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I've lived in both states. I lived in Charlotte and right outside of Atlanta. I personally like Georgia better because of Atlanta. To me, nothing in North Carolina compares to the Atlanta area, however I think NC has better 2nd tier ciites than GA.
Also, I don't think that Charlotte and Raleigh combined will ever catch up to Atlanta because Atlanta has too much going for it right now....the world's busiest airport, CNN, several other Television stations and grows over 100,000 people annually. I don't think that Charlotte and Raleigh grows 50,000 people combined.
I wouldnt be so sure of that I think you can count on it with in the next 10 to 20 years Charlotte will surpass Atlanta(just look at the charts) And if we want to base this on "city vs city" terms Charlotte has ALOT more going for it. such as the second largest bamking city in the nation (just behind NYC) bringing in BILLIONS of dollars to the Charlotte Economy! they have got the NASCAR Hall Of Fame, which Atlanta just lost btw. also Charlotte is beging to take the same turn as the research triangle (the Raleigh metro area) and making science and research complexes up! Not only that but one thing i bet you didnt know is that Charlotte is the only city in the country to have a skyscraper boom continuing from the 1990's and STILL continuing!! Plus Charlotte is beging to get a lot of media attention also and Im worried that the way Atlanta is moving right now it is going to cost them wether economicly or population wise! unlike Charlotte, their growing at a much rapid pace, where as Charlotte HAS and IS feeling the population boom it aint as large and all the sudden like ATL many cities have suffered from this but Charlotte is like the turtle that beat the hare of course the Turtle being Charlotte and the Hare being Atlanta
Some of my friends in Charlotte are going to hate me for this, but oh well. They'll get over it.
Georgia wins hands down!!! Why? ATLANTA!!! Being that I lived in Atlanta (Lithonia to be exact) for a short while, it is EASY for me to say that North Carolina badly needs an Atlanta-like city. Charlotte is the closest thing NC has to Atlanta in terms of "big city" feel. However, there is a huge gap between Charlotte and Atlanta.
As for the future (15 to 20 years down the road) I am convinced Charlotte will close the wide gap between itself and Atlanta. Many of metro Atlanta's inner largest counties are slowing down in growth rate (it is the smaller counties on the fringes that are booming now). Charlotte's inner largest metro counties are just starting to boom (I call it the I-485 effect which is very similar to Atlanta's I-285 effect). By no means will Charlotte catch up to Atlanta in metro population. That is NOT what I meant when I said "close the wide gap between itself and Atlanta".
In 15 to 20 years, I believe Charlotte and Atlanta will be in the same tier for the first time (ie Chicago and Detroit). Metro Chicago is twice the size of Metro Detroit (10 million vs 5 million), however Chicago and Detroit are still two cities in similar leagues. I see metro Atlanta being nearly 8 million people in 20 years. However, I see metro Charlotte being nearly 3.5 million in 20 years.
As of now, Atlanta sits on 5.7 million CSA. Charlotte is at 2.3 million CSA. Most of Atlanta's next 2.3 million new residents will move to counties more than 30 miles away from downtown Atlanta. Most of Charlotte's next 1.2 million new residents will move to areas less than 30 miles from uptown Charlotte. This will result in Charlotte looking and feeling more like Atlanta simply because Charlotte's inner metro counties are going to catch up to Atlanta's inner metro counties extremely fast.
Like I said, as of now, Georgia wins hands down. As for the future, NC will soon offer a city on Atlanta's level (not Atlanta's size, just Atlanta's level).
Atlanta has always had a larger population than Charlotte during my lifetime and I being older probably than most on this board has visited Atlanta since I was a kid before its tremedous growth when Lennox was a shopping center and did not see any overall advantage of living in Atlanta or Charlotte at that time other than employment. Atlanta's downtown and urban core was larger than Charlotte's but for the most part the residential areas were like most that were found in the South be it Columbia, Greenville or Charlotte. Would you please state what it would take in your opinion other than population nightlife and highrises (I know that these can be factors) to move Charlotte towards Atlanta's level or Major City Status. I know this is not the topic of this thread please excuse my divergence.
I wouldnt be so sure of that I think you can count on it with in the next 10 to 20 years Charlotte will surpass Atlanta(just look at the charts) And if we want to base this on "city vs city" terms Charlotte has ALOT more going for it. such as the second largest bamking city in the nation (just behind NYC) bringing in BILLIONS of dollars to the Charlotte Economy! they have got the NASCAR Hall Of Fame, which Atlanta just lost btw. also Charlotte is beging to take the same turn as the research triangle (the Raleigh metro area) and making science and research complexes up! Not only that but one thing i bet you didnt know is that Charlotte is the only city in the country to have a skyscraper boom continuing from the 1990's and STILL continuing!! Plus Charlotte is beging to get a lot of media attention also and Im worried that the way Atlanta is moving right now it is going to cost them wether economicly or population wise! unlike Charlotte, their growing at a much rapid pace, where as Charlotte HAS and IS feeling the population boom it aint as large and all the sudden like ATL many cities have suffered from this but Charlotte is like the turtle that beat the hare of course the Turtle being Charlotte and the Hare being Atlanta
I don't have time, so can somebody please set this person straight LOL.
I would pick NC over Georgia, regardless of the fact that Ga. has Atlanta. I have lived in both Charlotte and Atlanta (twice) and although I like Atlanta, the negatives outweigh the positives, IMO. Bigger is NOT always better to most people. How many bigger buildings does one need to feel like they live in an place that's exciting? How many highways, nightclubs and places to eat does a place need? How much is enough? Most midsized cities have just about everything a larger city has but on a smaller scale. Atlanta's biggest drawback to me was how disjointed and disconnected the metro feels in relation to the center. How a city or state satisfies one's lifestyle and how the quality of life measures up to one's expectaions and needs is the drawing power. For me out of the two, that would be NC. For other's they might prefer a state with one large metro with more of the same, i.e., redundancy. Not neccessarily a bad thing just not a big deal.
I wouldnt be so sure of that I think you can count on it with in the next 10 to 20 years Charlotte will surpass Atlanta(just look at the charts) And if we want to base this on "city vs city" terms Charlotte has ALOT more going for it. such as the second largest bamking city in the nation (just behind NYC) bringing in BILLIONS of dollars to the Charlotte Economy! they have got the NASCAR Hall Of Fame, which Atlanta just lost btw. also Charlotte is beging to take the same turn as the research triangle (the Raleigh metro area) and making science and research complexes up! Not only that but one thing i bet you didnt know is that Charlotte is the only city in the country to have a skyscraper boom continuing from the 1990's and STILL continuing!! Plus Charlotte is beging to get a lot of media attention also and Im worried that the way Atlanta is moving right now it is going to cost them wether economicly or population wise! unlike Charlotte, their growing at a much rapid pace, where as Charlotte HAS and IS feeling the population boom it aint as large and all the sudden like ATL many cities have suffered from this but Charlotte is like the turtle that beat the hare of course the Turtle being Charlotte and the Hare being Atlanta
Some of my friends in Charlotte are going to hate me for this, but oh well. They'll get over it.
Georgia wins hands down!!! Why? ATLANTA!!! Being that I lived in Atlanta (Lithonia to be exact) for a short while, it is EASY for me to say that North Carolina badly needs an Atlanta-like city. Charlotte is the closest thing NC has to Atlanta in terms of "big city" feel. However, there is a huge gap between Charlotte and Atlanta.
As for the future (15 to 20 years down the road) I am convinced Charlotte will close the wide gap between itself and Atlanta. Many of metro Atlanta's inner largest counties are slowing down in growth rate (it is the smaller counties on the fringes that are booming now). Charlotte's inner largest metro counties are just starting to boom (I call it the I-485 effect which is very similar to Atlanta's I-285 effect). By no means will Charlotte catch up to Atlanta in metro population. That is NOT what I meant when I said "close the wide gap between itself and Atlanta".
In 15 to 20 years, I believe Charlotte and Atlanta will be in the same tier for the first time (ie Chicago and Detroit). Metro Chicago is twice the size of Metro Detroit (10 million vs 5 million), however Chicago and Detroit are still two cities in similar leagues. I see metro Atlanta being nearly 8 million people in 20 years. However, I see metro Charlotte being nearly 3.5 million in 20 years.
As of now, Atlanta sits on 5.7 million CSA. Charlotte is at 2.3 million CSA. Most of Atlanta's next 2.3 million new residents will move to counties more than 30 miles away from downtown Atlanta. Most of Charlotte's next 1.2 million new residents will move to areas less than 30 miles from uptown Charlotte. This will result in Charlotte looking and feeling more like Atlanta simply because Charlotte's inner metro counties are going to catch up to Atlanta's inner metro counties extremely fast.
Like I said, as of now, Georgia wins hands down. As for the future, NC will soon offer a city on Atlanta's level (not Atlanta's size, just Atlanta's level).
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