Atlanta 2020 Census

[SteveD]

[QUOTE=Tuckerman;10118242]

Originally Posted by newuserbuckhead

I've said this to plenty of people but Atlanta doesn't feel as big as what it is. Maybe it's because I've been here too long where Midtown/Downtown don't make me awe struck anymore, but cities like Boston/Seattle/Philly just feel bigger, even if Atlanta Metro is bigger.

How "big" a city feels is an interesting concept. Of course the core "political cities" of Boston, Philly and Seattle are all more populous than the city of Atlanta. But one could make the same case that LA doesn't "feel" as big as Chicago.
Part of the answer is the density in the city and the feeling of many pedestrians on the streets. Having lived in Edinburgh, Scotland the feel of the "downtown" is one of packed sidewalks and constant buses and arriving trains, but it is not a metropolis and has far less than a million people in the metro area and Princes Street has probably more street traffic than any American city outside of NYC. In contrast, even our lauded Peachtree St. is a lazy thoroughfare (only exception might be at 14th Street where there is moderate activity).
Obviously a great part of this imagery is due to the fact that cars are not an easy option in these apparently "big" feel cities. In fact, many major cities in Europe simply restrict the use of private cars in the center and on major shopping streets.

I am always reminded of the reported "fact" that the entire center of Florence, It. would fit within the I285 -I75 interchange.

I get what you're saying, but I have to disagree a bit. I travel all over the country for the work that I do and have for the last 35+ years. This is just my opinion, but of each of the cities you mentioned, only Philly "seems" bigger to me. Seattle and Boston don't. A comparison I like to make is that Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas all seemed about the same to me 25 or 30 years ago. But those two have clearly outpaced Atlanta over that time frame and now each seems, and in fact are, bigger. I also like to say Los Angeles is Atlanta on steroids.

Seattle and Boston do have more dense downtown cores. Metro Atlanta remains the least dense major metro in the nation. But, again, in my opinion, metro Atlanta seems bigger than both metro Seattle and metro Boston. And it is!