"atp" (At The Perimeter) communities... (Atlanta, Smyrna: appointed, association)

[JPD]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

I think that TAH was referring to her own neighborhood (North Druid Hills) as ITP in that instance...not Tucker.

Oops...yeah, NDH/Briarcliff is ITP, obviously.

I should've responded to this instead: TakeAhike: "You can drive from Tucker to downtown in under 30 minutes and it is ITP."

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by JPD

Oops...yeah, NDH/Briarcliff is ITP, obviously.

I should've responded to this instead: TakeAhike: "You can drive from Tucker to downtown in under 30 minutes and it is ITP."

I went back and reread the posts where this minor bit of confusion began.

Imo, it would create even more needless problems to try and clarify at this point.

Geographically, N. Druid Hills--borders the Intown neighborhoods--those in real estate have on some occasions categorized this area as 'Intown'. After living here for a number of years and being somewhat progressive --that's fine with me. At some point in time perhaps the Tucker area will also be included--I don't know and can't say.

I know a number of people who enjoy living in the Tucker area, having larger lots, etc and having easy access to the amenities of the city---ITP.


If I were relocating to NE Atlanta I honestly wouldn't be overly concerned with 'ITP'/Intown distinctions. How long will the commute be, how easy will the commute be--where can I get the most for my money, etc--those would be priorities to me.

Beyond that, you'll have to pardon me.

[BringBackCobain]

Seems like Tucker and Smyrna people are always trying to push themselves as ITP. I consider Northlake in Tucker, and I read somewhere that were Tucker ever to incorporate it would include the area, so you could make the argument that at least part of Tucker is ITP.

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by BringBackCobain

Seems like Tucker and Smyrna people are always trying to push themselves as ITP. I consider Northlake in Tucker, and I read somewhere that were Tucker ever to incorporate it would include the area, so you could make the argument that at least part of Tucker is ITP.

sigh--Should there be a marker somewhere in the middle of LaVista Rd?

[JPD]

Originally Posted by BringBackCobain

Seems like Tucker and Smyrna people are always trying to push themselves as ITP. I consider Northlake in Tucker, and I read somewhere that were Tucker ever to incorporate it would include the area, so you could make the argument that at least part of Tucker is ITP.

That's true. In order for incorporation to be economically feasible, the borders of a City of Tucker would have to include Northlake Mall and the surrounding business/hotel district. The Northlake business district is opposed to being forced into the borders of a City of Tucker, and for that reason (not that that's the only rerason), incorporation for Tucker has officially been shelved.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

I can't ever see anybody in Adamsville or Cascade ever saying "I live ATP." Nor would anybody who lives in Vinings say that. If you're shallow enough to pay inflated prices for a stupid Vinings address in Smyrna, you're gonna say you live in Vinings.

A lot of those Smynings subdivisions are still in a nice location.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by BringBackCobain

Seems like Tucker and Smyrna people are always trying to push themselves as ITP. I consider Northlake in Tucker, and I read somewhere that were Tucker ever to incorporate it would include the area, so you could make the argument that at least part of Tucker is ITP.

Why would I want to be ITP? It's dangerous there. *rolling eyes*

[Saintmarks]

Has anyone looked at a map of Interstate 285 (the official name of Atlanta's "perimeter" highway) when they make these grandiose statements of what is ITP, ATP or OTP? The road is not a perfect circle around Atlanta. It skews much more to the east in its loop thru DeKalb than it does on its western side. You can actually be a citizen of the city of Atlanta and live OTP (Adamsville, Ben Hill, Cascade, Sandtown). You can live ITP in Panthersville or Northlake and be further from downtown than Smyrna which is OTP.

If one is going to hold to this ITP/OTP delineation, it is only fair to have a subset ATP as a transition area. But the ITP snobs don't like that, they like all OTPers to be labled the dimwit suburbanite sprawl creators that they are. Now we are going to further snootify ourselves with the ITB label. Goodness gracious.

And the Perimeter highway did form a 'perimeter' of sorts for the vast part of what was considered urban and suburban Atlanta when it was mapped out in the late 50's/early 60s. Seems to me it was referred to as the Perimeter Highway or something longer and got lovingly reduced to just the term Perimeter at some point thereafter.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

But the ITP snobs don't like that, they like all OTPers to be labled the dimwit suburbanite sprawl creators that they are.

Creative Loafing has been a very vocal booster of this mentality. You can find at least one example of this in their magazine practically every week. They've even used it as a theme for entire weekly editions.

[arjay57]

As I read over this thread I realized that I've tended to conflate ITP with terms like "close-in" and "intown."

ITP is really about location. You're either inside 285 or outside it. Where that's confusing, however, is that you really can't assume much based on that. ITP doesn't delineate urban vs. suburban, dense vs. non-dense, wealthy vs. poor, etc.

To me, "intown" implies "within the city limits of Atlanta plus Decatur and Emory." I know that's subjective but that's what it means to me as a longtime resident.

"Close-in" is even more relative, and in my mind that has changed a lot over time. Tucker is a good example. In the 1950s I would have thought that was a good ways out, and roughly analogous to today's suburbs such as Crabapple or Peachtree City. But in light of a half century of sprawl, Tucker now seems pretty close-in to me.

All of this is complicated by the fact that Atlanta has massively decentralized and Downtown Atlanta is no longer ground zero in terms of population, employment, shopping, etc. If I had to pick a "hub" for today's Atlanta, I'd place the epicenter along the Peachtree spine from Downtown though Buckhead (and arguably up to Perimeter), with the two main "cross streets" being the GA400 corridor and the northern arc of 285.

So I tend to measure "closeness" from there.