Favorite 3rd Tier City (Atlanta, Marietta: airplane, transportation, suburban)

[843904]

Brunswick, then Statesboro, then Newnan.

[WanderingImport]

My vote went to Gainesville.

Just saying..

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

When I was growing up, if we wanted to go "to town" we went to Americus. If we wanted to go "to the city" we went to Albany. I thought Albany must have been the largest city in the world!

Oh, to be a kid again! Sigh...

I can top that: When I was growing up we thought GRIFFIN was a big city because it had a "skyline," a bypass and a daily newspaper!

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by 843904

Brunswick, then Statesboro, then Newnan.

Newnan is solidly a suburb of Atlanta. It is not a 3rd-tier city (though it might qualify as 4th tier historically speaking)

Statesboro is borderline 3rd / 4th tier. If not for Georgia Southern U, it wouldn't even be on the radar.

[Newsboy]

How about a tier for Metro Atlanta cities that, if they were removed from the Metro and located in other parts of the state would have far greater presence and influence?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

How about a tier for Metro Atlanta cities that, if they were removed from the Metro and located in other parts of the state would have far greater presence and influence?

That's a good idea.

Under that scenario and criteria, metro Atlanta suburban cities like Marietta and Lawrenceville seem to immediately come to mind.

Marietta comes to mind because it is the largest city and seat of government for Cobb County (Georgia's third-most populated county).

Before Cobb County was overtaken, swallowed up and devoured by Atlanta's metropolitan development patterns in the late 20th century, Marietta was a small city that was independent of Atlanta.

With Atlanta's post-World War II era metropolitan boom, Marietta has grown to encompass a mailing area of over 10 zip codes.

Marietta has also grown in the last 70 years from having only one main high school (Marietta High School) in the city to having seven high schools in its mailing zone.

(...Cobb County as a whole has grown from having only two public high schools in the county to having 16 public high schools in the county.)

Marietta and Cobb County have also been key drivers in the late 20th Century/early 21st Century political revolution that has seen Georgia and much of the Southeastern U.S. switch from Democratic domination to Republican domination.

Republican politics have been so strong in Cobb County over the past three decades that the county often has been called the "Center of the Republican Universe."

Lawrenceville comes to mind because it is the seat of government for Gwinnett County (Georgia's second-most populous county).

Although, Lawrenceville was not as large of a small city as Marietta might have been before it was overtaken and swallowed up (and devoured) by Atlanta's sprawling metropolitan development patterns in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Lawrenceville historically was Gwinnett's most populous city before Peachtree Corners was incorporated as a city in 2012.

Marietta probably was a larger city than Lawrenceville was before being enveloped by Atlanta's metropolitan sprawl because Marietta was on the western alignment of Dixie Highway (the precursor to US 41 and I-75) and because Marietta was on a busy freight railroad line in the Western & Atlantic.

(...The Dixie Highway was a pre-World War II series of highways connecting the Great Lakes with South Florida as a way of facilitating vacation and tourism travel by automobile between major Great Lakes cities like Chicago and Detroit and the resort areas of South Florida).

[BullochResident]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Statesboro is borderline 3rd / 4th tier. If not for Georgia Southern U, it wouldn't even be on the radar.

Well we do have one of the largest distribution centers in the nation as well as a solid industrial arm in the Gateway region, so I think we are a little more diversified than you give us credit for. We certainly have more influence than a place like Rome or LaGrange IMO.

[oobanks]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

That's a good idea.

Under that scenario and criteria, metro Atlanta suburban cities like Marietta and Lawrenceville seem to immediately come to mind.

Marietta comes to mind because it is the largest city and seat of government for Cobb County (Georgia's third-most populated county).

Before Cobb County was overtaken, swallowed up and devoured by Atlanta's metropolitan development patterns in the late 20th century, Marietta was a small city that was independent of Atlanta.

With Atlanta's post-World War II era metropolitan boom, Marietta has grown to encompass a mailing area of over 10 zip codes.

Marietta has also grown in the last 70 years from having only one main high school (Marietta High School) in the city to having seven high schools in its mailing zone.

(...Cobb County as a whole has grown from having only two public high schools in the county to having 16 public high schools in the county.)

Marietta and Cobb County have also been key drivers in the late 20th Century/early 21st Century political revolution that has seen Georgia and much of the Southeastern U.S. switch from Democratic domination to Republican domination.

Republican politics have been so strong in Cobb County over the past three decades that the county often has been called the "Center of the Republican Universe."

Lawrenceville comes to mind because it is the seat of government for Gwinnett County (Georgia's second-most populous county).

Although, Lawrenceville was not as large of a small city as Marietta might have been before it was overtaken and swallowed up (and devoured) by Atlanta's sprawling metropolitan development patterns in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Lawrenceville historically was Gwinnett's most populous city before Peachtree Corners was incorporated as a city in 2012.

Marietta probably was a larger city than Lawrenceville was before being enveloped by Atlanta's metropolitan sprawl because Marietta was on the western alignment of Dixie Highway (the precursor to US 41 and I-75) and because Marietta was on a busy freight railroad line in the Western & Atlantic.

(...The Dixie Highway was a pre-World War II series of highways connecting the Great Lakes with South Florida as a way of facilitating vacation and tourism travel by automobile between major Great Lakes cities like Chicago and Detroit and the resort areas of South Florida).

Yep, I said that earlier about Marietta could be it's own City outside of Metro Atlanta easily. In some slight ways it acts as its own City to this day. Almost a Satellite City/ big Suburb of sorts. Just don't see that for say a Sandy Springs/Dunwoody which are Edge Cities and true Suburban sprawl or a Decatur which is Urbanly hugged by Atlanta.. Hey look at Transit up there, as bad as they need Marta they are rocking Coob Linc/CCT to the fullest knowing they need the Marta fix, point blank!

[cdw1084]

Originally Posted by oobanks

Yep, I said that earlier about Marietta could be it's own City outside of Metro Atlanta easily. In some slight ways it acts as its own City to this day. Almost a Satellite City/ big Suburb of sorts. Just don't see that for say a Sandy Springs/Dunwoody which are Edge Cities and true Suburban sprawl or a Decatur which is Urbanly hugged by Atlanta.. Hey look at Transit up there, as bad as they need Marta they are rocking Coob Linc/CCT to the fullest knowing they need the Marta fix, point blank!

This is certainly true. I have always wondered if Marietta zoning laws would be different if it was farther away from Atlanta. Marietta has always felt like it was larger (like around 300,000 to 400,000 people) but due to the zoning, most of 'Marietta" is county.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by cdw1084

This is certainly true. I have always wondered if Marietta zoning laws would be different if it was farther away from Atlanta. Marietta has always felt like it was larger (like around 300,000 to 400,000 people) but due to the zoning, most of 'Marietta" is county.

That is an excellent point about the size and population of Marietta.

Most of the area with a Marietta mailing address are unincorporated areas of Cobb County.

When all of the area with a Marietta mailing address is included (an area that includes at least 10 zip codes and about eight public high schools), Marietta's population is in the neighborhood of about 400,000 people.

We've also got to keep in mind that at one time, Marietta was considered to be relatively pretty far removed from Atlanta, something which affected the zoning laws of Marietta and adjacent areas of unincorporated Cobb County in the form of lower-density zoning practices through the area's boom years of the mid and late 20th Century.

Like with many other Atlanta suburbs in the mid-20th Century, an outlying city like Marietta was considered to be pretty far away from Atlanta at the time, which is why many people moved there...Because they thought that they were moving pretty far away from the city and that the area would never urbanize because an area like Marietta seemed to be so far away from the city in what was then a much-smaller Atlanta metro area.

But with so many people and so much development moving into the Marietta area and surrounding Cobb County from nearby Atlanta, an outlying area like Marietta and Cobb County eventually urbanized.

Atlanta grew so much that it continued to grow towards Marietta, at first up Atlanta Road (Old U.S. Highway 41/Georgia State Route 3), then up U.S. 41 Cobb Parkway, then up Interstate 75.

Atlanta eventually overtook, then swallowed and devoured Marietta making it into a post-suburban/urban metro district like Atlanta has done with almost every square inch of land in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett counties.

There also seems to be a push underway for relatively higher-density development throughout some more heavily-populated parts of Cobb County (like in Marietta, Smyrna and in the Cumberland area) as the county continues to urbanize.