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The United States Census Bureau defines the Southeastern United States as an area stretching from Louisiana and Arkansas to the Mid Atlantic states such as Maryland and Delaware. The three largest metropolitan areas within the region are Miami, Washington, and Atlanta in that order.
Atlanta has long been established as the de facto "capital" of the Southeastern United States, mainly because the city is the main logistics and transportation hub in the area. The title has also been seemingly synonymous with Atlanta because of the clashing of the traditional Southern culture with a contemporary, more inviting cultural fabric.
There are other aspects that should be taken into consideration, which is why Miami and Washington are included in the discussion.
Let's take a look:
A diversified economy is arguably one of the most important component in identifying a de facto capital. We can already eliminate Miami from this category, as it arguably has the least diversified economy out of the three major cities. This leaves Atlanta and Washington. For me, it's difficult to determine which has the more diversified economy (considering that education, media operations, government, and business are dominant sectors in both ATL and DC) so one way to tell is economic resiliency. Washington has fared significantly better than Atlanta and Miami during the recent economic recession, due in part to a strong government sector. Although the rapid growth in Atlanta came to a screeching halt, the recession has helped the economy diversify even more, ultimately become less dependent on the construction sector and establish sizable industries in IT, biotechnology, and alternative energy. Still, economic growth in Miami lags behind the said cities.
A diverse, cosmopolitan culture is another key component. Naturally, Washington possesses the most cosmopolitan cultural fabric out of the three majors cities in the Southeastern United States, given that it is the nation's capital. DC and Miami are celebrated for their distinctive culture. Unlike the other two cities, Atlanta has not necessarily found its cultural niche, which has often resulted in the city being stigmatized as void of culture. This attitude is an all too evident stereotype that envelopes other "new" Sunbelt cities such as Dallas, Houston, and Charlotte.
Probably the biggest component is geography. The geographic location of Atlanta puts the city at a much greater advantage than Washington or Miami, and this has arguably allowed the city to develop into the logistics and transportation hub that it is today.
Feel free to contribute to the discussion and suggest other important aspects.
So, the question remains? Which city do you this is the de facto capital of the Southeast?
3-10 (no order):
Richmond, Virginia
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Birmingham, Alabama
Nashville, Tennessee
Little Rock, Arkansas
Jackson, Mississippi
New Orleans, Louisiana
Atlanta easily. Miami is obviously located geographically in the southeast, but the culture in Miami is not at all southeastern. DC has some southern qualities, but is really a mix of northern and southern (northern charm, and southern efficiency, as the old joke goes).
Atlanta on the other hand is located deep within the south. As a large city it is not as "traditionally" southern as some smaller cities (Charleston, Savannah, Jackson) but it has many of the southern identifiers: many of the residents have a southern accent, the weather is hot in the summer with generally mild winters, southern foods/drinks such as fried chicken, sweet tea, okra, etc are common, college football is the most popular sport in the area, it has a large AA population and a large number of whites are of English or Scots-Irish descent, religion is a fairly important part of life, people enjoy hunting and fishing, etc. Also, in the south many roads and almost all flights lead to Atlanta when southerners travel they tend to pass through Atlanta. If a large business wants a presence in the south, Atlanta is the first place it will look. For all those reasons (and others) Atlanta IMO is easily the defacto capital of the southeast.
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Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
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