Atlanta. The city in a forest.
As the center of the ninth-largest metro area in the U.S., this Southern metropolis has a lot to offer, from its beautiful history and parks to museums, sports, hip hop, an excellent filming location for the likes of the MCU and the Hunger Games series, the world’s second-largest aquarium (thanks, Singapore) and the busiest airport.
Yet, for one reason or another, despite a growing population, we’re always losing people. Whether they move to Tokyo or Taliaferro County, these seven thoughts always cross their mind.
1. “Wow, this airport is small compared to ours."
Unless you move to New York, London, Paris or L.A., the chances of having an airport nearly as nice as ours are slim. Any one of the millions of passengers who connect here annually can attest to that. While I haven’t ventured to many places outside of the United States, I’ve flown multiple times into and out airports around North America, and I can honestly say that Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (or just Hartsfield, if you’re a local) is the world’s busiest airport for a reason. With flights to everywhere from Chattanooga to Johannesburg, our ginormous airport always has a flight somewhere.
2. *upon moving to a city with legitimate rapid transit*
“This is the definition of luxury.”
Sure, the New York subway may get a little dirty, but Atlanta’s subway is strictly for those who wish to get mugged. Heck, Washington, D.C. is a bad city, and even it has a better subway than we do. MARTA (short for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) was built in the mid-to-late 1970s, was initially planned to reach all five core counties of the then-exploding metro area.
However, the counties of Cobb and Gwinnett rejected the idea, citing that it would bring lower-income individuals into those wealthier counties and decrease livability and property values. Thus, the subway was relegated to serving the inner city and a select few suburbs immediately adjacent to it. Then the crack epidemic happened and the inner city began suffering, and while the 1996 Olympics (bet you didn’t know we hosted an Olympics) kicked off revitalization efforts that continue to this day, including demolishing all remaining housing projects. Nonetheless, parts of the city remain riddled with poorer individuals, and since MARTA is near where these people live, they started using it more, and the rest is history.
There is a referendum to extend service to the wealthier suburb of Johns Creek, so that may be its saving grace. Besides, the population of Atlanta doesn’t really have traffic as bad as some people would say, so driving, until they fix MARTA, remains very much a viable option.
3. “Wow, these people are rude.”
I’m sure it happens sometimes, but I’ve heard of few people moving from Atlanta to a more rural part of the South, in the thick of Southern hospitality. Even so, our proximity to such regions causes it to rub off on people, and going outside of the South reveals rude individuals—especially in larger cities. I’ve heard that people in France aren’t generally rude to Americans, but I think it helps to be fluent in French, as the person who told me so was. I, for one, am sure that the natural xenophobia (fear of people of different demographic than one’s own) we all seem to be wired with certainly applies to Americans sometimes.
4. “You think traffic here is bad? Just wait until a homeless guy torches one of your Interstates. You’ll be so thankful for normal traffic.”
On March 30, a homeless man, disgruntled with the way his life was headed, realized that the pile of PVC pipes under I-85 was extremely flammable. So, around 6:15 P.M. local time, he lit them on fire. How much damage he intended remains unknown, and no one died, but some two miles of roadway were closed until May 12. It got so bad that President Trump gave $10 million to the repair effort; the repairmen worked through the night for several weeks to make Atlantans’ lives easier. Traffic was not the same while the bridge was not operational. Early on, it got so bad that they had to close other connecting surface streets. Since the repairs were finished, things have slowly gone back to normal (which is still bad). But never will we forget the horror of those weeks.
5. “Wow. I didn’t know that our sports teams were that bad.”
Super Bowl LI was awesome (at least for the first half). The 2016 season was the first time in many years that the national sports media quit handling the Falcons with kid gloves and talked about them like the NFL team that they were. And then people started hating the Patriots and cheering for us once the Cowboys were out of the way. We Falcons fans dare not speak of the horrible events of February 5, so let’s move on to baseball. There really isn’t much to say about the Braves; we haven’t won a World Series since 1995 (the only national championship for a top-flight pro sports team from Atlanta), and we haven’t seen playoffs since 2013. Since then, we’ve sunk to the bottom of the NL rankings every year. It’s hard to even beat the Phillies. And as for basketball—well, let’s say that after it was proven that we can’t beat LeBron in the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals, my dad, the biggest Atlanta sports fan I know, quit caring. I hear “long-suffering” Knicks fans celebrating about beating the Magic, but at least their market has seen a recent championship (the Yankees in 2009). We have one, just one, and everyone from the team has long since retired.
6. “Hey, at least there are Tech fans.”
Georgia Tech (my dream school) has a bigger footprint than you think. It has a massive international and out-of-state student population, and many of its alumni move overseas or out of Georgia to pursue their career. It’s no wonder, then, that Buzz is the most recognized college mascot in the entire world. No matter where you go, you will always find a Georgia Tech alumnus—even if they know nothing of John Heisman (a football coach, more well known for the trophy that bears his name), the Ramblin’ Wreck (an old gold Ford from the ‘30s), Bobby Cremins (an insanely good basketball coach—probably the best one to have never won a tourney), the Cumberland Game (the most lopsided sporting event in history, 222-0, coached by title-winning Heisman), George P. Burdell (an imaginary student), or 1990 (the year that the Jackets beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Citrus Bowl to win the National Championship).
7. “Why is everyone from the same place?”
Even in cities like Paris or New York with high immigrant populations, many people are from relatively nearby. Atlanta, on the other hand, is made up of people from everywhere—all 50 states and pretty much all countries the U.S. will accept immigrants from. I’ve seen people from Canada, Mexico, Central America, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Kansas Ohio, Chicago, Texas—if it has a population, it has a significant diaspora in Atlanta. My family is an extreme rarity—we are all native Georgians, and that is dubious because while we’ve spent most of our lives in Metro Atlanta, my sister and I were born in Virginia and Colorado, respectively. In short, you never know who you’ll meet if you walk around Atlanta. We are a more diverse city than you would think.
