Where did Atlanta go?

I used to LOVE Atlanta until I actually started living in it. After experiencing life in cities such as Houston, Chicago and even Sydney Australia for a couple of months I learned that Atlanta may be the most overrated, dysfunctional, congested, poorly planned city in the history of the world.
People are probably leaving due to the God awful traffic and the HORRIBLE and painfully simple but yet extremely inneffecient metro system ever!

How can you call Atlanta a “major” city when there is only one Interstate that goes through the city and to the airport???

After returning to Atlanta from a trip to another city, one can’t help but feel a sense of depression simply because of the ineptitude of city planners and the realization that nothing can be done now…

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GaBlue, I’ve been here goin’ on 24 years and have foresaken my Yankee ways in favour of the more genteel ways of my wonderful friends and neighbors. Ah have foresaken the commute, though Ah live in Roswell. Ah AIN’T the problem and take umbrage with your comment

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Eddie, how right you are. At one point Atlanta attracted intelligent and accomplished people, primarily looking to move up a big company ladder. Today it is attractive to what might be described as economic refugees from the Post-Industrial north. Very different situation. The trouble is so much of this country is in severe decline that as bad as Atlanta is (and it IS bad) many people’s quality of life will increase..

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Eddie…Houston? You’re sh***n’ me, right? And the last time I looked we had three, count ‘em, three Interstates passing through town – not that that should be an indicator. I moved out of Cobb County and into Atlanta about ten years ago…about the time Cobb decided to question Evolution in science education. Cobb County had gotten so bad that the Churches were the leaders in prejudicial politics…not exactly my idea of a Christian outlook.

The problem with what’s been happening here is that racism has felt that the coast was clear to rear it’s ugly head again and decided to do everything it could to stifle the City in every way possible – but particularly in transportation. Somehow it seems that Sam Massell may have been right when he proclaimed that ‘Atlanta was a city too young to die.’, when it was about to elect it’s first black Mayor. However the reason he may have been right wasn’t because of black leadership, it was because a racist-driven, predominately white, surrounding set of counties and state legislature has decided to ‘kill the Golden Goose’, cause it’s feathers were no longer the ‘correct’ color. Well you folks can be proud, you’ve indeed managed to douse the fire of enthusiasm and pride that marked what this city possessed for decades with your incessant harping about things that are wrong instead of looking for the good and/or working to make it better.

I will say that the last time projected numbers changed so dramatically around here, we ended up with our first Republican Governor (how’d that work out for you?) and a Republican Senator that decided to throw a war-hero under the armored personnel vehicle in order to get in…thanks Diebold, one day we’re gonna get you for that.

I don’t know how or why these numbers changed so, but I’m betting that ‘the fix is in’ for continued dominance of a prejudice-driven State Government.

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Last Man, please don’t come back!!! We don’t miss you AT ALL!!!

It’s interesting to me that the 2009 estimate for Georgia was so far off the official count for 2010. The estimate for North Carolina, the state that is our closest demographic match, was right on target.

I traveled a lot around the country in 2010. There were major public efforts virtually everywhere to urge the public to be counted in the census. I never saw anything here except a portable billboard in Flowery Branch. Ole Sonny knew what he wasn’t doing. An accurate count would play havoc for the good ole boys.

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People need to chill out. My guess is that the US Census bungled some numbers. I don’t know what the process for appeal is, but I have read that Mayor Reed, and I assume others, are indeed talking to the US census about this situation.

I live in Atlanta, I don’t like it very much but am stuck here now as it is too expensive to relocated anywhere else. I will say this for the city though, it has the best major metro weather of any place outside of SoCal.

To those of you talking about how great the OTP is, there is no amount of money you could pay me to move out there. I work in Cobb and see the traffic those poor SOBs have to fight every day just so they can live in some poorly constructed, soulless, glorified sub-division. Hell no, not for me. Also, you people who like to talk about how dangerous the ATL is are clueless. Yes, for the last 30 years Atlanta has had a higher crime rate than other major urban settings. However, for the last decade crime in the city has declined dramatically per the FBI which tracks these things. You most likely perceive that the city is still so dangerous, because your butts are glued to local news broadcasts which hype what violence there is to get better ratings.

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Alas the seeds of Atlanta’s downfall were planted 50 years ago when the decision was made to disect the heart of the city with three major freeways. This terrible decision made it too easy for people to abandon the once vibrant and safe community to live in the far flung suburbs. The city naturally decayed from neglect and the freeways have become massive concrete, smog belching no mans lands that divide whats left of the citizenry into disconnected pockets of urban blight.
The Olympics exposed this blight to the world and now the boosterism that once fueled the hype driven economy has all but ceased.

Add in the crime, decaying infrastructure, traffic congestion, poorly planned mass transit, and its easy to predict Atlanta may be on the way to becoming the Detroit of the South.

We need inspired leadership to undo the damage this city has suffered over the last 50 years. My suggestion would be to bury the dingy freeways running thru the city in tunnels, and reconnect the neighborhoods as they were pre 1960.

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i been otp and itp, don’t make no diff to me, catch as catch can, as god as my witness, the southern woman is the best, fo’ sho’

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OK, again, the Detroit analogy is just wrong. Atlanta and Detroit are about as different as any two large cities. Detroit is a hyper-segregated metro area. Inner city 80% black, surrounding counties 80-90% not black. Atlanta’s black population is much less concentrated. Only about 1 in every 6 or 7 blacks in metro Atlanta lives inside the city limits. There is far greater day-to-day proximity between whites and blacks here, in the burbs as well as intown.
There is a strong correlation nationally between the relative size of a black population in a metro area, and the degree to which that population is residentially segregated. In 2000, there were 2 metros which did not fit the correlation – Washington and Atlanta. Both were less residentially segregated than all other metro areas with black population shares of 20% or greater. Detroit was the most residentially segregated metro in the nation (followed by Chicago and New York, incidentally). Atlanta was not in the top ten. (segregation study by the Mumford center – an urban studies unit of the State University of New York – based on 2000 census data)
Now, Atlanta could have become more segregated in the last 10 years. We can’t assume that history is linear. When the Mumford center and others parse the 2010 census data, it may turn out that metro Atlanta has gotten closer to the national tendency for largest black populations to be the most segregated. We should hope that it continues to be an exception. But we can be sure that it willl never be “another Detroit”.
As for the downtown connector, I don’t see a whole lot of blight, if you don’t count that stupid torch just north of the Varsity. Along the connector we have seen a defunct steel mill replaced by a major mixed-use development, the emptiness at Spring and 5th replaced by the west campus of Georgia Tech, undeveloped land north of 10th filled with Turner networks buidlings, a depressing and dangerous housing project replaced by dorms and mixed-income housing. This is not blight. You may not like it, but it is not blight. I don’t mean to say that the configuration of the connector caused any positive changes, just that it has not prevented large-scale improvements in the area, even right alongside the roadway. If you want to think about freeways breaking up the city in a worse way, imagine 75 and 85 runnning separately, one on the west side, one on the east. Imagine Briarcliff being a freeway (85) with an exit at Ponce. No Druid Hills, no Little Five Points, no Poncey-Highland as we know them. As it is, 75 and 85 run together in the commercial center of the city. They do less damage to neighborhoods than any alternative. No, the connector is a problem for those who are on it, not so much for those up on the surface streets.

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A lot of these comments are hardcore bashing Atlanta and not even focusing on the census numbers – the main point of the article. Sometimes people need to sit back and understand that Atlanta is the reason there are jobs in Cobb, Perimeter, and Gwinnett. They all have self-sustaining job markets now, but they did not start that way. Also, what is all this about crime increases. Crime, specifically violent crime, is way lower in Atlanta than it was in the crazy days of the 90’s.

I think there is just a different flavor of living when you compare the different suburbs and Atlanta. They each provide a different lifestyle for people and families to choose. By the same token, if you only compared the suburbs, I’m sure people in Peachtree City would say they would never live in Alpharetta because of all the traffic. North Fulton should really get off their high horse. They are quickly urbanizing and becoming more densely populated. With dense populations comes crime and numerous difficulties.

@Rooster, I agree with you that Atlanta will never be a Detroit but it most certainly has nothing to do with a high or low concentration of African Americans. Detroit’s economy was/is not diverse. Most jobs were involved in the steel and car industry. These industries were outsourcing and downsizing for years, and when the housing bubble hit, the slow decaying facade holding Detroit together finally cracked and crumbled. This will not occur in Atlanta because of Atlanta’s very diverse economy.

Lastly, I know there are problems in Atlanta and because of that I am going to make sure that I am involved in my neighborhood, county, and region. All levels matter. If the metro area could act as one and attack regional issues we would be helping our neighborhoods, counties, and regions all at the same time. I won’t tell anyone to move somewhere else or anything, I would only ask that you get involved and try to help. There are so many great things going on in our region…if we simply worked with each other the sky is the limit.

Alright, I’m sleepy….

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You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet…….wait until the APS is de-certified…….there’s gonna be a mass exodus like you’re never seen before anywhere, anytime and it’s gonna spread to neighboring counties as well, making the whole metro area one of the most depressed areas in the country. Businesses will move out as well, bankruptcies will soar, foreclosures will be a dime a dozen…..it’s gonna be epic; however, predictions are also a dime a dozen

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@Matt

March 22nd, 2011
10:34 am
never knowing your neighbors while you have to drive EVERYWHERE because sidewalks are scary!

Matt – It’s not the sidewalks that scare me – it’s what’s crawling on the sidewalks that’s scary.

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Eddie, Eddie, Eddie…you are shi**in us, ain’t ya’? My recollection of Houston was spending an hour and a half trying to get through town on I-10. You may have gotten around Houston, just like I can get around Atlanta, regardless of the time of day, but I assure you they don’t have any advantage on us on anything – after all it is Texas. As for Chicago, you’re talking about one of the great cities int he world, so to compare us to them is tough. And if you didn’t know, for decades MARTA was rated the ‘most respected’ rapid transit system in the country by it’s peers….then the State of Georgia and the surrounding counties decided to put a strangle hold on the system and have allowed it to become a whipping boy for all things racial.

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[...] Augusta, to Rome and Floyd County, to Dalton, to metro Atlanta, some have expressed worry, and some excitement, about the changes in their [...]

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