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This is a City versus City comparison, everything gets debated. Natural settings is a pretty big part of a city for a lot of people.
In my case you're talking to an avid cyclist, I pickup a bike in every city I travel to for work and seek out a route using an application called Strava searching for the largest hills I can find on the feature called segment explorer. In SF for example this literally kicks my rear end, I'll end up climbing 1000'+ in 20 or so miles without even really trying.
Yes I understand that.Boy do I ever understand that.lol
You have let me know you are an outdoors man and I agree as I always have is that Phoenix is better suted for outdoors. Not one person I think has said othersise,but Atlanta is certainly not a place where the outdoors cant also be an assets. I know it is because I know many people including myself on occasion who take full advantage of.
The key thing is that outdoors activity is a small part of what a cohesive working city should be and from your post,thats the ONLY thing PHX has over Atlanta. Not the climate,economy,entertainment,education,jobs,etc. At the very least PHX can tie in climate.
Last edited by CleverOne; 04-25-2020 at 12:11 PM..
Less than 15 years ago Atlanta was the number one city in America people were moving to. I remember there were anywhere from 5 to 10 counties in the top 50 fastest growing counties in America.
Atlanta has picked up steam and is still one of the fastest growing cities in America but its not like before.
PHX is in that same phase before they get into the urbanism phase . The phase where urabn quality of life becomes the focus in every aspect of growth in the city verses growth for growth sakes.
Atlanta has been in this phase for at least the last 10 years and it shows as the metro was once the poster boy for sprawl is now one of the fastest urbaizing metros in teh country.
The study I posted ranking this type of development had this to say about the tire of cities they put Atlanta in:
Quote:
Metro Atlanta has always been the poster child of sprawl, along with metro Dallas-Fort Worth and
Houston, for most of the late 20th century. Today, Atlanta is one of the fastest turn-around metros
in this economic cycle in walkable urban market share growth (see the Future Growth Momentum
section). The substantial growth of downtown adjacent WalkUPs around the Beltline, the most important trail and rail transit investment occurring in the country, and the urbanizing suburbs in
places like Perimeter and Avalon, should continue the growth of walkable urbanism for years to come.
Here is a map of the most development booming cities
Rank Metropolitan Area 2018 Construction Starts One-Year Change (%)
Total United States $606.3 billion 2
1 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA $40.8 billion -13
2 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX $22.3 billion -10
3 Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land, TX $19.9 billion 9
4 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV $17.8 billion 22
5 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA $14.5 billion -19
6 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH $14.3 billion 20
7 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA $14.1 billion -8
8 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL $12.8 billion 15
9 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $12.5 billion -8
10 Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI $12.1 billion -3
11 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ $11.0 billion 8
12 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $9.8 billion -30
13 Denver-Aurora, CO $9.4 billion 16
14 Austin-Round Rock, TX $9.4 billion 6
15 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI $8.3 billion 23
16 Orlando, FL $8.2 billion -25
17 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD $7.8 billion -24
18 Knoxville, TN $7.6 billion 494
19 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV $7.3 billion 58
20 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL $7.1 billion
You can see how green the city is in this video I took while driving through Atlanta yesterday . Way too many people out but the weather has been awesome the last few days.
You can aslo see how much more vibrant the city is and this is slower than usual . https://youtu.be/-EoJaK5uyzQ
I agree with that 100% but you don't have to go far from downtown Phoenix to find hills, if that's what you desire. Homes around South Mountain, Camelback, Mummy Mountain, Phoenix Mountains, North Mountain all have hills around them. They're suburbs yes, but only 5-9 miles from downtown Phoenix depending on where exactly you're starting.
As far as I know none of those hills are high enough to escape the desert heat, though.
Phoenix being only 2 hours from mountains with dramatically cooler weather does nothing for me. I'm not making a four hour round trip drive every summer weekend just to escape the heat. What about the weekdays? Are you going to get into your private jet and fly to the mountains? Face it, 99% of the time in the summer you'll be in brutally hot Phoenix, not in the cool mountains that are "only" two hours away.
As far as I know none of those hills are high enough to escape the desert heat, though.
Phoenix being only 2 hours from mountains with dramatically cooler weather does nothing for me. I'm not making a four hour round trip drive every summer weekend just to escape the heat. What about the weekdays? Are you going to get into your private jet and fly to the mountains? Face it, 99% of the time in the summer you'll be in brutally hot Phoenix, not in the cool mountains that are "only" two hours away.
Two hours each way is very easy. Besides, you like your summers warm don't you? You said you hated how it got cool at night in OC in the summer?
It's all drama. I'll hold my tongue but yes, they need to stop making such a big deal about Atlanta. I mean it is a run of the mill place. Sure there are developments going on there. Nothing compared to the Hudson Yards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ebck120
This thread is pretty embarrasing for Atlanta. Bragging about every little development that's occurred recently..... eyeroll...
Phoenix, I'm not a big fan myself but at least your topography is unique amongst major cities.
Less than 15 years ago Atlanta was the number one city in America people were moving to. I remember there were anywhere from 5 to 10 counties in the top 50 fastest growing counties in America.
Atlanta has picked up steam and is still one of the fastest growing cities in America but its not like before.
PHX is in that same phase before they get into the urbanism phase . The phase where urabn quality of life becomes the focus in every aspect of growth in the city verses growth for growth sakes.
Atlanta has been in this phase for at least the last 10 years and it shows as the metro was once the poster boy for sprawl is now one of the fastest urbaizing metros in teh country.
The study I posted ranking this type of development had this to say about the tire of cities they put Atlanta in:
Here is a map of the most development booming cities
Rank Metropolitan Area 2018 Construction Starts One-Year Change (%)
Total United States $606.3 billion 2
1 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA $40.8 billion -13
2 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX $22.3 billion -10
3 Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land, TX $19.9 billion 9
4 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV $17.8 billion 22
5 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA $14.5 billion -19
6 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH $14.3 billion 20
7 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA $14.1 billion -8
8 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL $12.8 billion 15
9 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $12.5 billion -8
10 Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI $12.1 billion -3
11 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ $11.0 billion 8
12 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $9.8 billion -30
13 Denver-Aurora, CO $9.4 billion 16
14 Austin-Round Rock, TX $9.4 billion 6
15 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI $8.3 billion 23
16 Orlando, FL $8.2 billion -25
17 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD $7.8 billion -24
18 Knoxville, TN $7.6 billion 494
19 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV $7.3 billion 58
20 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL $7.1 billion
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