What is "Atlanta", the Suburbs, the Exurbs? (Sandy Springs: appointed, houses)

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

What do you consider to be the suburbs, the city, the exurbs?
Does it have to do with ITP/OTP?

We were discussing this with our friends last weekend. One friend thought anything ITP was Atlanta and outside were the suburbs, but our friend who lives in SW Atlanta lives OTP but is within the city limits. People who live north of Buckhead are technically Sandy Springs but write addresses as Atlanta.

also:

Do you call Sandy Springs ITP Buckhead or Sandy Springs?
Do you consider far out places like Cumming to be part of "Atlanta"? To me it seems like a way far out suburb, but then again I live in the 30305 zip code so I am in the ATL city limits.

The commutes some people have into Atlanta are just nuts to me!

[ATLTJL]

Personally, I consider Atlanta to be downtown, midtown, Buckhead, Virginia Highland, Inman Park, Candler Park, and maybe a few areas down south and west that I'm not that familiar with. The ITP/OTP distinction is fairly nebulous to me. After all, Camblee is well within I-285, but would you consider it Atlanta? I wouldn't. It's Chamblee.

Same thing with Sandy Springs. It's not Atlanta, it's Sandy Springs. I would not call it "intown" at all. Then you have Decatur, which you might say is "intown," but it's not Atlanta....it's Decatur. It has its own city, its own taxes, its own mayor (or city manager, whatever they have), etc.

I think I'm basing my idea on what Atlanta is with a combination of the city limits, density, proximity, and overall feel/culture of the area.

I'm still not 100% on what an exurb is, and I'm inclined to think it's a bit of a BS term. Generally, I would say any area where 50% of the population commutes to the city of Atlanta for work to be a suburb. It's pretty easy to determine. I mean, look at the houses in Cumming. You don't think they were all built with old Cumming money, do you? Heck no, they were built with Atlanta money. That makes it a suburb in my book.

In my eyes, the suburbs of Atlanta go all the way up to Cumming and Gainesville, just about to the Alabama state line, down to McDonough, Newnan, and Fayetville, and I know nothing about the east part of town, but I'd say they go at least to Conyers.

[atlantagreg30127]

I don't think there is a clearly defined boundary for each of the areas, and it's vague depending on who you ask.

Atlanta proper and it's neighborhoods would be "Atlanta" to most, yet I've known people who also include Decatur, Chamblee, Sandy Springs, and even Vinings in the "Atlanta definition".

To many, places like Chamblee, Dunwoody, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Smyrna, Stone Mountain, etc would be the suburbs. However, I've known people who consider Alpharetta to simply be a suburb of the city, yet when you talk about Dallas Georgia in Paulding, they consider that the "boonies" - even though technically, Dallas and Alpharetta are pretty much the same distance from the City (I personally consider both to be Exurbs).

[lorilove]

From a census standpoint you have Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) and Combined Statistical Areas (CSA)

For me, anything in the greater CSA would be defined as an exburb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_metropolitan_area

[tdatl]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

To many, places like Chamblee, Dunwoody, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Smyrna, Stone Mountain, etc would be the suburbs. However, I've known people who consider Alpharetta to simply be a suburb of the city, yet when you talk about Dallas Georgia in Paulding, they consider that the "boonies" - even though technically, Dallas and Alpharetta are pretty much the same distance from the City (I personally consider both to be Exurbs).

I think the difference is the nature of the community. To me 'exurban' denotes an area with little in the way of jobs, somewhere on the fringe of a metro area where almost everyone commutes away from it -- the quinessential 'bedroom community.' So Acworth, Dallas, Douglasville, Fayetteville -- places like that.

Alpharetta/400 corridor is one of the 8 big 'job clusters' (others being midtown, Buckhead, downtown, Perimeter, Emory/CDC, airport, Cobb Galleria) in the metro area, and it has a lot of people commuting TO it. There's a LOT of corporate presence there. I don't think you can appropriately call an exurb a place that's one of a metro's major commercial centers.

A few years ago, an AJC article on 400 mentioned that during the morning rush, the traffic counts were higher on 400 northbound at exit 9 than they were southbound. And check out 92, 120 & some others. Massive inbound traffic in the morning, reversed at night.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by tdatl

I think the difference is the nature of the community. To me 'exurban' denotes an area with little in the way of jobs, somewhere on the fringe of a metro area where almost everyone commutes away from it -- the quinessential 'bedroom community.' So Acworth, Dallas, Douglasville, Fayetteville -- places like that.

Alpharetta/400 corridor is one of the 8 big 'job clusters' (others being midtown, Buckhead, downtown, Perimeter, Emory/CDC, airport, Cobb Galleria) in the metro area, and it has a lot of people commuting TO it. There's a LOT of corporate presence there. I don't think you can appropriately call an exurb a place that's one of a metro's major commercial centers.

A few years ago, an AJC article on 400 mentioned that during the morning rush, the traffic counts were higher on 400 northbound at exit 9 than they were southbound. And check out 92, 120 & some others. Massive inbound traffic in the morning, reversed at night.

Good post, tdatl.

I used to know an East Cobb resident who accepted a job on Windward Pkwy and was very disappointed to discover that she did not enjoy a "reverse commute" as she expected.

[Stars&StripesForever]

In-town: Basically anything inside I-285

Suburbs: Suburbs outside Atlanta city limits inside I-285, on out to the exurbs, which in a way are very low density suburbs or closely located satellite cities with enough connection to nearby suburbs.

Exurbs: Very low density suburban areas with just enough development to have slightly more of a suburban flare than a rural flare.

With that said:

Exurbs ( very low density-satellite cities excluded)

Ball Ground, Free Home, Lathemtown, Macedonia, Coal Mountain, Matt, Braselton, Carl, Euharlee, Taylorsville, Cartersville (satellite city), Locust Grove, Hampton, Senoia, Madras, Griffin (satellite city), Villa Rica, Temple, New Georgia, Winston, Fairplay, Emerson, Milton (parts)

Outer Suburbs (mostly low to moderate density)

Canton, Holly Springs, Milton (parts), Cumming, Buford, Sugar Hill, Dacula, Loganville, Grayson, Covington, Oxford, Porterdale, McDonough, Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Newnan, Sharpsburg, Tyrone, Dallas, Hiram,

Middle Suburbs (mostly moderate density)

Woodstock, Acworth, Kennesaw, Alpharetta, Roswell, John's Creek, East Cobb, (parts) Suwanee, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Snellville, Centerville, Conyers, Lithonia, Stockbridge, Morrow, Fairburn, Union City, Powder Springs, Austell

OTP Inner Suburbs (mostly moderate to high density)

Marietta, Mableton, Smyrna, East Cobb (parts), Sandy Springs (part), Dunwoody, Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Lilburn, Stone Mountain, Clarkston, Lake City, Forest Park, Riverdale, College Park (part)

ITP Inner Suburbs (mostly moderate to high density)

Vinings, Chamblee, Doraville, Brookhaven, Decatur, Hapeville, East Point, College Park (part), Sandy Springs (part)

[erick295]

Atlantans have a strange obsession with urbanism vs. suburbanism, and the fact that I-285 has become a benchmark for this is laughable considering the number of suburban wastelands that are inside the perimeter and the well-connected, high-density areas that are outside of it. From Perimeter Center you can take a train and be in Midtown in 15 minutes, but the way some people talk about "OTP" you'd think it and Cumming were one in the same. The terms "ITP" and "OTP" mean nothing. It's just a road.

"Exurb" doesn't mean anything either, frankly. I really only see it used as a demeaning synonym for "OTP," not as a legitimate term. If something is really an "exurb" then it has no real relationship to the main city and doesn't deserve to be called anything. Atlanta has some influence over all of northern Georgia but to call something like Gainesville or Acworth an "exurb" just seems ridiculous to me. Those are their own cities with their own histories and identities that just happen to be close to a much larger area. I don't even like the term "suburb" when it's applied to cities, as if their only point of existence is to catch the overflow from Atlanta -- cities like Marietta, Roswell, and Stone Mountain are as legitimate as Atlanta itself, and I think they deserve a little more respect.

The whole debate has always seemed very ironic to me, considering that most urban elitists in other areas write all of Atlanta off as being a hick town. Being an "ITP" insider just makes you a big fish in a small pond I guess. Frankly I don't care what anyone else thinks of where I live as long as I like it

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Stars&StripesForever

In-town: Basically anything inside I-285

Suburbs: Suburbs outside Atlanta city limits inside I-285, on out to the exurbs, which in a way are very low density suburbs or closely located satellite cities with enough connection to nearby suburbs.

Exurbs: Very low density suburban areas with just enough development to have slightly more of a suburban flare than a rural flare.

With that said:

Exurbs ( very low density-satellite cities excluded)

Ball Ground, Free Home, Lathemtown, Macedonia, Coal Mountain, Matt, Braselton, Carl, Euharlee, Taylorsville, Cartersville (satellite city), Locust Grove, Hampton, Senoia, Madras, Griffin (satellite city), Villa Rica, Temple, New Georgia, Winston, Fairplay, Emerson, Milton (parts)

Outer Suburbs (mostly low to moderate density)

Canton, Holly Springs, Milton (parts), Cumming, Buford, Sugar Hill, Dacula, Loganville, Grayson, Covington, Oxford, Porterdale, McDonough, Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Newnan, Sharpsburg, Tyrone, Dallas, Hiram,

Middle Suburbs (mostly moderate density)

Woodstock, Acworth, Kennesaw, Alpharetta, Roswell, John's Creek, East Cobb, (parts) Suwanee, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Snellville, Centerville, Conyers, Lithonia, Stockbridge, Morrow, Fairburn, Union City, Powder Springs, Austell

OTP Inner Suburbs (mostly moderate to high density)

Marietta, Mableton, Smyrna, East Cobb (parts), Sandy Springs (part), Dunwoody, Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Lilburn, Stone Mountain, Clarkston, Lake City, Forest Park, Riverdale, College Park (part)

ITP Inner Suburbs (mostly moderate to high density)

Vinings, Chamblee, Doraville, Brookhaven, Decatur, Hapeville, East Point, College Park (part), Sandy Springs (part)

This post should answer the OP's (and everyone else's) question.

Well done.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by aries4118

This post should answer the OP's (and everyone else's) question.

Well done.

Second the motion. If the two map nerds of Atlanta have approved you, then it is over, game, set, match.