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Washington D.C. cul de sacs
The cul de sac where I spent countless nights playing kickball with kids on our block. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajcheng730/2604952575/ - broken link) View of Our Cul-de-Sac on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/10975509@N03/1151708153/ - broken link)
Washington D.C. strip malls
Falls Church - 002 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/derami/3166089647/ - broken link) Centreville - 17 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/derami/2649356669/ - broken link)
More Manassas on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/57431110@N00/348080379/ - broken link)
Why I Hate Suburbia... on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngolebiewski/247085287/ - broken link) Sunset in Bethesda on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanderwal/362157377/ - broken link)
I could post 500 more photos that show Washington D.C. suburbia hell, but I won't. Let me just say that I love D.C. - I have visited dozens of times and have several friends who live there. What I don't love is someone talking smack about Atlanta, and false smack at that. They are indeed two different and unique cities, both having plenty of negative and positive aspects.
Sure, my statement generalized. I generalized about DC too. Thanks for the photo tour. I've been to Atlanta more times than I can count. But they don't change the fact that once you move away from Peachtree in either direction, Atlanta gets very suburban very quickly, relative to Washington.
When I talked about Atlanta sprawling over 130 sq miles, I did indeed mean the CITY of Atlanta, sprawling relative to the city of Washington. Washington is a much smaller city in terms of land area, yet still has a larger population than Atlanta.
And? What is your point? Your scathing, misinformed statements from earlier could have been made with less animosity.
Most of the photos I presented are NOT on Peachtree Street....I would assume that if you've been to Atlanta "more times that you can count" then you would know that the skyline/highrises has nothing to do with the highway and buildings are not strung out along any highways. Atlanta gets suburban when you get to the suburbs - not in the city.
And... that was it. If you read through the thread, vasinger, I mean Richmonder27, thought DC was more "spread out" because it had no highrises. I argued the opposite. A city with lots of highrises can be far less dense than a city without any. That was all. But thanks for hopping in with some pics of urban Atlanta and Manassas, VA. It's a shame how much of a nightmare parts of Prince William County have become.
I live in Atlanta, and I have a ton of family in the DC area, so I'm up there a lot. DC is far more cosmopolitan and urbane than ATL...not that ATL is some country backwater, but it's nowhere near as dense or historic or as diverse as DC is. DC is a combination of the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, so it borrows elements from both. You have the densely populated center contrasting with the sprawling suburbs. Whenever I cross over from NoVA to MD, it even "feels" different. MD feels more like parts of New Jersey whereas NOVA feels a lot like Metro Atlanta to me. Gwinnett County reminds me a lot of Fairfax/Prince William.
And yes, to me, Atlanta shares many similarities with Dallas. Dallas and Atlanta are both inland hubs (first for railroads and then for Air Transport), and they were both "boosted" by business interests. Atlanta has better climate and scenery than Dallas though.
PG and DeKalb are VERY similar in terms of black middle class populations and in terms of look and feel, and they share many similar problems with crime and schools too.
Transportation in DC is way better, I can get around all over the city by the Metro. MARTA down here in ATL is a joke, and the transportation situation in general is pathetic. Both DC and ATL have horrific traffic, so no need of trying to compare them, but the DC area seems to be a lot more committed to public transportation than DC.
I personally like the nightlife in DC a bit better than Atlanta. Since many clubs have shut down here in ATL, the nightlife isn't what it used to be.
You get more bang for the buck in Atlanta than you do in DC, that's for sure. I really want to move to the DC area, but the cost of living is the killer for me. I'd have to have a great job in order to go up there. I'm in PR, and I've been learning how to do grant writing, so those skills would be good to have up there though.
Not going to get involved in a pissing match, because there are elements of both cities that I like and dislike. I will say that though I have liked living in Atlanta, it certainly is overrated in terms of the hype that it gets. DC is truly more underrated.
How can it? Georgtown started in the 1600 hundreds (back when it was Georgetown, MD), and grew to be one of America's most beloved neighborhoods of the Mid-Atlantic. Buckhead, could you explain Buckhead to me? how it compares to Georgetown
Easy, the shopping and dining in Buckhead runs circles around Georgetown, or any where in DC beside Tysons Corner or Chevy Chase. As far as historical significance, your right Buckhead cant compare, but I’m pretty sure all the people you see walking around Georgetown on a Saturday afternoon are not doing so because it historic. They do it because it’s the cool place to be! I think its funny how you call Georgetown historic when my grandfather used to tell me that when he was a kid growing up there him and his friends couldn’t even go east of the West End or Kalorama without getting harassed by the police because Georgetown was the designated black area for that part of DC. So back in the 40's and 50's it was the hood, now it’s historic??? Please explain that to me
My roommate from college is from Chicago (73rd & Phillips). He sounded straight out of Arkansas or Mississippi. Also, skyscrapers don't make a city, the people do. Atlanta is a great place but the city nor the burbs are on DC's level. DC is one of the richest metropolitan areas in the country. It has one of the highest per capita incomes; lowest unemployment; most educated workforce; higher salaries; etc.. I can go on and on. There are no comparing the two. I have been to Atlanta on many occassions and it does remind me of Dallas and Houston to some extent. Atlanta is very spread out. I 85 & I 20 cut the city off IMO! You keep harping on government? So what, that is DC's industry just Hollywood is to LA and energy is to Houston. DC also damn near recession proof. Plus, I haven't seen any thing in Atlanta that resembles Adams Morgan on the weekend or U street.
If he is under the age of 25 I might know him or have seen him before, 73rd & Phillips was in the next neighborhood just north of mine, and I used play ball at the Rainbow Beach rec right at the end of 73rd in front of the lake. And yeah he probably did sound like that as allot of blacks in Chicago are only one or two generations removed from the Mississippi Delta anyway (Just like how most blacks on the east coast are only two or three generations removed from NC, SC or GA), but that in no way means that he wasn’t urban or street smart. Chicago produces some of the most street smart people on the face of this earth; you really have to be to grow up that part of Chicago. Yeah you can say some dudes from the 'Go sound country, but in no way can you say they are slow. 73rd & Phillips is called "Terror Town" and it’s named so for a very good reason. Yeah you may have thought your roommate was country or slow, and he may have well been as there are lame dudes from every city, but as a whole nothing in DC can compare to Terror Town. Terror Town on a slow day makes Barry Farms or Trinidad in DC look like Georgetown.
Last edited by Crazy Virgo Child; 02-11-2009 at 08:00 AM..
Atlanta, Houston and Dallas and much, much more similar to each other, than DC is to either of the three. DC is more dense, more "urban". While those three cities are, uhh, sprawllsville. As for "vibe" you must not have been to DC. DC has its own unqiue music scene, its own lingo, its own style. Very different from the rest of the country. No one said Atlanta, Dallas or Houston didn't have an "identity". They're great cities. But I'm just stating the truth. Compared to DC, they don't compare.
I've been to DC plenty of times, but never ATL. Houston is wayyyy different than any of these cities. Like I said, just because it is in the sunbelt dosen't mean they are the same. Yeah all these cities sprawl, including DC, but they each are different. Dallas and ATL are compared a lot though. btw, Houston is very dense within its core.
Okay...why does that set Georgetown apart from anywhere else? I can think of MANY neighborhoods that started in the 1600s/1700s/1800s that are special and unique.
Buckhead started in the early 1800s as a general store and tavern, at the corner of West Paces and Roswell Road. The owner killed a deer and mounted the buck's head outside his tavern, making fun of the British custom of displaying their hunting trophies. Prior to 1800 Buckhead was inhabited by Creek Indians...during the War of 1812, Fort Peachtree was built in Buckhead and is considered the beginning of Atlanta. Is that the explanation you were looking for?
Buckhead's 30327 is one of America's top 10 wealthiest zip codes. The average home price in the area is nearly $1 million, with street after street of mansions and estates - including the Governor's Mansion. Two of America's 14 Mobil five-star restaurants are located in Buckhead, along with 5,000 hotel rooms and such hotels as the Ritz-Carlton, Intercontinental, Grand Hyatt, St. Regis, J.W. Marriott, etc. It is a renowned shopping district, with the highest concentration of high-end stores in the U.S. The Bennett Street and Miami Circle Design Districts are warehouse, gallery, and interior design shopping areas...along with the shopping/entertainment districts of the East and West Villages and Lenox Square/Phipps Plaza. Buckhead's skyline can rival most mid-sized cities, and there are 3 MARTA stations serving the area. Or is that the explanation you wanted?
"Buckhead...where old money lives, and new money parties."
I am not saying that being started in the 1600s made it one of the most beloved neighborhoods. I said from there it grew to be. Buckhead isn't a neighborhood that people in Paris have heard of, for example. Georgetown? Yes, by many it is known
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Georgtown started in the 1600 hundreds (back when it was Georgetown, MD), and grew to be one of America's most beloved neighborhoods of the Mid-Atlantic. Buckhead, could you explain Buckhead to me? how it compares to Georgetown
