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The ambiance of O4W has most certainly changed even with the remaining low income residents still on Boulevard. When developing in any city with extreme poverty and income inequality present, crime is going to be an issue (unless you want NYPD style policing with random stops and profiling of minorities). The issue is our terrible public infrastructure in Georgia as a whole. We don’t spend efficiently enough in areas that matter like healthcare for those with mental issues, homeless facilities, public schools in low income areas, improving regional universities and community colleges, and public transportation. These issues won’t change unless leadership in our state changes. Microsoft knows all of this so they apparently don’t see it as a concern compared to the benefits of the lower costs of business here.
The children that live off Boulevard attend Hope Hill which is very nice the brand new state of the art Howard Middle and the in progress of being renovated and expanded former Grady High School. $17,000 per child is spent in APS which is far higher than any of their suburban peers. The schools have every technology and innovation available. Teachers and Administrators are paid on average considerably more than their peers. But we as Atlanta tax payers need to pay more money? No thanks.
West midtown is the next big growth area, but have y'all ever driven on some of the "paved streets" over there?
A muddy, rutty, dirt road full of tree roots would be smoother.
I'd never seen anything like it over there.
I believe that sometimes decisions are based solely looking at maps without learning about an area.
I wonder if any of the CEOs of companies that moved their HQs here have any regrets because I contend that they don't yet know fully about how the state and city of Atlanta perform on average compared to where they left.
I say all that because just like with Ponce and Old Fourth Ward, the ambiance might not change even with the development and though I don't know it well, I would say the West side has some ambiance that's not good and might not ever change.
West Midtown is already a big growth area, this will take it to another level. Howell Mill Road is scheduled for a whole revamp but I believe with all the projects going around Westside Provisions has pushed it back a few years, unfortunately..
The children that live off Boulevard attend Hope Hill which is very nice the brand new state of the art Howard Middle and the in progress of being renovated and expanded former Grady High School. $17,000 per child is spent in APS which is far higher than any of their suburban peers. The schools have every technology and innovation available. Teachers and Administrators are paid on average considerably more than their peers. But we as Atlanta tax payers need to pay more money? No thanks.
Large districts like APS run big special needs programs which drive up the amount of money spent per child. I have seen this in 2 other places I lived. Parents with special needs move to districts which have better schools for special needs children the same as parents with normal kids who look at test scores. One special needs students costs around $26k compared to $9k for a normal student. What happens is large districts have the means & ability to develop strong programs for these portion of the student population which leads to more kids attending these programs. This drives up the amount spent per child quite a bit.
The ambiance of O4W has most certainly changed even with the remaining low income residents still on Boulevard. When developing in any city with extreme poverty and income inequality present, crime is going to be an issue (unless you want NYPD style policing with random stops and profiling of minorities). The issue is our terrible public infrastructure in Georgia as a whole. We don’t spend efficiently enough in areas that matter like healthcare for those with mental issues, homeless facilities, public schools in low income areas, improving regional universities and community colleges, and public transportation. These issues won’t change unless leadership in our state changes. Microsoft knows all of this so they apparently don’t see it as a concern compared to the benefits of the lower costs of business here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ronricks
The children that live off Boulevard attend Hope Hill which is very nice the brand new state of the art Howard Middle and the in progress of being renovated and expanded former Grady High School. $17,000 per child is spent in APS which is far higher than any of their suburban peers. The schools have every technology and innovation available. Teachers and Administrators are paid on average considerably more than their peers. But we as Atlanta tax payers need to pay more money? No thanks.
City of Atlanta taxpayers basically are already paying more when it comes to the Atlanta Public Schools system.
There are very few places in the country (probably only like 6 states) that spend more per student than APS spends per student.
Like I mentioned before on another thread, the schools can only do so much when it comes to educating children but the schools can’t solve all of society’s ills, the widespread cultural challenges and the home and family problems that most often directly adversely affect children’s learning and overall academic outcomes. Those are larger societal issues that schools have no choice but to contend with when trying to educate children, particularly when trying to educate children from disadvantaged highly transient backgrounds and family/community environments.
No matter how much governments may spend on education, disadvantaged home lives (which may involve everything from having parents who don’t speak English, coming from the household of a single parent who works multiple jobs to survive, to having parents who themselves came from a disadvantaged background and may not even be able to read, to children who may be in the foster care system, etc., etc.) will almost always weigh heavily on academic performance.
Though, the increased spending on education by an inner-urban system like APS definitely does not hurt and often may even help the academic outcomes of many disadvantaged students while also helping to attract more affluent families that can provide for some socioeconomic diversity and bring stability to an otherwise disadvantaged area.
And while not perfect, Georgia also appears to have one of the better technical college systems (the Technical College System of Georgia/TCSG) that seems to continue to be making serious and sustained attempts to improve while the regional college system (the University System of Georgia) also continues to expand and improve.
The GFA (Georgia Film Academy) that helps to prepare students for good-paying jobs in Georgia’s growing and thriving TV and Film production industry is one high-profile example of the continued attempts that are being made to improve the state’s postsecondary educational offerings.
Microsoft (whose largest corporate bases are located in a couple of increasingly expensive large major West Coast metropolitan areas with their own massive issues with income inequality and ridiculously high living costs in Seattle and the Bay Area) sees the obvious challenges that a large major metropolitan area like Atlanta and a state like Georgia faces, but Microsoft also sees the improvements that Atlanta and Georgia are continuing to attempt to make but may not always get widely recognized for.
Besides, a municipality and large major metro area like Atlanta and a state like Georgia needs large major economic generators like Microsoft, etc (along with smaller economic generators like mom-and-pop businesses) to help to continue pay for the needed improvements and upgrades to our public infrastructure.
We can’t make the improvements needed to improve and upgrade our public infrastructure without the money that is generated by both large and small businesses alike. Attracting large corporate entities like Microsoft along with smaller mom-and-pop businesses more often than not can only help whatever societal challenges we might face.
Last edited by Born 2 Roll; 02-16-2021 at 09:18 AM..
The ambiance of O4W has most certainly changed even with the remaining low income residents still on Boulevard. When developing in any city with extreme poverty and income inequality present, crime is going to be an issue (unless you want NYPD style policing with random stops and profiling of minorities). The issue is our terrible public infrastructure in Georgia as a whole. We don’t spend efficiently enough in areas that matter like healthcare for those with mental issues, homeless facilities, public schools in low income areas, improving regional universities and community colleges, and public transportation. These issues won’t change unless leadership in our state changes. Microsoft knows all of this so they apparently don’t see it as a concern compared to the benefits of the lower costs of business here.
Blah, Blah, Blah. The Family Dollar parking lot and the sidewalk around the Pizza Hut are trashed every single night. That has nothing to do with income inequality or anything other well-worn sound byte.
Businesses at that intersection should be fined every day by Atlanta code enforcement for tolerating one of most embarrassing scenes of strewn litter all over the place.
Many of the people who hang out there do have mental issues, but my God, it doesn't take much effort to discard your trash in a trash can.
The ambiance along Ponce from Peachtree St. has not changed. It is also trashed nightly. You cannot visit the gas stations without being asked for money multiple times.
The investment in OFW is wonderful and I can't afford the rents in the apartments, but face it, the ambiance won't do a 180 degree turn.
Your message above includes some things that are needed, but throwing money at every problem doesn't fix them. What's needed is better parenting. I still cannot understand why teenagers automatically throw their fast food bags and empty cups and cans right onto the street and sidewalk.
Obviously they weren't raised in a home that taught them to respect their own city.
One would really hope that the real estate activity generated in Intown Atlanta (including in Bankhead where this project is slated to be built) does not reach San Francisco levels.
But seeing what has been going on only about 4 hours up the road in Nashville (where a lady recently sold her home that she bought in 1988 for $42k for just under $700k in an inner-city neighborhood BEFORE Amazon began building its roughly 5,000-job Southeastern regional logistics hub there), I cannot say with certainty that gentrification pressures will not continue to intensify.
Something that seems to be really interesting about Microsoft’s announcement that the company was making Atlanta into a major East Coast hub of its corporate operations, with a jobs presence that would be competitive with their corporate operations in Seattle and the Bay Area, is that Microsoft appears to have moved the focus of their East Coast operations to Atlanta from Charlotte, where Microsoft has a facility that seemed to have been recognized as their “East Coast Headquarters” for about more than 2 decades.
What is remarkable about Microsoft’s apparent shift in focus of their East Coast operations from Charlotte to Atlanta, is that Charlotte’s tech scene is no slouch.
While the city has long been considered a major hub of the Banking/Financial world, Charlotte’s past efforts to increase its profile as a hub of tech jobs appears to have been paying off with Charlotte’s tech industry appearing to have experienced more growth than that of tech-focused in-state rival metro Raleigh-Durham in recent years.
The fact that Microsoft is shifting the focus of its East Coast operations from what appears to be a very robust tech scene in its own right in Charlotte (where Microsoft continues to make investments in its sizable existing facility there) to Atlanta signals that Microsoft appears to be extremely high on (and feel extremely good about) Atlanta right now.
Yeah, this definitely appears like it could be a ‘game-changer’ in helping to bring about a quicker completion of the Beltline.
A big announcement/investment like this also may be very likely to help generate more investments by other companies (including tech companies) and industries in the Atlanta area and Georgia.
When the business world sees a big-name (household name) major multinational corporation like Microsoft make a massive investment in a city/metro like Atlanta and a state like Georgia (on top of the other major/massive private investments that have been made in the area over the past decade), it really grabs their attention and piques their interest in that particular area.
Research Triangle Park, NC has been recognized for IT for many years after IBM arrived decades ago, but it now has a smaller workforce than Charlotte whose recent rise is in fintech. The Raleigh-Durham region is now very diversified and a hotspot for start-up companies, pharmaceutical research, bio tech, smart-grid technology, and gaming developers. Lenovo's North American HQ is there also.
Atlanta's IT sector is larger than either of those two NC regions, and even before Google and Microsoft and Facebook were establishing big presences here there were over 150,000 employed in IT here in Atlanta.
It will get much bigger as those companies seek young talent adept with the new digital realm.
I wonder if Porsche has any regrets about relocating to Hapeville, though. Perhaps they love it. I don't know.
The ambiance of O4W has most certainly changed even with the remaining low income residents still on Boulevard. When developing in any city with extreme poverty and income inequality present, crime is going to be an issue (unless you want NYPD style policing with random stops and profiling of minorities). The issue is our terrible public infrastructure in Georgia as a whole. We don’t spend efficiently enough in areas that matter like healthcare for those with mental issues, homeless facilities, public schools in low income areas, improving regional universities and community colleges, and public transportation. These issues won’t change unless leadership in our state changes. Microsoft knows all of this so they apparently don’t see it as a concern compared to the benefits of the lower costs of business here.
I lived in NYC for 10 years and I'm not necessarily for Bloomberg's Stop-and frisk policy as part of the Broken Windows initiative, but it took place in neighborhoods and places known for crime, not targeting minorities.
Tatem O'neil was stopped and frisked and busted with heroin I think because of the neighborhood she was walking in. She is white.
And I guess you have to decide what the biggest priority is. That policy drove down crime in NYC across all metrics. 2,500+ murders a year in the 90's to about 330 a year for a city of 8.5 million, probably 1/3 of what occurs in metro Atlanta.
The pandemic and anti-police sentiment have led to more crime in New York, and I felt it 2 months ago when I up there in what seems to be a city with about 1/2 of its population gone.
If there's any hope for our country, it will be in going beyond the sound bytes and conveying the whole story. "defund the police" is really about narrowing the focus of police officer's duties. Currently they are dispatched on calls about cats in trees and people having mental illness outbursts. There needs to be reform and a guarantee of equal and fair treatment of suspects.
But if anyone thinks the phrase "Defund the Police" is helping unite this country they are crazy. Societies since the stone ages have needed the police that prevent total anarchy from breaking out.
A call to further disrespect them who keep everyone in every neighborhood equally safe every night is a step backward in the evolution of mankind.
Research Triangle Park, NC has been recognized for IT for many years after IBM arrived decades ago, but it now has a smaller workforce than Charlotte whose recent rise is in fintech. The Raleigh-Durham region is now very diversified and a hotspot for start-up companies, pharmaceutical research, bio tech, smart-grid technology, and gaming developers. Lenovo's North American HQ is there also.
Atlanta's IT sector is larger than either of those two NC regions, and even before Google and Microsoft and Facebook were establishing big presences here there were over 150,000 employed in IT here in Atlanta.
It will get much bigger as those companies seek young talent adept with the new digital realm.
I can remember when Raleigh-Durham was the biggest IT hub in the Southeast, when Charlotte wanted to catch up to Raleigh-Durham, and when Atlanta didn’t even seem to be in the IT conversation.
So it is interesting to see Charlotte have a bigger IT workforce than Raleigh-Durham, and it is really interesting to see Atlanta be a bigger destination for IT industry activity than both of those exceedingly resource-rich North Carolina metros.
(Resources in the NC metros like Raleigh-Durham with Research Triangle Park and its 3 prestigious research universities, Duke, UNC and NC State; and Charlotte with its 3 massive bank headquarters.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by architect77
I wonder if Porsche has any regrets about relocating to Hapeville, though. Perhaps they love it. I don't know.
I think that Hapeville is exactly what a company like Porsche may have wanted and needed with enough land for a test track and a location that is in immediate proximity of the world’s busiest airport.
I lived in NYC for 10 years and I'm not necessarily for Bloomberg's Stop-and frisk policy as part of the Broken Windows initiative, but it took place in neighborhoods and places known for crime, not targeting minorities.
Tatem O'neil was stopped and frisked and busted with heroin I think because of the neighborhood she was walking in. She is white.
And I guess you have to decide what the biggest priority is. That policy drove down crime in NYC across all metrics. 2,500+ murders a year in the 90's to about 330 a year for a city of 8.5 million, probably 1/3 of what occurs in metro Atlanta.
The pandemic and anti-police sentiment have led to more crime in New York, and I felt it 2 months ago when I up there in what seems to be a city with about 1/2 of its population gone.
If there's any hope for our country, it will be in going beyond the sound bytes and conveying the whole story. "defund the police" is really about narrowing the focus of police officer's duties. Currently they are dispatched on calls about cats in trees and people having mental illness outbursts. There needs to be reform and a guarantee of equal and fair treatment of suspects.
But if anyone thinks the phrase "Defund the Police" is helping unite this country they are crazy. Societies since the stone ages have needed the police that prevent total anarchy from breaking out.
A call to further disrespect them who keep everyone in every neighborhood equally safe every night is a step backward in the evolution of mankind.
So you correctly define “defund the police”, then go on to trash it based on the same flawed logic all conservatives use when “defund the police” doesn’t have a damn thing to do with hating police. There’s a reason I post on this forum less nowadays.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ronricks
Data Centers actually employ very few people.
and they suck up a lot of power.
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