My Atlanta
Someone was telling me the other day that when you enter metro Atlanta, that you are no longer in the south. This made me think. Atlanta is south of the Mason-Dixon line. Atlanta is where General Sherman marched through en route to the sea. But at the same time, most things that define something as being southern just are not found in Atlanta. Really, Atlanta is not part of the south.
I was born and raised all thoughout metro Atlanta and I have not lived anywhere else until I came to Piedmont. Therefore, when I realized that my hometown is not really part of the south like I thought it was, I wanted to figure out what the identity of Atlanta is.
According to the 2000 census, Metro Atlanta is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation. In fact, between 2000 and 2006, Atlanta grew 20.5%, faster than any other metropolitan area in the US. Atlanta is a big city, but when you think about it, every other big city has a special identity that is all its own.
Washington DC is the headquarters for the government. Los Angeles is the headquarters for television. Hollywood is where most of the film industry is located. Seattle has coffee and the leftovers from the tech burst of Silicone Valley. Las Vegas has gambling as does Reno. Orlando, Miami, and the rest of Florida are resort cities. Honolulu has beaches and beautiful girls. New York City is basically the communications capital of the world, not to mention there are certain styles of pizza, steaks, and hotdogs that are native to the city. Chicago has these same limits on certain foods. Detroit is the car manufacturing headquarters of the US. Philadelphia has amazing cheese steaks and is the city of brotherly love. Boston at least has its own accent. Nashville has country music. Dallas and Houston have the whole cowboy stereotype. Huntsville, Alabama, a city that is only a fraction the size of Atlanta even has the space center.
What does Atlanta have? Nothing really. Atlanta is basically a mixture of a whole lot of other cities. The only thing that Atlanta can even remotely call its own is the Center for Disease Control, or as it is more commonly known: the CDC. But even still, that is not really an identity.
The name of the city is not even special. It was named Atlanta as a shortened version of Altantica-Pacifica because of its location with the railroad. The only nicknames for my hometown that are listed on Wikipedia are “Hotlanta and the A-T-L.” At least Atlanta has a few tourist attractions, like the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coke, the CNN center and many others, but because of all of the outside influence, I believe that Atlanta never will have its own identity.
I was born and raised all thoughout metro Atlanta and I have not lived anywhere else until I came to Piedmont. Therefore, when I realized that my hometown is not really part of the south like I thought it was, I wanted to figure out what the identity of Atlanta is.
According to the 2000 census, Metro Atlanta is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation. In fact, between 2000 and 2006, Atlanta grew 20.5%, faster than any other metropolitan area in the US. Atlanta is a big city, but when you think about it, every other big city has a special identity that is all its own.
Washington DC is the headquarters for the government. Los Angeles is the headquarters for television. Hollywood is where most of the film industry is located. Seattle has coffee and the leftovers from the tech burst of Silicone Valley. Las Vegas has gambling as does Reno. Orlando, Miami, and the rest of Florida are resort cities. Honolulu has beaches and beautiful girls. New York City is basically the communications capital of the world, not to mention there are certain styles of pizza, steaks, and hotdogs that are native to the city. Chicago has these same limits on certain foods. Detroit is the car manufacturing headquarters of the US. Philadelphia has amazing cheese steaks and is the city of brotherly love. Boston at least has its own accent. Nashville has country music. Dallas and Houston have the whole cowboy stereotype. Huntsville, Alabama, a city that is only a fraction the size of Atlanta even has the space center.
What does Atlanta have? Nothing really. Atlanta is basically a mixture of a whole lot of other cities. The only thing that Atlanta can even remotely call its own is the Center for Disease Control, or as it is more commonly known: the CDC. But even still, that is not really an identity.
The name of the city is not even special. It was named Atlanta as a shortened version of Altantica-Pacifica because of its location with the railroad. The only nicknames for my hometown that are listed on Wikipedia are “Hotlanta and the A-T-L.” At least Atlanta has a few tourist attractions, like the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coke, the CNN center and many others, but because of all of the outside influence, I believe that Atlanta never will have its own identity.
Labels: Atlanta
posted by T!m at 1:56 PM on
Sunday, October 14, 2007
