What's to blame for Atlanta's tanking appeal? (Dallas, Nashville: college, gated)

[Atlanta Scientist]

I am one of those people that moved from the city into the burbs and back into the city. Prices in the northern burbs weren't that much cheaper than what I was paying for in the city. My commute time is about the same because of distance and without much traffic. Atlanta has so much to offer. If one is unhappy with Atlanta, that unhappiness more than likely started before the move here or that person's needs have changed. I'm not really interested in convincing anyone that Atlanta is the place for him or her. The city speaks for itself. You'll love it or you'll hate. It's a great place for me. It has decent public transit, my friends live here(convinced two of them to move here last year and they love it), and my career has taken off. Glad to call this place home.

[krogerDisco]

Originally Posted by Columbia Scientist

I am one of those people that moved from the city into the burbs and back into the city. Prices in the northern burbs weren't that much cheaper than what I was paying for in the city. My commute time is about the same because of distance and without much traffic. Atlanta has so much to offer. If one is unhappy with Atlanta, that unhappiness more than likely started before the move here or that person's needs have changed. I'm not really interested in convincing anyone that Atlanta is the place for him or her. The city speaks for itself. You'll love it or you'll hate. It's a great place for me. It has decent public transit, my friends live here(convinced two of them to move here last year and they love it), and my career has taken off. Glad to call this place home.

I think the reference was to Atlanta's rating in the Economist's 2016 best places, dropping. And wondering why.

[ipkl07]

Originally Posted by chrharris

Some of you are very rude, so, next time I'll just except what I read and not question it.

Have to expect it on any and all forums at one point or another I would think.

Now to your question. Last I checked Atlanta and suburbs are growing darn quickly.

[PJA]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

I don't know where you live, but if I started a thread there saying "Why are people in (city) so racist?" and then just say "I read on the internet that your city is really racist", do you think the normal response would be "Oh, we're all very nice people!" Hardly. It would likely be more like, "How dare you come in here and accuse us of such a thing."

Before you post, read your title. I'm pretty sure you knew 100% that it would incite some more acrimonious responses.



I would suggest that the thread, and especially the title, be worded much better. See above.





Disagree. The thread title was very leading.



Just keep in mind that if you only want to use the train, you will be very limited in your destinations, missing much of Atlanta's neighborhoods. If you want to use a bus or uber/taxi, you could get to more.

Stick to the center of downtown or midtown if you want that life. 30303, 30308 and 30309.

If you focused on the whole post instead of the title you would see the op said "for those that live there is that the case?" Regardless of if you don't like how the question was asked those couple of posters didn't have to be rude. Mostly everyone else was not so obviously there was no need for it.

[magnetar]

LOL at... basically all of the the previous.

Putting aside the issue of how his question was phrased, there's a nugget of truth in the OP's premise—Atlanta's reputation doesn't match its reality. When I told friends who lived around the country that I'd decided to buy a house in Atlanta, they thought I was a nut. For millennials who weren't old enough to notice when Atlanta was on the come up in the 90s, it's just a weird regional big city with bad traffic. A friend of mine came from Denver to visit for four days earlier in the summer, and he was blown away by what I showed him; he had no idea Atlanta was cool in any way. We stayed within like a 2 mile radius of my house the entire time. I'm perfectly comfortable with Atlanta being a sleeper hit, though. Better to outperform low expectations than to be overrated.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by magnetar

LOL at... basically all of the the previous.

Putting aside the issue of how his question was phrased, there's a nugget of truth in the OP's premise—Atlanta's reputation doesn't match its reality. When I told friends who lived around the country that I'd decided to buy a house in Atlanta, they thought I was a nut. For millennials who weren't old enough to notice when Atlanta was on the come up in the 90s, it's just a weird regional big city with bad traffic. A friend of mine came from Denver to visit for four days earlier in the summer, and he was blown away by what I showed him; he had no idea Atlanta was cool in any way. We stayed within like a 2 mile radius of my house the entire time. I'm perfectly comfortable with Atlanta being a sleeper hit, though. Better to outperform low expectations than to be overrated.

Among that group, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Austin, etc. are considered to be the "it" cities today and Atlanta is now considered to be just a major metropolitan area without the appeal of the more classically urban cities. But most don't really know the "real" Atlanta--just the touristy parts of downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead.

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

Among that group, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Austin, etc. are considered to be the "it" cities today and Atlanta is now considered to be just a major metropolitan area without the appeal of the more classically urban cities. But most don't really know the "real" Atlanta--just the touristy parts of downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead.

The one thing all of those cities have in common is that they are predominantly higher education, left leaning, and have low crime rates. Atlanta is definitely left leaning, and the education Lev is rising fast, but the crime is still holding it back. Young adults don't have the money to move to the most desirable areas right away and in Atlanta the more affordable areas have higher crime rates. All the other cities you listed have affordable areas that are still safe since overall they are all safer than Atlanta.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Forhall

The one thing all of those cities have in common is that they are predominantly higher education, left leaning, and have low crime rates. Atlanta is definitely left leaning, and the education Lev is rising fast, but the crime is still holding it back. Young adults don't have the money to move to the most desirable areas right away and in Atlanta the more affordable areas have higher crime rates. All the other cities you listed have affordable areas that are still safe since overall they are all safer than Atlanta.

I think much of it is the rising appeal of Western cities with good economies. Young adults with good jobs are moving into those $1700/month new apartments and patronizing all the new farm-to-table restaurants, coffee shops, yoga studios, etc., not just in those cities but in Atlanta as well. However, it cannot be understated how the recession really blunted Atlanta's economic progress and overall appeal towards young professionals within the past couple years. Crime is an issue to an extent but I don't think that's the main culprit here.

[bhammaster]

The rents and housing costs should be dropping then. I don't see that happening.

[OneTrickNet]

Maybe it's because of the out of control crime here. Every day for the past 3 days (at least) the main story on the news was someone getting shot. And the police here are so lackadaisical - no one at the city or county level makes an effort to control crime.

The city is slowly being overrun by thugs and yet no one seems to care or want to do anything about it. But what do you expect when the police force are their own gang anyway.