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One could argue that Miami Beach is more important to Miami than Ft Lauderdale is. MB is a money making juggernaut and generates a huge amount of county tax revenues in its tiny 7 square miles of land. It's also the "face" to many who come to "Miami" and the reason why many do.
I think it's Marietta for Atlanta currently. Marietta and Decatur feels like an independent city while Sandy Springs give an office park impression.
Well if you define importance chiefly by population and economy, it would definitely be Sandy Springs. If you define it historically and in terms of a place with its own identity, then it's either Marietta or Decatur.
I always thought Decatur was more important than Marietta. It has a bigger and far more charming downtown that has way more sex appeal to creative types and young professionals. It's home to Emory and the CDC. It's connected to Atlanta via MARTA. As spread out as Atlanta is, in my mind I actually do have a hard time calling it a suburb rather than a closer in neighborhood, but alas, it is technically a suburb. Relative to Atlanta, Marietta is definitely more of a "suburb". Aren't Decatur and Buckhead about equidistant to Midtown/Downtown (and both are well within the Perimeter)? I mean they would certainly be suburbs in other cities, but Atlanta is just so spread out that it almost feels like anything within 10 miles, practically Sandy Springs included, feels like "the city" and anything outside of the Perimeter/10 miles feels like suburbs.
I always thought Decatur was more important than Marietta. It has a bigger and far more charming downtown that has way more sex appeal to creative types and young professionals. It's home to Emory and the CDC. It's connected to Atlanta via MARTA. As spread out as Atlanta is, in my mind I actually do have a hard time calling it a suburb rather than a closer in neighborhood, but alas, it is technically a suburb. Relative to Atlanta, Marietta is definitely more of a "suburb". Aren't Decatur and Buckhead about equidistant to Midtown/Downtown (and both are well within the Perimeter)? I mean they would certainly be suburbs in other cities, but Atlanta is just so spread out that it almost feels like anything within 10 miles, practically Sandy Springs included, feels like "the city" and anything outside of the Perimeter/10 miles feels like suburbs.
This is true in a lot of cities though, even ones that are not spread out. Boston, Los Angeles, New York all have areas that are technically "suburbs" but are closer to the city and more intertwined with the city than some parts of the actual municipality.
I always thought Decatur was more important than Marietta. It has a bigger and far more charming downtown that has way more sex appeal to creative types and young professionals. It's home to Emory and the CDC. It's connected to Atlanta via MARTA. As spread out as Atlanta is, in my mind I actually do have a hard time calling it a suburb rather than a closer in neighborhood, but alas, it is technically a suburb. Relative to Atlanta, Marietta is definitely more of a "suburb". Aren't Decatur and Buckhead about equidistant to Midtown/Downtown (and both are well within the Perimeter)? I mean they would certainly be suburbs in other cities, but Atlanta is just so spread out that it almost feels like anything within 10 miles, practically Sandy Springs included, feels like "the city" and anything outside of the Perimeter/10 miles feels like suburbs.
I agree with this. Downtown Decatur is ITP with easy MARTA access and is, for all intents and purposes, an intown neighborhood.
Going by skyline, Bellevue, WA just east of Seattle has a skyline that equals cities of 5X to 7X its population. I may be wrong here, but I believe Bellevue has surpassed downtown Portland, OR with its square footage of office/residential.
This is true in a lot of cities though, even ones that are not spread out. Boston, Los Angeles, New York all have areas that are technically "suburbs" but are closer to the city and more intertwined with the city than some parts of the actual municipality.
Right...I'm not inclined to call Cambridge a "suburb" of Boston, either. Salem, yes. Or Weston, yes. Similarly, I'm not inclined to call Providence a suburb of Boston, either, even though it's part of Boston's CSA through commuting patterns.
Cleveland CSA: Akron, MSA: Lorain (Parma has a larger population, but Lorain is more of a self-contained city, rather than a suburb)
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