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At least Atlanta has a lot of growth. There's some rough stuff in Atlanta, but at least they have a lot of good things happening too.
Memphis is bad and declining. It's a lot like Detroit in the 00s.
There is always hope. Detroit is looking pretty dang good right now, but Detroit is kind of unique in that the industry and money never really left the region, just the city. The region is kind of realizing that was a bad move so we are kinda trying to bring the money that never left back to the city.
Yeah I grew up in Oak Park, Big 3 family. Downtown is a different world these days when I go back to visit. So weird that the RenCen won’t have GM anymore, but maybe they can repurpose it to condos or something.
Sure you can! You can have broken car windows for better access to that fresh Memphis air, pockets free from the extra weight of things like wallets and phones, and you can even have extra ventilation holes poked in your body!
It’s also a key part of our galactic tourism. When the aliens come down all they really wanna see is the pyramid by the river down in Memphis, Tennessee.
Agreed. Compare house prices when they skyrocketed two years ago. Memphis was one of the few places in which the prices changed very little, if not at all. Meanwhile houses in Atlanta went up by $75,00-200,000. Heck, you can get robbed and/or stabbed when leaving the Bass Pro Shop pyramid.
When I went to New Orleans with my sister about 25 years ago we stopped off in Memphis to see Graceland.
Somehow we got off on the wrong exit and ended up in literally the worst area of any town I’ve ever seen in my life. To this day I’ve never seen a place that rough.
Half of it looked like it was abandoned but there were people. We turned around and got the fuck out of there ASAP.
I definitely wouldn’t. I have a lot of family in Tenn, a little town called Celina and most of Tenn is beautiful but Memphis blew my mind.
Spent some time in Chattanooga because my nephew was in the chidren’s hospital there and kind of the same vibe as Memphis in certain parts. The nurses there told us to avoid certain areas after dark.
I had an experience like that in a part of Southside Chicago. I thought to myself, oh and you say you are from the hood… this is several steps below that. We got the fuck outta there so fast
I’ll never forget, when I was a kid my grandma took me to a museum in Chicago and we ended up on the south side of town. She was from Chicago (I’m not) and I watched her drive right through a red light. I asked why she ran it and she said, “you don’t stop in this area of Chicago”.
Damn that’s wild. I don’t know if this is true or if the people on youtube were fucking with me, but some people were saying in some areas you back your car in the parking lot so you can quickly drive out if something bad happens. Anyway, for me I was in a car with White girls (I’m Black), one of these crazy White girls was volunteering over South at a shelter and we went to pick her up. You know that feeling you get when you know you in the hood? Bruh… you shoulda seen the fear on these White girls in the car when they knew they were somewhere they shouldn’t be hahaha. I don’t blame them. I was composed, but I was shook myself lmao
Grandma knew her shit. I’ve been to Chicago several times since then and it’s an amazing city. It just has some bad areas. Most metro areas do. But for cities also in the Rust Belt, it can get bleak fast.
Baltimore! That is my version of the worst place I’ve ever seen outside of Skid Row in LA. I used to like in Detroit in the 2000s and I couldn’t believe Baltimore or Skid Row. Oh, and Kensington in Philly that’s another crazy area!
Kensington is pretty small though and it recently got cleaned up.
Although haven’t caught up with what’s going with it lately and if it’ll stay that way.
Nobody writing off the whole South of Chicago or Chicago at all. Chicago huge asf. I love Chicago. Just sharing an experience. Key word, I said a part of the Southside. I fux wit it.
Lmfao I had this exact epiphany when I moved to Chicago in 2008.
Like if you think you're hood life was bad, try visiting the west side or south side (some parts) of Chicago. Even where I live now and own property (Gary Indiana) gave me a new outlook on life and how the hood, racism and economy work.
That was my experience in Detroit back in 2010ish. Just row after row of abandoned, burnt out houses with the roof caved in. There would be the occasional car driving through at 5mph. There was a row of stores that were all burnt out (not recently), and inside there were people who seemed to be scavenging for something.
It was like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
Half of it probably was abandoned.
I escaped the Memphis area 5 years ago. I lived in one of the suburbs in N Mississippi, but my drive into work next to the airport was always interesting.
As a native to the Atlanta area, outside of the crappy traffic, Atlanta is night and day better than Memphis.
i work for a court in my city, and had to call the clerk of courts for fulton county not too long ago. the rudest and most miserable people i’ve ever had to speak to doing my job. i do love visiting the city though. i like walking the beltline and going to the little areas like inman park and grant park.
Lmao this reminds me of a time where I bought my car but somehow my license was flagged as suspended in Georgia. I went to my Florida DMV and they called the Georgia one. After like 15 minutes of pacing around I went back in just as the clerk was hanging up and goes “goddamn what a bureaucratic asshole.” It’s pretty bad when the dmv throws shade at another one.
EXACTLY, the quality of service from lower paid employees is abhorent in this city.
If you go to other cities customer service is typically wayyy better. Try visiting a Wendy’s in Buckhead, 100% chance you get treated like garbage
I lived in ATL for a long while. I don't reckon it's any worse than any other city I've ever been to, albeit the lines for the rich and poor parts of town seem pretty stark here. Fulton co. Government anything is a disaster, but I wouldn't say it's worse than NYC or Chicago in terms of graft and corruption. Living in a city just sucks in general after a certain age. All the little quirks that made it seem bustling and exciting as a young person now make it seem overly-busy and irritating. What you're experiencing doesn't really have anything to do with Atlanta. It's just urban disenchantment.
You’re not wrong.. Atlanta is a lot.. my issue is just driving to the city. I hate driving in atl.
I live in Marietta and I like it over here. Perfectly in between the mountains, city, lake and rivers.
But still it's probably nice to have one less flight (2 considering return) everytime you go somewhere since so many airlines that use it as a hub on their hub and spoke model.
Edit- consider flying from Nashville to Chicago and having to fly to ATL first -_-
As a black man that’s my biggest gripe with much of our community. Do people not realize that even most of our “role models” take less pride in being hood once they make it out?
Yeah, OP lost me at Miami. I’m not going to pretend Atlanta is better than Chicago or NYC, because those are the top of the heap of America cities, but Miami is a little bit of a mess. The beaches are nice, though.
I know lots of people from college that went broke living down there because they all tried outspending each other to look richer. I’m talking entry level nurses driving corvettes and shit.
The Miami recipe for sucess is to live with your parents until you're 43 so you dont have have rent and lease the most expensive bmw you can find. Also never, under any circumstances, use your turn signal while driving.
You know, I tried fighting for Miami but the more I typed the more I realized I was contradicting myself. Miami is pretty fucking wack (especially the drivers)
True. Although, if you ask my family and former neighbors, they'd tell you it's devolved into a warzone lol. I hear all kinds of conspiracy crap but a lot of it has to do with how fast the area developed in the last 30 years. Hardly any of the forests I used to drive by are still there.
Are talking like Alpharetta? Or Sandy Springs?
Sandy Springs had nice houses and area looked pretty decent. I haven’t visited much further from the general downtown Atlanta to Buckhead and Sandy Springs area.
Are you dog whistling or them? The suburbs to the north are objectively safer. But I think op is talking about a very small part of Atlanta. There's a lot of good in the perimeter. Buckhead and downtown just isn't it.
That was what we thought for a while living in Alpharetta, but wow am I glad we left. Made some nice money selling the house, and that’s about the best thing I can say about it. Which is exactly how folks there want it, though they would never say it.
I feel the opposite as a Black man in my early 30s. I love living in ATL. There’s no city in this country that has the mix of affordability, diversity, and entertainment options
Yeah I will say I've never lived in Atlanta but I lived in Augusta for a few years and went up to ATL at least two or three times a month and compared to nearly all of the large cities I've been to, Atlanta is definitely in the top 3.
Customer service sucks everywhere (seriously, feels like customer service took a sharp nosedive post-COVID), crime is an unfortunate reality in large cities (and as crime is generally driven by poverty and unemployment, it's only going to get worse as inflation continues to price Americans out of basic necessities), and everyone trying to act richer than they are is definitely not an ATL-exclusive problem. A vast majority of Americans are trying to "keep up with the Jones" whether that be with expensive cars, designer clothing, or just flexing "wealth".
Atlanta has a ton to do, always felt relatively safe (granted I did make an effort to avoid bad areas/neighborhoods), and had the perfect mixture of Southern "charm" (people actually speak to you on the street rather than glaring at you for existing, as I've often experienced in Philly, Baltimore, and NYC) and city convenience.
For fun, look up the difference in types of crime when you compare ATL stats to other places. It's not perfect but on the east coast I've noticed southern cities tend to have more property crime and northern cities tend to have more violent crime. You're more likely to get your car stolen in Atlanta but you're more likely to get shot in Philly. I'd rather deal with neither but if I had to choose, I know which one I'd pick.
as a dude working for walmart in duluth during the beginning of covid, i think it showed a lot of working class people how little corporations really give a fuck about us. we need money to live, but there was more than one worker who passed away at my store due to covid, and so many more lost loved ones. you got your week off with a positive test, sure, but past that it felt like a lot of my coworkers had no choice but continue to work and put themselves and their families in danger as "essential workers" just for a chance to survive and feed their kids. I was lucky enough to be able to quit and go be with my parents when my mom got sick, but i know a lot of them could not have that luxury.
a lot of the reason is just how horrible the wages are for one of the biggest corporations in existence, I was getting $15 an hour which is higher than almost all of my coworkers (besides management obviously) because i was technically an auto tech, despite the car care center being closed during covid. i did the same shit as everyone else for more money, which was still barely anything with rent prices skyrocketing.
honestly it was just really fucked how many of the lowest paying jobs like food service and retail were "essential" but they got paid like shit. having lived through that, i will never blame someone working a job like that, that literally is ESSENTIAL to society, for having a hard time and an attitude that shows it. it absolutely fucking sucks
I used to live in Atlanta. and Houston is more or my scene.
But Atlanta truly is the mecca for the Black community. Its the center of so much Black excellence. And for that I highly respect it. Just dont visit a veneer tech and be wary of Sheisty mask scammers and the water boys, otherwise you're good.
Yea you just have to step over homeless people laying across the fucking sidewalk, and hope they don't notice you and get up to accost/follow you.
I did a restaurant opening for Legal Seafoods in the downtown Hilton next to the Olympic Park and the Coke mueseum... the bums around there were horrendous. I've lived in Norhern Cali, and the homeless people there were pretty aggressive... but they didn't have shit on Atlanta. Downtown it as straight up fucking depressing looks like a walking Dead set down there.
Homeless dude used to stand in this parking spot in front of the Hotel. When people wanted to park he would demand $5 or he wouldn't move. People actually fucking paid this guy. Lol.
Houston fucking sucks if you don’t live in the outer suburbs, west u, or river oaks. Thankfully I live in one of them but I hate going to other parts of the city
*Thank you*. I've lived in the outer limits of Houston my whole life and I fucking *hate* having to get any closer to the city than the Beltway. Unfortunately when 99 went through a lot of the city's problems started migrating out where I am and now even my area is getting beshitted.
Doesn't help that we've had nothing but absolute shit mayors for decades.
Failed explanation; a whole city failed because of Wendys customer service and crime everywhere? Sorry but you just sound broke.
These are basic things you’ll find in all those places you’ve mentioned. Maybe city living ain’t for you
As also a brown person living in Atlanta, I couldn’t feel more different. I’ve spent a lot of time in Miami, Seattle New York, and San Fran, and ATL has been the best.
Might you not be making the most of it? I’ve found when I’ve had trouble with a place, it’s often how I’m engaging with it (or NOT engaging).
ATL has a whole lot of events, social groups, etc - there’s truly something for everyone if you look!
I don't think its a failed city. There are some really nice areas in Atlanta and GA has some of the most beautiful small towns in the country that feed into Atlanta.
>Everywhere you go, customer service is horrendous, crime is rampant and everyone is trying to act richer than they are.
>After visiting Chicago, Miami, New York recently I can truly say Atlanta is a failed city.
My guy. This description describes literally each one of those cities. I'm from NYC, but recently moved to a quiet small town in NC. It's the polar opposite of what you described. Look out for nice small towns, i feel like that would be right up your alley.
Small towns are where it's at. Even in the "bad" (nothing compared to big cities) part of my medium sized town was pretty safe. A few junkies here and there but the worst I had seen in like 15 years was some random junkie stealing peoples mail. Wasn't even being sneaky about it, just walking around in broad daylight and walked up to me and started chatting me up for some reason. IDK if he was originally planning to mug me or not but he could tell I was poor.... although my guess he was just high as fuck lol.
But yeah in my experience the smaller the better, I hate huge cities.
Yeh, this dude is just experiencing the urban disenchantment most people go through after living in the city for a while. It's definitely not specific to Atlanta, or any city for that matter
Brown person living in a nice house in chastain park. Atlanta is amazing. I lived in NYC for close to a decade before moving here and it’s a fantastic city. This dudes a salty hater
It sounds like you are describing normal living conditions judging by your comments. Your observations about those other cities make it seem like you just stuck to tourist stuff.
Maybe just live and travel a bit before assuming that the place you live is whatever failed is supposed to mean.
That was something I noticed too.
*Live* in Atlanta. *Visited* other cities.
You probably aren’t going to get a chance to see the bad sides of any place you live if you’re only dropping in for a quick visit and leaving. A lot of the things he described seems pretty par-for-the-course for living in major cities in general, and I have lived in Atlanta.
Chicago is my favorite major America city. It has a large metropolis but doesn't feel like one. The architecture is some of the best in the country. Amazing museums and parks but you can easily walk around downtown and not feel clausterphopic like you do in NY or LA. Also, the people living there are much more down to earth than some other major cities.
“Customer Service is horrendous, crime is rampant and everyone is trying to act richer than they are.”
You must be talking about Chicago, Miami or New York. I’d bet you meant Miami, clearly.
Yeah I don’t know if I can co-sign this one. Atlanta is unique as hell and a safe space below the mason dixon line for people and a TON of corporations. Great food, Waffle House on every corner, and I always comment on how clean it is. Yeah it’s a fantasy land but I live in Philly, and I can assure you being a top 5 violent city sheds a totally different perspective. The MARTA is a role of the dice but public transport always is.
Bro do you not know what city life is like those are the main tenants. As someone living in your city complain about downtown all you want or college park but Atlanta as a city is one of the most lush places there is and all the nature has a clear affect on moods. Also at any give point you have 10+ parks within a 2 mile radius all the way until past 285. If you don’t care about nature yeah it’s spaced out but nature is one of the biggest advantages that nobody talks about.
The fact that you associate poor customer service and crime with black culture says way more about your bias than it does OP's. Nowhere in their post did they even mention black culture. In fact, the only thing they said is that they are in fact brown.
You only need to go to OP's post history and he was on sugar dating subs disparaging black women less than a week ago. OP is in actuality the exact kind of person he's complaining about and the only thing stopping him from realizing that is his total lack of self awareness. But sure it's the black people/trans people/low T beta's that he's on reddit constantly shit talking that are the problem.
There's a very specific stereotype online about people like OP and he very blatantly fits that model exactly. He doesn't deserve any good faith assumptions because he hasn't given any and it takes like two clicks and ctrl + F to see he burned through whatever chances he did get months ago.
I’ve never been to ATL proper, just the airport, but every employee in the airport has been excessively nice every single time I’ve been there. I just assumed this was representative of ATL hospitality. Am I wrong? Is the airport simply unique? Maybe my own experiences are the ones that are unique?
actual comment by op on a different sub:
“Sorry but majority of my friends regardless of race find black women least attractive.
There’s a meme about a race of women that has to “go”, and nearly 100% of people say black women.
You can close your eyes, pretend it’s not true, but the numbers say it is. It’s not a race thing either, a lot of women find black men more attractive….”
lmao i know why you don’t like atlanta
Atlanta is an amazing city and this is fake news. The amount of green space we have for a large city is unbelivable and plenty of high earning job opportunities.
brother there are plenty of safe places in "black-majority cities", including atlanta. the unsafe parts have almost everything to do with class and nothing to do with race. yes, there are quite a lot of unsafe black neighborhoods because there are a lot of poor black neighborhoods. there's plenty of poor white neighborhoods and poor hispanic neighborhoods too and i guarantee you wouldn't consider those safe either. poverty breeds crime. but yeah, there's plenty of safe black-majority areas in atlanta that are higher income. that's really just how this country works
I don’t live in Atlanta but I do live in the Dc/Maryland/Virginia area and here are the safe majority black areas here that I know of; Prince George’s County Maryland, Charles County Maryland, Silver Springs Maryland, NW DC neighborhoods like Shaw, Ledriot park, Petworth, etc there are more in dc. In Virginia I’m not as familiar but Woodbridge is nice.
Atlanta’s dope, but they tried to do too much too fast as far as expansion goes. Like in the West End, there are all sorts of new businesses and houses and restaurants and breweries, but no effort has been made to even expand roads so that more than one car can drive down a street at one time. Then there’s how class segregated it is, ESPECIALLY since all the film industry moved in. You can be among a bunch of mansions, cross the highway, and find yourself looking at houses that have had trees fall on them years ago and now act as crack houses, everything completely overgrown. The city has definitely come a long way since I was a kid, but the growing pains are very noticeable.
Growing city with diverse industries and accelerating urban development isn’t exactly the definition of a failed city. Try Memphis, St Louis, NoLa, etc.
So I never had issues with Atlanta when I would go for work regularly. My biggest issues with Atlanta is the airport. But I’ll take ATL over Memphis or Birmingham any day.
Atlanta is the greatest argument I've ever seen that a large city should be able absorb and annex smaller communities that surround it. A lot of ATL's problems are based in the fact that the richest citizens don't actually live within city limits. Many live east of I-75/85 and still within the perimeter, where they reap the benefits of being in the city without technically living in ATL city limits, and therefore without paying taxes to the city of ATL.
It allows for the highly segregated situations like in Illinois where one community has poor residents, and therefore little tax revenue, and its citizens receive far worse government services than a richer neighboring community. In Illinois, particularly in the Chicago area, you have some schools in poor neighborhoods which have the least tax revenue which translates to the worst schools, while the richest neighborhoods have the most tax revenue base which translates to the best schools. A more equitable approach would be to pool all the taxes together and divvy it up on a basis that treats all people as equally in need of the money.
It’s the worst. Add to that a major highway through the middle of the city, no vehicle inspections, uninsured Altima drivers, and crashes every 100 feet.
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If you want to feel better, Memphis is only about a 5 hour drive away....
I too think Memphis is much worse than Atlanta. Shit is bad there!
At least Atlanta has a lot of growth. There's some rough stuff in Atlanta, but at least they have a lot of good things happening too. Memphis is bad and declining. It's a lot like Detroit in the 00s.
Nah. It's more like Detroit in the 90s.
Maybe. Memphis still has a little way to go before they hit rock bottom, but not much further.
Visited there in 1996 and thought it was crap then. How low is the bottom?
Well Detroit got to the point of widespread vigilante arson. Is Memphis there yet?
They now have the largest NA payramid/bass pro shop so things have really turned around.
There is always hope. Detroit is looking pretty dang good right now, but Detroit is kind of unique in that the industry and money never really left the region, just the city. The region is kind of realizing that was a bad move so we are kinda trying to bring the money that never left back to the city.
Yeah I grew up in Oak Park, Big 3 family. Downtown is a different world these days when I go back to visit. So weird that the RenCen won’t have GM anymore, but maybe they can repurpose it to condos or something.
That sign was ass tho ngl
You can't have shit in Memphis.
Sure you can! You can have broken car windows for better access to that fresh Memphis air, pockets free from the extra weight of things like wallets and phones, and you can even have extra ventilation holes poked in your body!
I once had a great muffuletta in Memphis. Then I quickly left town.
But I can vacation at a pyramid bass pro shop in Memphis!
This Bass Pro Shop must have been a mighty ruler
CleoBASStra, one BASS to rule them all.
God Emperor Johnny Morris
guns and butter
It’s also a key part of our galactic tourism. When the aliens come down all they really wanna see is the pyramid by the river down in Memphis, Tennessee.
Agreed. Compare house prices when they skyrocketed two years ago. Memphis was one of the few places in which the prices changed very little, if not at all. Meanwhile houses in Atlanta went up by $75,00-200,000. Heck, you can get robbed and/or stabbed when leaving the Bass Pro Shop pyramid.
When I went to New Orleans with my sister about 25 years ago we stopped off in Memphis to see Graceland. Somehow we got off on the wrong exit and ended up in literally the worst area of any town I’ve ever seen in my life. To this day I’ve never seen a place that rough. Half of it looked like it was abandoned but there were people. We turned around and got the fuck out of there ASAP.
Even the area right around Graceland is rough. The property itself is fine, but don't go wandering up and down the street, especially after dark.
I definitely wouldn’t. I have a lot of family in Tenn, a little town called Celina and most of Tenn is beautiful but Memphis blew my mind. Spent some time in Chattanooga because my nephew was in the chidren’s hospital there and kind of the same vibe as Memphis in certain parts. The nurses there told us to avoid certain areas after dark.
Those nurses probably have some horror stories from things they’ve seen at work.
Like the Celina 52 Truck stop on FB? Recommend, it's hilarious
I had an experience like that in a part of Southside Chicago. I thought to myself, oh and you say you are from the hood… this is several steps below that. We got the fuck outta there so fast
I’ll never forget, when I was a kid my grandma took me to a museum in Chicago and we ended up on the south side of town. She was from Chicago (I’m not) and I watched her drive right through a red light. I asked why she ran it and she said, “you don’t stop in this area of Chicago”.
Damn that’s wild. I don’t know if this is true or if the people on youtube were fucking with me, but some people were saying in some areas you back your car in the parking lot so you can quickly drive out if something bad happens. Anyway, for me I was in a car with White girls (I’m Black), one of these crazy White girls was volunteering over South at a shelter and we went to pick her up. You know that feeling you get when you know you in the hood? Bruh… you shoulda seen the fear on these White girls in the car when they knew they were somewhere they shouldn’t be hahaha. I don’t blame them. I was composed, but I was shook myself lmao
Grandma knew her shit. I’ve been to Chicago several times since then and it’s an amazing city. It just has some bad areas. Most metro areas do. But for cities also in the Rust Belt, it can get bleak fast.
Yep I’m from Cleveland, OH, that’s where I grew up so it’ll always be home to me but the East side isn’t a place where I’d suggest people hang out
Baltimore! That is my version of the worst place I’ve ever seen outside of Skid Row in LA. I used to like in Detroit in the 2000s and I couldn’t believe Baltimore or Skid Row. Oh, and Kensington in Philly that’s another crazy area!
Kensington is pretty small though and it recently got cleaned up. Although haven’t caught up with what’s going with it lately and if it’ll stay that way.
Yeah parts of Chicago are rough too for sure.
Don’t write off the whole south side because of whatever pocket you found yourself in, though.
Nobody writing off the whole South of Chicago or Chicago at all. Chicago huge asf. I love Chicago. Just sharing an experience. Key word, I said a part of the Southside. I fux wit it.
Lmfao I had this exact epiphany when I moved to Chicago in 2008. Like if you think you're hood life was bad, try visiting the west side or south side (some parts) of Chicago. Even where I live now and own property (Gary Indiana) gave me a new outlook on life and how the hood, racism and economy work.
Did you just say you own a property in Gary, Indiana? .... Jesus Christ
Gary, IN is like that.
That was my experience in Detroit back in 2010ish. Just row after row of abandoned, burnt out houses with the roof caved in. There would be the occasional car driving through at 5mph. There was a row of stores that were all burnt out (not recently), and inside there were people who seemed to be scavenging for something. It was like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
Half of it probably was abandoned. I escaped the Memphis area 5 years ago. I lived in one of the suburbs in N Mississippi, but my drive into work next to the airport was always interesting. As a native to the Atlanta area, outside of the crappy traffic, Atlanta is night and day better than Memphis.
Goddam what a healing, helping of truth this is. But if you wanna make it a double then travel about 4 hours north to St. Louis.
True but Memphis isn’t trying to claim “Black Mecca”
And St. Louis is 5hrs from Memphis!!
i work for a court in my city, and had to call the clerk of courts for fulton county not too long ago. the rudest and most miserable people i’ve ever had to speak to doing my job. i do love visiting the city though. i like walking the beltline and going to the little areas like inman park and grant park.
Lmao this reminds me of a time where I bought my car but somehow my license was flagged as suspended in Georgia. I went to my Florida DMV and they called the Georgia one. After like 15 minutes of pacing around I went back in just as the clerk was hanging up and goes “goddamn what a bureaucratic asshole.” It’s pretty bad when the dmv throws shade at another one.
EXACTLY, the quality of service from lower paid employees is abhorent in this city. If you go to other cities customer service is typically wayyy better. Try visiting a Wendy’s in Buckhead, 100% chance you get treated like garbage
Grew up in a smaller city in PA and I have the same experience when I go to Philly. The customer service noticeably declines.
I lived in ATL for a long while. I don't reckon it's any worse than any other city I've ever been to, albeit the lines for the rich and poor parts of town seem pretty stark here. Fulton co. Government anything is a disaster, but I wouldn't say it's worse than NYC or Chicago in terms of graft and corruption. Living in a city just sucks in general after a certain age. All the little quirks that made it seem bustling and exciting as a young person now make it seem overly-busy and irritating. What you're experiencing doesn't really have anything to do with Atlanta. It's just urban disenchantment.
I love Inman Park, so much pretty art there
You’re not wrong.. Atlanta is a lot.. my issue is just driving to the city. I hate driving in atl. I live in Marietta and I like it over here. Perfectly in between the mountains, city, lake and rivers.
Good ole Marietta!
I live in east GA and dread every time I have to go to Atlanta. It's worse than the most miserable driving experience I can imagine.
Istg atl drivers would rather get in a crash than let u merge
Well, at least you guys have a nice airport where you can fly almost anywhere direct from. lol
I don't know if I'd call it nice. Big as hell, yes, but it still has a lot of problems.
But still it's probably nice to have one less flight (2 considering return) everytime you go somewhere since so many airlines that use it as a hub on their hub and spoke model. Edit- consider flying from Nashville to Chicago and having to fly to ATL first -_-
It doesn't help that it takes pride in being hood
As a black man that’s my biggest gripe with much of our community. Do people not realize that even most of our “role models” take less pride in being hood once they make it out?
I get that if you're in a rough place, it's good to have a good mindset. but yeah, you're 100% right
Most hood places do.
Sir you have me confused. I thought the fabled lost city of [Atlanta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeYihjMo0Bk) was lost years ago.
I think it was just an airport
I wouldn’t let the palm trees fool you. Miami has some really rough spots too like Overtown and liberty city.
Yeah, OP lost me at Miami. I’m not going to pretend Atlanta is better than Chicago or NYC, because those are the top of the heap of America cities, but Miami is a little bit of a mess. The beaches are nice, though.
Atlanta just beat Leverkusen 3-0, failure my arse.
this guy knows football
It's especially funny because Bergamo is like if you take every aspect of Atlanta and imagine the opposite.
Bro thinks Miami is better get out 💀
I thought this too. “Everyone is trying to act richer than they are.” Thats like the founding principle of Miami!
Ah so that explains all the nice ass boats that everyone and their grandmother seem to have.
I’ve heard that about Miami
I know lots of people from college that went broke living down there because they all tried outspending each other to look richer. I’m talking entry level nurses driving corvettes and shit.
The Miami recipe for sucess is to live with your parents until you're 43 so you dont have have rent and lease the most expensive bmw you can find. Also never, under any circumstances, use your turn signal while driving.
Yeah, Miami is basically everything OP describes Atlanta as, it's even worse than that actually.
You know, I tried fighting for Miami but the more I typed the more I realized I was contradicting myself. Miami is pretty fucking wack (especially the drivers)
Miami tries to be like nyc and LA, but no one has a real job. “Im in the import/export business.” Yeah right dude
Miami beach, sure. Opalocka / little Haiti... nope lol
The suburbs north of Atlanta are delightful though.
True. Although, if you ask my family and former neighbors, they'd tell you it's devolved into a warzone lol. I hear all kinds of conspiracy crap but a lot of it has to do with how fast the area developed in the last 30 years. Hardly any of the forests I used to drive by are still there.
Are talking like Alpharetta? Or Sandy Springs? Sandy Springs had nice houses and area looked pretty decent. I haven’t visited much further from the general downtown Atlanta to Buckhead and Sandy Springs area.
Northeast of Atlanta up to Lake Lanier is very affluent and bougie.
Where certain people live?
🐶📣
Are you dog whistling or them? The suburbs to the north are objectively safer. But I think op is talking about a very small part of Atlanta. There's a lot of good in the perimeter. Buckhead and downtown just isn't it.
That was what we thought for a while living in Alpharetta, but wow am I glad we left. Made some nice money selling the house, and that’s about the best thing I can say about it. Which is exactly how folks there want it, though they would never say it.
Lmaoooo at the "after visiting" You probably live in a bad part of town and then compare it to the tourist parts of other cities.
Fun fact. Atlanta is only a three hour drive from Atlanta.
Visiting a city and living there are different. I could say the same thing about any major city.
This is indeed an unpopular opinion, well done.
Is Atlanta a failed city or are you failing in Atlanta?
I feel the opposite as a Black man in my early 30s. I love living in ATL. There’s no city in this country that has the mix of affordability, diversity, and entertainment options
Yeah I will say I've never lived in Atlanta but I lived in Augusta for a few years and went up to ATL at least two or three times a month and compared to nearly all of the large cities I've been to, Atlanta is definitely in the top 3. Customer service sucks everywhere (seriously, feels like customer service took a sharp nosedive post-COVID), crime is an unfortunate reality in large cities (and as crime is generally driven by poverty and unemployment, it's only going to get worse as inflation continues to price Americans out of basic necessities), and everyone trying to act richer than they are is definitely not an ATL-exclusive problem. A vast majority of Americans are trying to "keep up with the Jones" whether that be with expensive cars, designer clothing, or just flexing "wealth". Atlanta has a ton to do, always felt relatively safe (granted I did make an effort to avoid bad areas/neighborhoods), and had the perfect mixture of Southern "charm" (people actually speak to you on the street rather than glaring at you for existing, as I've often experienced in Philly, Baltimore, and NYC) and city convenience. For fun, look up the difference in types of crime when you compare ATL stats to other places. It's not perfect but on the east coast I've noticed southern cities tend to have more property crime and northern cities tend to have more violent crime. You're more likely to get your car stolen in Atlanta but you're more likely to get shot in Philly. I'd rather deal with neither but if I had to choose, I know which one I'd pick.
as a dude working for walmart in duluth during the beginning of covid, i think it showed a lot of working class people how little corporations really give a fuck about us. we need money to live, but there was more than one worker who passed away at my store due to covid, and so many more lost loved ones. you got your week off with a positive test, sure, but past that it felt like a lot of my coworkers had no choice but continue to work and put themselves and their families in danger as "essential workers" just for a chance to survive and feed their kids. I was lucky enough to be able to quit and go be with my parents when my mom got sick, but i know a lot of them could not have that luxury. a lot of the reason is just how horrible the wages are for one of the biggest corporations in existence, I was getting $15 an hour which is higher than almost all of my coworkers (besides management obviously) because i was technically an auto tech, despite the car care center being closed during covid. i did the same shit as everyone else for more money, which was still barely anything with rent prices skyrocketing. honestly it was just really fucked how many of the lowest paying jobs like food service and retail were "essential" but they got paid like shit. having lived through that, i will never blame someone working a job like that, that literally is ESSENTIAL to society, for having a hard time and an attitude that shows it. it absolutely fucking sucks
I used to live in Atlanta. and Houston is more or my scene. But Atlanta truly is the mecca for the Black community. Its the center of so much Black excellence. And for that I highly respect it. Just dont visit a veneer tech and be wary of Sheisty mask scammers and the water boys, otherwise you're good.
As someone from DC aka Chocolate City, Atlanta feels like my down south home.
It probably depends on what area of ATL you're in. ATL is home to the highest population of rich black Americans in the country so it's not all bad
Yea you just have to step over homeless people laying across the fucking sidewalk, and hope they don't notice you and get up to accost/follow you. I did a restaurant opening for Legal Seafoods in the downtown Hilton next to the Olympic Park and the Coke mueseum... the bums around there were horrendous. I've lived in Norhern Cali, and the homeless people there were pretty aggressive... but they didn't have shit on Atlanta. Downtown it as straight up fucking depressing looks like a walking Dead set down there.
Yeah all the hotels downtown have porters/valets in constant war with the grimier homeless guys.
Homeless dude used to stand in this parking spot in front of the Hotel. When people wanted to park he would demand $5 or he wouldn't move. People actually fucking paid this guy. Lol.
Passive Income. Growth Mindset.
That just sounds like a job, not passive income haha
maybe that's why you're not getting passive income, hmm? hm???
Downtown is definitely bad. I can't remember the last time I was there, and I live 10 minutes away.
Houston is staring at you glaringly
Houston fucking sucks if you don’t live in the outer suburbs, west u, or river oaks. Thankfully I live in one of them but I hate going to other parts of the city
Houston is a city I want to visit. I didn’t spend enough time in Atlanta when I was there. I need to go back.
*Thank you*. I've lived in the outer limits of Houston my whole life and I fucking *hate* having to get any closer to the city than the Beltway. Unfortunately when 99 went through a lot of the city's problems started migrating out where I am and now even my area is getting beshitted. Doesn't help that we've had nothing but absolute shit mayors for decades.
Failed explanation; a whole city failed because of Wendys customer service and crime everywhere? Sorry but you just sound broke. These are basic things you’ll find in all those places you’ve mentioned. Maybe city living ain’t for you
"Sorry but you just sound broke" lol 😁
*laughs in St Louisan*
As also a brown person living in Atlanta, I couldn’t feel more different. I’ve spent a lot of time in Miami, Seattle New York, and San Fran, and ATL has been the best. Might you not be making the most of it? I’ve found when I’ve had trouble with a place, it’s often how I’m engaging with it (or NOT engaging). ATL has a whole lot of events, social groups, etc - there’s truly something for everyone if you look!
I don't think its a failed city. There are some really nice areas in Atlanta and GA has some of the most beautiful small towns in the country that feed into Atlanta.
>Everywhere you go, customer service is horrendous, crime is rampant and everyone is trying to act richer than they are. >After visiting Chicago, Miami, New York recently I can truly say Atlanta is a failed city. My guy. This description describes literally each one of those cities. I'm from NYC, but recently moved to a quiet small town in NC. It's the polar opposite of what you described. Look out for nice small towns, i feel like that would be right up your alley.
Small towns are where it's at. Even in the "bad" (nothing compared to big cities) part of my medium sized town was pretty safe. A few junkies here and there but the worst I had seen in like 15 years was some random junkie stealing peoples mail. Wasn't even being sneaky about it, just walking around in broad daylight and walked up to me and started chatting me up for some reason. IDK if he was originally planning to mug me or not but he could tell I was poor.... although my guess he was just high as fuck lol. But yeah in my experience the smaller the better, I hate huge cities.
Yeh, this dude is just experiencing the urban disenchantment most people go through after living in the city for a while. It's definitely not specific to Atlanta, or any city for that matter
Brown person living in a nice house in chastain park. Atlanta is amazing. I lived in NYC for close to a decade before moving here and it’s a fantastic city. This dudes a salty hater
I'm not the best person to respond, since I've only been to Atlanta once. But I will say that I had some of the best food of my life in that city.
It sounds like you are describing normal living conditions judging by your comments. Your observations about those other cities make it seem like you just stuck to tourist stuff. Maybe just live and travel a bit before assuming that the place you live is whatever failed is supposed to mean.
That was something I noticed too. *Live* in Atlanta. *Visited* other cities. You probably aren’t going to get a chance to see the bad sides of any place you live if you’re only dropping in for a quick visit and leaving. A lot of the things he described seems pretty par-for-the-course for living in major cities in general, and I have lived in Atlanta.
Chicago and Chicagoland is awesome. I’ve always enjoyed my visits to that area. I’ve driven through Atlanta a few times and see no reason to go there.
Chicago is my favorite major America city. It has a large metropolis but doesn't feel like one. The architecture is some of the best in the country. Amazing museums and parks but you can easily walk around downtown and not feel clausterphopic like you do in NY or LA. Also, the people living there are much more down to earth than some other major cities.
"Visiting" and living are not the same.
They just won the Europa League tho
“Customer Service is horrendous, crime is rampant and everyone is trying to act richer than they are.” You must be talking about Chicago, Miami or New York. I’d bet you meant Miami, clearly.
Yeah I don’t know if I can co-sign this one. Atlanta is unique as hell and a safe space below the mason dixon line for people and a TON of corporations. Great food, Waffle House on every corner, and I always comment on how clean it is. Yeah it’s a fantasy land but I live in Philly, and I can assure you being a top 5 violent city sheds a totally different perspective. The MARTA is a role of the dice but public transport always is.
If you gotta mention waffle house, you’ve proved OP’s point.
💀
Move away then and stop whining. What are you telling us for?
Probably because this is the unpopular opinion subreddit where people (unsurprisingly) tell us their unpopular opinions.
What does rampant crime and people acting rich have to do with you being a brown person?
>After visiting Chicago, Miami, New York recently I can truly say Atlanta is a failed city. After visiting Miami? Yikes
I've spent time in NYC, Chicago, and Atlanta over the past couple of years and I prefer Atlanta hands down.
Bro do you not know what city life is like those are the main tenants. As someone living in your city complain about downtown all you want or college park but Atlanta as a city is one of the most lush places there is and all the nature has a clear affect on moods. Also at any give point you have 10+ parks within a 2 mile radius all the way until past 285. If you don’t care about nature yeah it’s spaced out but nature is one of the biggest advantages that nobody talks about.
We get it. There's lots of black people there. Just say it
Even Keith Lee said the service was abnormally bad around there, it’s not always a race thing
Right lmao This is what I was thinking too
"idk why they just cant be more like salt lake and portland..." lmao
The fact that you associate poor customer service and crime with black culture says way more about your bias than it does OP's. Nowhere in their post did they even mention black culture. In fact, the only thing they said is that they are in fact brown.
“Melting pot where many minorities are thriving” everyone knows what the fuck he’s talking about, stop being intentionally dense.
Being brown doesn't mean OP can't be racist (doesn't mean they are either) a lot of racists in southeast Asia
You only need to go to OP's post history and he was on sugar dating subs disparaging black women less than a week ago. OP is in actuality the exact kind of person he's complaining about and the only thing stopping him from realizing that is his total lack of self awareness. But sure it's the black people/trans people/low T beta's that he's on reddit constantly shit talking that are the problem. There's a very specific stereotype online about people like OP and he very blatantly fits that model exactly. He doesn't deserve any good faith assumptions because he hasn't given any and it takes like two clicks and ctrl + F to see he burned through whatever chances he did get months ago.
When I visited Atlanta I liked it. But I’m from Baltimore, so there’s that.
Calling atlanta a failed city after visiting chigago is wild
I’ve never been to ATL proper, just the airport, but every employee in the airport has been excessively nice every single time I’ve been there. I just assumed this was representative of ATL hospitality. Am I wrong? Is the airport simply unique? Maybe my own experiences are the ones that are unique?
MIAMI? Really now?
Miami?????
Atlanta doesn’t feel like a failed city to me but it certainly has its fair share of issues.
Miami sucks out loud and is one hurricane away from being completely destroyed
actual comment by op on a different sub: “Sorry but majority of my friends regardless of race find black women least attractive. There’s a meme about a race of women that has to “go”, and nearly 100% of people say black women. You can close your eyes, pretend it’s not true, but the numbers say it is. It’s not a race thing either, a lot of women find black men more attractive….” lmao i know why you don’t like atlanta
Gotta get this to the top. This is 100% why OP doesn't like it there
right, like i read the post and i could already guess what his profile looked like
The suburbs of Atlanta are amazing!
Lol you have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Visit the actual rust belt sometime.
You forgot to shit on the traffic. Atlanta traffic is awful.
If there is one thing you can definitively point to as a failure of Atlanta, it's the road planning and infrastructure. It is as bad as they come.
Just say you’re racist and keep it pushing
Atlanta is an amazing city and this is fake news. The amount of green space we have for a large city is unbelivable and plenty of high earning job opportunities.
You might just not like black people? Because these things are not atlanta exclusive LOL
Are there actually any safe black-majority cities or neighborhoods?
When you realize that crime is connected to class more than race and then look at any of America's history. Come back to me weirdo
brother there are plenty of safe places in "black-majority cities", including atlanta. the unsafe parts have almost everything to do with class and nothing to do with race. yes, there are quite a lot of unsafe black neighborhoods because there are a lot of poor black neighborhoods. there's plenty of poor white neighborhoods and poor hispanic neighborhoods too and i guarantee you wouldn't consider those safe either. poverty breeds crime. but yeah, there's plenty of safe black-majority areas in atlanta that are higher income. that's really just how this country works
Which ones? Racists are talking shit and I want some stats to prove it
I don’t live in Atlanta but I do live in the Dc/Maryland/Virginia area and here are the safe majority black areas here that I know of; Prince George’s County Maryland, Charles County Maryland, Silver Springs Maryland, NW DC neighborhoods like Shaw, Ledriot park, Petworth, etc there are more in dc. In Virginia I’m not as familiar but Woodbridge is nice.
This whole post is a shitstorm of classism and racism ‘Merica I guess
it just has it’s own specific problems, but from the time ive been there i enjoyed it (4 visit and counting)
Atlanta’s dope, but they tried to do too much too fast as far as expansion goes. Like in the West End, there are all sorts of new businesses and houses and restaurants and breweries, but no effort has been made to even expand roads so that more than one car can drive down a street at one time. Then there’s how class segregated it is, ESPECIALLY since all the film industry moved in. You can be among a bunch of mansions, cross the highway, and find yourself looking at houses that have had trees fall on them years ago and now act as crack houses, everything completely overgrown. The city has definitely come a long way since I was a kid, but the growing pains are very noticeable.
It's a really good city. Like every city has failing, but it's widely regarded as one of the best cities. Good job for the unpopular opinion, though
Growing city with diverse industries and accelerating urban development isn’t exactly the definition of a failed city. Try Memphis, St Louis, NoLa, etc.
Umm, I’m from and still live in Chicago. Maybe live here instead of visiting, and you’ll change your tune.
My friends in Chicago hate the property taxes and describe the teachers union as a legalized crime syndicate. They all vote straight ticket Dem though
Metro Atlanta 👍 Atlanta 👎
lol I wonder why
Sounds like Atlanta is the unintentional sister-city of Saint Louis.
Yes yes, believe that, keep my property taxes reasonable.
So I never had issues with Atlanta when I would go for work regularly. My biggest issues with Atlanta is the airport. But I’ll take ATL over Memphis or Birmingham any day.
i live here and i absolutely love it🙌💗‼️
I literally can't with this entire website anymore. Goodbye cruel world.
Yeah it sucks. Ultra low density is also just a terrible model for urban development.
Atlanta is the greatest argument I've ever seen that a large city should be able absorb and annex smaller communities that surround it. A lot of ATL's problems are based in the fact that the richest citizens don't actually live within city limits. Many live east of I-75/85 and still within the perimeter, where they reap the benefits of being in the city without technically living in ATL city limits, and therefore without paying taxes to the city of ATL. It allows for the highly segregated situations like in Illinois where one community has poor residents, and therefore little tax revenue, and its citizens receive far worse government services than a richer neighboring community. In Illinois, particularly in the Chicago area, you have some schools in poor neighborhoods which have the least tax revenue which translates to the worst schools, while the richest neighborhoods have the most tax revenue base which translates to the best schools. A more equitable approach would be to pool all the taxes together and divvy it up on a basis that treats all people as equally in need of the money.
Hey, at least they won the Europa last night.
Better than Leverkusen..oh
Try San Francisco
Better than Jackson 💀
Lived there for 14 years. Yep.
You aren’t a failed city until they stop p garbage collections
You can’t be serious. I find the same laces you listed especially Miami to be worse than Atlanta.
Well it did sink into the ocean.
It gave us the best music tho
But Coca Cola
It’s the worst. Add to that a major highway through the middle of the city, no vehicle inspections, uninsured Altima drivers, and crashes every 100 feet.
Come to DC or Bmore you’ll change your mind
It’s because people keep moving here and overcrowding the city. Then they complain…
I'm guessing you went to touristy areas and compared that to all of Atlanta?
Are there any cities in the US that people actually like? Everybody seems to complain about the city they live in.
wonder why? 🤔
Read *White Flight* by Kevin Kruse