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Anyone who thinks Atlanta is purely southern has never been there. Almost no one from Atlanta is from there. I lived in Atlanta for 20 years, and I was always shocked to find a native born Atlantan. Atlanta through and through doesn't have a culture at all. Its a very generic city in every shape of form, basically molded by transplants. Atlanta has consistently had transplants from everywhere in the country for the last 35 years. The transplant population far outnumbers the native population. And the native population is only a generation or two deep. I swear I meet more people from NYC in ATL than people from ATL.
Atlanta because it's rooted in the South. Although DC was the first major depot for African Americans, due to its reputation/responsibility as the nation's capital, it attracts more international residents. Atlanta, albeit an international city, makes it presence known by attracting mostly regional residents. More people from the South will migrate to Atlanta. Most people from all over the world will migrate to DC. Therefore helping Atlanta maintain its southern flavor and further distancing DC from its original southern roots.
Again you have never been in Atlanta and reasonable amount of time. There are people in Atlanta from everywhere. Its been that way for decades. You argument would only make sense in the 80s
People in Atlanta think that their city is on the same level as LA. Fact is that it's not. And it's also not northern-like at all. It's very southern. You can hear the southern accent anywhere you go.
Uh where? The only place you will hear a southern accent in Atlanta these days is in south Atlanta or some places on the west. Those are the only places that still have a reasonable amount of natives. The major population centers in Atlanta are the Northern and Northwestern suburbs where you will definitely not hear any accent. You go north of Buckhead and the accent almost completely disappears.
Atlanta has fewer transplants (proportionally), people there have a Southern accent (a very strong one, in fact), eat Southern food, and the climate there is more similar to the South than the North.
Is it even mathematically possible for DC to have more transplants when Atlanta's added over 2 million people since 1990? It's been one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country. So much in fact that it's become difficult to find anyone who's actually from the area (hence the term "ATLien"). And the data shows that 6.3% of all New Yorkers leaving NYS between 2000 and 2008 moved to Georgia compared to 2.5% for Maryland and 4.5% for Virginia (in fact, the only states that have received more New Yorkers than Georgia are Florida (30.4%...Surprise!!!!) and New Jersey...Surprise!!!). So it can't really said that the DC area is more "New York" than the Atlanta area based on the data. You'd probably have a better shot of finding a decent cannoli in Atlanta over the DC metro area.
And it's important to remember that Atlanta can offer northerners (and anyone from any other region for that matter) something the DC area absolutely cannot: affordable housing. Someone selling a home in New Jersey won't be able to do much better in suburban Maryland or Virginia than they did back home. But they can get waaaaay more for their money down in Atlanta. And that's a HUGE draw for northerners leaving the region.
Is it even mathematically possible for DC to have more transplants when Atlanta's added over 2 million people since 1990? It's been one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country. So much in fact that it's become difficult to find anyone who's actually from the area (hence the term "ATLien"). And the data shows that 6.3% of all New Yorkers leaving NYS between 2000 and 2008 moved to Georgia compared to 2.5% for Maryland and 4.5% for Virginia (in fact, the only states that have received more New Yorkers than Georgia are Florida (30.4%...Surprise!!!!) and New Jersey...Surprise!!!). So it can't really said that the DC area is more "New York" than the Atlanta area based on the data. You'd probably have a better shot of finding a decent cannoli in Atlanta over the DC metro area.
Do you seriously believe DC is more Southern than Atlanta?
It's been invaded several times by a diaspora of different cultures. That doesn't help either.
It's a regional country, that's why it has no world class cities nor does it have an intentional profile to match it's brand name. It's a country where people from every state hate the others but somehow come together for a "North India" versus "South India" rivalry. It's a regional country, you would imagine a country with 1.2 billion people would have a city on the level of Tokyo but alas it doesn't because the Tamilians and other southerners would never invest in a northern city like Mumbai.
In the US you at least have a dispersion in talent because more people are focused with competing with China, the European Union, BRIC, so on than within their own country. Leave the regionalism to places like Charlotte that are coming on to their own and using Atlanta as a model, I don't think any of the top 14 metropolitans should be worrying about region more so than international competitors however.
What I'm trying to say is that we didn't get cities like New York (world financial capital), Los Angeles (world entertainment capital), Bay Area (world tech capital) by comparing them to Buffalo, Helena, or Reno.
I guess to each is own. Personally if someone asked me what region I'm from, I'm not ashamed to tell them I'm from the Northeast. Regionalism doesn't really bother me.
Is it even mathematically possible for DC to have more transplants when Atlanta's added over 2 million people since 1990? It's been one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country. So much in fact that it's become difficult to find anyone who's actually from the area (hence the term "ATLien"). And the data shows that 6.3% of all New Yorkers leaving NYS between 2000 and 2008 moved to Georgia compared to 2.5% for Maryland and 4.5% for Virginia (in fact, the only state that's received more New Yorkers than Georgia are Florida (30.4%...Surprise!!!! and New Jersey...Surprise!!!). So it can't really said that the DC area is more "New York" than the Atlanta area based on the data. You'd probably have a better shot of finding a decent cannoli in Atlanta over the DC metro area.
Alright, I get your point. However, here in the MD suburbs of DC there are many more transplants from across the country. At high school in Urbana (an affluent bedroom community of Montgomery County commuters that probably self identifies with that county more than their own), practically no one was from Frederick County, MD. Most were from somewhere in Pennsylvania, New York, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, NoVA, Montgomery County MD, or somewhere else in the US outside of the deep south. There's also a high immigrant population there. I suspect the same thing happens in most of the DC metro.
Unrelated to this post, but I saw something about Southern fast food places in MD and the DC area. Chick-fil-A's are pretty common here, but not as common as farther south (i.e. Raleigh). There are very few Waffle Houses, but they do exist (most notably in Urbana, which isn't even Southern culturally nor is it far down the state). Bojangles? Never seen one in MD or DC. Sonic? Never seen one in MD or DC. I've seen one or two down in NoVa though.
Maryland has huge regionalism issues within its own state. Central MD (DC metro) residents can't stand it when they're compared to Western MD, Southern MD, the Eastern Shore, or the Baltimore area aside from Howard County. Likewise, people down in Southern MD (which includes the state capital) and the Eastern Shore seem to loathe Central MD residents and Baltimore residents. Central MD's really the only region in MD with a high transplant and immigrant population, so don't judge the DC metro in MD off of MD as a state.
Alright, I get your point. However, here in the MD suburbs of DC there are many more transplants from across the country. At high school in Urbana (an affluent bedroom community of Montgomery County commuters that probably self identifies with that county more than their own), practically no one was from Frederick County, MD. Most were from somewhere in Pennsylvania, New York, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, NoVA, Montgomery County MD, or somewhere else in the US outside of the deep south. There's also a high immigrant population there. I suspect the same thing happens in most of the DC metro.
You do realize that the South as a whole had the largest population increase this past decade, right? For the South to grow, that means that people had to move to the South from somewhere that's not the South, right (unless the explosion in population is solely attributable to immigration and high fertility rates, that is)?
My brother and his family live in an Atlanta suburb that's not much different from the one you live in now. Nobody's from the area. My niece and nephew only go to Turner Field when the Phillies play and there are usually as many Phillies fans in the stadium as there are Braves fans. I mean, how can a city that added two million people in a mere two decades not be full of transplants? The Census data tells us that this is the case.
As the economy gets back on track, I'm sure the Atlanta area will continue to "northernize" as some of you would say.
I guess to each is own. Personally if someone asked me what region I'm from, I'm not ashamed to tell them I'm from the Northeast. Regionalism doesn't really bother me.
So tell me something then because I'm trying to get to know you better here.
For all the pride you have in being a Philadelphian which city would you readily compare your town to first: Munich or Pittsburgh?
Spoilers (from me), based off what I've read in the last three exchanges I'm leaning on my expectation of you saying Pittsburgh.
Do you seriously believe DC is more Southern than Atlanta?
I'm not sure which city is more southern. But Atlanta doesn't have a lot of southerners. Most southerners in Atlanta come from Florida or Tennessee. And there is enough transplants from the West Coast and North East where it's more than noticeable. Atlanta has over 5 million people, a good amount of them are nit from the south.
Southern politics influence Atlanta. A lot of state level decisions directly impact Atlanta. But from a cultural perspective, there isn't am overwhelming amount of southern characteristic in Atlanta to call it a southern city. Geographically it's southern though.
In terms of how southern it is compared to DC, neither city is very southern culturally. DC people are obnoxiously rude, but they're rudeness even like NY rudeness. Atlanta was ranked 7th most rudest city last year as well. So there is definitely an element of rudeness in both cities.
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) and New Jersey...Surprise!!!
