not enough for what I think a big city should offer. I DID miss the "underground Atlanta" stuff and THAT looks interesting, and I wish I had seen it. But I don't know if that would have been enough to compensate for what was lacking in Atlanta.
I went to Buckhead, and it was snooty and was like watching people try to act like what they see in movies and TV, and the bars were overpriced. Everything was overpriced. And I found it odd that their "club" district is in a "nice" or more upper class section of town, whereas in NY, NJ, and other places the clubs tend to be away from the nicer areas, sometimes in outright seedy areas. Buckhead felt artifical and contrived and very forced, to me, almost like the Disney version of a "nightclub" area. And you're not downtown - that scene should be downtown in a big city. It just didn't work for me.
Philly is much more what I want in a city. It's a more influential city with a larger metro area so by nature of its size it's bound to have more to offer. It's a more historic city. It has deeper history, it's more walkable than Atlanta, it's more colorful. It does have very crappy parts and some pretty bad decay. That's the downside of Philly. It also has some beautiful areas and new building and landscaping. The suburbs are wonderful, especially in Jersey (OK, maybe I'm biased). You can jet out of Philly by car and be in Atlantic City or on the beach in Margate in 1.5 hours. In the winter, you can drive up a couple hours into the Poconos and go skiing. You can shoot a couple hours south to hit up either Baltimore or D.C. And again, the history - it's neat to walk a cobblestone street or visit a building from the Revolutionary War times, and to see all the old governmental buildings and the Liberty Bell. It's just a really great city.
And I grew up being very biased against Philly, being from North Jersey. It was always North vs. South Jersey, which is an extension of NY vs. Philly. And I still loathe the Eagles, Phillies, and Flyers, and I don't like the Sixers (but I don't loathe them). Atlanta, I have never had a hatred for, I just never really thought much about it. When I started traveling there I formed my opinion. To be honest, after going a few times, whenever they told me I had to go to Atlanta I was disappointed because there was nothing for me to look forward to in going there. Nothing. Nothing I couldn't do at home and nothing of particular interest. It's not like when they'd send me to other places where I had something to look forward to - the food in New Mexico, the desert in Phoenix, the beach in Florida, cheesesteaks in Philly, the Cascades in Seattle, the barbecue in Kansas City, the everything in Vegas, the "Elvis" and barbecue of Memphis...everywhere had its own little "hook" to make me happy to go there, but Atlanta did NOT. Really, nothing unique about it.
So I think it's natural people are going to appreciate Philly much more. It's a bigger metro area, it's more unique, there's more close-by, it's more historic, but it has a charachter that attracts visitors which Atlanta really lacks.
I'll go with Atlanta out of the two. I think Detroit has the potential and when it rebounds, if they do it in a quirky sort of way, it'll be one very unique city because of the what can be formerly vacant structures. I hope it happens, it's a large metropolis of over 5 million and a surrounding region that pushes it to over 6 million. It has the bones and the history and it has lots of cool suburbs and resources to make that push happen. Hopefully it will.
However, in the mean time and in general (due to climate preferences) I'll have to definitely go with Atlanta.
So basically Metropolitan Atlanta and then Metropolitan Detroit for me.
It is not northerners but it is EVERYONE from the north and west coast that vote against Atlanta. Atlanta is a SPRAWL. The city is spread out across many miles, hard to live there without a car, not a lot of walkable neighborhoods and overall does not have a urban/city feel. I have been to Atlanta many times and to me it felt like many small cities thrown together over a huge territory to make a big metro area. It did not have a big city feel to me.
The main problem that people have is that Atlanta is OUT AND NOT UP.
Atlanta, Dallas and Houston are growing because companies in the North and the West Coast are moving South for cheaper taxes/expenses. The workers in these companies do not have a choice to move or not to move. If they dont move then they do might not have food to put in their childs mouth.
A friend of a friend was born in Brooklyn and has lived there his whole life. Just married, has two kids and is in the IT field. His company told him to move to Tampa or take a three month severance package. What do you think someone is going to choose in this current economy?
He moved to Tampa and HATES his life there. I am not saying that everyone moves to the south hates it, but a lot of them dont like the move.
Also, everything that I am saying is not coming from a northerner. My father was in the Air Force so I moved a lot growing up. I have lived in the Philly burbs (north), Dallas (new south), Phoenix (west coast) and deep south (SC).
Personally, I would have no trouble moving to Dallas, Houston or Atlanta. But, IMO, Atlanta does not touch Philly. I dont care how many fortune 500 companies force their employees to move to the Atlanta metro. As more people move to Atlanta there cost of living will increase, which will eventually make their population stagnant just like other cities. The only reason why the southern cities are growing is because companies can make more profit in the south because operating expenses are cheaper.
I'm not going to argue which city is better since that is subjective and depends on each individual's personal preferences, needs, & desires. So I'll just give my personal take. After finishing grad school, I had to decide where I was going to live. Philly is my hometown, but I wanted to start somewhere new. I went to grad school in the Midwest, and that region just didn't fit me--so that wipes out Detroit. I have family roots in MD (father's side) and went to undergrad in Bmore (thus a strong network in that area). I also have family roots in GA (mother's side) and actually lived in Augusta for part of my youth/high school years (some of the most miserable & boring years of my life). But the idea of Atlanta was under serious consideration.
The qualities that made ATL attractive were its low cost of living, it's growth, it was up & coming, and had become a major center of a new/young black middle-class. I visited several times and liked much about it; but, something was just missing. I could never quite define what it was. I guess there was just a type of urban feel & energy that "I" need but was lacking there. Plus, there was a feeling that I would be "stranded" down there. That's the closest I can get to explaining the feeling. Perhaps if I was at the point of starting a family at that time, the housing prices and their quality down there would have won me over.
I've always been the type of person who gets bored with one city's scene quickly. Since I was a teenager, I've liked to travel to other cities. In the summers I would jump on the bus or trains to NY, stay with my grandfather, and hang out with my relatives up there. Today, if I'm sick of Bmore, I might decide to hang out down in DC. Some weekends--like last Saturday--I'll spontaneously decide to jump in my car, roll up to Philly, and hang out with my dad and relatives for the day. I like being able to do that.
Plus, despite the issues I have with the city of Philadelphia, I realize that I'll always be trapped in a love/hate relationship with that city for the rest of my life. So even though I don't want to live up there at this time, I still need "access" to it. Although I'm not very fond of Bmore city, I really like Maryland and the counties surrounding Bmore (Howard, Harford, Baltimore County). I think Maryland is a beautiful state, and it fits me. I really like it down in the DC area also. Like ATL, there's a strong black middle-class in Maryland--including the Baltimore metro (if not in the city). Plus, Bmore's cost of living, rent, & housing prices are much more reasonable than DC's. I have the best of all worlds. But the good thing is I don't feel stranded.
Look at the number of people moving to each city over the last 20 years and that will answer the question of the OP. Atlanta is the people's choice, no doubt there.
Yes Because Coca-Cola,Home Depot,Delta,Turner(CNN),Spanks, are just some of the many companies that moved from "the North".
Why does it matter if you move for weather,business or any other reason.?People move anywhere for comfort reasons.That can be many things,This notion that people move somehere just because of one reasom is hogwash.
I lived in Philly.I love it but there is NO way I would choose it over Atlanta.Its okay that some people do but there is lot more going on than just business.
Every day I see how this city is becoming more and more beautiful.I see color everywhere.In Philly,I see BROWN everywhere.Its just not a "happy" type city.
Sorry for this late response, I haven't been on here for a while and just saw your question.
I've been living in Maryland for years now, so I don't think I'm going any farther South than this. I'm in the Bmore suburbs, but I still work down in DC (although right now I'm one of those furloughed federal workers due to the shutdown).
Other than that, my general routine is the same as it was when I last posted. I still roll up to Philly about once or twice a month to hang out with fam and take my son to the barbershop so he can get a fresh Philly style cut. I also still roll down to Georgia about twice a year to visit fam down that way. I try to swing through Atlanta every time I'm in Georgia, but I mostly spend time in Augusta and Savannah where most of my "kin-folk" live.
My oldest brother relocated down to Savannah and loves it down there--so I think it's all an individual thing as far as preference. I had to live in Augusta with my grandparents for a while in my youth and went through a severe level of "culture shock" down that way. That experience probably played a role in why I was more reluctant to move down to Georgia permanently as opposed to choosing Maryland. Now that I'm older, there are things about the deep South that appeal to me. But I just will always be the type of person who needs to have proximity and immediate access to "the North."
Maybe to you but the character that he says Atlanta lacks attracts way more visitors each year.I love Philly but its not a popular place that people mention in a fond manner .I have to constantly defend Philly.
Atlanta has plenty of character and a very interesting history that many newer cities like Atlanta would love to have.Soon as you mention stuff,people are like ,"oh yeah!I forgot about that being there" or "I did not know".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) that don't understand that neighborhoods with real urban, historic architecture, and unique lowrises make a city.
Vancouver looks pretty gorgeous without being intersected by a spider web of freeways.
