What's Wrong with the Suburbs? (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: neighborhood, buying, school)

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Atlanta and Memphis were not in the same tier prior to the Olympics imo. Atlanta was still bigger and had much more of a skyline. I think, just like with Dallas and Houston, Atlanta was poised to become a large metro regardless of the Olympics or not. The Olympics simply sped that process up.

Ant, I don't agree with you often so when I do, I need to say Amen. Atlanta and Memphis were more on par (like Birmingham) in the earlier part of the 20th century.

[Ant131531]

And I hate the argument, 'without the suburbs, Atlanta would be another Memphis or Detroit' Uh, without Atlanta, the suburbs wouldn't have grown that large in the first place. Duh. You have to remember, Atlanta is still the main anchor for everything commercial here. It's why it's called the Atlanta metropolitan area. Not the Alpharetta or Johns Creek metropolitan area.

Atlanta still hosts most of the museums, the tourist venues like the world's largest aquarium, event venues like Tabernacle, still the home to fortune 500 companies like Coca Cola. The only suburbs I'd say that has a substantial effect on the Atlanta metro area is Sandy Springs/Dunwoody area just due to Perimeter Center being so large now and has become a substantial employment center.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

And I hate the argument, 'without the suburbs, Atlanta would be another Memphis or Detroit' Uh, without Atlanta, the suburbs wouldn't have grown that large in the first place. Duh. You have to remember, Atlanta is still the main anchor for everything commercial here. It's why it's called the Atlanta metropolitan area. Not the Alpharetta or Johns Creek metropolitan area.

Atlanta still hosts most of the museums, the tourist venues like the world's largest aquarium, event venues like Tabernacle, still the home to fortune 500 companies like Coca Cola. The only suburbs I'd say that has a substantial effect on the Atlanta metro area is Sandy Springs/Dunwoody area just due to Perimeter Center being so large now and has become a substantial employment center.

The Final Four, SEC Championship Game, Chick-fil-a Bowl, NBA All Star game, etc. are played in Atlanta, not the Gwinnett Center or other suburban sports venue.
Large conventions come to Atlanta.

[jsvh]

To each their own in terms of lifestyle they want to live. But on the point of importance, cities have existed for thousands of years without suburbs. Suburbs are a recent trend and cities can function without them. Cities by nature are going to have most of the major attractions, culture, destinations, density. But if you want away from (or at least want less of) the "hustle and bustle" then suburbs may be right for you.

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by noah

I would argue that Decatur doesn't feel at all like a suburb (certainly not like an Atlanta suburb) but maybe we need to define that term first.

What makes it feel differently to you?

And you pose a good question. What is a suburb? Much of the suburb bashing is based not on the type of development, but the intangible "not cool" factor, which has little to do with single family home development.

[CountryFisher]

Originally Posted by N_A

I've been reading City-Data for some time. I usually look at forums from various cities, particularly Atlanta and Miami. What I notice is a general disdain for the suburbs. I've been living in Atlanta for over 20 years, all over the place, intown and mostly the burbs (Stone Mountain, Decatur, College Park, Doraville, Gwinnett, Tucker). I enjoy it.

I don't understand what it is that people dislike about the suburbs. What exactly is it that you don't like? I mean, everybody can't and doesn't want to live in the city.

You've got to realize that most people here on this forum tend to be liberal urbanists and are not a true representation of the general population.

[noah]

Some of the things I associate with Atlanta suburbs like cookie cutter/look alike houses and chain stores I don't see much of near downtown Decatur. I realize there are other areas that have downtowns but Decatur just does not feel like a suburb to me. It sounds like some associate anything that is not a high rise downtown district as being suburban, in which case most parts of nearly all medium to large size cities would be considered suburban.

Originally Posted by 10 feet tall

What makes it feel differently to you?

And you pose a good question. What is a suburb? Much of the suburb bashing is based not on the type of development, but the intangible "not cool" factor, which has little to do with single family home development.

[Carlito Brigante]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Ant, I don't agree with you often so when I do, I need to say Amen. Atlanta and Memphis were more on par (like Birmingham) in the earlier part of the 20th century.

The point I was making is that Atlanta wasn't some big, booming, super fast-paced city and metropolis that was drawing huge numbers of new residents, tourists, and news businesses and companies before the Olympics like it is now, and was more akin to Memphis in speed and national recognition than to the present day Atlanta metro. Not the actual SIZE of the two.

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by noah

Some of the things I associate with Atlanta suburbs like cookie cutter/look alike houses and chain stores I don't see much of near downtown Decatur. I realize there are other areas that have downtowns but Decatur just does not feel like a suburb to me. It sounds like some associate anything that is not a high rise downtown district as being suburban, in which case most parts of nearly all medium to large size cities would be considered suburban.

Interesting. But Decatur is largely a bedroom community. There is no significant jobs center there. More like a hipster suburb.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by Carlito Brigante

The point I was making is that Atlanta wasn't some big, booming, super fast-paced city and metropolis that was drawing huge numbers of new residents, tourists, and news businesses and companies before the Olympics like it is now, and was more akin to Memphis in speed and national recognition than to the present day Atlanta metro. Not the actual SIZE of the two.

Good point. Where I'm from, the only thing we knew about Atlanta prior to the Olympics was that it is the state capital, Martin Luther King, Jr. was from here and Georgia is called the peach state. It was never touted as a big tourist destination. The only other people I heard talk about Atlanta were African-Americans who went to HBCU's and would come down here for Freaknik. To this day I don't know what Freaknik was lol. Other than that, Atlanta wasn't on anyone's radar in my parts. I thought it was great that the Olympics was hosted in America again, but not so much Atlanta, because again, I knew nothing about Atlanta other than what I stated above. I came to Atlanta for work in 1995 just for a couple of days and wasn't impressed initially, as I didn't see anything that really stood out to me, plus I was busy working.

Then after Olympics, all of a sudden Atlanta was the place to be and that it was the land of opportunity and everyone started moving here from more expensive metros to buy a house because they couldn't afford to where they were. Most of the transplants ended up buying homes in the suburbs because to buy a nice home in a good area with great schools in Atlanta proper wasn't as affordable as they had been led to believe.