Growth potential for Columbus? (Atlanta, Macon: sales, 2011, car registration)

[JLA]

On the contrary, I do commute to Atlanta. I actually car pool with some else. There are days when I telecommute, maybe twice a week. I could not force myself to move there, my life style does not warrant it. I am an engineer and my employer gives me some flexibility on what days I can come to work. I reasoned that if I lived in the Atlanta metro, I would most likely live on the north side outside of the 285 loop and after talking to several of my coworkers which live on the north side of the city some as far away as forty miles and was informed that on a good day it would take them 1 hour to get through the traffic to the south side of Atlanta, I reasoned that it was not worth the effort of uprooting my family, increasing my mortgage payment and decreasing our standard of living. I therefore accepted the pay increase, kept my old house bought me a car for cash and I am invested the extra money in various stocks and my 401K. There are several others I see commuting to Atlanta when we leave, trust me its not nearly as bad as it might appear, besides for me Metro Atlanta is a nice place to get away from. After getting stuck in traffic on 285, 400, 85 and 75 a few of time, I believe we made the right choice, although I do get picked on some times by coworkers, I remind them that I see a lot of metro Atlanta tags in Columbus on the weekends, so Columbus must be doing something right.

[JLA]

By the way, Columbus borders Lee and Russel Counties in AL. One of the things that I like about the area is how all the different local governments work together to get things done for the benefit of the whole. Augusta still struggles in this area.

[USA_Mom]

Ooops sorry JLA I did not realize you commuted

[JLA]

No offense taken. I would be the weired one.

[USA_Mom]

Originally Posted by JLA

No offense taken. I would be the weired one.

LOL well as far as craziness I used to drive about 90 minutes EACH WAY when I lived in SoCal...15 hours+ on the road eek!

[DisgustaTruth]

just visit both cities and it will be imediate obvious.

Columbus has a more diverse economy and is home to several corporate headquarters..
Columbus has invested way more in itself... new performing arts center, convention center, museums, libraries, a massive Riverwalk, the list goes on.

Columbus has a very good regional state university and is near enough to Auburn University to commute to.
\Columbus has a proactive local government that can work together and get things done.
In Augusta, the politicians constantly bicker, call each other names, and behave like spoiled brats, and very little gets accomplished.

Augusta is dirty with a stagnant economy. The city is home to no national corporate headquarters. The downtown is pretty abysmal and untidy. Augusta also has a Riverwalk but it is much smaller than Columbus' and the city has allowed it to fall into disrepair with graffitti, etc. You just get a sense in Augusta that the people and the politicians just don't care that much about making the city nice. On the other hand Columbus oozes with civic pride and the residents are willing to invest in the city. Despite having some of the lowest property taxes of any major city in Georgia, the people in Augusta constantly whine about paying too many taxes.. so much so that the city has had to significantly cut funding from basic services like transit and sanitation..so trash just sits around and weeds are allowed to just grow out of control along the roadways.. parts of the city look like the third world.
Columbus on the other hand is clean and well kept.. It's like comparing apples and oranges.

[trmaoy]

Thanks everyone. If anyone gets a chance, could you post some pictures of Columbus. Or if there is another thread that has some please let me know.

By the way JLA, who won the game?

[JLA]

Tuskegee won 33 - 10.

[nadinethehowlingdemocrat]

Originally Posted by trmaoy

Thanks for the additional perspective. Just curious, why do you believe Columbus has way more going for it than Augusta?

Base Realignment has caused a lot of excitment around here pretty much like the Olympic did a decade ago. We will be getting an influx of soldiers at Benning due to base closing in other areas. However, this will have a halo affect on surrounding cities as many of the new residents will be purchasing homes in those areas as well. Plus Ft. Benning is beefing up the base with a lot of new development and housing.

Columbus is large enough to get away from it all and small enough to maintain social intimacy.

We are far enough away from Atlanta to maintain the small time feel and close enough to Atlanta to commute to work.

We are at a pivotal point to make a quick trick to Destin or Panama City to the south, Montgomery Ala to the west, St. Simons Island to the west, and Atlanta to the north.

I am happy here and have seen a lot of changes. I just pray that the surrounding cities absorb much of our growth because our streets are becoming crowded with cars, mostly commuter traffic.

We are a consolidated government, so anyone wanting a house on two acres would probably have to consider Midland.

We have an excellent Mayor who was once Chief of Police who is doing a great job in putting more police officers on the streets to maintain our 30 miles per hour speed limit unless otherwise posted. Believe me, with the increased use of talking on the cell phone while driving, I'd much rather see people driving slower.

So if anyone is interested, Welcome to Columbus. Come with a desire to get involved to make the community an even better place to live.

[trmaoy]

Originally Posted by nadinethehowlingdemocrat

Base Realignment has caused a lot of excitment around here pretty much like the Olympic did a decade ago. We will be getting an influx of soldiers at Benning due to base closing in other areas. However, this will have a halo affect on surrounding cities as many of the new residents will be purchasing homes in those areas as well. Plus Ft. Benning is beefing up the base with a lot of new development and housing.

Columbus is large enough to get away from it all and small enough to maintain social intimacy.

We are far enough away from Atlanta to maintain the small time feel and close enough to Atlanta to commute to work.

We are at a pivotal point to make a quick trick to Destin or Panama City to the south, Montgomery Ala to the west, St. Simons Island to the west, and Atlanta to the north.

I am happy here and have seen a lot of changes. I just pray that the surrounding cities absorb much of our growth because our streets are becoming crowded with cars, mostly commuter traffic.

We are a consolidated government, so anyone wanting a house on two acres would probably have to consider Midland.

We have an excellent Mayor who was once Chief of Police who is doing a great job in putting more police officers on the streets to maintain our 30 miles per hour speed limit unless otherwise posted. Believe me, with the increased use of talking on the cell phone while driving, I'd much rather see people driving slower.

So if anyone is interested, Welcome to Columbus. Come with a desire to get involved to make the community an even better place to live.

I have been so used to a "big city" environment; being able to go (drive) to whatever kind of shop, restaurant etc. However, I want a real community environment for my children. That is what I had growing up. We were in a middle class Black neighborhood and everyone knew each other. The city was small enough that you knew many others in the city. People were involved in the community. It was far enough away from the Detroit metro that it really was a city/community in and of itself. I would be happy having that small city feel again as long as the community is developing and not declining.

A 5 million plus metro does not feel like a community to me. Yes, we have our subdivision in the suburbs but I really feel that sense of community is lacking. I like how you put it 'social intimacy'. That is exactly what I think we are missing.