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This isn't Kotkin's first time to the rodeo. I take him with a grain of salt. And just how has Atlanta lost some of it's 90's era luster? It's exploding right now. He doesn't even bother to qualify that statement.
I'm not sure Kotkin is really dissing us. He says:
Quote:
Even sprawling Atlanta, which has lost some of its ‘90s era luster, is now growing its business service sector at a faster pace than New York and light years ahead of much denser Chicago and Los Angeles.
It's not exactly chopped liver to be growing faster than NYC and to be light years ahead of Chicago and LA.
As to the "losing luster" comment, it probably is true that the ATL's growth rate has slowed down since the 90s and that we were hit especially hard by the recession. Haven't I read that we were fairly slow to recover as well?
Atlanta will always be the South's only true "big city" complete with a big city mentality. Its role is to be to the Southeast what all cities have inspired, promised, and provided since ancient times, but in a familiar, unintimidating context. Atlanta's unique form won't be mistaken for other cities.
Now it's time for Atlanta to hold itself to a higher standard to get to where most other populous states and cities are.
Billions in development and the maintenance of our roads and highways is declining by the day. I-20 West, trash at every exit and ramps, so thick it looks like a dumpster was slowly unloaded. GDOT says the trash immediately returns after cleaning so they're indifferent.
Lights on connector been out for years.
There is a signal at Linden and Spring St. that's has been out for 6 months!
Other states like NC have big green overhead signs on all roads and important junctions.
Georgia barely strings up some tiny signs at major junctions of interstates and can't even keep them replaced and readable. Embarrassingly faded and overlooked little directional signs at an interchange near you.
The new traffic signals around town have been so sloppily erected, that I've had to call atl311 multiple times to request adjustments.
Seeing a street sign that isn't leaning 30 degrees is like finding a 4leaf clover.
No other city in America has the amount of dilapidated signage and street conditions as Atlanta.
Atlanta will always be the South's only true "big city" complete with a big city mentality. Its role is to be to the Southeast what all cities have inspired, promised, and provided since ancient times, but in a familiar, unintimidating context. Atlanta's unique form won't be mistaken for other cities.
Now it's time for Atlanta to hold itself to a higher standard to get to where most other populous states and cities are.
Billions in development and the maintenance of our roads and highways is declining by the day. I-20 West, trash at every exit and ramps, so thick it looks like a dumpster was slowly unloaded. GDOT says the trash immediately returns after cleaning so they're indifferent.
Lights on connector been out for years.
There is a signal at Linden and Spring St. that's has been out for 6 months!
Other states like NC have big green overhead signs on all roads and important junctions.
Georgia barely strings up some tiny signs at major junctions of interstates and can't even keep them replaced and readable. Embarrassingly faded and overlooked little directional signs at an interchange near you.
The new traffic signals around town have been so sloppily erected, that I've had to call atl311 multiple times to request adjustments.
Seeing a street sign that isn't leaning 30 degrees is like finding a 4leaf clover.
No other city in America has the amount of dilapidated signage and street conditions as Atlanta.
A lot of good points here. Metro Atlanta's cities, towns and and the DOT need to do a better job maintaining roads and signage. The quality of the roads, both Interstates and surface streets, has deteriorated quite a bit since I moved here over a decade ago.
Some of the resurfacing and pothole repairs by city of Atlanta crews is very sloppy. There's a section in the right lane of Lenox Road near Peachtree Road where crews did some shoddy resurfacing work -- there are patches of rough pavement that almost look like someone threw some cement mixed with pebbles onto the road. It hasn't been fixed in almost 10 years!
The litter along highways, ramps, etc, is a big pet peeve of mine. I blame the ignorant slobs who litter more than the DOT for not keeping up with it. The trash piles up right after crews pick it up, so it's obviously a losing battle. On a related note, when I was in the Trader Joe's parking lot in Midtown today, I saw a guy get out of his car and throw a fast food bag into the bushes. This person was about to walk into the store, where he could have tossed the bag into one of the trash cans conveniently located at the entrance.
Good observations, B2R. It does seem like Dallas and Houston have built a lot more roads, with more connectivity, than we have.
That's a good point that the Dallas and Houston metro regions have built a lot more roads which have affected a lot more connectivity than metro Atlanta.
One of the major reasons why Dallas and Houston have built a lot more roads than Atlanta is because Dallas and Houston CAN build a lot more roads than Atlanta.
With regional terrains that are relatively much flatter and more sparsely wooded than Atlanta, Dallas and Houston have topographical, political, cultural and social environments that are much more conducive to road building than Atlanta.
It is simply infinitely much easier (politically, culturally and socially) to impose and build-out a gridded regional surface and arterial road network on the relatively flatter and less sparsely wooded regional topographies of Dallas (and North Texas) and Houston (and Southeast Texas) than it is on the heavily-wooded rolling-to-hilly-to-mountainous regional topography of Atlanta and North Georgia where environmentalists seem to be much more willing (and much more able) to block major road construction projects.
In addition to being much more accepting of large-scale surface road construction projects on a widespread scale, Texas residents also seem to be much more accepting of toll roads than their Georgia counterparts who seem to be nowhere near as supportive of large-scale road construction on a widespread basis.
Despite the enjoyment that many get from comparing Atlanta to the Texas metropolitan titans because of their somewhat similar sizes and automobile-oriented lifestyles (Houston and particularly Dallas), it is some of the major geographical, topographical, political, cultural, social and psychological differences between Georgia and Texas that make it somewhat difficult to truly directly compare Atlanta to the Texas metros.
In addition to being much more able to build-out regional road and water supply infrastructures, Houston and Dallas EXPECTED early-on in the post-World War II era to eventually grow into large major metro regions and planned and built accordingly for the long-term.
In contrast, Atlanta ASPIRED to eventually grow into a large major metro region and made one key major infrastructure investment early-on in its airport. Most of Atlanta's regional road network (the four-laning of U.S. 41 and the construction of the Interstates) and water supply (lakes Lanier and Allatoona) infrastructure investments seem to have been made by the federal government.
Now it's time for Atlanta to hold itself to a higher standard to get to where most other populous states and cities are.
Billions in development and the maintenance of our roads and highways is declining by the day. I-20 West, trash at every exit and ramps, so thick it looks like a dumpster was slowly unloaded. GDOT says the trash immediately returns after cleaning so they're indifferent.
Lights on connector been out for years.
There is a signal at Linden and Spring St. that's has been out for 6 months!
Other states like NC have big green overhead signs on all roads and important junctions.
Georgia barely strings up some tiny signs at major junctions of interstates and can't even keep them replaced and readable. Embarrassingly faded and overlooked little directional signs at an interchange near you.
The new traffic signals around town have been so sloppily erected, that I've had to call atl311 multiple times to request adjustments.
Seeing a street sign that isn't leaning 30 degrees is like finding a 4leaf clover.
No other city in America has the amount of dilapidated signage and street conditions as Atlanta.
Valid points. City of Atlanta streets and road signs are in atrocious condition.
You're also right about there being a lot of trash along the streets. Both residents and the city need to work on this.
I agree with aries. I've also noticed that, despite being very pro-Sunbelt, Kotkin sometimes seems to display sort of a condescending and/or a somewhat negative attitude towards Atlanta in his writings.
This is probably just me, but I suspect that Kotkin (like some others) likely has a problem with Atlanta because he might think that Atlanta's extreme ultra-low density brand of mostly-unmanaged suburban sprawl gives the suburban lifestyles of other sprawling (but relatively more dense and better planned/managed) Sunbelt metros a bad name.
One of Atlanta's major characteristics that Kotkin likely may have a problem with is the lack of longer-term widespread planning and investment in infrastructure (particularly in transportation, water and cultural infrastructure) in the Atlanta region that he often seems to note is being made in large major Sunbelt metros like Dallas and Houston.
I suspect that Kotkin thinks that the long-term growth prospects are significantly more sustainable in large major Sunbelt metros like Dallas and Houston than in Atlanta because of the significantly increased widespread infrastructure investments that have been made in those other large major Sunbelt metros.
The lack of long-term infrastructure investment combined with Atlanta's unique swagger as an increasingly celebrity-driven dominant multi-media entertainment mecca likely rubs many observers and onlookers like Kotkin the wrong way.
Dallas and Houston have made massive investments in their infrastructures (roads, water supply and even transit and cultural) over the last several decades of economic and statistical boom while Atlanta has (except for a very few strategically key infrastructure investments early-on) often noticeably lagged severely behind in infrastructure investment since hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Even for those who may fervently support the sprawling automobile-oriented development patterns that dominate large major Sunbelt metros, Atlanta's infrastructure-lite ultra low-density automobile-oriented extreme sprawling development patterns can be too much to try and put forward when advocating for the suburban-oriented Sunbelt lifestyle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aries4118
I think it has more to do with Atlanta being a very successful metro with a large, influential African-American population. Kotkin does not like that. In his mind, Atlanta is not supposed to be successful and robust with these characteristics.
Kotkin also does not say good things about other metros with large AA populations even when they deserve to be included in the topic/category du jour. It only happens when it seems that the city is getting a whiter image (i.e., New Orleans).
It will be interesting to see what happens in his articles if Atlanta elects a white mayor in 2017.
Interesting. I was thinking that perhaps if Kotkin does take subtle jabs at Atlanta, it might be because it is the only Sunbelt city outside of California to have HRT and because it is experiencing tons and tons of urban infill, things that are more associated with the traditional big urban cities that he seemingly despises.
Interesting. I was thinking that perhaps if Kotkin does take subtle jabs at Atlanta, it might be because it is the only Sunbelt city outside of California to have HRT and because it is experiencing tons and tons of urban infill, things that are more associated with the traditional big urban cities that he seemingly despises.
I will agree that Atlanta has lost some of its "1990's" luster. (Maybe not quite) irrespective of economic gains, Atlanta was the focus of a lot of attention leading into (and out of) the summer Olympic games. I would argue that the aforementioned 90's luster was at least as much superficial hype and spin as it was measurable gains.
I don't fault writers being hard on Atlanta. Its a top 10 metro area, so judging it by more exacting or stringent standards makes sense. Atlanta shares this list with the likes of New York, DC, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, etc. World class cities, all.
I will agree that Atlanta has lost some of its "1990's" luster. (Maybe not quite) irrespective of economic gains, Atlanta was the focus of a lot of attention leading into (and out of) the summer Olympic games. I would argue that the aforementioned 90's luster was at least as much superficial hype and spin as it was measurable gains.
I don't fault writers being hard on Atlanta. Its a top 10 metro area, so judging it by more exacting or stringent standards makes sense. Atlanta shares this list with the likes of New York, DC, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, etc. World class cities, all.
I mean, Atlanta's job growth is very solid right now. 3% year over year which is very high for a metro with an already high job base. It ranks 4th in raw numbers behind New York, LA, and Dallas.
It's population growth in raw numbers ranks at #3 behind Houston and Dallas so Atlanta's not doing bad at all. Yeah, it's not posting at 150k a year numbers, but still. It'll almost certainly be back to posting 100k+ year over year growth in terms of metro population on next March's estimates.
Atlanta's economy is very robust right now and unemployment rate is at 4.6%(below US average) and still dropping. If things go well, it could go below 4% by year's end.
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