Quote:
Originally Posted by shivtim
^Why are you even still posting in the Atlanta forum? We don't really care what your opinion is. Or, do you have some more "extra special insider information because I'm awesomer than you normal people and I'm super important in the development world even though I'm just a racist 22 year old" you'd like to share with us? Get thee over to City Data, and stay there.
My favorite Simms quotes, lest we forget:
"Atlanta almost made me racist. Atlanta blinded me to what's normal behavior. Only in Atlanta can the "young professional/upscale" areas like Midtown and Buckhead be so ghetto."
"Now I will say that as a white guy with a northern European/Anglo-Saxon background, I am not very comfortable mixing in with the hip hop crowd. Many others with my background feel that certain places in Atlanta have become "overrun" and taken over by rappers. Racist on the surface, but frankly it's natural for both sides to feel skepticism."
"Now I will say that being fairly active in various organizations in the city as a volunteer, I wish that more African Americans were also active."
"Atlanta just seems so slow, hot, dirty, ghetto, crime-ridden and uneducated..."
"I'm done being optimistic, hopeful, and done making excuses for this city/metro."
"The friggin ghetto culture Atlanta is so well known for."
"the fact that you all think I'm some racist asshole for bringing up the term "hood-rich" and my favorite, "ghetto chic," and crime in the city is simply childish at best. "
"No other American city puts as many conservative or lily white hipster Millennials and as many hip hop blacks together in one smallish area as Atlanta."
"there is some rap thing going on downtown, which is where I went to catch a bit of hectic city life, and man is it a turnoff when there are a bunch of rappers in town."
"As a student dropping a boat load of money to attend the school, I for one am glad that I am in my "own little world" on campus rather than interacting with Woodruff park and bums every day."
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New poster and frequent reader here.
Guys, please get a hold of your poor egos. Simms is in the real estate business, and this is a construction forum. Whether or not you agree with everything he posts, he has given more substantive and accurate information than plenty of other posters, and deserves credit for that. And although he does not live in the Atlanta area anymore, the balance of his posts are interesting and, more importantly, informed. In my opinion, there are many other informed posters, and more foks who are readers only. Whether or not we as a body of people share opinions with these posters, have identical political views, or see the world the same way as them is irrelevant. If you like personal attacks watch reality TV. If you want uninformed news updates about construction or urban development (or anything, really), there is plenty of this to be had these days on the internet.
Now on the topic of the OFW row houses in inman park, this is an Atlanta favorite. I don't know the business way to say it, but say we called this subdivision-style development a "blind street." A blind street could be any street that MUST be used via auto to get between different areas, and is more crowded than it would otherwise be because of a lack of a grid that could offload some extra traffic. Think of the Druid Hills neighborhood, and Briarcliff road specifically. While there are -cough-gag- I guess several nice things about suburban style development, low-density may be "nice" but it is not sustainable. AT ALL. For small towns this is fine. But in bigger cities, because of these blind streets, things get out of control over time. If you drive up and down briarcliff, the cross roads are poorly spaced, go in circles, and lead nowhere. Hmm, why do you think there so much traffic on Briarcliff then?? There are plenty of other streets across metro Atlanta that are similar. If there was effective mass transportation in these areas (and I'm not talking street-clogging buses), we are fine. If there was an effective grid system, there would be some pressure offloading so that other routes were available. Of course the big thing would be mass transit. But my understanding from reading some about this is that while a druid hills extension was in the original MARTA plans, it was scratched due to NIMBY-ism.
It is well established that, in general, Subdivision-style developments are unsustainable. They come with higher-than expected traffic because they are "destination" developments. As soon as people start coming (or going), traffic slogs to a halt (even though there might only be 10-12 actual PEOPLE in front of you, because when you are in cars the line is LOOONG). Then the commute gets long. Then the development loses business (or homeowners) because there is a new "popular area." Then this orig development is old and busted, falls into disrepair, and becomes an eyesore. lastly, a new 'destination" development is built and Voila! We start all over.
At last, we have reached the point of all this. Atlanta is too big and too busy and has too much traffic to be building NEW relatively low-density buildings. People will eventually go insane living here because of traffic, and the few people left that haven't yet gone insane would wish they had left and gone to a more urban, sustainable place.
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