FREE Concert this weekend— Sting, Dave Matthews Band, Muse, Ludacris, My Morning Jacket (Atlanta: closing, rail)

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

My point exactly. Coming from a place where holding events that attracts hundreds of thousands of people on a regular basis is the norm and has massive transit that is convenient and moves millions every single day, I just don't get it sometimes.

Honestly, I'm not sure why you moved to a place that is not Chicago if that is what you like. Atlanta won't reach Chicago's level in our lifetime (Houston might in population) so I'd focuse on moving back if I wanted a Chicago lifestyle.

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I am not afraid of hard work and want to work to make Atlanta a bigger, better, denser city. Chicago is too cold and I enjoy Atlanta.

Sorry. Wrong person.

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by arjay57

We're not as old as northeastern cities like New York, Boston or Philadelphia.

But we're hardly some little acorn that just fell of the tree 30 years ago. We're roughly the same age as cities like Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, LA, Miami and Houston. In fact we have seniority on several of them.

I don't know if you are trolling or being obtuse. No one is talking about Dallas, Miami, or Houston. Our transit and density is compared to the older cities that have a much greater head start.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

Honestly, I'm not sure why you moved to a place that is not Chicago if that is what you like. Atlanta won't reach Chicago's level in our lifetime (Houston might in population) so I'd focuse on moving back if I wanted a Chicago lifestyle.

I am working on moving back. Thanks!

I think Atlanta has potential but isn't making the best of it and the powers that be can't seem to figure it out. My thing is when other people want to compare Atlanta to Chicago or even NYC, when I agree with you that it will never reach that level in this our lifetime--especially not if people don't open their minds.

[alco89]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Oh, come now. We've had an international airport in this town for 60 years, pro sports for half a century and a subway since 1979. In the 1950s we had 3 major auto plants. By the 1920s we were a huge passenger rail hub, with nearly a hundred trains passing through every day.

And if you want to get picture of our skyline in 1930s, just stroll around and look at some of the buildings like Rhodes-Haverty, Candler, the Healey, William Oliver, the C&S Bank, Flatiron, etc., etc. By that time we had elegant old suburbs like West End, Inman Park, Buckhead, Druids Hills, Ansley and many others. Enrico Caruso performed here in 1912. In 1925 WSB was broadcasting with 50,000 watts from the 11th floor of the Biltmore hotel in Midtown. We had two highly influential and nationally recognized newspapers.

It's simply not accurate to assert that Atlanta is some Johnny-come-lately to the realm of big cities.

Here's downtown in 1907:



And again in 1935:

Plenty of cities looked like that back then. Birmingham, Cleveland, Detroit.....where are they now?

Look at what NYC, Boston, Philly, and Chicago had going on then, and you'll see what I mean. And I'm not JUST talking about buildings! I mean transit and infrastructure too.

[alco89]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

I don't know if you are trolling or being obtuse. No one is talking about Dallas, Miami, or Houston. Our transit and density is compared to the older cities that have a much greater head start.

THANK YOU! THIS is what I'm trying to say!

[alco89]

Originally Posted by noah

Yes, Atlanta compares very favorably to most U.S. cities. We only hear the comparisons on here to the 4-5 below that out do Atlanta for Transit. If your from Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis etc you find the subway system pretty awesome. How about L.A? We get that much of the northeast is more urban then Atlanta but Atlanta does pretty good overall and is getting better in this area at a rapid rate.

This is true and is exactly what I'm saying. All too often people focus on what Atlanta lacks compared larger, older cities as opposed to comparing it to it's peers (like Miami, Dallas, Houston, etc...)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

I don't know if you are trolling or being obtuse. No one is talking about Dallas, Miami, or Houston. Our transit and density is compared to the older cities that have a much greater head start.

I'm not trolling but I could well be obtuse.

I was responding to a post that said Atlanta has only been a big city for 30 years and can't be compared to NYC, Chicago, Boston, DC, San Francisco and Philadelphia, and that we're really not even as old as Houston or Charlotte.

Agewise we're comparable to Chicago, San Francisco and the other cities I mentioned.

By 1890 we were much larger than Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, LA, or Seattle. Miami hadn't even gotten out of the swamp yet while we were hosting an international exposition.

So it's a myth to say "Oh, Atlanta is a new city." It isn't.

We also had significant density early on -- 8,500 people per square mile as early as 1930.

[alco89]

Originally Posted by arjay57

We're not as old as northeastern cities like New York, Boston or Philadelphia.

But we're hardly some little acorn that just fell of the tree 30 years ago. We're roughly the same age as cities like Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, LA, Miami and Houston. In fact we have seniority on several of them.

Read my first post. Chicago rapidly grew from day one and it's inner city population was above 1 million before 1900. So throw that out. The same can virtually be said about SF and LA. Atlanta was around, but it didn't really aspire to be BIG and didn't hit it's "growth spurt" until around 30 or 40 years ago.

Of the rest, one could argue that Atlanta is doing as good as or better than them as far as infrastructure and density. NONE of them have a heavy rail system. And if they are denser, it's because they were forced to because of geography --Atlanta was never FORCED to be dense.

[cqholt]

This thread got out of hand fast.