Atlanta vs Houston (Dallas, Austin, Fulton: homes, employment, landscaping)

[MikeyAusmus]

Originally Posted by ericeric

My research results so far are:

Weather: Looks like Atlanta is better, Less Hurricane or less hot.
IT job opportunites: Looks like these two cities are comparable/similar in this area.
Crime rate: Atlanta is much higher.
City size: Atlanta is smaller.
People: Houstonans are much more nice, at least based on the forum.
Housing?

Any other more opinions?

2 airports instead one 1 giant one and both are easier to get in and out of than Atlanta's airport.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by blkgiraffe

So many inaccuracies in this thread......

Point 'em out.

[Kannadiga]

Originally Posted by ericeric

IT job opportunites: Looks like these two cities are comparable/similar in this area.

Houston has far more job opportunities in IT. But again, IT is a vast field. Job openings depend on what in IT you are looking for.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

Atlanta? Nice town I heard. If you want a town go there....city life is in Houston. Atlanta is the south, Houston is the future. If you want progress go Houston if it you want progressives which means go backward and be like eurozone....try Atlanta

It's also in Atlanta.

[David Dollar]

Originally Posted by Spade

It's also in Atlanta.

You could even argue that there is more city life in Atlanta depending on what your definition of city life is. Anybody who calls Atlanta a town has obviously never been there.

[ericeric]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

Houston,... has the largest lower middle class population of any city I've seen. We're a city on the cheap, ...

Oh, really???

To be honest, I don't like the high crime rate of Altanla and GA. Otherwise, I really will move to there.

[txstate]

H-town love living here... ATL love visiting

[AK123]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

Houston, in my opinion, has the largest lower middle class population of any city I've seen. We're a city on the cheap, getting better though...

At about 22%, Atlanta has a slightly higher poverty rate than Houston's 20%. This can be looked up on City-Data.

Philadelphia, Milwaukee, El Paso, St Louis, Miami, a few major Ohio cities, and of course Detroit all make top lists for this and are significantly worse off than Houston.

See also:

Cities With the Highest Poverty Rates in 2010 - Graphic - NYTimes.com

Haves and Have-Nots: Cities with Highest and Lowest Poverty Rates - US News and World Report

[ericeric]

Here are my real experience in Altlanta. I like to share with you.

First, I only have been in Altlanta 3 times, all for Business, less than 10 days. So the experience is quite limited.

The airport is big. You will see subway inside airport. But, each domestic gate is so small. The domestic airplanes stay very close to each other.

The weather is good. The outdoorsy activity is nice.

The city transportation is good. You can take shuttles to a lot of places, hotels, etc. The road is wide. Some roads have 7 lanes.

The downtown atlanta is a little small. Not so many food restaurants.

The city is clean. A lot of lawns. I have been to olympic parks, cnn, coca cola parks, etc. Very nice and no crowded people.

The city doesn't have too many people. I walked on the road after 7pm. I seldomly saw any people around me. Then suddenly you will see one or a few young guys coming to you. I am afraid of being robbed, since I didn't bring some cashes with me. So I decide to go back to hotel.

There are so many persons who will try to give your flyers in front of CNN. And some people will ask you if you need any help,like finding restaurants, hotel, places to visit, etc. They will be very happy and patient to help you for all your questions. After that, they will ask you like, "now I helped you. You need to help me... Can you lend me some money, etc. ". If you say no, they will be very disappointed. So, it's better to help people too if they helped you....

Shopping in Atlanta is quite nice. My ex-friend told this to me.

But overall, this is a nice city. If there are more job opportunities on Software programming, I will consider to move there. Although I know Atlanta is the number 4 city followed by NYC, Houston, Dallas on the number of fortune 500 companies. Also atlanta is among top 10 cities with high-tech jobs (from one medium report, not sure if accurate).

[jr1038]

Based on your post, your assessment of Houston as a city would be similar to Atlanta. Atlanta has better weather and is more aesthetically appealing, but overall the two cities have a lot in common.

Houston and Atlanta are ranked #10 and #11, repsectively, for high tech employment nationally. Both would have plenty of opportunities for programmers, but Houston has the stronger economy right now so there might be more jobs available.