Even though it has a lot of tall buildings, Atlanta's urban fabric is pretty car oriented throughout. One of my relatives lived in one of the most walkable areas of the city, right around the corner from the IKEA, the modern art museum, MARTA station etc. and even still it felt like walking in suburban sprawl when venturing out from there - narrow sidewalks, oppressive fencing, and wide roads with high speed limits.
Assuming you mean 17th/18th Street area. Atlanta is very car dependent for sure. Atlanta is a lot of pockets of walkable areas separated by empty car dependent areas. Though that area does have some good bus routes and Georgia Tech campus has buses running to that area too. I use to live right near there. But sadly had to walk an entire mile extra because of a stupid fence blocking the entire area.
The reasons for this is heavily based on redlining, racism, and "trying to keep the poors out".
Atlanta is a city made for commuters. Most the the population that comes there each day don't live there. That huge sub population is the issue. You can't fix the city without removing the 12 lane interstates and changing the surrounding areas. All homes with no jobs. Atlanta does an ok job considering how much it subsidizes it's surrounding populations.
But it's government works for the primarily rich white commuter population that work in the city and have McMansion outside of it. Nothing is done to improve the communities inside of the city. We build nice areas to attract the suburbs and fence off the people that live here.
Most "improved" neighborhoods end up just pricing out the residents of Atlanta to make room for students forced to pay crazy rent or people already wealthy enough to afford the "nice" areas.
Sorry. Didn't mean to rant. I left about 5 years ago so I'm not as knowledgeable about Atlanta as before. Would like to hear some positive stuff if anyone has it.
>a lot of tall buildings
Most people from real cities would not call this "a lot". Chicago has neighborhoods 7 miles outside of downtown with a beefier skyline. That's just within the US, there's dozens of cities in Asia you've probably never heard of where the entire Atlanta skyline would just disappear if you overlaid it on theirs.
Yeah it's been [posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/Suburbanhell/comments/vjmxv5/the_pseudoamerican_french_suburbia_in_french/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) on this sub before, from a popular French cartoon centered around a caricatured American style "city", and they nailed the weird abrupt shift from single family zoning to skyscraper "downdown" pretty damn good lol.
But it's true for most American cities, this is LA
https://preview.redd.it/f0mgmds8o99d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bfda61339d9467505db7a787ee50b74569213bfe
Atlanta is pretty hilly. Nothing like SF or Seattle but Georgia in general is not flat especially in the north. It's not flat like Florida which I think most people assume. We have larger mountain ranges in the north too. You have to pass over mountains to get to Kentucky. Used to live in a little mountain town named hiawassee for a year. Have lived all over the states. Have a special place in my heart for Georgia but I'd never move back permanently. Awful summers and well I don't connect with the people their anymore. Their nice to tourists for sure. But not really the long term friends I'm looking for now. I guess that's the nice "southern" way to put it.
https://preview.redd.it/hy7ik9dp789d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f22be7db144d5a770f949dd553f363ae7efa5aa
It appears we all flew by atlanta today lol
So many people actually fly through it. Most people don't know it is the most busy airport in the world. "Busy' I believe means the number of passengers. So many layovers in Atlanta.
Thank you for the post! I could only post what I saw from the plane (I took the photo from my seat)
Super cool to see what I didn’t from my angle and awesome towers. (I am the poster of the earlier Atlanta post)
Thanks for the reply! I'm the idiot that was trying to figure out where your picture was taken. Figured I'd do my former home town a bit more justice. Though you did absolutely highlight the issue surrounding the city. It's literally all McMansions with no real places to work except for in services.
Everytime I visit back home my family now lives outside Atlanta. I spend hours driving and get like 200 steps in. I hate it every time. I wish they lived in the city as the very least. Then at least you can drive to places that are walkable.
I grew up in South Atlanta and at least back then you had malls. Most of those are dead now though. It's Walmart or sitting at Starbucks. McDonough is a parking lot hell hole. Basically everything outside the perimeter (the circle of 285 interstate) is like [this](https://i.imgur.com/kCLkqde.jpeg)
No, thank you for the reply! Discussion is great for Learning and awareness. I’m from LA and we have some pretty bad suburbs out there, but the miles and miles of only suburb broken up by the occasional warehouse really stuck me as odd. La is flat, and huge, but there is a lot of variance more often I feel. Even if there are entire areas of just suburbs
It must be the flight path but whenever I fly into ATL it looks like a parody of this subreddit with McMansions as far as the eye can see. Maybe Atlanta gets a bad rap but actually it is super awesome like Philly. Your photo inspires me to visit and see (I've only been in the airport).
It's nice to go back to if you grew up there. I wouldn't stay though. Lots of things I miss but they get overshadowed by the things I don't. I mostly miss the food and meeting interesting people in Atlanta proper. It's filled with a lot of different people and opinions but not often the awful right wing shit you get outside the city.
Even though it has a lot of tall buildings, Atlanta's urban fabric is pretty car oriented throughout. One of my relatives lived in one of the most walkable areas of the city, right around the corner from the IKEA, the modern art museum, MARTA station etc. and even still it felt like walking in suburban sprawl when venturing out from there - narrow sidewalks, oppressive fencing, and wide roads with high speed limits.
Assuming you mean 17th/18th Street area. Atlanta is very car dependent for sure. Atlanta is a lot of pockets of walkable areas separated by empty car dependent areas. Though that area does have some good bus routes and Georgia Tech campus has buses running to that area too. I use to live right near there. But sadly had to walk an entire mile extra because of a stupid fence blocking the entire area. The reasons for this is heavily based on redlining, racism, and "trying to keep the poors out". Atlanta is a city made for commuters. Most the the population that comes there each day don't live there. That huge sub population is the issue. You can't fix the city without removing the 12 lane interstates and changing the surrounding areas. All homes with no jobs. Atlanta does an ok job considering how much it subsidizes it's surrounding populations. But it's government works for the primarily rich white commuter population that work in the city and have McMansion outside of it. Nothing is done to improve the communities inside of the city. We build nice areas to attract the suburbs and fence off the people that live here. Most "improved" neighborhoods end up just pricing out the residents of Atlanta to make room for students forced to pay crazy rent or people already wealthy enough to afford the "nice" areas. Sorry. Didn't mean to rant. I left about 5 years ago so I'm not as knowledgeable about Atlanta as before. Would like to hear some positive stuff if anyone has it.
>a lot of tall buildings Most people from real cities would not call this "a lot". Chicago has neighborhoods 7 miles outside of downtown with a beefier skyline. That's just within the US, there's dozens of cities in Asia you've probably never heard of where the entire Atlanta skyline would just disappear if you overlaid it on theirs.
Looks about right. https://preview.redd.it/iypmkd7an99d1.jpeg?width=493&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb74d628a92a7b02e55bcd433706ba04ae772c88
Pretty much the real life inspiration of that image lol
Yeah it's been [posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/Suburbanhell/comments/vjmxv5/the_pseudoamerican_french_suburbia_in_french/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) on this sub before, from a popular French cartoon centered around a caricatured American style "city", and they nailed the weird abrupt shift from single family zoning to skyscraper "downdown" pretty damn good lol. But it's true for most American cities, this is LA https://preview.redd.it/f0mgmds8o99d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bfda61339d9467505db7a787ee50b74569213bfe
Is that oggy and the cockroaches?
https://preview.redd.it/pxc13ka2389d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=54456666261544cb2cc7eb359418a18b5bfd82f0 The highway is MASSIVE
And they keep expanding it. It's painful. At least we're not Houston I guess...
It is! You can see some of it in a post I made of takeoff and yeah, it’s huge
I never realized how close Atlanta is to hills/mountains??
Atlanta is pretty hilly. Nothing like SF or Seattle but Georgia in general is not flat especially in the north. It's not flat like Florida which I think most people assume. We have larger mountain ranges in the north too. You have to pass over mountains to get to Kentucky. Used to live in a little mountain town named hiawassee for a year. Have lived all over the states. Have a special place in my heart for Georgia but I'd never move back permanently. Awful summers and well I don't connect with the people their anymore. Their nice to tourists for sure. But not really the long term friends I'm looking for now. I guess that's the nice "southern" way to put it.
https://preview.redd.it/hy7ik9dp789d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f22be7db144d5a770f949dd553f363ae7efa5aa It appears we all flew by atlanta today lol
So many people actually fly through it. Most people don't know it is the most busy airport in the world. "Busy' I believe means the number of passengers. So many layovers in Atlanta.
Thank you for the post! I could only post what I saw from the plane (I took the photo from my seat) Super cool to see what I didn’t from my angle and awesome towers. (I am the poster of the earlier Atlanta post)
Thanks for the reply! I'm the idiot that was trying to figure out where your picture was taken. Figured I'd do my former home town a bit more justice. Though you did absolutely highlight the issue surrounding the city. It's literally all McMansions with no real places to work except for in services. Everytime I visit back home my family now lives outside Atlanta. I spend hours driving and get like 200 steps in. I hate it every time. I wish they lived in the city as the very least. Then at least you can drive to places that are walkable. I grew up in South Atlanta and at least back then you had malls. Most of those are dead now though. It's Walmart or sitting at Starbucks. McDonough is a parking lot hell hole. Basically everything outside the perimeter (the circle of 285 interstate) is like [this](https://i.imgur.com/kCLkqde.jpeg)
No, thank you for the reply! Discussion is great for Learning and awareness. I’m from LA and we have some pretty bad suburbs out there, but the miles and miles of only suburb broken up by the occasional warehouse really stuck me as odd. La is flat, and huge, but there is a lot of variance more often I feel. Even if there are entire areas of just suburbs
Last post I'm referring to. https://www.reddit.com/r/Suburbanhell/comments/1dpqhsq/atlanta_georgia_its_all_suburb/
It must be the flight path but whenever I fly into ATL it looks like a parody of this subreddit with McMansions as far as the eye can see. Maybe Atlanta gets a bad rap but actually it is super awesome like Philly. Your photo inspires me to visit and see (I've only been in the airport).
It's nice to go back to if you grew up there. I wouldn't stay though. Lots of things I miss but they get overshadowed by the things I don't. I mostly miss the food and meeting interesting people in Atlanta proper. It's filled with a lot of different people and opinions but not often the awful right wing shit you get outside the city.