We are thinking of relocation and Atlanta is on my list as a possible new place to live. Here are two popular opinions, which one is right?

1) The greater Atlanta used to be a great place to live. It use to have lots and lots of trees, open space and park land. Gentle southern hospitality, and manners. A great climate and quality of life. Now it is almost treeless, full of Taco Bell strips, ugly commerical stips and big box retail, traffic and smog. Southern hospitality is gone replaced with manners more fitting New York City.

2) Atlanta has finally shaken off the slow southern City feel. Where was once swamp land is now great shopping, culture, places to eat and beautiful homes. The business community has boomed with lots of world class companies located in beautiful office buildings. Instead of just slow southern folk, the City is now a diverse population of cultured people from all over the world. Finally, Atlanta is a world class City, not a sleepy southern town.

Which is right?

This has been debated somewhat vigorously on this forum before. (See the long post 5 World Class Cities, or something like that which ran here over the last 3-4 weeks.)
I think Atlanta is a good city, that has a lot to offer. Yes, there are problems, the largest of which is the traffic, though that problem is hardly unique to Atlanta.
There is culture in Atlanta, but there are also shopping strips a-plenty. There is a reasonably temperate climate. The topography is splendid - rolling hills, a nice (but smallish river), a great lake or two, and the GA mountains within spitting distance.
There are some corrupt politicians, some rednecks, and some humidity in the summer.
Maybe there aren't as many trees as there used to be, but you wouldn't know it driving through some of the grand old neighborhoods which are chockful of some stunning homes.
The airport is international in size and scope, but is congested to boot.
There are some world class hospitals in Atlanta, and the zoo has been cleaned up.
Some really fine restaurants call Atlanta home, as do many Taco Bells.
One thing Atlanta has never had is swamps. Atlanta lies above the Piedmont line, which means the soil is rocky. So, no swamps.

We really looked into moving to Atlanta about a year ago. Husband was being transferred to either D.C. or Atlanta so we thoroughly researched both. (ended up in D.C. area though) I felt that Atlanta had many great things to offer and was muh more culturally diverse than I had expected. It seems in recent years there has been a great influx of people to the area which helps diversity but hurts in other ways. Atlanta has its share of problems, traffic being the most obvious growing pain. The public transportation is not yet well-developed for the suburbs which causes massive build up in rush hour. I think this problem will be eased in the next few years though. As far as a gentile southern feel, Atlanta definitely has more of it than other cities of similar size and is still very southern. However, its not going to have as much as a smaller city such as Charleston or Savannah. Overall, I was for moving to the atlanta area (out towards Marietta) it just didn't work out with the job thing. Every city has problems, you have to choose one you like best and I do suggest visiting for a least a week the area to get a better feel before thinking about moving there.

I'll vote for option 1, although I lived there a long time ago and it wasn't so great then either. But at least it was manageable.

I've said it here before and I'll say it again: Atlanta as a city has a bit of a complex. They desperately want, at any cost, to be an international city but have yet to realize that having sheer numbers of things (tallest this, busiest that, etc.) don't make it so. They need to learn the concept of "less is more" before they overrun themselves with congestion and learn as a city not to be so darn hokey.

That said, Atlanta 2001 is a modern, very spread out city with lots of traffic, but nice people and generally good weather. Besides, any place with good Mexican food and Waffle House every mile and a half can't be all bad.

Just to point out that Bruce's #2 isn't entirely correct when stating that Atlanta was once swamp land. According to my almanac, Atlanta is almost 1000 feet above sea level. The Georgia swamps are in the southern part of the state. May the locals please correct me if I'm wrong.

To Spider-
Please see my last comment re: swamp in my post above.

Bruce - we relocated to Atlanta last fall, and JT pretty much has it right. We've found Atlanta to be a very livable city, if you've got some patience to deal with the traffic. I've found the people to generally be very friendly regardless of where they are from.

I really think they key to being happy here is to live near where you work or, if you don't mind the train, live and work near a Marta station. We have some friends who moved to Alpharetta and worked at Coca-Cola downtown. They moved to Greenville after a year of two-hour (each way) commutes. We live in Smyrna and live in Buckhead, and take back-roads the whole way. Our traffic is generally tolerable, although getting out of town (i.e. airport, Savannah, Nashville) on a Friday night is an absolute nightmare. Drive your route to work and expect it to take at least three times as long at rush hour. If you can live with that, you'll be fine (it usually won't take that long if you stay off the freeways).

Atlanta is not even close to being almost treeless. We moved from MN and were blown away by the trees here. If you go someplace high in the city and look out, it's like a green blanket across the city. Unfortunately developers are doing their best to change that, but hopefully the economy will stop them at some point. Older neighborhoods are swimming in tall, old trees.

My feeling on Atlanta? We like it and don't regret moving here, but we probably won't stay more than a few years. We never saw ourselves living in the SE and are feeling a strong pull from the west (mts., ocean and family). But I will definitely enjoy my time here and miss it when we're gone.

Best of luck with your decision!

first you wanted to relocate to the place with the most trees........then you wanted to move to teh panhandle of florida...make up yer mind, will ya?

I think it's a little bit of both 1 & 2. For natives and those who've lived here 10+ years, the change has been a sight to behold when it comes to traffic and development. It's a blessing and a curse - great shopping, dining and events, paired with some horrid traffic and strip development. But the ability to go to the ocean or the mountains, and direct flights out of ATL to many other stops, wins my vote.

We have been here exactly one year this month. Housing prices here have risen dramatically in the last several years. We moved to Marietta (Cobb County) schools are good, traffic is a pain but tolerable. I agree with the above sentiments about being here for a few years and then moving, I definitely don't see us here for the rest our lives.....but it works for now. The shopping is excellent, the restaraunts are also pretty first rate, all the big concerts/shows come to town and there is plenty of sporting events and other assorted activities to choose from. The people are very friendly even the "natives" which are few and far between. As for the trees, out of downtown they are plentiful and beautiful, lets just hope we can keep from choking them off from all our smog!