Atlanta official disputes city's 5th place ranking on "Dirtiest Cities" poll (Dallas: crime, hotel)

[LynnHarris]

These "lists" are getting to be ridiculous...


Atlanta official disputes city's 5th place ranking on "Dirtiest Cities" poll

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2012/09/atlanta-official-disputes-citys-5th.html

[cqholt]

Compared to other big cities, Atlanta is not dirty. The amount of trees and greenspace is amazing. A lot of other Sunbelt cities are worse and of course the older, northern cities.

[cittic10]

Umm....

The dirtiest city, according to readers,

Safe to say this is not a study rooted in fact. It's based on the opinion of readers who read some "travel & leisure" magazine.

Lame, lame, lame.

No offense to the OP, but it sure would be nice if we could cut down on the pollution of such lame posts on the forum. If this was a scientific study, I'd look at it much differently but this is just some stupid rubbish to fill pages in between ads in a magazine fewer and fewer people even read and probably never even look at unless they get it for free on the coffee table of their hotel room.

[ATLTJL]

I totally agree with the statements above and I've said in the past that lists are foolish and I don't buy into their validity. They are simply a way for magazines to sell more copies because readers love lists that are easy to digest and don't require any actual time investment or research.

Having said that, however, it's also important to realize that no matter how unscientific the poll was, it is at least rooted in some kind of perception. It doesn't really matter what the reality is, the perception is that Atlanta is dirty among those polled. That has some significance.

What I found way more disturbing was that Atlanta was perceived to be the second most dangerous city in America. We can argue the validity, we know that crime is actually down, but reality doesn't matter. Perception is reality. People still view Atlanta as a very dangerous city. My own personal perspective is the aggressive nature of panhandling, and I think if we can get a lid on that, we can do wonders in improving the perception of safety. Even if the danger associated with it is minimal, the perception of danger matters. It matters a lot.

I mean, just look at New York. I don't know, but if memory serves, there was a time in the 80s where New York probably would have been seen as the most dangerous city in America. I remember when it had that perception. Wether you agree with what Giuliani did or not, it can't be disputed that he greatly improved the perception of safety in New York. Whether that improved the city's bottom line or not, I don't know. It is worth mentioning that even though Atlanta is viewed as dirty and dangerous, tourism is up. So either people don't care so much, or the poll is not very representative of what most people really think.

I just realized that the above article does not mention the safety issue, but the AJC story did, so here's a link to that: Atlanta disputes travel magazine

[ja1myn]

Atlanta is one of the cleanest cities I've ever been too.

[cittic10]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I totally agree with the statements above and I've said in the past that lists are foolish and I don't buy into their validity. They are simply a way for magazines to sell more copies because readers love lists that are easy to digest and don't require any actual time investment or research.

Having said that, however, it's also important to realize that no matter how unscientific the poll was, it is at least rooted in some kind of perception. It doesn't really matter what the reality is, the perception is that Atlanta is dirty among those polled. That has some significance.

What I found way more disturbing was that Atlanta was perceived to be the second most dangerous city in America. We can argue the validity, we know that crime is actually down, but reality doesn't matter. Perception is reality. People still view Atlanta as a very dangerous city. My own personal perspective is the aggressive nature of panhandling, and I think if we can get a lid on that, we can do wonders in improving the perception of safety. Even if the danger associated with it is minimal, the perception of danger matters. It matters a lot.

I mean, just look at New York. I don't know, but if memory serves, there was a time in the 80s where New York probably would have been seen as the most dangerous city in America. I remember when it had that perception. Wether you agree with what Giuliani did or not, it can't be disputed that he greatly improved the perception of safety in New York. Whether that improved the city's bottom line or not, I don't know. It is worth mentioning that even though Atlanta is viewed as dirty and dangerous, tourism is up. So either people don't care so much, or the poll is not very representative of what most people really think.

I just realized that the above article does not mention the safety issue, but the AJC story did, so here's a link to that: Atlanta disputes travel magazine

The travel ragazine didn't get their extortion money to stay off the list. That's what it sounds like to me,

[emcee squared]

I'd say Atlanta is average in 'dirtyness.' Whatever that means.

[DTL3000]

Parts of Atlanta are pretty trashy compared to other cities I've lived in. NYC produces way more trash than Atlanta and it can pile up during the day but it gets addressed on a daily basis. The front yard of my last place in East Atlanta was a trash dump for patrons of the McD's, Wendys, Krystal, etc. next door. A lot of people in Atlanta just have no shame or respect for others and the environment to put it bluntly. It's downright ignorant behavior and while I'm sure someone will say this sort of thing happens everywhere, I'd say Atlanta is far worse than average in this regard.

Huge piles of trash regularly sit for weeks or more in certain areas of Atlanta. I think it all boils down to code enforcement which Atlanta city govt seems to have a difficult time doing. Fine the hell out of who ever owns the lot the trash is sitting on or in front of until they take action to prevent it from piling up. Do something about abandoned, grafitti'ed up houses and overgrown lots and sidewalks. I mean hell, I thought I was gonna need a machete on a certain stretch of Moreland sidewalk near I-20 when I was back in town a couple weeks ago.

[R1070]

Originally Posted by ja1myn

Atlanta is one of the cleanest cities I've ever been too.

T & L always rags on southern cities. If you ever notice in their lists, Dallas always gets ranked near the worst of everything. They say it's their readers doing the rankings, which may or may not be true, but it seems apparent that their readers are not familiar with cities in the Southern half of the country. I don't ever pay attention to these lists. I think Atlanta and Dallas are two of the nicest cities in the country.

[RNF]

wtf.