Atlanta vs. "Atlanta, Georgia"

[facilities man]

I think adding the state designation to large Southern cities is a Northeast Media bias thing. There are many cities in the Northeast that are refered to only with the city name, as mentioned by an earlier post, that are not as large as cities in the South that get the state identifier always tagged on. It seems like Miami has finally lost the state tag for the most part. Like someone would be confused between Miami and Miami, Ohio.??? Tampa seems to be losing the Florida tag too, but Orlando and Jacksonville haven't yet. Orlando is one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, I think people know where it is. Jacksonville hosted the Superbowl, I think people know where it is too. Everyone except the New York based media that is. I think Atlanta is up there with Miami though. You might hear Atlanta, Georgia thrown out there once in a while now, but not very often. I don't think is says much for the media outlet if they think their readers, listeners, or viewers don't know Atlanta is in Georgia.

[dixiecupdrinking]

I think adding the state designation to large Southern cities is a Northeast Media bias thing. There are many cities in the Northeast that are refered to only with the city name, as mentioned by an earlier post, that are not as large as cities in the South that get the state identifier always tagged on. It seems like Miami has finally lost the state tag for the most part. Like someone would be confused between Miami and Miami, Ohio.??? Tampa seems to be losing the Florida tag too, but Orlando and Jacksonville haven't yet. Orlando is one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, I think people know where it is. Jacksonville hosted the Superbowl, I think people know where it is too. Everyone except the New York based media that is. I think Atlanta is up there with Miami though. You might hear Atlanta, Georgia thrown out there once in a while now, but not very often. I don't think is says much for the media outlet if they think their readers, listeners, or viewers don't know Atlanta is in Georgia.

I won't argue with Orlando, but there are several Jacksonvilles in the U.S. That's one city that will probably always require the state tag, like Columbus, OH, which is too easily-confused.

Does "Portland" ever get used by itself in national media? That might set an interesting precedent. Portland, OR is obviously the more important city but the one in Maine is fairly large as well. Maybe that would be a good comparison to Jacksonville, FL versus Jacksonville, IL, for example, or Columbus, OH versus Columbus, GA.

[Mr.Marc]

I'm confused.

I don't think most media outlets are trying to offend anyone or have someone speculate that no one knows where a city is unless its state's name is added. Maybe most people are just used to calling the city's name along with the state it's in. I think it could be hurtful to a state when it's major city is called and no one knows what state it's in. An example is when I was small (and I mean really small), I used to think that Chicago was a state and Illinois was it's capital .

Why would it offend someone to have their state's name appended with its major city when it's used in national media (even if it's a popular and international city). Is it that one is ashamed of the state they're from, but not the city? That's kind of ironic and contradicting.

[Dale]

Oh yeah, in Atlanta at least. You rarely see or hear anything critical of the right wingers on local TV, or in the AJC (other than a handful of editorial columnists), and the two big radio stations here feature folks like Rush, the Kimmer, Phil Hendrie, Sean Hannity, Boortz, Tom Hughes, etc. literally all day long.

Oh, talk radio for sure. But the leading theory for that is that talk radio provides a welcome alternative for righties from the liberal-leaning mainstream media.

[Andrea]

Oh, talk radio for sure. But the leading theory for that is that talk radio provides a welcome alternative for righties from the liberal-leaning mainstream media.

Heh-heh, love it, Dale! I guess like so many things it depends on the crowd you run with -- all I hear about is the right-wing mainstream media.

It would be cool if there really was an unbiased news source, but maybe that's a contradiction in terms.

[thedude26]

When I took my trip to Havana a few years ago, I talked with many people from different countries. Whenever I mentioned I was from the Atlanta area, people from places like Japan, Australia, Canada, England, and even native Cubans were not very familiar with it. They had heard of it from the Olimpics, but did not know much about it. When I talked about places like Boston or Miami they knew exactly what I was talking about. Same with places like Toronto and Dublin.

[Spartan]

It has been my experience in travelling within the US and abroad that people tend to know where Atlanta is without 'Georgia' attached. In fact, I have tried to explain where Spartanburg is based on Atlanta, since it was the only known geographical reference in the region. bEsides that, even if Georgia were attached, it would not make a difference in where they thought it was located.

IMO, it is not necesssary unless you have another Atlanta nearby like the Texarkana example, and that will only be within the United States.

here is a list of all of the Atlanta's in the US:

Atlanta, LA

Atlanta, TX

Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, KS

Atlanta, MO

Atlanta, IN

Atlanta, IL

Atlanta, NE

Atlanta, ID

Atlanta, MI

Atlanta, NY

Atlanta, CA

Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I have never heard of any of these palces except Atlanta, GA

[krazeeboi]

Wow, I really thought the Georgia city was the only "Atlanta" in existence, at least in the U.S. Thanks for the listing, Spartan.

[ironchapman]

I had heard of Atlanta, TX because one of my Dad's cousins used to own a store there (can't remember what it sold, never really paid much attlention to that).

Also, while looking for information about the DVD release of her TV show, I learned that Ellen Degeneres lived there for a while as a kid.

[NCB]

^I only knew about Atlanta,GA and Atlanta,TX.

I'll have to look up more info on this Atlanta,LA, I've never heard of it.

[upstate29650]

There's Latta, SC....does that count?

[Andrea]

here is a list of all of the Atlanta's in the US:

Atlanta, LA

Atlanta, TX

Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, KS

Atlanta, MO

Atlanta, IN

Atlanta, IL

Atlanta, NE

Atlanta, ID

Atlanta, MI

Atlanta, NY

Atlanta, CA

Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I have never heard of any of these palces except Atlanta, GA

Me either. But I guess folks up north add the "Georgia" so that when somebody mentions something like the Olympics or Wayne Williams or the Carter Center, they won't get it mixed up with Michigan or Nebraska.

[Lady Celeste]

Me either. But I guess folks up north add the "Georgia" so that when somebody mentions something like the Olympics or Wayne Williams or the Carter Center, they won't get it mixed up with Michigan or Nebraska.

LOL..........yeah I can see someone saying:

News Anchor 1: There will be a major announcement today at Atlanta based Coca~Cola.

News Anchor 2: Wait, which Atlanta are you talking about?

*crickets chirping*

News Anchor 1: Ummmm, which Atlanta do you think I'm talking about?

News Anchor 2: Why don't you just say it's the Atlanta, NE based Coca~Cola corporation so our viewers aren't confused with which Atlanta you are talking about?

News Anchor 1: Are you serious?

News Anchor 2: Well there are other Atlantas you know.

*crickets chirping*

News Anchor 1: Ohhhhhhh kay. Well Skip will inform us about all the snow coming to the Great Lakes. Also when we return we will show you the country's newest aquarium....in Atlanta, GEORGIA. More on that story after the break.

*Coca~Cola commercial starts*

[NCB]

^ LOL!

[Spartan]

There's Latta, SC....does that count?

It should. I've met people from there and they say they always get asked to repeat the location because it sounds like Atlanta.

[ironchapman]

I wonder if people in towns called "Lanner" have the same problem, as in "Me n' Jedd, we went down ter 'Lanner this weekend".

They'll probably make the same mistake they did here and send something meant for Atlanta, GA to Atlanta, TX.

[NCB]

I wonder if people in towns called "Lanner" have the same problem, as in "Me n' Jedd, we went down ter 'Lanner this weekend".

They'll probably make the same mistake and send something meant for Atlanta, GA to Atlanta, TX.

Haha, I could see some major foreign company accidentaly sending it's employees to a major convention in Atlanta, TX instead of Atlanta,GA.

FYI, Atlanta, Texas has a population of around 6,000 people.

[EbonyGardens]

Say Atlanta in Florida, and people here know right off the bat what city you're referring to. Same with Tampa, Miami and Orlando to people outside Florida.

[NCB]

I almost forgot about this picture, but after I saw this thread I thought about it.

Taken outside of Texarkana,TX.

^That is Atlanta,TX of course!

[bfermanich]

Andrea, many people know Atlanta as being Atlanta. Atlanta is becoming more of a household name, but you must be speaking about the media.

Which, by the way, is so incredibly "right-wing"!

Sorry. Had to chime in on that little nugget.

Yeah I think its about time we got recognized for who we are. When you think about it none of our sports teams have "Georgia" in their name's.

Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Hawks

Atlanta Thrashers

Georgia Force (only one)

Gwinnett Gladiators (well maybe two, but these don't count)

And yet teams like the Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Carolina Panthers, Tennessee Titans.. all states. I guess the people who decided on these names thought the cities they played in didn't trump their resident states. So that should say something about Atlanta's stature.

[ryanmckibben]

Over the weekend, I was bored and decided to let the people at Dolce group know how thankful we all were for the clarification of exactly which Atlanta they are building in. His response (and my original e-mail) follow.

Ryan,

I apologize if you were offended and agree that Atlanta has no need for a

state abbreviation following it. Our webmaster's instructions for that page

were simply to list our restaurants by name and city - I can only guess that

he put that in to make it explicitly clear that Kingpin would not be located

in CA, like the other places are. But irregardless of his intentions, I've

asked him to remove it.

Trust me: if we thought that Atlanta was "some small backwards ass town," as

you put it, there is no way that we would have chosen it as the location for

our first restaurants outside of California. We believe in the city and

have bet heavily on it.

Hope to see you at the openings in June!

Best wishes,

David

-----Original Message-----

From: Ryan McKibben [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 1:17 PM

To: [email protected]

Subject: Restaurant Locations

It's a good thing you specified Atlanta, GA for the new Kingpin on your

website. If that GA hadn't been there I probably would have assumed your new

place was in Atlanta, TX or possibly Atlanta, ID. Contrary to popular

opinion, we are not some small backwards ass town. I think it safe to say

that most people would know exactly where Atlanta is without the state

abbreviation.

[Martinman]

I think we're being a little over sensitive in this case. I think the fact that Atlanta is one of the first expansion locations for their businesses is a bigger statement than the GA abbreviation.

[Andrea]

Thanks, Ryan. I guess my feelings on this subject are evident, but maybe it's time we rise up and demand a little respect from these people who apparently think they're going to get lost in some kind of hillbilly wilderness unless they put "GA" on the end.

I cringe every time I hear stories about the Runaway Bride, or that dude who was stacking up bodies outside the crematorium. Whenever something like that comes out, I get the feeling that people in New York and California and probably even Ohio are rolling their eyes and saying, "Oh, yeah, *that* part of the country."

[teshadoh]

"Oh, yeah, *that* part of the country."

But we are in *that* part of the country

[Andrea]

But we are in *that* part of the country

Oh.