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I agree. Most cities take pride in their density, mass transit, signature skyscrapers, etc but Atlanta, AL takes pride in its 16 lane freeways which encourage more and more sprawl. If your dream city is miles and miles of McMansions and Walmarts and 1.5 hour commutes in bumper to bumper traffic, you would probably like Atlanta. I also agree with your Alabama culture assessment. NASCAR is extremely popular in Atlanta as the metro region extends almost to Talladega speedway.
Dude I was born and raised in the A, and let me tell you.....
-There were no McMansions where I grew up, sheesh I wish.
-Not only did I not sit in traffic growing up, but *gasp* I rode the subway to and from school and work until I was old enough to drive
-Never attended a Nascar event and further more dont know anyone who has
-Never shopped at Wal-Mart and still dont as there wasn't even a Wal-Mart anywhere in the city limits until as recently as 4 years ago
The Atlanta I grew up in was filled with police sirens all night, single mothers catching the bus/train with their kids to get groceries, trash on the side of the road, hoping on the train on a Saturday night to go the movies, and smog filled air in the summer.
I think your description better fits somewhere about 20 minutes out from the A like Duluth, Georgia. That is not my city in which you are describing
This has just turned into another Atlanta BASH fest. Gross.
Its all good, this is the C-D, what do you expect? But in regards to Atlanta being fake if any of these people took a stroll down J.P. Brawley Ave. in NW Atlanta, Dill Ave. in SW Atlanta, or Boulevard in NE Atlanta and say "Atlanta is fake", Im sure the local corner boys would show them just how "real" it is
Dude I was born and raised in the A, and let me tell you.....
-There were no McMansions where I grew up, sheesh I wish.
-Not only did I not sit in traffic growing up, but *gasp* I rode the subway to and from school and work until I was old enough to drive
-Never attended a Nascar event and further more dont know anyone who has
-Never shopped at Wal-Mart and still dont as there wasn't even a Wal-Mart anywhere in the city limits until as recently as 4 years ago
The Atlanta I grew up in was filled with police sirens all night, single mothers catching the bus/train with their kids to get groceries, trash on the side of the road, hoping on the train on a Saturday night to go the movies, and smog filled air in the summer.
I think your description better fits somewhere about 20 minutes out from the A like Duluth, Georgia. That is not my city in which you are describing
People who don't know any better seem to forget that there is a city that sits in the center of all that suburban-ness, and it is nothing at all like the suburbs. But...that describes every city, even the "real" ones.
I don't want to sound like a downer to all those Atliens out there that constantly boast that Atlanta has a solid urban core, but Atlanta doesn't have that impressive of an urban core outside of the Downtown/Midtown areas of the city. Its very sprawly and suburban (almost semi-rural in certain areas), with little consistency in street grid, and uninspired frame housing. Atlanta is definitely a city, but so is Tallahassee, FL. In fact Atlanta sort of feels like a small southern town that kept getting bigger and didn't know how to assume the role of a big town. Atlanta definitely moves like a big town now, but it seems like it took years for it to start acting that way.
I don't want to sound like a downer to all those Atliens out there that constantly boast that Atlanta has a solid urban core, but Atlanta doesn't have that impressive of an urban core outside of the Downtown/Midtown areas of the city. Its very sprawly and suburban (almost semi-rural in certain areas), with little consistency in street grid, and uninspired frame housing. Atlanta is definitely a city, but so is Tallahassee, FL. In fact Atlanta sort of feels like a small southern town that kept getting bigger and didn't know how to assume the role of a big town. Atlanta definitely moves like a big town now, but it seems like it took years for it to start acting that way.
Now tell me...why would Atlanta have ANY urban core outside of Downtown and Midtown? That IS the urban core.
Areas outside of the city are suburban...I'm not quite sure why anyone would expect to find urban core in suburbia. I'm pretty sure that most cities are sprawly and suburban when you get to the suburbs.
People on C-D conveniently forget about or just ignore New Orleans when condemning the “suburban-ness†of the sunbelt cities. Or they say that New Orleans isn’t a sunbelt city. Excuse me, but with Texas to the West, Georgia (Atlanta) to the East, and Florida to the southeast, New Orleans is right in the middle of the sunbelt. Just because a city doesn’t fit into the popular stereotypes of a region, that means it doesn’t count as being a part of that region?
I hate when they do that. Typical C-D gerrymandering.
Dude I was born and raised in the A, and let me tell you.....
-There were no McMansions where I grew up, sheesh I wish.
-Not only did I not sit in traffic growing up, but *gasp* I rode the subway to and from school and work until I was old enough to drive
-Never attended a Nascar event and further more dont know anyone who has
-Never shopped at Wal-Mart and still dont as there wasn't even a Wal-Mart anywhere in the city limits until as recently as 4 years ago
The Atlanta I grew up in was filled with police sirens all night, single mothers catching the bus/train with their kids to get groceries, trash on the side of the road, hoping on the train on a Saturday night to go the movies, and smog filled air in the summer.
I think your description better fits somewhere about 20 minutes out from the A like Duluth, Georgia. That is not my city in which you are describing
What constitutes a real city in my opinion is a metro area that is walkable, has a good, reliable and extensive transportation system (I.E. Buses and trains), a city that runs late into the night or 24/7 and of course, plenty of tall buildings and sky scrapers. I would say Boston,Chicago,NYC, and Philadelphia are the epitome of what a real city is in the U.S.. There's other cities that come close or have the potential to but don't come quite close, besides Washington, D.C. and maybe San Francisco since its very walkable and D.C. has a good transit system in my opinion.
For instance, I love Seattle but it certainly doesn't have that big city feel to me. However, it now has a train system finally (pseudo-train I call it), that saw its inception this past July. So hopefully it'll be bigger and better. Los Angeles has that city feel but I hate the fact that its metro isn't all that great, and people are lazy and drive every where.
So...do you think the "real city" of Atlanta disappeared? It's still there, and it has grown and developed all along.
What makes you think it stopped being a city somewhere along the line? Sprawling suburban growth doesn't cause a city to stop existing.
I'm saying it transformed itself from a real city into something less. Growth and development don't necessarily equate with "real" city. To Atlanta's credit, it is working hard to transform itself back into a "real" city.
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