[SteveD]

Originally Posted by realm0854

having lived in atlanta for four years i think its CSA numbers are rediculous. ive been to newton, barrow, jackson, walton, rockdale, dawson, etc. and those counties are nothing but sticks with a bunch of crap ass subdivisons popping up. they are experiencing tons of growth but there is really no THERE there. atlanta, to me, is still only fulton, dekalb, cobb, gwinnett, clayton, cherokee, henry, douglas, coweta, fayette, forsyth, paulding, bartow and maybe rockdale and hall. really and truly that's the bulk of the atlanta area and even though it includes all the principle areas it is still composed of a lot of HIGHLY undeveloped fringe counties. i mean, even in henry and cherokee there are large areas that are not even populated at all.

Realm, I understand the point you're making, and it's common knowledge that the Atlanta MSA and CSA are the least dense of the nation's large metros; however, the CSA definition is not arbitrary. It is what it is. It's derived based on commuting patterns, and how the local population considers itself with respect to the adjacent primary city. Atlanta's CSA and MSA counties are therefore no more or less rediculous than the majority of other large sprawling sunbelt boomtowns, which also have far-flung largely undeveloped tracts within their MSAs and CSAs (such as Houston, Dallas, Phoenix...hell, even L.A.!). Also, with respect to the Atlanta MSAs and CSAs being the least dense, there are several other large MSAs and CSAs which come pretty darn close to matching our low density sprawl, to wit, some which I've just metioned.