What's wrong with Atlantic Station? (Atlanta, Columbus: store, assess, move)

[JPD]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Okay, and that's my beef with it. Again, it's essentially like a very large office-park-meets-suburban-lifestyle-center, smack dab in the middle of a major city.

It's not pretending to be anything other than that, so I guess you're wasting your energy having a problem with it.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by JPD

It's not pretending to be anything other than that, so I guess you're wasting your energy having a problem with it.

Really? I thought that I was just voicing my opinion, like everyone else here.

[ATLTJL]

I'm so confused.

What's wrong with having a Target in an urban neighborhood? I mean, I understand that they traditionally aren't there, but that's because Target has a lot of merchandise and space is more at a premium in a city so it's more difficult to do. But I'm not aware of any kind of urban rule that says urban areas aren't allowed to have discount stores.

In fact, I seem to recall that there is a pretty big vertical Macy's in Manhattan. I think there used to be K-Marts there too. So would you argue that 5th Avenue is somehow a non-urban part of Manhattan? Why would it have to be in Greenwich Village to be considered urban? That's just one tiny part of New York, all of which could be called "urban" by most people's standards.

This is just ignorant hate. It's like people that will stop liking music from a band just because they get popular. They will call them "sell outs" just because more people started liking them, even if the music didn't change one single bit.

I seem to recall New York even has a mall by the pier.

Let's just pretend Central Park wasn't a park, but a big abandoned steel mill. If you think New York wouldn't have made something similar to Atlantic Station there, you're nuts.

So if you want urban living, where are you going to live? You can't even go to Manhattan, because even it won't fit your description. Are you going to go there and gripe every time you walk by JC Penney, Macy's, and every other store that you feel doesn't fit the urban landscape?

Why don't you just get over yourself?

[Nairobi]

Macy's: historical, urban-oriented retail department store
Target: suburban-oriented big box discount store

...not at all the same thing.

To be fair, in Harlem, you do have the East River Plaza, which is a complex of numerous big box stores (including Target). It was in a gentrifying area, so evidently someone thought this would be a great idea.

The thing is, these types of developments are a novelty in New York City; not so, in Atlanta, Georgia, where sprawl is king. So forgive me for wishing that Atlantic Station had taken a more sophisticated route in its development.

[Razorblades]

I don't think Atlantic Station is all that at all, I went to Atlantic Station 4 times, January 2010 twice and twice in April 2011. It seems dead, not many shoppers and i went to the cinema there too and there wasn't that many people. I have family in the Atlanta area and i go every year all the way from Ireland. There are far better places to shop in Atlanta than Atlantic Station in my opinion. It needs to be more vibrant.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Let's just pretend Central Park wasn't a park, but a big abandoned steel mill. If you think New York wouldn't have made something similar to Atlantic Station there, you're nuts.

...and if you think that an IKEA in the middle of Manhattan wouldn't be met with disgust from borough residents, YOU'RE nuts.

Why do you think most native New Yorkers avoid Times Square like the plague?

Why don't you just get over yourself?

Of course. Every time I say something someone may not like, I just need to get over myself. Duly noted.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Really? I thought that I was just voicing my opinion, like everyone else here.

It's coming across as if you're bashing AS for being something it never claimed, or intended to be. Feel free to do that. It just seems like a waste of effort to me. You might as well bash a turtle because it's not a frog.

[hatgirl007]

Ghetto. I'm sorry G-e-t-t-o. LOL.
It is okay during the day but at night it turns into something else. I learned a long time ago that this this place was not the place to be. It's not the restaurants that make it bad, it's the element that "wants to be seen" / "hood people at the sushi bar who don't know how to act" and that "scene" that makes it bad.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

...and if you think that an IKEA in the middle of Manhattan wouldn't be met with disgust from borough residents, YOU'RE nuts.

Why do you think most native New Yorkers avoid Times Square like the plague?

I appreciate the critique and basically agree with it. However, I don't think there was ever any intent to make Atlantic Station (or any other part of Atlanta) resemble NYC. They're built on different models and different kinds of cities.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by JPD

It's coming across as if you're bashing AS for being something it never claimed, or intended to be. Feel free to do that. It just seems like a waste of effort to me. You might as well bash a turtle because it's not a frog.

In posting here, we're not contributing anything productive to our day. I think we're all wasting our time here, friend.