What is the second best city in Georgia?
- Thread starter allmnbros1
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do you hate incredibly efficient airports with a trillion bar/dining options?
Hartsfield is by far the best major airport I've ever been to
If you’re young and have no kids or you’re old and your kids are no longer in school, the answer is Athens. If you have kids, it is Watkinsville. And honestly, Watkinsville is close enough to Athens that it can be considered the greatest across the lifespan.
I wonder how many voting for Savannah have ever actually lived in Savannah. As someone who has, I’d rank it bottom 10. Awful.
For those voting for Climax, GA, I am good friends with the mayor of that fine town and will let him know how highly regarded it is. 😂
I wonder how many voting for Savannah have ever actually lived in Savannah. As someone who has, I’d rank it bottom 10. Awful.
For those voting for Climax, GA, I am good friends with the mayor of that fine town and will let him know how highly regarded it is. 😂
The amount of crime in Atlanta right now is through the roof. Yes crime is up in most major cities. But it is astounding the amount of felony crime happening every day in ATL.
The scariest part is a lot of it doesn’t even make the news. We get live updates constantly and it makes me not even want to venture down there for a football game. Or anywhere else that I can’t carry to protect myself and family. 12AM three people shot. 7AM person shot. 11AM two people shot. The number of people just walking into hospitals or being dumped in Grady’s entrance with gun shot wounds is insane. Nevermind the “less serious” amount of vehicle thefts, entering autos, carjackings at gun point, etc. Suspects fleeing LE at 100-150mph constantly throughout the day as soon as they see blue lights.
There are good places and bad places just like anywhere else. But I can assure you it’s turning into a warzone and it’s about to get a lot worse before it gets better. 2020 had the most homicides in two decades in ATL. This year has already seen around 60% increase YTD. APD is over 400 officers short and climbing after losing over 200 last year alone.
Also...my vote goes to Blue Ridge and Woodstock.
The scariest part is a lot of it doesn’t even make the news. We get live updates constantly and it makes me not even want to venture down there for a football game. Or anywhere else that I can’t carry to protect myself and family. 12AM three people shot. 7AM person shot. 11AM two people shot. The number of people just walking into hospitals or being dumped in Grady’s entrance with gun shot wounds is insane. Nevermind the “less serious” amount of vehicle thefts, entering autos, carjackings at gun point, etc. Suspects fleeing LE at 100-150mph constantly throughout the day as soon as they see blue lights.
There are good places and bad places just like anywhere else. But I can assure you it’s turning into a warzone and it’s about to get a lot worse before it gets better. 2020 had the most homicides in two decades in ATL. This year has already seen around 60% increase YTD. APD is over 400 officers short and climbing after losing over 200 last year alone.
Also...my vote goes to Blue Ridge and Woodstock.
So Augusta is the second best city in Georgia because of its proximity to actual places that are good (Athens, Savannah, etc)? Sorry, I'm not buying that. I was born there, and have lived there three times. It's better than it was in the past, but Augusta isn't even close to places like Savannah, Athens or Atlanta. The best thing you can say about Augusta is that it isn't Columbus or Valdosta.
OK, so after reading this entire thread...
I've lived in four Georgia cities mentioned (Savannah, Athens, Atlanta, Augusta). Have close relatives living in three more (Columbus, Macon, SSI), so I have spent a lot of time in those places. A lot of this "best city" discussion centers upon what you want out of life.
If you like big cities and can put up with horrendous traffic, Atlanta is your only choice, especially outside the beltway. It's Georgia's only real international city, and it has true big city amenities (professional sports, museums, big-time concerts, extremely high-level restaurant offerings, great educational opportunities at every level, many job options, etc.). I could live in someplace like Roswell or Dunwoody if I never had to drive anywhere. Still, as big cities go, ATL has its limitations. Crime is awful, and traffic is routinely LA-level bad. Plus, the town really has no personality. It's not San Francisco or Seattle, or even Chicago--and it certainly isn' t London, Paris or Berlin. As big international cities go, Atlanta is a big, overgrown child of a town, a toddler bumbling around who hasn't figured out what it's going to be yet. And it has vastly outgrown its road system. It reminds me a lot of Dallas--another overgrown town with a bland personality. Most glaringly, Atlanta needed better public transportation yesterday. Even Washington, D.C. has a better public transportation system, and New York, Chicago, Boston and London are far, far better (Seattle's light rail sucks worse than MARTA, though--another town which has outgrown itself).
I cannot stand traffic, however, and my job allows me to work anywhere I want, so I can't live in Atlanta.
If you like the beach, you only have a couple of choices. Savannah allows you to combine the whole Salt Life mentality with great restaurants, historical venues and some limited museum options (Telfair, etc). The festivals (Savannah Music Festival/Book Festival/Film Festival) are great cultural opportunities, there a plenty of cool bars to visit, and SCAD has really revitalized the downtown area. Traffic is mostly acceptable, and you can live pretty much anywhere and have access to the water. The port affords one a few choice employment opportunities, as does Gulfstream Aerospace. An added bonus: The medical community is pretty sophisticated (it's the tertiary care referral center for all of South Georgia, with a Level I Trauma Center, a four-year medical school and a full-fledged free-standing pediatric hospital), so you can get state-of-the-art health care in town. Plus, the airport offers daily direct flights to Atlanta (of course), Charlotte, New York, Miami, Washington, D.C., Cincy, Chicago, Dallas, Boston and even Toronto. You get decent medium-range concerts and other performances (you'll get John Mellencamp or Elton John occasionally, but not the Eagles, for example), and the city is building a new performance venue, so that may actually improve. The big drawbacks are the public school system (hit or miss, depending on where you live, but generally miss) and crime, which has been on the upswing lately. There are some good private school options, and there are magnet schools to look at, but those are competitive, and opportunities are limited. Plus, the city government has been consistently bad for decades. There are no visionaries there no matter what party you support. Don't expect great government; I have not seen it in my lifetime. Savannah is my home town, and I've lived there most of my life. I live on the river on deep water, have a dock with a powerboat and a couple of kayaks, and I own a beach house at Tybee--and my kids are grown, so I don't have to worry about the schools anymore.
The other beach option is the SSI/Brunswick area. That's fine if you don't ever have a medical problem and just want to hang out on the beach and drink margaritas. But the public schools there are as bad as Savannah's, except without the magnet school option--and there are no great private school alternatives. Plus, employment opportunities are limited, the medical community is as weak as dishwater (if you're actually sick, you'll end up in Savannah), and the airport is just one step up from cropduster status (you really have to fly out of Savannah or Jax). There are a few good restaurants, but nowhere near the options there are in Savannah or Atlanta--and there really aren't any true cultural amenities (once again, the closest decent concerts are in Savannah or Jacksonville).
Unfortunately, there are no great mountain options in Georgia. It would be nice if we had someplace like Asheville, with good restaurants, a good medical community and decent educational opportunities, but we really don't.
As far as college towns go, Athens wins hands down. It's the only true college town in Georgia (OK, Statesboro and Carrollton technically qualify but nobody is putting Statesboro or Carrollton in the same league as Athens). Athens is a nice size, with manageable traffic, has good restaurants and bars, collegiate sports, great concerts, and the broad cultural amenities that any great university offers. Schools are decent, especially when one considers the private school options (it's similar to Savannah in this regard), crime is not as bad as ATL or Savannah, and it's close enough to Atlanta so that the limited airport is not a huge drawback. The medical community is mediocre, but can handle non-complicated stuff just fine, and Atlanta is close enough to make up the difference. It reminds me a lot of Chapel Hill, NC or Charlottesville, VA, except that those two towns both have great medical communities with highly-regarded tertiary care facilities and better public schools (I lived in Chapel Hill for six years, largely because it reminded me of Athens). I love Athens. I lived there four years, visit regularly, and put two kids through school there.
With regard to other candidates, the only thing Augusta has going for it is the medical community, which is top-notch. Schools are mediocre, crime is as bad as anyplace its size, the restaurant and bar scene is underwhelming, cultural opportunities are limited, and the airport really only goes to Atlanta. You can drive to Columbia and go the the zoo. You can hang out at the lake, but you need to drive 2-3 hours to get to the beach or the mountains.
Macon's best attribute is that it is reasonably close to Atlanta, and if you like to hunt or fish, you can do that with great regularity. It does have a Level One Trauma Center, but most folks go to Atlanta if they really have something serious to deal with. Restaurants and schools are mediocre. Crime is about the same as Savannah and Augusta.
Columbus isn't close to anything except Callaway Gardens. Schools are just OK, job and cultural opportunities are severely limited, and restaurants and bar options are average at best. Medically, it is very limited. Like Macon, most folks with anything really serious go to Atlanta. You're a long way from the beach or the mountains, and your airport is essentially the Atlanta airport.
Valdosta, Albany and other south Georgia towns are a level below the above bunch, with less opportunity than any of them.
Personally, as someone who has a lifelong love affair with the ocean, I'd rank the cities like this:
1. Savannah, mainly because of its proximity to the Atlantic
2. Athens (close second)
3. Atlanta, if I could just stay put in a smaller community outside the beltway
4. SSI/Brunswick/St. Mary's
(BIG GAP)
5. Augusta
6. Columbus
7. Macon
8. Any other place in Georgia
I've lived in four Georgia cities mentioned (Savannah, Athens, Atlanta, Augusta). Have close relatives living in three more (Columbus, Macon, SSI), so I have spent a lot of time in those places. A lot of this "best city" discussion centers upon what you want out of life.
If you like big cities and can put up with horrendous traffic, Atlanta is your only choice, especially outside the beltway. It's Georgia's only real international city, and it has true big city amenities (professional sports, museums, big-time concerts, extremely high-level restaurant offerings, great educational opportunities at every level, many job options, etc.). I could live in someplace like Roswell or Dunwoody if I never had to drive anywhere. Still, as big cities go, ATL has its limitations. Crime is awful, and traffic is routinely LA-level bad. Plus, the town really has no personality. It's not San Francisco or Seattle, or even Chicago--and it certainly isn' t London, Paris or Berlin. As big international cities go, Atlanta is a big, overgrown child of a town, a toddler bumbling around who hasn't figured out what it's going to be yet. And it has vastly outgrown its road system. It reminds me a lot of Dallas--another overgrown town with a bland personality. Most glaringly, Atlanta needed better public transportation yesterday. Even Washington, D.C. has a better public transportation system, and New York, Chicago, Boston and London are far, far better (Seattle's light rail sucks worse than MARTA, though--another town which has outgrown itself).
I cannot stand traffic, however, and my job allows me to work anywhere I want, so I can't live in Atlanta.
If you like the beach, you only have a couple of choices. Savannah allows you to combine the whole Salt Life mentality with great restaurants, historical venues and some limited museum options (Telfair, etc). The festivals (Savannah Music Festival/Book Festival/Film Festival) are great cultural opportunities, there a plenty of cool bars to visit, and SCAD has really revitalized the downtown area. Traffic is mostly acceptable, and you can live pretty much anywhere and have access to the water. The port affords one a few choice employment opportunities, as does Gulfstream Aerospace. An added bonus: The medical community is pretty sophisticated (it's the tertiary care referral center for all of South Georgia, with a Level I Trauma Center, a four-year medical school and a full-fledged free-standing pediatric hospital), so you can get state-of-the-art health care in town. Plus, the airport offers daily direct flights to Atlanta (of course), Charlotte, New York, Miami, Washington, D.C., Cincy, Chicago, Dallas, Boston and even Toronto. You get decent medium-range concerts and other performances (you'll get John Mellencamp or Elton John occasionally, but not the Eagles, for example), and the city is building a new performance venue, so that may actually improve. The big drawbacks are the public school system (hit or miss, depending on where you live, but generally miss) and crime, which has been on the upswing lately. There are some good private school options, and there are magnet schools to look at, but those are competitive, and opportunities are limited. Plus, the city government has been consistently bad for decades. There are no visionaries there no matter what party you support. Don't expect great government; I have not seen it in my lifetime. Savannah is my home town, and I've lived there most of my life. I live on the river on deep water, have a dock with a powerboat and a couple of kayaks, and I own a beach house at Tybee--and my kids are grown, so I don't have to worry about the schools anymore.
The other beach option is the SSI/Brunswick area. That's fine if you don't ever have a medical problem and just want to hang out on the beach and drink margaritas. But the public schools there are as bad as Savannah's, except without the magnet school option--and there are no great private school alternatives. Plus, employment opportunities are limited, the medical community is as weak as dishwater (if you're actually sick, you'll end up in Savannah), and the airport is just one step up from cropduster status (you really have to fly out of Savannah or Jax). There are a few good restaurants, but nowhere near the options there are in Savannah or Atlanta--and there really aren't any true cultural amenities (once again, the closest decent concerts are in Savannah or Jacksonville).
Unfortunately, there are no great mountain options in Georgia. It would be nice if we had someplace like Asheville, with good restaurants, a good medical community and decent educational opportunities, but we really don't.
As far as college towns go, Athens wins hands down. It's the only true college town in Georgia (OK, Statesboro and Carrollton technically qualify but nobody is putting Statesboro or Carrollton in the same league as Athens). Athens is a nice size, with manageable traffic, has good restaurants and bars, collegiate sports, great concerts, and the broad cultural amenities that any great university offers. Schools are decent, especially when one considers the private school options (it's similar to Savannah in this regard), crime is not as bad as ATL or Savannah, and it's close enough to Atlanta so that the limited airport is not a huge drawback. The medical community is mediocre, but can handle non-complicated stuff just fine, and Atlanta is close enough to make up the difference. It reminds me a lot of Chapel Hill, NC or Charlottesville, VA, except that those two towns both have great medical communities with highly-regarded tertiary care facilities and better public schools (I lived in Chapel Hill for six years, largely because it reminded me of Athens). I love Athens. I lived there four years, visit regularly, and put two kids through school there.
With regard to other candidates, the only thing Augusta has going for it is the medical community, which is top-notch. Schools are mediocre, crime is as bad as anyplace its size, the restaurant and bar scene is underwhelming, cultural opportunities are limited, and the airport really only goes to Atlanta. You can drive to Columbia and go the the zoo. You can hang out at the lake, but you need to drive 2-3 hours to get to the beach or the mountains.
Macon's best attribute is that it is reasonably close to Atlanta, and if you like to hunt or fish, you can do that with great regularity. It does have a Level One Trauma Center, but most folks go to Atlanta if they really have something serious to deal with. Restaurants and schools are mediocre. Crime is about the same as Savannah and Augusta.
Columbus isn't close to anything except Callaway Gardens. Schools are just OK, job and cultural opportunities are severely limited, and restaurants and bar options are average at best. Medically, it is very limited. Like Macon, most folks with anything really serious go to Atlanta. You're a long way from the beach or the mountains, and your airport is essentially the Atlanta airport.
Valdosta, Albany and other south Georgia towns are a level below the above bunch, with less opportunity than any of them.
Personally, as someone who has a lifelong love affair with the ocean, I'd rank the cities like this:
1. Savannah, mainly because of its proximity to the Atlantic
2. Athens (close second)
3. Atlanta, if I could just stay put in a smaller community outside the beltway
4. SSI/Brunswick/St. Mary's
(BIG GAP)
5. Augusta
6. Columbus
7. Macon
8. Any other place in Georgia
That might be the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen posted on here and that says a lot. Atlanta Bulldawgs come on down. Is that serious? Athens, UGA and UGAA Athletics have zero to do with Atlanta.
I lived in Atlanta until last month for 5 years. There is a reason that people are moving out at record rates.
If your argument for Atlanta is that “you don’t have to use your car,” (as if driving is some huge hassle) when MARTA is Atlanta’s public transport system, then you have a very weak point.
I’ve never met anyone that can “walk anywhere” in Atlanta. It isn’t NYC, Toronto, or DC where you don’t need a car. Marta is a joke of a public transit system that turns places into cesspools the second it opens a new station (see Lenox).
Then you mention sports teams...The Braves (who had the right idea) moved to the suburbs, no one cares about the Hawks, and the Falcons can’t even get half capacity at their home games, even before the pandemic.
I guess you could say that Atlanta has a great food scene, but honestly the burbs are getting a higher demand for chef-driven restaurants and are closing the gap on that as well... especially per capita
All in all... Atlanta is asshoe
This^^^ Give my kids Buford, Forsyth county schools. Near the lake and the mountains
Two 15 year olds, boy and girl, shot him in the chest at nearly point blank range for absolutely no reason. In broad daylight as people recorded on their phones. The video is posted on @atluncensored on Instagram and it is absolutely infuriating to watch. He’s currently in critical but stable condition.
There is no rehabilitating people like that. Folks that do stuff like in that video should be taken out behind a shed and disposed of.
And people still defend that it’s a great place to live. This morning a woman got shot after two men were shooting each other driving down I85…
Yup. Several more folks shot throughout the day today too including a Dekalb SO deputy.
Just another manic Monday...
We here in the Birddog Capital of the World (Waynesboro) disagree with that title. We don’t count swamp land up here. Lol!
Climax is nice now that it has the Dollar General.Does it get any better than Climax?
I’d definitely live in Donalsonville before Atlanta. Everything you need is 5 minutes away and can trust most people you encounter.
Lol they literally tore the city apart, attacked cops, firefighters, and shot children. Traffic on 285 is terrible.
My wife and I lived for 28 years in Roswell and enjoyed it. Great place to raise a child and schools are pretty good. Really enjoyed how they transformed the Canton Street area. The traffic finally got to us and we move to Athens. We have enjoyed our five years here. No real traffic problems, good places to eat, and most importantly no drive home after games. We Uber to and from our tailgate and game. I just retired and sold our house and everything we own. Moving to Mexico in one week. I have been reaching out to get a Saturday college football group started. There are over 20K expats in the city so hopefully we can get a group together. I will miss game days.
This thread has been interesting And fun to read but the OP just made assumption from the get go
So I’d like to continue in the same mode… Behind Stacy Abrams, who is the hottest woman in Georgia?
So I’d like to continue in the same mode… Behind Stacy Abrams, who is the hottest woman in Georgia?
Interesting
Have a good friend who has
purchased there. They love it. Not full time retired but eventually. We plan a visit in the next couple of years to check it out.
Nice to have the short drive up to the small fishing villages which I think will blossom in the years to come.
Atlanta was a good place to live until the late 80s and its been in a downfall spiral since and now its in free fall. Ted Turner said in the late 80s that in 10 years Atlanta would be a hellhole. Yep.
