Atlanta's size compared to Houston (Dallas: authority, stadiums, campus)

[PKCorey]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Oh for God's sake folks. Why do we argue over such silly stuff?

Just the nature of the board in the last couple years...

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Oh for God's sake folks. Why do we argue over such silly stuff?

Because we can, Ansley...because we can....Because it's human nature to compare and contrast and debate and argue over "whose is bigger" and "whose is better"....Even though Atlanta and Houston are two totally and completely different cities, people very-often like to compare and contrast them because they are two cities of similar size in the Sunbelt.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

The comparison between Houston's midtown and Atlanta's midtown was probably far fetched and you're right. Houston still does not have a dense, highrise urban neighborhood like Midtown though which was the point I was trying to make.

Also, a big problem with downtown Houston is that many of it's office towers are set back like 30-40 feet away from the street and have zero mixed used. This creates dead zones. It's creates a dense skyline, but not necessarily a dense pedestrian population. There's also almost zero reason to go downtown. Much of Houston's tourist attractions are not located downtown and I'm not sure, but I don't think Houston has stadiums downtown either. It also does not have a big university located in downtown.

Atlanta has tourist attractions which obviously gets tourists to stay in downtown and walk around the area. Atlanta has a huge 30k+ student university so students are constantly flowing between classes and restaurants. Atlanta obviously has office workers. Atlanta has heavy rail which is huge is getting people from suburbs to downtown and vice versa. Atlanta also has a lot of lower income residents shop near the Underground area lol. Also, the government institutions are located downtown.

Atlanta just has a lot more going on in it's downtown then Houston does.

You can thank zoning for Houston not having a dense highrise urban neighborhood. Imagine if Houston actually had zoning. Many of those buildings built in random spots throughout the inner loop and city would be where they actually needed to be. I don't disagree with how they built the office towers. Your next point can be fixed but that would be hard. Houston has more than one huge employment center near it. You have greenway plaza, Texas Medical Center, and of course, Uptown-Galleria. Not to say Atlanta doesn't have multiple districts themselves either. Also, the tunnels are to popular for workers. Houston needs residents downtown, period.

Uptown-Galleria took many of Downtown's thunder. They have the retail but it's an ordinary mall. They have the highrise residential buildings. They have as many of the top hotels as downtown and was about to get the Ritz and W too. It hurt that the highrise districts of Houston is not close to downtown like they are in Atlanta. Toyota Center (Rockets), MMP(Astros), and BB&T (Dynamo) are all located downtown.

[bornjacksonian]

In terms of size Atlanta could never compare to Houston. I can get across the city in 30 mins on a good day in ATL. But Houston is nothing but driving, driving, driving. Their streets are even much wider than Atlanta. Also, we are talking about an area with 2+ million within 600 sq miles.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by bornjacksonian

In terms of size Atlanta could never compare to Houston. I can get across the city in 30 mins on a good day in ATL. But Houston is nothing but driving, driving, driving. Their streets are even much wider than Atlanta. Also, we are talking about an area with 2+ million within 600 sq miles.

I can get across SF in a 10-15 minute drive, but it still feels larger than Houston and Atlanta. City limits are silly to use to compare how large a city feels.

[Newsboy]

I think NYC and LA may also be bigger than ATL but I'm not sure ...

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

I can get across SF in a 10-15 minute drive, but it still feels larger than Houston and Atlanta. City limits are silly to use to compare how large a city feels.

I thought you've never been to San Francisco .... ?!

[gerrythesnake]

Who has the link to that overlay map that combined Atlanta + LA and Atlanta + Houston??

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

I thought you've never been to San Francisco .... ?!

I haven't but I'm assuming by freeway, it should only take 10-15 minutes by freeway. It's only a 7 by 7 mile city.

[Staysean23]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

I haven't but I'm assuming by freeway, it should only take 10-15 minutes by freeway. It's only a 7 by 7 mile city.

Have u seen the traffic in SF? a lot of people there drive, even with it being so dense. Its even worse because they don't have the large freeways.