Seems Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed a bit worried that Charlotte may be gaining on Hotlanta.
Reed apparently told the Hungry Club (a civic discussion group at the Butler Street YMCA) that Atlanta's in danger of falling behind Charlotte if the city and the State of Georgia don’t make strides on transportation, education, water and the arts. All this is from the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Jim Galloway and his blog.
Reed also noted that the N.C. Piedmont got some big chunks of federal high-speed rail money, and Atlanta didn't.
For more fun, read the comments on Galloway's blog, e.g.: "Not that Atlanta’s a model city, but I’ve been to Charlotte many times and it’s boring as hell. It may be on the rise, but there’s nothing interesting about Charlotte either historically or culturally."
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Atlanta hears Charlotte's footsteps gaining
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8 comments:
I, for one, never wanted Charlotte to be anything like Atlanta. Charlotte is still a great city to live in, but I believe we peaked in the late 90s early 00s. Now there are too many yankees, too many people, to much sprawl, traffic - yep we are gaining on Atlanta.
So, the race is to see which city can raise taxes and spend money more quickly? If so, let Atlanta win that race.
Is anyone surprised that the northern suburbs of Atlanta, like Johns Creek and Alpharetta, are trying to "secede" from Atlanta in every political sense, even trying to break off their own new county? Atlanta's politicians seem to be just as bad as ours when it comes to raising taxes and wasting money.
Interesting comments on the ajc site. Looks like Atlanta and Charlotte have similar issues - NIMBYs, state legislatures that don't give a rip about them, and suburbs who spit at and insult the city center at every opportunity.
I'm not on the "arts" bandwagon. Now that we hear that half the county's libraries are closing, I think we'd be better served spending money to keep them open, as opposed to spending untold millions for "art" that the "artists" can't sell on the open market.
Jason - you, and other Southerners who hate people from above the Mason-Dixon line, would do well to consider that your hatred is no different than hating someone for having a different skin color. Neither birthplace nor skin color is something any human being has any control over. You make yourself very small by hating people for those reasons. I'm sorry the Civil War didn't work out for you, but that was long before I was born, so hating me because I was born up North doesn't do either one of us any good.
As far as the comparison comment, there is not as much to do in CLT as ATL but all my friends that come in from ATL prefer CLT's livibility.
And when CLT does hit another growth spurt, the city is well-positioned for growth, unlike ATL with all its sprawl.
The one mistake I do believe we made in following ATL is adding all the development to the 485 loop exits. That brought ATL traffic to a crawl. I hope we dont end up the same way.
Let us not set the bar too low.
The utter banality of the AJC piece is striking. Everything is in vague, status-related terms and ultimately about getting thrown federal goodies. The very same mindset of our Charlotte booster-Babbits who are able to utter the phrase "world class" without irony.
I'll be encouraged when we have leaders who can talk primarily in concrete terms of livability. And, when we have voters who elect them.
The improvements to Charlotte's transportation, and it ability to compete and attract the best and brightest is only going to further establish the city as a destination for all. The term "Yankees" will in time fade away like "cowboys" in the deserts of Phoenix. Then like Phoenix, business and tourists will fill our charlotte hotels and high tech businesses and growth will take hold.
Ugh, so tired of "Yankees" being blamed for what is going "wrong" in Charlotte. Employers relocated a lot of "us" here; we really didn't have a choice.
I hope Charlotte can curb the sprawl and soon.
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