Rampant misconception of life ITP. (Atlanta, Washington: high crime, neighborhood, buy)

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

And Avalon hasn't gotten good press?

The original post highlights the biggest issue with Atlanta. It doesn't feel like a metropolitan area of 5.7 million people because half of the metro is scared of going to the city or simply have no need to. It feels like a metro of 2.5 - 3 million people.

Do other big metros have this issue? NYC certainly doesn't. SF doesn't. LA doesn't. Miami doesn't. Chicago might, but it's big enough anyway that it doesn't matter. DC doesn't. Obviously, a lot of it is racial, but still. We're talking nearly 50% of Atlanta metro area hasn't gone to the city center or around it in at least a year.

See here is a good case of a small over-generalization that helps lead to division, but it has been self-justified so much that the person saying it doesn't realize it.

No half the metro is not scared to do the bolded. That is your generalization of the situation and its comments like that that lead to division.

Now the underlined is far more true. No for someone that meets the underlined, they hear people say the bolded and think... I'm sick of dealing with such silly arguments... I just want to live my life and enjoy it and not put up with that.

[afdinatl]

Someone said something similar to me and i told them id rather be ITP instead of OTP and have to worry about being lynched and they got mad

[roadtrip75]

I'm not sure why people are getting worked out about this thread. I read OP twice and I see nothing of substance to respond to, negatively or positively. It is just a vapid post vaguely suggesting people should never have their feelings hurt.

[CCATL]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

errr.... ok I'll bite.

For the first part of this I get it. I'm there with you. My first several years here I spent a great deal of time bickering with the Mathman's and corndogs of the online world. Although, there are a few questionable arguments (ie. education investment k-12 is greater in the city, than it is in the suburbs. The property tax digest of having the city center is a cash cow for APS. Any funding[spending] problems is really self created within APS).

The problem I have with what has been happening lately is in the here and now in this online forum (not decades ago) this is hardly case. You're self justifying a greater backlash, that isn't needed and people on these forums are using it to self-justify their own anti-OTP/suburban bias. I don't like the Braves move and have been upset about it from day 1, but the attitude people are using it to self-justify many other generalizations and a greater "backlash" on other topics aren't fair either. In the -here- and -now- the problem is more the other way around.

I think he made a very good point talking about these intown developments, because they have been covered a great deal in the mainstream press and a TON in the localized intown press almost always in a positive fashion in both places. He is actually making a good point here. If someone, like a previous poster bluntly said, believes the mainstream press isn't covering these projects, then they have an insecurity problem they need to get over themselves. That is not the media's or OTP's fault, 'nor does it self-justify reasons for putting down the other guys as others on this forum have been doing lately. With some posters it has been very hypocritical actually.

Yet people are so sensitive, they can't even simply spot that out.

I wouldn't get too insecure over what a single delivery driver says. In fact, I sort of find the story odd to begin with. I would think that would be the delivery driver's area to begin with, so he'd see it on a daily basis.

Harsh reality is Atlanta actually does have much higher crime rates per capita compared to Cobb in general. Is it possible he was just making conversation and this would have been a good chance to say... "...actually this neighborhood right here great. I've never had a problem." This might be hard to fathom, but this is what conversations are like from OTP'rs to OTP'rs about areas near them OTP too. Just like the ITP crowd, we discuss the local differences in our neighborhoods, schools, developments, etc...

In terms of education I wasn't talking only about funding via taxes, but resource allocation and such. This is a bigger conversation than doesn't need to be had here because of the purposes of this thread, but educational resources don't only mean money, so I stand by my comment. I do agree with you that intown Atlanta is getting a lot more press now than it has in the past, especially with some of the more major developments like PCM. I don't think we can argue against that - the media has definitely picked up on the fact that ITP is becoming more desirable to larger numbers of people than OTP as traffic increases from the suburbs and urban renewal continues. But, I think we have to be careful saying that now that ITP is actually improving and more resources are being directed here, that ITPers should have a "get over it" mentality concerning the decades of abandonment that they've felt. I do think this is exaggerated at times in this forum, but the reality is it takes time to get over this type of stuff and for stereotypes to die.

I'm also surprised the delivery driver wasn't in the area more - maybe it wasn't his normal route? I don't know, but the comment he made stands. I just used that as a recent example though. Trust me, there has been no shortage of people from the suburbs, or even northern parts of the city (Buckhead and Brookhaven areas) telling me that where I live is scary and dangerous. I did use it as an opportunity to tell him how great the area is and how I've never had a problem, and also how much development is happening. But when you are constantly told you live in a scary area (people I have JUST met have actually told me where I live is ghetto), it's hard not to get defensive - it's home. I don't know, it just seems really rude to me. If I just met someone, I wouldn't tell them that where they live is horrible, I'd look for a positive or say nothing. Just like if I told somebody from Alpharetta they live there because it's cookie cutter and they are afraid of the city, I'm sure they would get defensive, even if what I said was true.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

I'm not sure why people are getting worked out about this thread. I read OP twice and I see nothing of substance to respond to, negatively or positively. It is just a vapid post vaguely suggesting people should never have their feelings hurt.

Within this online community, this discussion needs to be had.

The post that set things off as so to say I think was well warranted. There are a series of developments intown, particularly to the north and east of town, that have brought a great deal of excitement to ITP communities and they have received a good deal of positive press in the mainstream press. Given the OP directly mentioned a few of them, it was worth mentioning. Granted, as we often do here in Atlanta C-D, we meander from the subject a bit as people argue back and forth.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by CCATL

In terms of education I wasn't talking only about funding via taxes, but resource allocation and such. This is a bigger conversation than doesn't need to be had here because of the purposes of this thread, but educational resources don't only mean money, so I stand by my comment. I do agree with you that intown Atlanta is getting a lot more press now than it has in the past, especially with some of the more major developments like PCM. I don't think we can argue against that - the media has definitely picked up on the fact that ITP is becoming more desirable to larger numbers of people than OTP as traffic increases from the suburbs and urban renewal continues. But, I think we have to be careful saying that now that ITP is actually improving and more resources are being directed here, that ITPers should have a "get over it" mentality concerning the decades of abandonment that they've felt. I do think this is exaggerated at times in this forum, but the reality is it takes time to get over this type of stuff and for stereotypes to die.

I'm also surprised the delivery driver wasn't in the area more - maybe it wasn't his normal route? I don't know, but the comment he made stands. I just used that as a recent example though. Trust me, there has been no shortage of people from the suburbs, or even northern parts of the city (Buckhead and Brookhaven areas) telling me that where I live is scary and dangerous. I did use it as an opportunity to tell him how great the area is and how I've never had a problem, and also how much development is happening. But when you are constantly told you live in a scary area (people I have JUST met have actually told me where I live is ghetto), it's hard not to get defensive - it's home. I don't know, it just seems really rude to me. If I just met someone, I wouldn't tell them that where they live is horrible, I'd look for a positive or say nothing. Just like if I told somebody from Alpharetta they live there because it's cookie cutter and they are afraid of the city, I'm sure they would get defensive, even if what I said was true.

Errr...
I never said get over it... But what people are doing is having an insecurity and using it to justify their own bad behavior back and particularly within this online community it has gotten pretty bad from some people towards OTP generalizations. It isn't fair to take those insecurities as justification for poor arguments/behavior either, which you characterized as a backlash. I wouldn't have said much of it, but the 'backlash' on this forum has been overreaching and often directed at the wrong people.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

See here is a good case of a small over-generalization that helps lead to division, but it has been self-justified so much that the person saying it doesn't realize it.

No half the metro is not scared to do the bolded. That is your generalization of the situation and its comments like that that lead to division.

Now the underlined is far more true. No for someone that meets the underlined, they hear people say the bolded and think... I'm sick of dealing with such silly arguments... I just want to live my life and enjoy it and not put up with that.

That's why I said OR. There is a VERY good chunk of people in the Atlanta MSA that are very afraid of going to Atlanta. These are generally the people though who are natives and remember when Atlanta had immense crime in the 80s and 90s before the wave of gentrification came. Just look on the AJC comments section.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

That's why I said OR. There is a VERY good chunk of people in the Atlanta MSA that are very afraid of going to Atlanta. These are generally the people though who are natives and remember when Atlanta had immense crime in the 80s and 90s before the wave of gentrification came. Just look on the AJC comments section.

Not in the way you use it and make it sound. It overplays by a large degree how many of these people are afraid. Its a petty way to justify an over generalization.

Half the people ITP are stupid or don't have a reason to go OTP.

I mean we all know out of the 750,000 IT'rs someone is gonna be stupid and I said or, but its really a pathetic, unfair way of just trying to say those people are stupid.

[arjay57]

A lot of people incorrectly stereotype life in other parts of the city.

Using the Perimeter as some kind of line of demarcation is totally bogus to begin with. How ridiculous.

[testa50]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

And Avalon hasn't gotten good press?

The original post highlights the biggest issue with Atlanta. It doesn't feel like a metropolitan area of 5.7 million people because half of the metro is scared of going to the city or simply have no need to. It feels like a metro of 2.5 - 3 million people.

Do other big metros have this issue? NYC certainly doesn't. SF doesn't. LA doesn't. Miami doesn't. Chicago might, but it's big enough anyway that it doesn't matter. DC doesn't. Obviously, a lot of it is racial, but still. We're talking nearly 50% of Atlanta metro area hasn't gone to the city center or around it in at least a year.

Do you have a source for this?