Atlanta vs. "Atlanta, Georgia"

[AubieTurtle]

There is a reason why Florida is the only state to have its own tag on Fark.com...

[Pillsbury]

Who's to say, every state has its embarrassing moments.

[Andrea]

Pillsbury, I'm not arguing that Georgia is worse than other states -- as I said, it's my home state and I'm very fond of it. I'm simply talking about how it's perceived by outsiders. Those percptions may or may not be justified but that's a different issue.

[Pillsbury]

Understood. I'm a huge critic of this state and most people who know me probably think I hate it (which is exactly the opposite of course). I've always thought that most outsiders had a positive view of our state. What I was looking for was examples of the majority of people having a negative opinion of our state. While those instances you and I listed are certainly embarrasing to say the least, they're not indicative of a negative image by the majority of outsiders. I'm throwing down the smiley okay?

[dmccall]

I wouldn't worry about the Atlanta vs. Atlanta, GA thing for two reasons:

* I never really hear Atlanta, GA anymore, and any efforts to drop GA won't increase recognition.

* If you do make a stink over it, you only degrade yourself to being a wannabe city. For instance, take Charlotte, who went so far as to put "Charlotte USA" on their coliseum floor. It was a pathetic attempt at social climbing that didn't go unnoticed. A great city doesn't have to try so hard.

[Andrea]

What I was looking for was examples of the majority of people having a negative opinion of our state.

[Pillsbury]

I wouldn't worry about the Atlanta vs. Atlanta, GA thing for two reasons:

* I never really hear Atlanta, GA anymore, and any efforts to drop GA won't increase recognition.

* If you do make a stink over it, you only degrade yourself to being a wannabe city. For instance, take Charlotte, who went so far as to put "Charlotte USA" on their coliseum floor. It was a pathetic attempt at social climbing that didn't go unnoticed. A great city doesn't have to try so hard.

[mrh3]

I wouldn't worry about the Atlanta vs. Atlanta, GA thing for two reasons:

* I never really hear Atlanta, GA anymore, and any efforts to drop GA won't increase recognition.

* If you do make a stink over it, you only degrade yourself to being a wannabe city. For instance, take Charlotte, who went so far as to put "Charlotte USA" on their coliseum floor. It was a pathetic attempt at social climbing that didn't go unnoticed. A great city doesn't have to try so hard.

[Spartan]

Ok, since Ive read this thread, I have heard numerous people say that they are from "Atlantageoriga."

[LizellaJacket]

Quite possibly some of the most ignorant responses I've ever read in the last 2 pages. The rest of Georgia outside of Atlanta is not backwards. People think rural Georgia is backwards because they are stuck in their ways. Well guess what, who's to say people in Atlanta aren't backwards for thinking being gay is something to be proud of? I personally have no ill-will towards gays, but thats beside the point. It seems people like to throw around the term close-minded like its a bad thing, when its people, who are so called open minded, that are generally not the ones thinking for themselves. They hear an idea and automatically conform, thats pure stupidity.

Atlanta is not bigger than this State. If people have negative connotations of the name Georgia, well thats their pure ignorance. A big wave hello from the 'rebel flag' waving crowd. My black best friend and roommate says hello as well.

[ryanmckibben]

Quite possibly some of the most ignorant responses I've ever read in the last 2 pages. The rest of Georgia outside of Atlanta is not backwards. People think rural Georgia is backwards because they are stuck in their ways. Well guess what, who's to say people in Atlanta aren't backwards for thinking being gay is something to be proud of? I personally have no ill-will towards gays, but thats beside the point. It seems people like to throw around the term close-minded like its a bad thing, when its people, who are so called open minded, that are generally not the ones thinking for themselves. They hear an idea and automatically conform, thats pure stupidity.

Atlanta is not bigger than this State. If people have negative connotations of the name Georgia, well thats their pure ignorance. A big wave hello from the 'rebel flag' waving crowd. My black best friend and roommate says hello as well.

[LizellaJacket]

So both of my parents, who live in rural Georgia, who did not graduate or attend college, are inferior to some person driving a BMW in Atlanta with no moral values because he's there to get high on money? Thats a really good argument.

The South will rise again? It already has. Every brain dead hippie and liberal in America seems to be moving here to tell us how we should live. See I'm good at throwing out stereotypes as well.

[krazeeboi]

People think rural Georgia is backwards because they are stuck in their ways.

[Andrea]

So both of my parents, who live in rural Georgia, who did not graduate or attend college, are inferior to some person driving a BMW in Atlanta with no moral values because he's there to get high on money?

[shanthemanatl]

So both of my parents, who live in rural Georgia, who did not graduate or attend college, are inferior to some person driving a BMW in Atlanta with no moral values because he's there to get high on money? Thats a really good argument.

The South will rise again? It already has. Every brain dead hippie and liberal in America seems to be moving here to tell us how we should live. See I'm good at throwing out stereotypes as well.

[Andrea]

Atlanta has always been treated like the red-headed stepchild by the rest of the state.

[Pillsbury]

Oh Pills, you kill me. Atlanta is a gem...Cobb County's getting better but it has a long way to go. Of course by the time it's super nice, I'll be in my bf's home state of Arizona...which is ALSO getting better, well minus the heat.

Augusta's FABulous too!

[Andrea]

Atlanta doesn't want to be attached to Georgia because its ashamed of us......

[Pillsbury]

^ Oh, my comment was very much tongue-in-cheek. For the most part, I agree with you. But Atlanta is one of the most important cities on earth. The important people know Atlanta. The New York Times refers to Atlanta as simply, Atlanta. Same with the Times from London. I read them both and Atlanta comes up a lot.

Atlanta is Atlanta----but to many older Southern people, who grew up believing Atlanta and Richmond were the New Yorks of the South, Atlanta is still Atlanta, Georgia, said really fast, almost as if it were one word. Same with the rappers. Maybe it's some of that? Like how sometimes people will say, New York, New York.

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

Heh, I have to laugh at myself about this one. It reminds me of the argument I got into the other day with a friend who claims the media is liberal, whereas it seems to me to be dominated by a bunch of right wingers.

Anyway, when I was growing up, I always felt slighted because whenever I saw our city's name in print they listed it as "Atlanta, Georgia." As if people didn't know where Atlanta would be if you didn't tell them it was in Georgia.

By contrast, it seemed like almost every other big city got its own name, all by itself, without the state qualifier. You didn't read "Cincinnati, Ohio," "Detroit, Michigan", or "Los Angeles, California." And it's not like there were dozens of Atlanta's that could easily be confused either. Even towns like Milwaukee were just plain old Milwaukee, even though we got their baseball team. And what about Buffalo? What was their claim to fame other than getting O.J. Simpson to play football for them? I even remember reading about Memphis and New Orleans without their state being hung on the end. We were the red-headed stepchild down here!

Now, I thought all this would change after we got the Braves and the Falcons and the Hawks and the Flames and the Thrashers, and after we went to the World Series and the Superbowl. We had a subway way back before any of these other nouveau burgs, and we had the world's tallest stinking hotel. Herschel Walker played right up the road in Athens, we had Gone With The Wind and Ted Turner and CNN, and we had Designing Women. Bobby Jones and Dr. King came from Atlanta! We had Emory and Georgia Tech, and Coca Cola and Delta Air Lines. We had the dadgum Olympics here, for Pete's sake!

So why couldn't we just be plain old Atlanta? I really thought all that would stop once the Olympics came, but I swear I still hear "Atlanta, Georgia" all the time. Do these people in New York and California think folks don't know where in the heck we are? When I call somebody in one of these places I always make a point to say, "This is Andrea from Atlanta" and leave it at that. And I double dog dare one of them to say, "Oh, and what state would that be in?" I'd love to come back with, "Oh, Buffalo where? New York, well, very well, could you spell that please?"

I could go on about this for days, but I was just wondering whether any of y'all had similar perceptions or whether it was just me.

[JDC]

Atlanta alone, without "Georgia" should be adequate for most uses. Only a few US cities don't require their state in datelines, according to the AP Style Guide, and Atlanta is one of them:

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington.

Sorry if this has already been posted.

[j.midtown]

FWIW, on Wikipedia, the term Atlanta redirects to the Atlanta, Georgia article (the formal naming style always used on WP), indicating that the single word itself is predominantly and very closely associated with the city. For some cities/words, there is often great debate over the predominant usage or whether it simply goes to a general disambiguation page where all the options are listed.

[serapis]

I'm from Raleigh. Why would there be any debate, about Atlanta being called Atlanta GA. No one really says GA anymore, because Atlanta is HUGE!

[Andrea]

I just heard it AGAIN. Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday just said, "Joining us now is Sen. Obama's spokesman from Atlanta, Georgia." He referred to several other cities during this newscast but in no other case did he mention the state. I'm telling you, in the eyes of big media we're still treated like Podunk.

[912]

Atlanta alone, without "Georgia" should be adequate for most uses. Only a few US cities don't require their state in datelines, according to the AP Style Guide, and Atlanta is one of them:

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington.

Sorry if this has already been posted.