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I don't think it is that the other cities are not beautiful as much as they lack the dense forestry and hills of Atlanta. Since the majority of posters praise the latter, Atlanta wins by default.
Exactly. Live or spend time in an area with sparse tree cover for a while. You'll learn to appreciate them mighty quick. Also, the other 3 are pretty flat, surroundings not being taken into consideration.
I don't think it is that the other cities are not beautiful as much as they lack the dense forestry and hills of Atlanta. Since the majority of posters praise the latter, Atlanta wins by default.
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Originally Posted by a person
Exactly. Live or spend time in an area with sparse tree cover for a while. You'll learn to appreciate them mighty quick. Also, the other 3 are pretty flat, surroundings not being taken into consideration.
Don't forget:
New Orleans has lots of bottomland forest along the bayous and rivers, dripping with spanish moss; tree cover there is hardly sparse. Austin is forested as well in areas, just that the trees aren't tall.
Austin and Phoenix certainly have hills within their city limits.
I'm torn between Atlanta and Phoenix on this, especially since they're opposites of each other in terms of climate (humidity vs. dry heat) terrain (desert vs. forest), and biome.
I love the tree canopy and the hilly, rolling terrain of Atlanta. There's also a lot of evergreen trees in the area, so it doesn't get as many of the barren trees that you'd get further north. Also, yes there are mountains within the metropolitan area. There's Kennesaw Mountain in Cobb County, and Stone Mountain, a huge monadnock made of quartz monzonite. It also has a lot of plant life unique to Georgia due to the lack of tree cover. I used to hike along both of these mountains when I lived there, and learned to appreciate them.
Phoenix is in one of the "wetter" deserts in North America (Sonoran), and has a unique beauty to it that I find more appealing than the Mojave. The small mountains that ring the valley, the Saguaro cacti, the beautiful sunsets, open skies, wide expansive horizons, and palm trees all combine for a distinctive charm to the Valley of the Sun. I see why the area is so popular.
New Orleans is unique, and while there are parts of the area that I consider beautiful (the spanish moss hanging from cypress trees in the swamps and the inland sea feel of Lake Pontchartrain), I prefer the man-made beauty of the city due to its unique quasi-Caribbean/southern hybrid feel.
I've never been to Austin, but from what I've seen in pictures, the hillier terrain in the western parts of the metro area are definitely beautiful. I love the wildflowers and waterfalls. It almost reminds me of Atlanta, just shorter trees. The plains that are in the eastern parts of the metro aren't as beautiful to me, but look a lot better than the plains further north. And there's also the Lost Pines Forest to the east in Bastrop County. I know a lot of trees burned down due to the fires there a few years back, so I hope that unique area can be restored in the future.
Last edited by biscuit_head; 04-07-2017 at 07:42 AM..
I don't really get the Atlanta love. It's not ugly, but it's no different than most other Piedmont cities. But people claim it's so beautiful because there's a bunch of trees (again, like literally every other southeastern city). No real hills/mountains or water within the immediate city. Pheonix and New Orleans are at least unique.
But Atlanta is the only Piedmont city on the list.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Exactly. Live or spend time in an area with sparse tree cover for a while. You'll learn to appreciate them mighty quick. Also, the other 3 are pretty flat, surroundings not being taken into consideration.
Funny, I had just the opposite reaction. When I left an area with crowded and dense tree cover, I had come to appreciate the open horizons, big skies, and amazing sunsets very quickly and I still do quite often.
Funny, I had just the opposite reaction. When I left an area with crowded and dense tree cover, I had come to appreciate the open horizons, big skies, and amazing sunsets very quickly and I still do quite often.
Same here, sense tree cover makes me feel chlausterphobic and I sorely missed the vastness of the west.
I don't think it is that the other cities are not beautiful as much as they lack the dense forestry and hills of Atlanta. Since the majority of posters praise the latter, Atlanta wins by default.
Yeah, but when it comes to people like me, who appreciate real vertical variation in the local scenery, then Atlanta looks very flat. Rolling hills and a couple of 200-400' mountains really don't do much for me.
But Atlanta is the only Piedmont city on the list.
I was preemptively responding to comments I've heard/read from other people who think Atlanta is one of the most beautiful cities in the country, when to me it's basically like most other deep south cities. Not ugly, just not anything special IMO. Those comments haven't really been made here yet, but I was interpreting it from the lopsided poll.
I'd probably change my vote to Phoenix if I could.
Yeah, but when it comes to people like me, who appreciate real vertical variation in the local scenery, then Atlanta looks very flat. Rolling hills and a couple of 200-400' mountains really don't do much for me.
I was preemptively responding to comments I've heard/read from other people who think Atlanta is one of the most beautiful cities in the country, when to me it's basically like most other deep south cities. Not ugly, just not anything special IMO. Those comments haven't really been made here yet, but I was interpreting it from the lopsided poll.
I'd probably change my vote to Phoenix if I could.
Deep South cities are in the coastal plain and mostly flat. Atlanta is in the Piedmont and of course its similar to other Piedmont cities (Birmingham, Greenville, Charlotte, etc.) just as Phoenix is similar to other Southwestern desert cities, although there aren't as many actual cities in that part of the country.
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