Top 5 most important cities on a national scale (development, best, state)
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Then you proceeded to list, in your opinion, how those cities are more important than Atlanta. It wasn't based on facts.
In MY opinion, Atlanta is a leader in: media, transportation, higher education, engineering, government (federal), Fortune 500 headquarters, medical research, banking/finance, food service, and probably others that I can't think of. I don't specifically know that Atlanta is ahead of your little list of cities in all of these areas, but its at least on or near the same level.
Atlanta is the leader in the South for Media, Government projects, transportation, and higher education.
Dallas is equally important to Atlanta in Finance.
Atlanta is the last in line for fortune 500 HQ's of the cities in Question.
Houston would rival Atlanta for medical resarch.
Not sure about food service. Dallas has several food service HQ's, but I dont know what Atlanta and Houston have.
Yup. So how about you list, in your opinion, why Atlanta is more important than those cities?
I didn't SAY Atlanta is more important than those cities. Someone else may have, but I didn't. I said that Atlanta is on or near the same level as those cities and I agreed with the statement that Atlanta could be considered for the #5 spot...just as Houston, San Francisco, Boston, or Dallas could be as well.
I didn't SAY Atlanta is more important than those cities. Someone else may have, but I didn't. I said that Atlanta is on or near the same level as those cities and I agreed with the statement that Atlanta could be considered for the #5 spot...just as Houston, San Francisco, Boston, or Dallas could be as well.
Atlanta could be if it had the resources; however, it doesn't.
I didn't SAY Atlanta is more important than those cities. Someone else may have, but I didn't. I said that Atlanta is on or near the same level as those cities and I agreed with the statement that Atlanta could be considered for the #5 spot...just as Houston, San Francisco, Boston, or Dallas could be as well.
Did you edit your post? Because I honestly didn't see the second half of your post. If your post has been the same the entire time, then my apologies.
Here are my arguments:
What does Atlanta do in regards to medical research? I've heard people refer to the CDC...but what private establishments are there in the Atlanta area to support that argument?
You said Atlanta is a leader in Finance, but they're not ranked in the Top 75 for the Global Financial Centres Index, so whatever banking/finance power there seems to be regional.
I don't have anything in regards to Government jobs or engineering. I do know that Atlanta is a bit of a media hub. However, I wouldn't call it a center of higher learning by any stretch. GTech and Emory are both good schools, but if you compare it to other major cities, it simply couldn't be considered to be an elite center of higher learning.
Did you edit your post? Because I honestly didn't see the second half of your post. If your post has been the same the entire time, then my apologies.
Here are my arguments:
What does Atlanta do in regards to medical research? I've heard people refer to the CDC...but what private establishments are there in the Atlanta area to support that argument?
You said Atlanta is a leader in Finance, but they're not ranked in the Top 75 for the Global Financial Centres Index, so whatever banking/finance power there seems to be regional.
I don't have anything in regards to Government jobs or engineering. I do know that Atlanta is a bit of a media hub. However, I wouldn't call it a center of higher learning by any stretch. GTech and Emory are both good schools, but if you compare it to other major cities, it simply couldn't be considered to be an elite center of higher learning.
To try and answer your questions:
1. I don't think I edited that post, but I honestly don't remember. I could have.
Emory Healthcare includes Emory University School of Medicine, the Emory Clinic, Emory University Hospital, Emory Hospital Midtown, Emory Orthapedic and Spine Center, Emory Children's Hospital, Wesley Woods Center, and several other clinics. Emory Healthcare
Grady Health Systems includes Grady Hospital, Grady Infectious Disease Program, and several clinics across the city. Grady Health System
A variety of large medical and research hospitals including Piedmont Hospital, Northside Hospital, St. Joseph's, Atlanta Medical Center, Dekalb Medical Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Southern Regional, Shepherd Spinal Center, and many others.
Headquarters of the American Cancer Society and the Arthritis Foundation.
3. As a financial center, Atlanta has Suntrust Bank headquarters (#8 in the U.S.) and many actual regional bank headquarters. The Federal Reserve Bank for the 6th District is located in Atlanta. There are additional financial strengths, but I'm getting tired.
4. Atlanta has the largest concentration of federal agencies and offices outside of Washington D.C.
5. There are 200,000 college students in Metro Atlanta at 48 colleges and universities.
6. Georgia Tech is one of the nation's elite schools of engineering, ranked #1 in several specific areas.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tmac9wr
There's no question that Atlanta is the Southeast's most important city...but like I said before, a lesser city shouldn't be considered more important just because it's in a less significant region. Here's another ranking from 2008 which I listed before. I had actually posted your GaWC ranking on a previous thread and Montclair made some very good points as to why it wasn't legitimate. Until we can get his input, here's another global city ranking:
1. New York City
6. Los Angeles
8. Chicago
11. Washington DC
15. San Francisco
29. Boston
32. Miami
37. Atlanta
Ok, just realized you had seen this ranking...but if you're going to raise this argument, how is one ranking more legitimate than the other?
Ignoring all rankings from the previously mentioned publications, the only advantage I've seen that Atlanta has over SF, Boston and Houston is transportation.
Let's see what advantages Houston, Boston, and San Francisco have over Atlanta:
Houston: Oil, Energy, Medical Services, much larger economy
San Francisco: High Tech, Financial Services, Biotechnology, much larger economy
Boston: Biotechnology, Healthcare, Financial Services, High Tech, Education, Consultancy/Business Management, much larger economy.
(obviously I'm a bit more familiar with Boston and can therefore point out our advantages moreso than Houston and San Francisco...however, I'm sure some SF and Hou forumers will be more than happy to fill in the blanks)
.
I'm not saying one is more relevant than the other. In my original post you replied to, I cited the GaWC. But again, let's play.
Quote:
Other than being a transportation hub, what does Atlanta do that makes it stand out?
Business Activity. Atlanta is home to the headquarters of the largest package shipment company on Earth: UPS. It's about to become larger as they are building a huge new distribution center in Shanghai that will focus solely on Asia aka the most populous region on the planet. Without package shipment, business can not happen. Having the largest one is kind of important IMHO.
Coca-Cola. I know other people previously stated it's just a soda company. Which is true, but it's also a soda company that directly and indirectly employs millions of people world-wide. Contrary to popular belief, Coca-Cola isn't just bottled in Atlanta and sent all over the world. Coke has setup bottling and distribution plants for each region of the planet. People still have to work in bottling factories, logistics, and delivery. The company pumps millions of dollars into the local economies of every country on the planet. Not bad for just a sugar water company. Oh, and just for reference, it's pretty difficult to get Pepsi outside of the States. Along with CNN, I have never been in a city (and I've been to every continent except for Africa) where I couldn't get Coke.
Atlanta is also one of the telecommunications hubs of the United States. Being as how digital communications is pretty important these days, I won't go into great detail. I'll concede that San Fran and NYC are ahead in this area.
Cultural experience. Atlanta is not only "the capital of the south", which no matter how you feel about southern culture it's still a relevant part of America, but also the absolute dead center of African-American culture. There is also a huge concentration of broadcast media. CNN highest of them all, is also one of the two English only television media that you can see no matter where you are in the world. The other would be the BBC.
Education. Granted, San Francisco and Boston beat us here, but it's not a horrible drubbing. Atlanta is home to four top universities: Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse College, Spelman College. For the latter two, they are at the center of the Atlanta University Center, the largest concentration of African-American university students in the country, and responsible for producing a large majority of the prominent African-Americans in American society...except for the President unfortunately
Federal Government operations. Atlanta is home to a large chunk of federal government agencies operations, and in the case of the CDC, headquarters where policy is made. The only city with more federal employees is Washington D.C.
In addition, Atlanta is the political epicenter of the Civil Rights movement, home to the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity, and large concentration of Foreign Consulates.
I repeat this because...
Quote:
I am not denying that Atlanta is a Top 10 city. But is it as important as Boston, SF, or Hou? The answer is no
Well based on your criteria of going off of the Foreign Policy list, Houston isn't even on the radar (not that I don't think it's not a top 10 city). But let's focus on San Francisco and Boston.
Based on the arguments I made about Atlanta's prominence in Business Activity, Cultural Experience, Human Capital, Information Exchange, and Political Engagement, the average C-Der would say "HOGWASH! There is no way Atlanta ranks higher than Boston or San Francisco in those categories!!!!!" These points are debatable but, again using your source of the Foreign Policy Index, this is how Atlanta stacks up against Boston and San Francisco:
Business Activity:
San Francisco #27
Boston #37
Atlanta #38
Human Capital:
Boston #9
San Francisco #12
Atlanta #24
Information Exchange:
San Francisco #22
Boston #35
Atlanta #39
Cultural Experience:
Atlanta #21
San Francisco #23
Boston #33
Political Engagement:
San Francisco #29
Atlanta #32
Boston #50
So again, based on your source, Foreign Policy ranks Boston and San Fran above Atlanta human capital, mostly likely based on the universities in those respective cities, but not by much. Boston slightly edges out Atlanta in information exchange, but both are not far behind San Francisco. San Francisco and Atlanta rank pretty equally in terms of Political Engagement, with Boston far behind.
And, sure to be the shocker for every CDer, Atlanta beats San Francisco AND Boston on cultural experience.
Now personally, all of these factors are up for debate. What I do not believe in is using just one source to prove your point and not even analyzing the data to show how close each city really is. Both Foreign Policy and the GaWC are respected journals of research. To say one or the other is more relevant is, well, nonsensical.
Oh, and by the way, why did you bring Houston into this debate.?You, on your own admission, only used one source of data for your argument...one source of data that did not see fit to place Houston in the top 60 of world cities.
Last edited by waronxmas; 10-08-2009 at 10:50 PM..
3. As a financial center, Atlanta has Suntrust Bank headquarters (#8 in the U.S.) and many actual regional bank headquarters. The Federal Reserve Bank for the 6th District is located in Atlanta. There are additional financial strengths, but I'm getting tired.
If your arguing that Atlanta is an important city because they the 6th District The Federal Reserve Bank, I would agree with you, but as a reason to compete or surpass Dallas, San Francisco, or Boston's financial district is not going to fly. the 7th District is in Dallas, the 12th is in San Fran, the 3rd (I think) is in Boston.
As for Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the country. By 2010-2012, it will have more land area than downtown Dallas. Texas Medical Center is home to UT, Baylor, and Rice's medschool. I'm not sure about Rice, but UT and Baylor are constantly ranked in the top ten med schools in the nation and Baylor is usually in the top 5. I believe they are also the leading skin censer research center in the country.
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