Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
RestonRunner86, I'm shocked that you've heard of Mankato! There are a lot of people that have never even heard of, much less have been to, Mankato, Minnesota. Even people in MN think it's some little nothing town, and it really isn't. Mankato rocks.
As far as Kid Cann's posts -- he was being sarcastic. Clearly tongue in cheek. Don't take it too personally.
The whole "sprawl" thing: since I see density as a cancer, I'm happy that the Twin Cities sprawl a lot (even though I don't live in the Cities). If the Cities were as dense as, say, NYC, it would totally ruin the area, I think. I've also been to the Atlanta area, and it seems denser than the Cities, overall. Places like Duluth (GA, not MN) and Lawrenceville are much denser than equivalent suburbs in Minnesota, like Plymouth and White Bear Lake.
Also, I love outstate Minnesota (I live there), but outstate Georgia is SCARY to me! Maybe it's because I'm a "yankee," but I can feel the stares on me every time I go down there. I remember stopping at a gas station in Cordele, GA about ten years ago (on the way to Florida), and it was like stepping into another world.
I, too have been to Mankato. Went to a couple of wild University parties there. I liked it(what I can remember of it). As far as outstate Georgia is concerned, most of your discomfort was probably due to your own misconceptions and self conscience. We are very nice out here in the Ga sticks.
Also, I love outstate Minnesota (I live there), but outstate Georgia is SCARY to me! Maybe it's because I'm a "yankee," but I can feel the stares on me every time I go down there. I remember stopping at a gas station in Cordele, GA about ten years ago (on the way to Florida), and it was like stepping into another world.
If you think Cordele is bad, take a spin up around Hibbing sometime. You wouldn't last ten minutes.
If you think Cordele is bad, take a spin up around Hibbing sometime. You wouldn't last ten minutes.
My wife's family lives up around Grand Rapids. It is true that Georgia tags get some curious looks in those parts. Always friendly though, once they were engaged in conversation. There is a funny couple of minutes of distrust, and then, if you are a decent person, they slowly warm up and that Minnesota ice melts away. The funniest part is the ever present comment on my accent, as if they have none.
It blows my mind Georgia is winning this poll. Minnesota PWNS Georgia in every category.
Plus, my state produces people like Bob Dylan and Prince, while Georgia produces, um, well people that drink moonshine and love their cousins.
This poll should be a no brainer. But, you silly Georgians will never understand how bad your state sucks compared to mine
I never know if you're serious with some of your posts. Anyway, I've enjoyed reading this thread thus far so please keep it civil.
Having lived in the south (NC) and now in MN I can say MN and GA are two of my favorite states. I really like what the two have to offer in terms of topography, weather, cities, music, opportunity, etc...
You may have heard the expression if Atlanta boosters could suck as hard as they blow Atlanta would have a beach.
You commented on the Metro's quick loss of urbanity as you venture out looking at google earth. However, you may be surprised if you visited in person. Dekalb county is almost as densely populated as your home county in VA. And if it continues to grow as it has been it should be more dense before long. Also as you mentioned it has one of the highest Gay populations in America. Don't be so fast to stereotype based on political color. Although Georgia is a Red State it's large cities are almost all blue especially Atlanta.
Finally, you know Chic-fil-a is based in Georgia right? That alone should sway you.
All fair points for certain. There are "boosters" of just about every city/state in this country on this forum, but it's less annoying when there's only one pushing their agenda (i.e. my former self pushing Scranton, PA or Go Ne pushing Omaha, for example) than when there's a solid 4-6 people constantly beating their chests (for as much as I love Philadelphia, for example, Rainrock is also horribly guilty of "boosting").
Politically ANY city will be more liberal than surrounding areas. Even Salt Lake City is liberal relative to the rest of uber-conservative Utah, for example. At some point Georgia, too, may become a "purple" state, as Virginia now nearly is, once enough "blue" transplants flood into North Georgia to overpower the "red" base of the rest of the state, just as how now militantly liberal Northern Virginia is shifting the power balance in our Commonwealth.
Chick-Fil-A = FOOD ORGASM!
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnatl
What RestonRunner86 fails to realize is that he DOES live in a pretty Red State. He also lives in the very midst of some of the most mind-numbing sprawl that exists in this country.
I said this in another thread the other day, but it bears repeating. People that live in the sprawl surrounding D.C. have NO right to preach to anyone about sprawl. Period.
Fairfax County now has roughly 1.1 million residents (an estimate of 1,037,605 in 2009 plus a fudge factor for our well-known issues with undocumented non-citizens) in a land area of 395 square miles, giving us a density of 2,785/square mile. There is certainly much, much room for improvement, and with a lot of new mixed-use infill transit-oriented developments now going on in Dunn Loring/Merrifield, Reston, Tysons Corner, and other parts of the county, along with our forecast for continued rapid growth, I believe we'll have a population density of closer to 4,000/square mile by 2020, which is more respectable. Arlington County, VA, our next-door neighbor, is routinely hailed as one of the best examples of "smart growth" in the country, and it now has a population density of 8,000/square mile, which is nothing to sneeze at.
I just moved here in 2009 and am only 23, so you can't really blame me for how badly the Baby Boomers screwed up Fairfax County from 1970-2000 in terms of development. It is thanks to Generation X/Generation Y now in the 2010s that we'll see a lot of these urban planning gaffes in NoVA reversed as more infill takes place. In Reston, for example, the only ones "railing" (pun intended) against our new Metrorail line and related dense mixed-use developments are the Baby Boomers because they'd rather see these people move to Loudoun County, to our west (not realizing that every person moving west of us is one more that will have to come THROUGH our town via car en route to DC!) Not everyone who lives in Fairfax County is like what you see on "Real Housewives of DC."
I don't think it's fair anymore to call North Georgia "Sprawlanta." I think in the 1990s people realized how dumb they were in North Georgia and started to try to incentivize people living more sustainably in the 2000s. I'm encouraged by what I've seen so far and hope you all continue this.
The difference between Metro DC and Metro Atlanta? People in the latter live in the suburbs largely by choice. Perhaps you're not familiar with how high DC's cost-of-living has risen in recent years, despite the recession, but I'm a college-educated professional earning over $50,000 annually who spends roughly 50% of his NET income to live in a 1-BR apartment in a suburb 20 miles outside the city. A rooming house would pretty much be my only option to live IN the city, and since I wouldn't live in such an arrangement for any city that is NOT in the same "league" as NYC, for example, I refuse to do so. In Atlanta, someone earning $50,000+ could assuredly comfortably afford their own 1-BR apartment in the city proper. Ditto Minneapolis. You're comparing an overpriced rat-race (DC) to a place with a very good salary-to-cost-of-living ratio (Atlanta). That's a tad bit unfair, wouldn't you say?
Politically Virginia is now a "purple" state because militantly liberal Northern Virginia is accounting for an increasingly larger proportion of the entire Commonwealth's voters with each passing year. We went for Obama in a landslide in 2008, and I still see many of his bumper stickers around. Ken Cuccinelli, our "stuck in the past" attorney general, continues to enrage a lot of Virginians for making us look like rednecks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingwriter
RestonRunner86, I'm shocked that you've heard of Mankato! There are a lot of people that have never even heard of, much less have been to, Mankato, Minnesota. Even people in MN think it's some little nothing town, and it really isn't. Mankato rocks.
As far as Kid Cann's posts -- he was being sarcastic. Clearly tongue in cheek. Don't take it too personally.
The whole "sprawl" thing: since I see density as a cancer, I'm happy that the Twin Cities sprawl a lot (even though I don't live in the Cities). If the Cities were as dense as, say, NYC, it would totally ruin the area, I think. I've also been to the Atlanta area, and it seems denser than the Cities, overall. Places like Duluth (GA, not MN) and Lawrenceville are much denser than equivalent suburbs in Minnesota, like Plymouth and White Bear Lake.
Also, I love outstate Minnesota (I live there), but outstate Georgia is SCARY to me! Maybe it's because I'm a "yankee," but I can feel the stares on me every time I go down there. I remember stopping at a gas station in Cordele, GA about ten years ago (on the way to Florida), and it was like stepping into another world.
I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. Density, to me, is NOT a "cancer." Cramming as many people as possible into as little space as possible will preserve more open space for future generations to enjoy. Minnesota has some gorgeous natural scenery that I would hate to see fully paved over for low-density housing subdivisions when all of those people could easily live in a beautiful older single-family home near a lake in the city proper of Minneapolis. You can't really use the "cost-of-living" excuse to justify the sprawl in the Twin Cities or Atlanta, since salaries there, overall, are comparable to salaries in DC, yet DC's housing prices tend to be twice as much in the city proper, on average. If someone said they were moving to an apartment in Blaine because they couldn't afford St. Paul, I'd call their bluff, especially since I've seen nice 1-BR condos in NE Minneapolis selling for $100,000 or less. Ditto Atlanta with "Oh, we live in Acworth because we can't afford anywhere in Atlanta." Bull. In DC I'm more sympathetic because anything decent that is affordable to the middle-class tends to be in the scary 'hoods east of the Anacostia River, where you might get gunned down while walking at night just because of your race. If someone works in DC is buying a house an hour away then I can't really condemn them because housing prices here CONTINUE to explode while employers are NOT paying us enough to keep pace. It's ridiculous that I have peers in Baltimore driving luxury sedans and living in 1-BR apartments IN the city doing similar work for similar pay while I'm living in a 1-BR apartment in the far-flung 'burbs and might need to soon pick up a second part-time job to start building up a savings safety net. I don't think some on this forum realize just how expensive DC is becoming.
My wife's family lives up around Grand Rapids. It is true that Georgia tags get some curious looks in those parts. Always friendly though, once they were engaged in conversation. There is a funny couple of minutes of distrust, and then, if you are a decent person, they slowly warm up and that Minnesota ice melts away. The funniest part is the ever present comment on my accent, as if they have none.
We really don't have much of an accent. Don't believe the stereotypes or the movie "Fargo." Most of it is crap. However, a strong Southern drawl stands out like a sore thumb here, so the comments.
We really don't have much of an accent. Don't believe the stereotypes or the movie "Fargo." Most of it is crap. However, a strong Southern drawl stands out like a sore thumb here, so the comments.
Also, "tags?" I guess you mean plates, right?
I don't have to rely on stereotypes. I've lived it. And as far as Northern Minnesota is concerned, there is a huge accent! Not so bad down around the Cities, but still there. And yes, tags/ plates, whatever.
Ditto Atlanta with "Oh, we live in Acworth because we can't afford anywhere in Atlanta." Bull. In DC I'm more sympathetic because anything decent that is affordable to the middle-class tends to be in the scary 'hoods east of the Anacostia River, where you might get gunned down while walking at night just because of your race. If someone works in DC is buying a house an hour away then I can't really condemn them because housing prices here CONTINUE to explode while employers are NOT paying us enough to keep pace. It's ridiculous that I have peers in Baltimore driving luxury sedans and living in 1-BR apartments IN the city doing similar work for similar pay while I'm living in a 1-BR apartment in the far-flung 'burbs and might need to soon pick up a second part-time job to start building up a savings safety net. I don't think some on this forum realize just how expensive DC is becoming.
First of all, you don't know enough about Atlanta/North Georgia to make such pronouncements.
Did it ever occur to you that people choose the burbs for one very important reason you seem to forget about - good public schools. Do you actually realize how expensive it is in the desirable neighborhoods in Atlanta proper where the best public schools are? I doubt it. Do you realize how much private schools cost here?
On that same note, just how many people with families are rushing into the District to enroll their children in the D.C. schools?
Things are not as simplistic as you seem to think they are.
First of all, you don't know enough about Atlanta/North Georgia to make such pronouncements.
Yet you're somehow an expert on Reston, Virginia? Interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnatl
Did it ever occur to you that people choose the burbs for one very important reason you seem to forget about - good public schools. Do you actually realize how expensive it is in the desirable neighborhoods in Atlanta proper where the best public schools are? I doubt it. Do you realize how much private schools cost here?
On that same note, just how many people with families are rushing into the District to enroll their children in the D.C. schools?
Things are not as simplistic as you seem to think they are.
So your argument is that instead of working to improve our nation's urban school districts everyone should rather take the easy way out and just move to the suburbs? I don't yet have children but would have absolutely no qualms with sending them to a public school in a large city. Why, pray tell? Test scores and "hysteria" can't be used as reliable barometers to measure school quality. I went to a public school district that many called "horrible", and guess what? I'm a successful young professional, as are dozens of others from my high school's graduating class. If you, as parents, are committed enough to your child's education, and, more importantly, if the child himself/herself has the desire and drive to succeed, then they can excel at nearly any school, not only the tony vanilla suburban ones where parents gladly pay a premium in property taxes for bragging rights.
How will these urban school districts ever improve if the middle-class refuses to get involved? The misinformation regarding public school quality on this forum in general is atonishing. Any school in Northern Virginia, for example, that people on our forum call "terrible" still ranks more highly than some of the better schools in my hometown, all of which continue to churn out gifted young minds.
Continue to use "good schools" as a crutch to enable families to move to suburban cul-de-sacs, but then don't complain when those people from Acworth, Kennesaw, etc. are clogging your roads in the city in their SUVs.
P.S. The proportion of households with children under the age of 18 in the District continues to rise modestly. Our incumbent mayor, Adrian Fenty, has really taken a hard-line approach to improving the city's schools. I'm noticing I'm dodging more strollers now in DC than I had to even just 1.5 years ago when I moved here.
Okay, so one GA member said they appreciated my relatively balanced analysis until I closed with this gut-kicking conclusion. I meant to reciprocrate the reputation boost but accidentally gave it to another GA member with a very similar user name (hence why that person will probably be scratching their heads when they see it! LOL!)
Let me clarify things a bit. Charlotte, while nice, is very "hyped" in my opinion by some on this forum pushing an agenda. Back in 2006 and 2007 many might remember me, the former "SWB", as being a total "homer" for Scranton, PA in the same sense than Omaha was being overhyped by another member not long ago. Both of us were wrong to have been so clouded by hometown pride to have exploded each city's image far beyond its context. I've been to Charlotte before. It's not the "Shangri-La" that so many "boosters" on here pound their chests about, which is why I posted that subsersive "pot-shot" to drag them down a peg or two when I saw the opportunity to do so. Many of the NC forum people on here tend to think their state is better than everywhere else, and I really never will see justification for that. North Carolina is a nice state, but I think California offers the most diversity---coastal bluffs to major cities to deserts to snow-capped mountains---of any other state.
I notice a lot of forum members in GA, NC, TX, etc. constantly calling those of us in the North "haters." We're not. We're just tired of the constant boosterism at our expense.
In regards to your previous comment, I seriously doubt that you have many Charlotteans bragging on Charlotte as a place to visit--because the vast majority of us don't. However, as a place to live, Charlotte, and NC in general, has done a relatively good job in investing in its cities and metro areas to make them more livable. I don't think NC'ers think their state is better than anyone else's, but it's obviously one of the best in the South. It's been investing in all of the right things, primarily education, to transition from a largely rural, agricultural state to one with two of the nation's fastest-growing metro areas, lots of job creation, and nicer smaller cities to boot.
OK, I think we've digressed enough about NC.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I never know if you're serious with some of your posts. Anyway, I've enjoyed reading this thread thus far so please keep it civil.
Not everyone who lives in Fairfax County is like what you see on "Real Housewives of DC." 
