Georgia's Next Atlanta- Macon....

[socaguy]

First off, why would any city becoming "the next Atlanta" be anything to be proud of? Atlanta is plagued with heavy traffic, long commutes, poor mass transit, and the city is a poster child for urban sprawl...Unfortunately, I do see Macon headed in THAT direction faster than the other second tier cities. Macon will probably never be the next Atlanta, but it is picking up some of Atlanta's bad habits pretty quickly.

It is also, in my opinion, dangerously close to becoming part of Atlanta. Monroe County is being settled by Atlantans to the north and Maconites to the south...I would definitely pay close attention to the next census report to see which city wins the battle for claims to Monroe in their metro area. I see a much larger Macon in the future...but I can't imagine it becoming larger than any of the other second tier cities anytime soon. Augusta, Columbus & Savannah all have equal strengths. Augusta & Savannah particularly make up for their lack of proximity to Atlanta with strong local attractions.

Population aside, Macon is considered to be Georgia's Second City in terms of importance in some aspects already. Macon has the largest convention center, mall, suburb, hospital, retail base, and the most highway mileage outside metro Atlanta. It already has quite a bit going for it.

As far as the retail goes, why not just wait and see what the developers have to say? Rumors are no fun anyway. I recall the Saks & Bloomie's rumor for The Shoppes at River Crossing that really turned out to be a Belk & Dillard's. We have one more department store on the way so far...let's just wait and see what it is.

[Pillsbury]

^ Yeah, I was going to mention that about the hospital thing. I think we have more doctors per capita than any other town down South except Memphis and Durham. We're like the hospital town. Same thing with the malls--we had two million square foot malls back in the 80s; people just started dying at one of the malls so they closed it. Now we have one.

Yerocal, I hate to tell you (and I wish I could say otherwise) but that high speed rail isn't coming anytime soon. Look at the governor listed in the article (Roy Barnes)---he and the Dems are gone, along with any chance of rail---although they might widen I-75 to about 20 lanes.

[DaGABoyStinger]

I was just wondering where you got your info from when you say Macon has the largest retail base outside of Atlanta. I would definately think Augusta has Macon beat here, especially since the metro area has 150,00o-170,000 more people than Macon. As far as suburbs go, how large is Warner Robbins? Aiken, Augustas largest suburban city, has close to 30,000 but as far as suburban areas, Evans, an unicorporated area of Columbia County has close to 85,000 people. Macon might have a larger hospital than Augusta but the number of major hospitals is greater in Augusta than Macon. Augusta Metro has University Hospital, The Medical College of Georgia, St. Josephs hospital, Uptown VA Hospital, DT VA Hospital, Doctors Hospital, and Eisenhower Medical Center, the Aiken Regional Medical Centers and nearly a dozen other smaller, specialty hospitals.

[dougtha1]

^ Yeah, I was going to mention that about the hospital thing. I think we have more doctors per capita than any other town down South except Memphis and Durham. We're like the hospital town. Same thing with the malls--we had two million square foot malls back in the 80s; people just started dying at one of the malls so they closed it. Now we have one.

Yerocal, I hate to tell you (and I wish I could say otherwise) but that high speed rail isn't coming anytime soon. Look at the governor listed in the article (Roy Barnes)---he and the Dems are gone, along with any chance of rail---although they might widen I-75 to about 20 lanes.

[dougtha1]

I was just wondering where you got your info from when you say Macon has the largest retail base outside of Atlanta. I would definately think Augusta has Macon beat here, especially since the metro area has 150,00o-170,000 more people than Macon. As far as suburbs go, how large is Warner Robbins? Aiken, Augustas largest suburban city, has close to 30,000 but as far as suburban areas, Evans, an unicorporated area of Columbia County has close to 85,000 people. Macon might have a larger hospital than Augusta but the number of major hospitals is greater in Augusta than Macon. Augusta Metro has University Hospital, The Medical College of Georgia, St. Josephs hospital, Uptown VA Hospital, DT VA Hospital, Doctors Hospital, and Eisenhower Medical Center, the Aiken Regional Medical Centers and nearly a dozen other smaller, specialty hospitals.

[PJA]

As far as income Augusta has the highest median income outside of Atlanta metro. This was taken from the official census website.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/20...a%20revised.pdf

[Pillsbury]

Thanks PJA, I'd remembered reading something about that not too long ago.

[Pillsbury]

Im not sure about the retail, ill let someone else answer that but as far as the largest suburb, Warner Robbins is almost twice as large as Aiken with a poulation of 57,907. (www.city-data.com/city/Warner-Robins-Georgia.html), and as far as the largerst hospital goes, in terms of BEDS/PATIENT CAPACITY, MCCG is second only to Grady Memorial.

From north to south and east to west, The Medical Center of Central Georgia is the largest tertiary care center between Atlanta, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, and Augusta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama.

MCCG evolved into a 603-bed, full-service, acute care hospital that now serves an estimated population of 750,000 residents and is now the second largest hospital in the state of Georgia. Accredited by the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the medical facility has a primary service area of thirty counties in Central Georgia, including Bibb and the neighboring counties of Crawford, Houston, Jones, Monroe, Peach and Twiggs. The Medical Center typically treats patients from nearly 80 percent of Georgia

[krazeeboi]

Lets hope we don't become the next ATL. Who wants to be a city that has no identity? No one is from Atlanta. It's full of Yankees with overbearing accents who talk about how much better it is up north.

[jungletobacco]

What does Macon have to offer to the world? really.... Savannah and Augusta are the next in line just because they have a strong tourist base, which is motivation bring more and more growth to their cities. Macon is about to be swallowed by the Atlanta sprawl, ..........I guest thats growth, huh? Besides being the next Atlanta, Macon will be Atlanta!!!!! Thats funny!!!

[LizellaJacket]

It's got one, although it may not be your particular ideal of what a positive identity for a Southern city is.

[socaguy]

"especially since the metro area has 150,00o-170,000 more people than Macon" i

m sorry but the whole Macon/Warner Robbins CMSA is 376,588. Augusta/Aiken is 477,441. Ure 100,000 more, not 170,000. Im not sure if it is possible to find out the total retail square footage fo a whole city. Or a whole metro area.

[PJA]

If you think about it, even if there was only 100,000 people seperating Macon and Augusta.......that is a lot of people and i don't think Macon will add over 100,000 anytime soon. And if they did I doubt that Augusta would stay at it's same population. Let's be realistic here Macon would have to grow at over 30 percent to get close to Augusta's population. The only hope is for Macon to add another county to it's metro and to tell you the truth, Augusta could just as well do the same thing...Jefferson county is right next to Richmond county and still isn't part of the metro...and with the Fall Line Freeway being constructed and South Augusta picking up (that's the side of Augusta that Jefferson is close too) that could very well change. I expect this to happen soon anyway. It should also be noted that every county that borders Augusta-Richmond county is part of its metro except for Jefferson county.

[socaguy]

Well Socaguy, I think some of the reasons why Macon is advantaged in this could be a bunch of things. Some in particular are with Macon's demographics. They may have fewer Total people in the area, but actually from what I heard they actually may have the largest people with incomes over $50,000. Apparently Macon may have the most rich people out of the other 2nd teir cities. But maybe Savannah and Augusta are really close too. I think someone needs to do some research to be sure of this to be sure.

With Savannah's islands, and Augusta's affluent Medical and SRS employment base we shouldn't be too far behind. Columbus I'm not so sure about, though.

Warner Robins should be close to that of Evans if not a bit over 100,000

[PJA]

Here's a list of all of the metros in the country.

US MSA's

Be careful when reading the list, the first number is the 2000 population and the second number is the 2005 population. The next column is the percentage of growth and the last column is the rank in the nation.

Augusta MSA population as of 2005 was 520,332 and in 2000 it was 499,684 which means in 5 years it gained 20,648 people. It is the 94th largest metro in the country.

The Columbus Aubrun Opelika msa as of 2005 is 430,363 and in 2000 it was 420,965 and it gained 9,398 people in 5 years. It ranks 105 in the nation.

The Savannah Hinesville Ft Stewart MSA has 382,510 as of 2005 and in 2000 it had 364,914 and it gained 17,596 in 5 years. It ranks 121 in the nation.

And finally the Macon Warner Robbins Ft Valley metro has 379,669 people as of 2005 and in 2000 it had 356,801 which means it gained 22,868 people (not much more than Augusta).

Now the Macon Warner robbins metro may pass Savannah but it has a long ways to go to catch up to the other two. Maybe it should become the next Columbus or Augusta before it worries about becoming the next Atlanta.

But then again...maybe it should just stay unique and continue being Macon.

[DaGABoyStinger]

If you think about it, even if there was only 100,000 people seperating Macon and Augusta.......that is a lot of people and i don't think Macon will add over 100,000 anytime soon. And if they did I doubt that Augusta would stay at it's same population. Let's be realistic here Macon would have to grow at over 30 percent to get close to Augusta's population. The only hope is for Macon to add another county to it's metro and to tell you the truth, Augusta could just as well do the same thing...Jefferson county is right next to Richmond county and still isn't part of the metro...and with the Fall Line Freeway being constructed and South Augusta picking up (that's the side of Augusta that Jefferson is close too) that could very well change. I expect this to happen soon anyway. It should also be noted that every county that borders Augusta-Richmond county is part of its metro except for Jefferson county.

[PJA]

I think part of the reason why is becuase Jefferson county doesn't really have any nice sized towns. It has Wrens and Louisville which are pretty small but the most of its towns are spread thougout the county which means that those in the southern half probably don't regularly visit Augusta. They may visit Sandersville instead. Burke County has Waynesboro and most of their citizens live around that area I believe and they are closer to Augusta which means a greater percentage of Burke's residents probably travels to Augusta on a consistent basis. By the way as of 2005 Jefferson' county's population was 16,926. It's acutally shrinking ( i know a lot of people live the jefferson co. to come to augusta.)

[yerocal]

Here's a list of all of the metros in the country.

US MSA's

Be careful when reading the list, the first number is the 2000 population and the second number is the 2005 population. The next column is the percentage of growth and the last column is the rank in the nation.

Augusta MSA population as of 2005 was 520,332 and in 2000 it was 499,684 which means in 5 years it gained 20,648 people. It is the 94th largest metro in the country.

The Columbus Aubrun Opelika msa as of 2005 is 430,363 and in 2000 it was 420,965 and it gained 9,398 people in 5 years. It ranks 105 in the nation.

The Savannah Hinesville Ft Stewart MSA has 382,510 as of 2005 and in 2000 it had 364,914 and it gained 17,596 in 5 years. It ranks 121 in the nation.

And finally the Macon Warner Robbins Ft Valley metro has 379,669 people as of 2005 and in 2000 it had 356,801 which means it gained 22,868 people (not much more than Augusta).

Now the Macon Warner robbins metro may pass Savannah but it has a long ways to go to catch up to the other two. Maybe it should become the next Columbus or Augusta before it worries about becoming the next Atlanta.

But then again...maybe it should just stay unique and continue being Macon.

[ATLman1]

Macon still has a long way to go before it becomes a Columbus or Augusta. It's just a fact dude. Macon has a lot going for it just like Columbus and Augusta. It would take a lot to catch up to Columbus and Augusta. Those two cities are growing very fast.

[yerocal]

Macon still has a long way to go before it becomes a Columbus or Augusta. It's just a fact dude. Macon has a lot going for it just like Columbus and Augusta. It would take a lot to catch up to Columbus and Augusta. Those two cities are growing very fast.

[PJA]

A fact! Tell how much more is Columbus and Augusta growing than Macon explain? please other than pop. what Is there in Columbus or Augusta that macon don't have or is getting. Because Size is not an issue because i have current maps of all three cities and there not much difference to me! So please explain.

[PJA]

This is a ludercris idea WHY? would a city want to become like it self because Columbus and Augusta not better or much larger than Macon. Get real! They all are about the same size with a few diferences and each are all fighting become more major, it seem that macon is going to became that city first because the state of ga has already put in place to estabish a foundation to support state & commerical growth in that area. Some people on here looks at Macon as if it so much smaller than augusta or columbus but all of them are about the same size. For those that think that Augusta and Savannah is the only that has tourist attractions think again.

[dougtha1]

Here's a list of all of the metros in the country.

US MSA's

Be careful when reading the list, the first number is the 2000 population and the second number is the 2005 population. The next column is the percentage of growth and the last column is the rank in the nation.

Augusta MSA population as of 2005 was 520,332 and in 2000 it was 499,684 which means in 5 years it gained 20,648 people. It is the 94th largest metro in the country.

The Columbus Aubrun Opelika msa as of 2005 is 430,363 and in 2000 it was 420,965 and it gained 9,398 people in 5 years. It ranks 105 in the nation.

The Savannah Hinesville Ft Stewart MSA has 382,510 as of 2005 and in 2000 it had 364,914 and it gained 17,596 in 5 years. It ranks 121 in the nation.

And finally the Macon Warner Robbins Ft Valley metro has 379,669 people as of 2005 and in 2000 it had 356,801 which means it gained 22,868 people (not much more than Augusta).

Now the Macon Warner robbins metro may pass Savannah but it has a long ways to go to catch up to the other two. Maybe it should become the next Columbus or Augusta before it worries about becoming the next Atlanta.

But then again...maybe it should just stay unique and continue being Macon.

[dougtha1]

Macon still has a long way to go before it becomes a Columbus or Augusta. It's just a fact dude. Macon has a lot going for it just like Columbus and Augusta. It would take a lot to catch up to Columbus and Augusta. Those two cities are growing very fast.

[PJA]

100,00 ppl. isnt a "huge" desparity so saying Macon could be the next Columbus or Augusta really doesnt mean anything. Thats really nothing to become IMO. There are four second tier cities in GA ands thats because we are all generally on the same level. We all have our stregnths and weaknesses.