ATl people how do you really feel about Charlotte?? (Atlanta: unemployment, cost of living)

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by WilliamM

Indeed. This distinction comes up for example in comparisons between Atlanta and Los Angeles, two cities that are similar in age but with very different feels. LA surprisingly feels a lot older, and that's bec it came of age a good half century or more before Atlanta. So the true age of a city has much less to do with its actual founding date and more to do with when it reached a certain size and status vis-a-vis other cities.



Right on.

When exactly did Los Angeles come of age? In 1900 L.A. had a population of 102,000 while Atlanta had a population of 90,000. Both cities continued to grow throughout the next 100 years, with L.A. obviously growing at a much faster rate. I would say that they both came of age around the same time, it's just that L.A. is a much larger city and subsequently has more historic structures than Atlanta.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by architect77

As an architect, I feel that Atlanta's skyline is gorgeous as a whole, however individually very few can be considered iconic. Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel, 1180 Peachtree, IBM Tower, One Promenade, Terminus, and yes, Peachtree Center. Oh and that classical downtown tower capped with the two boobs.

The vast majority are overstylized with meaningless motifs because developers mistakenly think all customers want a signature building. Collectively, Atlanta appears like some sort of architectural testing ground, devoid of any common relationship and missing "urban fabric". It's still fabulous, and will only get better with time, so no angry replies please.

Altanta's BofA tower, designed by acclaimed architect Kevin Roche, is the tallest building in the Southeast, but iconic, it is not, unless you like it's resemblance to a rocket sitting on its launchpad, or by night known as "the burning cigarette".

Charlotte BofA tower, while dismissed as "wedding cake architecture", is exquisite in every way and will stand the test of time. Cesar Pelli's buildings around the world have aged very gracefully, and are still pleasing due to his use of the Golden Section Proportion.

Charlotte new Duke Energy building, designed by tvsa here in Atlanta, is freakin' hot, and also stands on it own.

Your assessment of Atlanta's architecure seems to ignore the large inventory of historic highrises, concentrating on only the tallest buildings on the city's skyline. Look a little deeper and you'll discover some real gems that are nowhere near as tall or as modern: Candler, Hurt, Flatiron, Biltmore, Georgian Terrace, The Ponce, The Fox Theater, The Healy, etc etc etc.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I here some mentions of Atlanta razing its old buildings. Oddly enough, Atlanta(and basically for this aspect) reminds me of Bucharest,Romania(one of Atlanta's sister cities). Bucharest had alot of old buildings and then alot of them were razed. Atlanta was burned during the Civil War. Bucharest was bombed during WWII. Alot of Atlanta's old architecture was razed after the 1960's, right around the time Ceausescu was razing parts of Bucharest. In most ways, Atlanta and Bucharest have little in common, but in the aspect I just mentioned, I see a parallel between the two.

Atlanta actually didn't lose very many buildings with any architectural significance during the 1960s. Most of what was demolished came in the way of older neighborhoods and abandoned warehouses, not what anyone would consider "older architecture". Much of Atlanta's 1900s downtown is still intact, and the city itself has a long history of historic preservation.

I can see a parallel between the two cities in the respect that they were both decimated during a war, but the fact that one war occured 100 years before the other is a very significant piece of the puzzle. There wasn't much in Atlanta in the 1860s.

Prior to it's destructive war period in 1940, Bucharest had a population of 650,000 and looked like this:




Atlanta, prior to it's destructive war period in 1864, had a poulation of 10,000 and looked like this:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/10054722@N07/4590282782/sizes/m/in/photostream/ (broken link)

[WilliamM]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

When exactly did Los Angeles come of age? In 1900 L.A. had a population of 102,000 while Atlanta had a population of 90,000. Both cities continued to grow throughout the next 100 years, with L.A. obviously growing at a much faster rate. I would say that they both came of age around the same time, it's just that L.A. is a much larger city and subsequently has more historic structures than Atlanta.

When I say "come of age", what I'm really talking about it when a city actually becomes what it is - the moment where a city's potential in the future no longer outweighs what it is in the present or past (Charlotte, for ex., is a city where this process appears not to be complete yet). For instance, no one would suggest that it still remains to be seen what New York or Chicago are really like. We already pretty much know that. These cities were already the thriving cultural and economic centers they are today a century ago - and we don't expect them to really change in that regard in the future. So we can speak of NY "coming of age" sometime, I dunno, between 1850 and 1890 maybe? Chicago probably a similar time frame, maybe a decade or two later than NY. With LA the city population rises meteorically from around 100,000 at the turn of the 20th C to over a million by 1930 - a ten-fold increase. It was also at this time the world's undisputed (unless I'm mistaken) capital of the then burgeoning motion picture industry. In this it has not changed to this day, but has only added to that (nowadays it's also a major music center and industrial center, too, and is one of the world's unofficial capital cities, along with Paris, London, etc., simply by virtue of its status as the flagship megalopolis of a state that by itself represents one of the world's largest economies).

So while the exact time that LA "came of age" can of course be debated, it's clear that it happened sometime well back into the previous century, which is simply not the case with Atlanta. For one thing, I would say it's probably far more true to say Atlanta "came of age" with the 1996 Olympics than to say LA did with the 1984 Olympics, but whether this is when Atlanta actually did, I'm not sure. It's debatable. In any case, as I mentioned before - and as I've posted elsewhere in discussions comparing LA and Atl -any drive through the city of LA reveals, primarily in the architecture, how much older LA is than Atlanta. A critical mass of structures in LA date to much older styles architecturally than is the case in Atlanta, where so many of the structures have been built inside the last 30-40 years.

[qc dreamin]

Originally Posted by mrdkb

University City - tons of bars. I am here right now. It's actaully pretty boring. WT Harris has the Bikinni Bar ( some type of hooters wanna be). Most of the places to are downton/uptown and the action/excitement can be inconsistent. To say University City, has tons of clubs and bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues is a joke. BTW - The House of Blues is never open during the work - week, Mon-Fri. It opens like once a month during the work-week (or maybe twice a month on a Tues from 7 to 9 - WTF)

you can thank our great state legislator for that one. Most clubs and bars here have decided to close earlier thanks to a state mandated law that makes alcohol sales illegal after certain EARLY hour here in NC. Most people outside from Charlotte do not understand this and assume that Charlotte itself has decided to be a " sleepy town". This law went into affect over a decade ago. Before the law came into effect most of the clubs and bars( there were a lot less then) stayed open until 4am or later. yes it sucks during the weekdays sometimes, but on the weekends(wednesday - Sunday) its jumpin!!

[MikeandIke27]

Originally Posted by qc dreamin

you can thank our great state legislator for that one. Most clubs and bars here have decided to close earlier thanks to a state mandated law that makes alcohol sales illegal after certain EARLY hour here in NC. Most people outside from Charlotte do not understand this and assume that Charlotte itself has decided to be a " sleepy town". This law went into affect over a decade ago. Before the law came into effect most of the clubs and bars( there were a lot less then) stayed open until 4am or later. yes it sucks during the weekdays sometimes, but on the weekends(wednesday - Sunday) its jumpin!!

Sorry But its not Jumpin in Charlotte

[mrdkb]

Originally Posted by qc dreamin

you can thank our great state legislator for that one. Most clubs and bars here have decided to close earlier thanks to a state mandated law that makes alcohol sales illegal after certain EARLY hour here in NC. Most people outside from Charlotte do not understand this and assume that Charlotte itself has decided to be a " sleepy town". This law went into affect over a decade ago. Before the law came into effect most of the clubs and bars( there were a lot less then) stayed open until 4am or later. yes it sucks during the weekdays sometimes, but on the weekends(wednesday - Sunday) its jumpin!!

So why would say in your original comment that there are tons of clubs, bars, etc... - giving the impression that this is some type of hip/cool area? The one I find very annoying about a specific 7-8 Charlotte Posters (including the Charlotte moderators) is how they consisitently, exaggerate about Charlotte and attack anyone that has anything slightly negative to say. Charlotte is a nice growing city with both pros and cons. But let's just please tell the truth when putting out information for public consumption.

[qc dreamin]

Originally Posted by mrdkb

So why would say in your original comment that there are tons of clubs, bars, etc... - giving the impression that this is some type of hip/cool area? The one I find very annoying about a specific 7-8 Charlotte Posters (including the Charlotte moderators) is how they consisitently, exaggerate about Charlotte and attack anyone that has anything slightly negative to say. Charlotte is a nice growing city with both pros and cons. But let's just please tell the truth when putting out information for public consumption.

Its like dealing with children. please close the thread Atlanta Gregg! Please!!!

[RocNY]

Originally Posted by qc dreamin

you can thank our great state legislator for that one. Most clubs and bars here have decided to close earlier thanks to a state mandated law that makes alcohol sales illegal after certain EARLY hour here in NC. Most people outside from Charlotte do not understand this and assume that Charlotte itself has decided to be a " sleepy town". This law went into affect over a decade ago. Before the law came into effect most of the clubs and bars( there were a lot less then) stayed open until 4am or later. yes it sucks during the weekdays sometimes, but on the weekends(wednesday - Sunday) its jumpin!!

I've lived in Charlotte for the past 2 years and there is nothing jumping here. The nightlife here a joke. Thank God I'm moving to Atlanta next week.

[ajjam]

Originally Posted by MikeandIke27

Sorry But its not Jumpin in Charlotte

Wow you took the words RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH .....Drive around Charlotte any night around 10pm...and you'd think the city had been evacuated...lol. I actually called a club on Friday night (Bentley's RSVP) in Charlotte and they told me I had to get there at 9pm to enjoy the club....me being from Atlanta I don't arrive at the club until 11:30/12:00...so me being hard headed I got there at 11:00pm...to find droves of people leaving the club at 11:00pm..there was still a line outside..but any club that has about 30-50 people leaving at one time at 11...NO THANKS!!!!...Sad to say but Greensboro and High Point offer better nightlife venues.....and they have to follow the same State Laws so...that's no excuse for Charlotte.

Charlotte is nothing more than a medium city, with medium city amenities. Nothing special about Charlotte whatsoever!! Not bashing just stating the truth. When people think of Charlotte no one goes....ohhh and ahhhh!! I may be alone on this...but I just don't see Charlotte getting any bigger....maybe another 500,000 in the metro..but I think that's it....i don't think Charlotte will ever be on Atlanta's tier.