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The northern suburbs have a higher selection of retail stores and more variety of restaurants for one. When a new store comes into Atl suburbs it'll be the north side 9/10 times and that company will build several locations up there before building one in the south suburbs. You have pro sports (hockey may be coming along with a new arena in Alpharetta), better rated hospitals, more freeways, more sidewalks, better schools, etc. There are amenities the south has the north doesnt for sure, like quicker airport access, but there is a reason why the north metro has a higher value.
I mean, the Atl burbs have access to some of the best Korean/Chinese/Vietnamese food in Duluth/Suwanee/Johns Creek, a growing Indian and Middle Eastern food scene. You have all the ethnic food on Buford Highway. There's no shortage of retail stores or restaurant varieties.
I mean, the Atl burbs have access to some of the best Korean/Chinese/Vietnamese food in Duluth/Suwanee/Johns Creek, a growing Indian and Middle Eastern food scene. You have all the ethnic food on Buford Highway. There's no shortage of retail stores or restaurant varieties.
Thank you for making my point about the northern ATL suburbs vs the southern ATL suburbs. Although these offerings arent nonexistent on the south side, there are just more options and a variety in the northern suburbs.
Thank you for making my point about the northern ATL suburbs vs the southern ATL suburbs. Although these offerings arent nonexistent on the south side, there are just more options and a variety in the northern suburbs.
The southern burbs have the most potential though as the northern burbs are running out of land. I could see prices increasing a lot in the southern metro ATL area over the next decade. They have one H mart in Riverdale and a few Korean restaurants sprouting up in close proximity.
The southern burbs have the most potential though as the northern burbs are running out of land. I could see prices increasing a lot in the southern metro ATL area over the next decade. They have one H mart in Riverdale and a few Korean restaurants sprouting up in close proximity.
They definitely have potential but how do they have the most? There is still a lot of room on the northern side and we'll see growth continue to spread into the NE along 85 as it is now. The northside at this point has the critical mass so it'll be very very hard for the south side to get to where the north side is now, let alone what the north side will be like years from now by that point.
Prices will be higher than what it is now in the south side and we'll see developments like Trilith plus suburban cities like PTC/Fayetteville hoard the most high dollar housing options, but overall the south side will continue to be much more affordable than the north side and thats a good thing.
They definitely have potential but how do they have the most? There is still a lot of room on the northern side and we'll see growth continue to spread into the NE along 85 as it is now. The northside at this point has the critical mass so it'll be very very hard for the south side to get to where the north side is now, let alone what the north side will be like years from now by that point.
Prices will be higher than what it is now in the south side and we'll see developments like Trilith plus suburban cities like PTC/Fayetteville hoard the most high dollar housing options, but overall the south side will continue to be much more affordable than the north side and thats a good thing.
While the northern burbs have the infrastructure, the middle class and lower middle class suburban dwelling units are in much lower quality. Northern burbs also have a tax issue due to ballooning pension debt. Its only going to get worse. Factor in most of the housing stock was built in the 1910s-1970s, the southern burbs have an edge for better potential if they can get better amenities like you said. (Ie, better transit, more accessible, etc)
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Originally Posted by masssachoicetts
While the northern burbs have the infrastructure, the middle class and lower middle class suburban dwelling units are in much lower quality. Northern burbs also have a tax issue due to ballooning pension debt. Its only going to get worse. Factor in most of the housing stock was built in the 1910s-1970s, the southern burbs have an edge for better potential if they can get better amenities like you said. (Ie, better transit, more accessible, etc)
I think you might have the context of northern and southern mixed up here as they are not discussing northern and southern regions of the US. Rather they were discussing the northern burbs of Atlanta metro area (Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Roswell, Alpharetta, etc.) which is far more developed and affluent than the southern metro of Atlanta where ATL airport is.
I think you might have the context of northern and southern mixed up here as they are not discussing northern and southern regions of the US. Rather they were discussing the northern burbs of Atlanta metro area (Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Roswell, Alpharetta, etc.) which is far more developed and affluent than the southern metro of Atlanta where ATL airport is.
They definitely have potential but how do they have the most? There is still a lot of room on the northern side and we'll see growth continue to spread into the NE along 85 as it is now. The northside at this point has the critical mass so it'll be very very hard for the south side to get to where the north side is now, let alone what the north side will be like years from now by that point.
Prices will be higher than what it is now in the south side and we'll see developments like Trilith plus suburban cities like PTC/Fayetteville hoard the most high dollar housing options, but overall the south side will continue to be much more affordable than the north side and thats a good thing.
The North-South divide in Metro Atlanta reminds me of the East-West divide in the DMV anyway.
You even have things like Clayton County GA vs. inner PGC MD, MoCo MD vs. Gwinnett County GA, Northern Fulton GA vs. FFX VA, maybe Loudoun VA vs. Forsyth GA, Henry GA vs. outer PGC / Charles County MD...
There are difference of course, i.e. things like ATL Airport is in the southern part of Metro Atlanta, while Dulles is in western part of DC, Reagan is basically central DC, etc.; or the fact that there are crossover in that region between DC and Baltimore. Overall things does fall along racial line - the more "black" part of both metro seen less investment for years leading to the disproportion growth.
People on this forum like dense suburbs with pretensions of urbanity of which D.C. has a good few strewn across the landscape. A good number of them are also pretty wealthy, so meet all your generic QOL markers that many people look for.
My personal issue is that I'm not really into the faux urbanity of suburbia - if I move to the suburbs I want the suburbs, not a gentrified generic version of a city. I want space, a slower pace, fewer crowds, less mingling. If you want bars and happening nightlife districts, if you want to pick up 25 year olds for brief encounters, if you want masses of people moving around, busy public buildings and all that...that's what a city is for.
That gripe aside, structurally the problem is they rarely actually fit into the landscape and not a ton of planning has occurred to integrate these different settlements with each other. The suburban sphere is pretty much all over the place in terms of vibe but also appearance. You have some of the ugliest deserts of freeway interchanges and strip malls I've seen here, and they might be right next to a quiet SFH neighborhood, but there's a couple new apartment towers right across and a fancy new Whole Foods or Target in the ground floor. It's like an old small town got half-converted to a post-war suburb which then got half-converted into an edge city and then some new urbanism-inspired mixed use developments got added on. The different eras and stages of American 20th/21st century urban and suburban development got all piled on top of each other chaotically as the area developed in spurts of growth.
Just on the weekend I drove down Richmond Highway past all the new developments along what they now call "National Landing" and at first you see the ugly 1960s/70s brutalism of Crystal City then you hit the new apartment buildings and stores (which will look just as ugly in another 20 years once the 'new building' veneer is off) and on the other side you still got all the old garages, warehouses and stuff from when that area was just kind of a crappy low-value commercial zone on the edge of Alexandria. The D.C. area is full of that kind of ugly dissonance.
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Just on the weekend I drove down Richmond Highway past all the new developments along what they now call "National Landing" and at first you see the ugly 1960s/70s brutalism of Crystal City then you hit the new apartment buildings and stores (which will look just as ugly in another 20 years once the 'new building' veneer is off) and on the other side you still got all the old garages, warehouses and stuff from when that area was just kind of a crappy low-value commercial zone on the edge of Alexandria. The D.C. area is full of that kind of ugly dissonance.
I think you've touched on what I was getting at before regarding the DC area--it's really a jack of all trades as far as suburban regions go and what you'll find in various pockets (old school trolley-line 'burbs, New Urbanist 'burbs, sprawlville subdivisions, TOD high-rise towers). It truly has it all, but "dissonance" is an excellent word for it.
I think part of this definitely gets to different zoning strictness and controls. On the extreme end, you'll find Boston, NYC and Philadelphia, I believe, with suburbs that are most likely to be "NIMBY" about almost anything. Planning also tends to be very localized to each city/town/borough/village/township in these areas.
Metros like Chicago, Seattle and LA seem to be more of a mixed-bag.
Suburbs around DC, Miami, Phoenix, Atlanta, Houston and Dallas all seem downright pro-development, with generally the most lax development environments.
But that's just my very generalized sense of all of them, and I'm willing to be proven wrong in any respect.
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