Learning From Georgia III: Downtown Atlanta
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Known as the Mecca of Sprawl, Georgia's largest city offers several good and bad examples of how to create a vibrant urban atmosphere.
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http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/465
I was in Atlanta this weekend. I visited the World of Coca Cola and the Aquarium. Let me say wow. It is amazing what these two structures have done to that neighborhood. There is also a Childrens Museum near by. High rise condo towers are shooting up down the street. Downtown ATL is an exciting place to be.
Interesting...Wish Inman Park coulda got some run in this article. I missed this article. Good Stuff.
Inman Park is as far from downtown Atlanta as Murray Hill is from downtown Jacksonville, so it doesn't really belong in an article about downtown.
Also, a big picture thought- downtown Atlanta really is pretty distressed (though much less so than it once was)- lots of vagrants around Five Points, not much residential, in a city with much higher levels of crime than Jax (though differences in city limits may make this a dumb comparison).
One advantage downtown Jax has- downtown Atlanta has competitors that give you the high rise urbanism of downtown with a lower fear level- Midtown and Buckhead.
Our Midtown and Buckhead are probably the Southbank and the Town Center/Deerwood Park areas. Our major advantage is the added dimension of the river and its impact on the urban atmosphere. Its something this urban community can really take advantage of.