Fastest Growing U.S. Metros: Atlanta tops all

[RobMidtowner]

I'm curious, where does Atlanta rank in terms of Fastest Growing World Metros? Or is that even ranked?

[sprtsluvr8]

Do third world nations even have a census? That seems like an expense they could do without...or maybe the U.S. does it worldwide...

[Muskavon]

As far as the sprawl issue...I don't doubt many people from all over are attracted to the McMansion in a suburban neighborhood and that is an affordable option for many from the northeast looking at Atlanta, etc when it was totally unaffordable where they grew up. But it should be noted that the key difference that led to 1 billion sprawling square miles of Atlanta (and Houston) compared to the more compact areas of places like New York aren't about being "smarter" or even being forced by the Atlantic Ocean. It's about different times of development. Obviously the southern areas didn't even restart in earnest till the auto age. So the sprawl was about as natural a development as anything Darwin could report on. It'd be exactly the opposite had we worked from the south northward, IMO. It's not a reason to call whole groups of people less intelligent or less forward thinking. No one in 1950 was thinking the auto wasn't the ultimate freedom answer. Now we have what we have. Nature will reshape this again. It already is. But I wouldn't underestimate these southern cities ability to change with the energy needs.

[Avian001]

Originally Posted by RobMidtowner

I'm curious, where does Atlanta rank in terms of Fastest Growing World Metros? Or is that even ranked?

Good question. According to Guinness, the fastest growing city in the world is Chongqing, China. It's growing by 500,000 a year, with many other Asian and Indian cities following very closely behind. So I doubt Atlanta would even be a blip.

[RobMidtowner]

Originally Posted by Avian001

Good question. According to Guinness, the fastest growing city in the world is Chongqing, China. It's growing by 500,000 a year, with many other Asian and Indian cities following very closely behind. So I doubt Atlanta would even be a blip.

WOW! 500K/year, that's astonishing. I wonder if this is representative of the actual growth or if it appears so high because of the city growing in area through annexation etc. I can only imagine the strain that kind've growth is putting on their infrastructure. Thanks for the info Avian.

[Plasticman]

Originally Posted by shanthemanatl

As someone who has lived in Atlanta for 8 years now, I can tell you that the winters here are nothing like they are up north!

The average high temp in Atlanta at the end of January is 51 degrees, and the average low is 34. Snow and/or ice is extremely uncommon, and it's not unusual to have occasional days in the 60s and 70s, even in January. Spring and Fall are absolutely stunning, and Summer is not as hot and humid as many people believe. Yes, July and August can get a bit sticky, but Atlanta's average high in mid-July is only 88 degrees.

As someone who has lived in the Atlanta area for 24 years having moved from both Northern Kentucky and Tennessee, I can agree with most of your points but your eight years here aren't representative of normal.

Snow and ice is not even slightly uncommon in North Georgia. Only in the last four years have we went through one of the normal cycles of very little snow, warmer temps. The very first few winters I lived here we had several nice snowfalls and some very, very cold weather. Winter of 83 our pipes burst while we were visiting out of state. What a mess. Just five years ago, we had a major ice storm knocking out our power for 36 hours. In 93, we had a blizzard that dumped over two feet of snow on areas from Rome northward.

To counter that, I've seen some excessively hot summers and yet two Summers ago we only broke 90 degrees four or five times. So it has its ebbs and flows.

So to say our weather is nothing like the north is true but only to a point. We do receive similar weather but it doesn't last near as long and is much less often.

[alleystreetindustry]

i don't think you could use the pure temperatures you see on the weather forecast for a debate. i live in atlanta, and though i am only 16, i prefer atlanta's location over anything else. miami: hurricane zone, humidity+heat, pancake flat, flooding. dallas & houston: flat, hot, dry. l.a: hot, stinky, earthquakes, hills. atlanta: hot, humid or not humid, hills, nothing of real danger. while the northeast is freezing in the winter, there are those days here when i leave the house in a light jacket. sure, we can go as low as 28 degrees, on small occasions. lately, it seems this global warming conflict is coming true here. very unusual weather for an almanac. weather here used to be cold, and snow was natural, however, it isn't anymore. we do have those times we may be coated in ice though, but here, we treat it like heaven fell to atlanta's doorstep. i think atlanta is a prefect location for re-location. by all means, don't move to the atlanta suburbs. don't even be "in the perimeter"; be intown, that is where everything happens.

[ajmstilt]

Originally Posted by alleystreetindustry;2795076[B

dallas & houston[/B]: flat, hot, dry. .[/B]

wait did you just call Houston Dry?

[SteveD]

He did, but cut him some slack. Hot and flat will suffice. Annual average precipitation:

Atlanta: 56.43 inches
Dallas: 18.97 inches
Houston: 41.21 inches

Maybe we could say

Dallas: Hot, Flat, Dry
Houston: Hot, Flat, Humid
Atlanta: Not as Hot as either, Rolling and Hilly, not as Dry or Humid

[JAM]

Originally Posted by SteveD

He did, but cut him some slack. Hot and flat will suffice. Annual average precipitation:

Atlanta: 56.43 inches
Dallas: 18.97 inches
Houston: 41.21 inches

Maybe we could say

Dallas: Hot, Flat, Dry
Houston: Hot, Flat, Humid
Atlanta: Not as Hot as either, Rolling and Hilly, not as Dry or Humid

Looks biased to me. Lets try again....

Dallas: Too cold Winter, flat, dry
Houston: Nice warm Winter, ahhh, flat, very humid a 2-3 months a year
Atlanta: Too cold Winter, Rolling and Hilly, not as Dry or Humid.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by JAM

Looks biased to me. Lets try again....

Dallas: Too cold Winter, flat, dry
Houston: Nice warm Winter, ahhh, flat, very humid a 2-3 months a year
Atlanta: Too cold Winter, Rolling and Hilly, not as Dry or Humid.

that works too!

[Great_Hizzy]

I look out my window right now and snicker.

Suckers!!



Atlanta summers are usually a lot more tolerable than Houston's but Houston's winters are genuinely great. Dallas is somewhere between the two on both extremes, though closer to Houston in summer and certainly closer to Atlanta in winter.

[Trae]

Why do so many people think Dallas is flat?

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/showthread.php?t=6780

[alleystreetindustry]

He did, but cut him some slack. Hot and flat will suffice. Annual average precipitation:

Atlanta: 56.43 inches
Dallas: 18.97 inches
Houston: 41.21 inches

Maybe we could say

Dallas: Hot, Flat, Dry
Houston: Hot, Flat, Humid
Atlanta: Not as Hot as either, Rolling and Hilly, not as Dry or Humid

aight. i have 5 friends from houston, moved here recently (within 3 years) and all have said houston is dry, just like dallas. i don't know if their human humidity meters are fucked up or something, but that is what i have heard. sorry for pushing ideas without any "in person" activity.

on the other hand, dallas weather seems to be a bitch for my cousin, who happens to be 28, but from atlanta. she hates dallas. the only thing there are the great people she has met. (a great job sucked her into texas)

now, i haven't gone to either of those places, nor do i plan to.

my debate squad has been to houston and dallas. they prefer houston way more than dallas. "there is nothing happenning in dallas. its like those towns you see in the old western films. not a tree in site too. the downtown has nothing happenning." (the tree thing may be a comparison of atlanta's heavy downtown tree landscape to dallas's bare land).

now, i would think houston is humid because of the measurements and the fact that it is close to the coast.

so here is my official take:
dallas-cold winter, hot summer, flat, dry
houston-warm winter, hot summer, flat, kind-of humid
atlanta-cool/cold winter, hot summer, hilly, humid.

i'm not going to say anything negative to a place i haven't been to.

[Trae]

Again, people still think Dallas is flat. Dallas is pretty hilly (except for the northern part). The area's I have seen, rival Atlanta.

[Trae]

Again, people still think Dallas is flat. Dallas is pretty hilly (except for the northern part). The area's I have seen, rival Atlanta.

[shanthemanatl]

Originally Posted by Plasticman

As someone who has lived in the Atlanta area for 24 years having moved from both Northern Kentucky and Tennessee, I can agree with most of your points but your eight years here aren't representative of normal.

Snow and ice is not even slightly uncommon in North Georgia. Only in the last four years have we went through one of the normal cycles of very little snow, warmer temps. The very first few winters I lived here we had several nice snowfalls and some very, very cold weather. Winter of 83 our pipes burst while we were visiting out of state. What a mess. Just five years ago, we had a major ice storm knocking out our power for 36 hours. In 93, we had a blizzard that dumped over two feet of snow on areas from Rome northward.

To counter that, I've seen some excessively hot summers and yet two Summers ago we only broke 90 degrees four or five times. So it has its ebbs and flows.

So to say our weather is nothing like the north is true but only to a point. We do receive similar weather but it doesn't last near as long and is much less often.

Well, I think I said our winter weather is nothing like it is up north, actually, but your points are well-taken.

I certainly wasn't implying that we never get "northern"-like winter weather here in Atlanta, and areas just an hour north of town seem to encounter snow/ice more frequently than those of us who live in the city.

But even if Atlanta averaged one "nice" snowfall or pipe-bursting cold snap a year, it would pale in comparision to what I experienced in Allentown, PA!

[sprtsluvr8]

Usually when you see a photo of downtown Dallas, there is mile after mile of flat area in the foreground and you can see flat land far past the skyline. When I've visited Dallas I was amazed at how far I could see...because it was so flat. I'm sure there are areas that have hills and the wilderness photos are pretty but not representative of the city of Dallas.

[sprtsluvr8]

Atlanta winters are extremely mild in comparison to anything north of here. When there is a big snowfall or an ice storm in January, which are both very rare, two days later it is 70 degrees again. We have 7 day stretches of 60-70 degree weather in winter. Spring weather starts consistently in February, granted with spots of frost and cold at times...these temperatures are common throughout the winter months, which don't actually begin until sometime in November...

[thoraudio]

Originally Posted by PhillyNation

T
So why is Detroit is still trying to stop the bleeding from 40+ years of decline and Miami looks like Dubai with all the cranes on the skyline and turning into Florida's Urban Crown Jewel.

Old post, I know... but I rarely get in here.

Why? TV and movies of the 80's of course.

Miami got Miami Vice, where even the hookers and drug dealers looked great.

Detroit got the dystopian future of RoboCop.