Atlanta Project Thread IV

[Inman Parker]

While I agree with some of the things that you are saying, I also think that you are being far over dramatic.

First off, dont try to compare Atlanta with San Francisco, NYC, Seattle, etc. Atlanta is basically being built from scratch in areas like midtown, Inman, O4W, westside, etc and the progress that has been made in the last 15 years, regardless of how much still needs to be done, is pretty staggering. Atlanta doesnt have the historic infrastructure (for a number of different reasons) that any of those cities have and, as a result, the city is going through an extensive transitional period of trying to change the suburban mindset that has developed over the past 60 years.

The fact is, Atlanta isnt one of the wealthiest cities in the country (compared to the list of cities that you just rattled off) and the wealth that it does have tends to prefer to live in a suburban setting for the most part. Even a portion of the group that would prefer "urban" lifestyle live in suburbs because it is perceived as the thing to do when you move here.

On your point about about people just wanting walkability and access to transit, of course, but thats easier said than done. Since Atlanta doesnt have the advantage of a historic grid of walkable streets, there is a chicken or the egg situation. In these older cities, you have a young, creative group that moves into a block of old buildings, puts the energy into it while its cheap and then the neighborhood changes over time. In Atlanta, we are building brand new buildings, which dont tend to draw as creative a demographic and cause the progress to occur much slower due to financing costs of new buildings. I hear people all the time say that they would live in Midtown if it had a little more going on and it felt safer. In reality, if all of those people moved there, it would feel much safer. However, they wont feel safe until more people suck it up and move into the city (which is happening, just not as quickly as some want). Its a tough cycle where many people want this to be a more urban city but dont want to put in the effort to make that happen. Because of that, we are left with developers trying to make it happen with their granite counter tops, pools etc. They have to be able to offer something since they cant offer a complete city yet.

At the end of the day I think that you are correct. At the core, people these days expect their cities to be walkable, smart places places to be with access to transit. Unfortunately, those things dont happen until their is a strong enough demand for them. This IS happening in Atlanta, but its a long process and is taking longer than some of us would like.