Georgia's Next Atlanta- Macon....

[PJA]

Let's look at the Urban area of each city (the population and the size of the urban area). These are as of 2000.

Augusta's urban area population is 335,630 while the size of its urban area is 231.79 sq. miles.

Columbus' urban area population is 242,324 while the size of its urban area is 136.16 sq. miles.

Savannah's urban area population is 208,886 while the size of its urban area is 102.39 sq.miles.

Macon's urban area population is 135,170 and the size of its urban area is 80.53.

Augusta's urban area is nearly three times that of Macon's. Columbus' urban area is nearly 1.5 times that of the size of Macon's urban area. I'm sorry but Macon has a long way to go.

Here's where I got my information http://www.demographia.com/db-ua2000pop.htm.

[dougtha1]

But the gap between Macon and Augusta is more than 100,000....Macon would have to add nearly half of it's population to catch up and pass Augusta.

[PJA]

But stop nd think. Are we talking about a time frame of 1 year or a time frame of 20, 25, 30... years. 200, oo even is small beans for that time span. Ure acting as if we are a million or two off. Yes pop. wise Augusta is ahead of Macon. Fine. But if you were to vissit Macon u wouldnt be able to tell if you didnt know the numbers alreay. We are as busy if not bussier. We have more traffic thean any other 2nd tier city (theres a reason why only Macon and Atlanta have trafic maps and cameras on GA-Nvigator website.) We have a decent skyline that adds a "city" feel. We have more construction going on than anywhere outside of Atlanta. (including all, Interstate, highways, retail, office, residential etc. you should see all the tractors and cranes here) We have 3 heavily traveled interstates that actually pass through the city and dont just stop at the entrance of town. macon has the largest percentage of daytime population change of any of the second tier cities. (so why did we lose a county out of our metro???? and why cant we have those counties where all the commuters are comming from????) For anybody to say that they are on another level than another city. You should at least be able to set foot in both cities and immediately tell the diff. of one from the other. (ie. ATLANTA) Thats "another level" not Augusta.

Macon is sprawling heaven...thats been said on here before. Why the repeat?

[dougtha1]

I DONT SEE THE "OTHER LEVEL". LOL

MACTOWN

AUG

[PJA]

That's just a picutre of downtown and only a small portion of downtown at that. I don't see how that has anything to do with the fact Macon isn't going to be the next Atlanta. Realistcally speaking, downtown is only portion of any city...even Atlanta. Atlanta isn't Atlanta because of it's downtown.....it's the total package.

[dougtha1]

Actually Augusta has more sprawl than Macon and yet it's urban area is still three times that of Macon. I don't know if you realize how big Augusta really is. The urbanized area includes all of the urban and suburban parts of the metro...not the farm or trees or parts where no one lives or where no businesses are.

Sprawl is included in the urban area because it still has dense population...maybe not as dense as other areas but basically in the urban areas only the rural (country) parts are left out.

[PJA]

IVE BEEN TO AUG RECENTLY I WASNT IMPRESSED. IT DIDNT MAKE MACON LOOK OR FEEL SMALL.... BUT DOWNTOWN IS REPRESENTATIVE OF A CITY. U DONT UNDERSTAND THAT WHILE BIBB COUNTY MAKE LACK THE RESIDENTS AUG HAS. SOM MANY OF THE PEOPLE THAT ARE IN TOWN AT ALL TIME OF DAY AND NIGHT ARE FORM THE SUBURBAN COUNTIES. THEY DONT GET COUNTED.

[Pillsbury]

^ That's a nice picture of Macon, reminds me of High Point, North Carolina.

Is there a reason why we cannot have a reasoned conversation without resorting to posting pictures of the cities and discussing which town has more chain restaurants. Look, here we go:

1. The Medical Center of Central Georgia is the second largest hospital in Georgia;

2. Augusta has three hospitals that are almost the size of the Medical Center of Central Georgia, and another 4 or 5 that are in the 300 bed range. That's how this got started.

No one on here is insulting Macon or any other town in this state. It's just the posters from Macon tend to be a bit immature. You can brag about your town all you want to, but in the end, the statistics and the census reports don't lie. It's just the way it is. I"m happy for Macon. I might be moving there next year for a few years, but it doesn't compare to Augusta. It just doesn't. The same way Augusta doesn't compare to Greensboro or Raleigh.

IVE BEEN TO AUG RECENTLY I WASNT IMPRESSED. IT DIDNT MAKE MACON LOOK OR FEEL SMALL.... BUT DOWNTOWN IS REPRESENTATIVE OF A CITY. U DONT UNDERSTAND THAT WHILE BIBB COUNTY MAKE LACK THE RESIDENTS AUG HAS. SOM MANY OF THE PEOPLE THAT ARE IN TOWN AT ALL TIME OF DAY AND NIGHT ARE FORM THE SUBURBAN COUNTIES. THEY DONT GET COUNTED.

[PJA]

IVE BEEN TO AUG RECENTLY I WASNT IMPRESSED. IT DIDNT MAKE MACON LOOK OR FEEL SMALL.... BUT DOWNTOWN IS REPRESENTATIVE OF A CITY. U DONT UNDERSTAND THAT WHILE BIBB COUNTY MAKE LACK THE RESIDENTS AUG HAS. SOM MANY OF THE PEOPLE THAT ARE IN TOWN AT ALL TIME OF DAY AND NIGHT ARE FORM THE SUBURBAN COUNTIES. THEY DONT GET COUNTED.

[dougtha1]

^ That's a nice picture of Macon, reminds me of High Point, North Carolina.

Is there a reason why we cannot have a reasoned conversation without resorting to posting pictures of the cities and discussing which town has more chain restaurants. Look, here we go:

1. The Medical Center of Central Georgia is the second largest hospital in Georgia;

2. Augusta has three hospitals that are almost the size of the Medical Center of Central Georgia, and another 4 or 5 that are in the 300 bed range. That's how this got started.

No one on here is insulting Macon or any other town in this state. It's just the posters from Macon tend to be a bit immature. You can brag about your town all you want to, but in the end, the statistics and the census reports don't lie. It's just the way it is. I"m happy for Macon. I might be moving there next year for a few years, but it doesn't compare to Augusta. It just doesn't. The same way Augusta doesn't compare to Greensboro or Raleigh.

I"m not sure what part of Augusta you were in, but I"m thinking of going to grad school down at Mercer and I go to Macon quite a bit. I also know a lot of people from Macon, and they all agree that Augusta is bigger with more things to do that Macon.

Also, all cities have suburbs and all cities have more people in their town on any given day from those suburbs. You people act like your cities are so different or something....

Also, Doug, you might want to check on writing in all caps. I think they look down on that sort of thing around here.

[Pillsbury]

^ I think we all want Macon to grow (and Columbus, Augusta, etc). Again, I'm not sure which Augustans were being arrogant. If it was me and you can show me I'll certainly apologize.

Atlanta has zero identity. It's so generic and fake that its sickening. Same for its suburbs.

[PJA]

IMO what was arrogant was the whole premise of this post. Macon being the next Atlanta when it isn't even as big as the other second tier cites was a bit over the top. I'm just saying, look at the statistics. I'm not putting Macon down..haven't said anything bad about Macon. I just merely posted facts. You however gave your opinions on Augusta and you were the one putting Augusta and Columbus down.

[dougtha1]

IMO what was arrogant was the whole premise of this post. Macon being the next Atlanta when it isn't even as big as the other second tier cites was a bit over the top. I'm just saying, look at the statistics. I'm not putting Macon down..haven't said anything bad about Macon. I just merely posted facts. You however gave your opinions on Augusta and you were the one putting Augusta and Columbus down.

[yerocal]

No i posted facts and yes my opinion on those facts. And arrogancy isnt referred to this thread in specific. Its become a trend actually over time in general. And i do agree. I never liked the title of his topic from the get go. i think its arrogant for any city in GA to claim stake as the next Atlanta right now. Theres nothing going on in any city in GA that others cities are experiencing similarly.

[yerocal]

For those who wants facts: Well the the company who is in the developing North Macon's New open air shopping mall included in there notes:

[jungletobacco]

You cannot downplay population. A city wity 100,000 residents will not have two decent malls and alot of other things. Columbus Augusta and Savannah has the three top populations out of the second tier cities. Savannah is in a unique situation because of it charm. One side say build new buildings and ther say preserve its history. Either way, MILLIONS of people will visit Savannah each year and it has the only inter nat airport outside the ATL.

Augusta could have seperated it self from the other second tier in the 80's, to be honest. the Politicans in Augusta always found themselve in the headline of the papers and that alone alot of racial issue contributed to the slow down of the AUG. But with the rapid growth of North Augusta and the construction to complete interstate 520, Augusta will again have a chance to separate itself. Augusta downtown is about to get a new boost with the construction of a new Lifestyle center, two 10 story condos, and the Augusta canal area becoming a hot spot for new development. You cant take a picture of Augusta's dowtown in one shot but if you really had visited you wouldve known that.

I dont know much about Columbus but the fact that there would 30,000 more Columbian in the next decade!

[Topher1]

I'm no mod, but can we please stop bickering over each other's cities. It's OK for the cities to have a rivalry with each other. We are, after all, all fighting for the same scraps from Atlanta's table, but we don't need to carry this rivalry over into this mostly informative discussion forum.

We need to face the fact that the Fall Line cities are more alike than they are different and move on. There is no clear cut "winner" at this time. Please feel free to have relevent discussion, but everything doesn't need to be turned around to "one-up" another city.

[Pillsbury]

^ I think that's part of the problem. All the cities are the same, and it's like the three girls (Macon, Augusta, Columbus) arguing over why their beauty queen cousin get's all the guys.

[jungletobacco]

I think the discussion is a good one so far. While we have contrast beliefs we are learning about each other cities at the same time. Each city has its own identity, they re not the same just because they re second tier cities. Macon and Augusta are not the same size. This the Georgia forum's best topic but i dont like the title.

[socaguy]

I think its wondeful Macon is growing so much and adding so many new projects but if you look at the other Georgia cities, they are doing the same exact thing. I just want to see facts and not opinions that are just spewed out without any thought.

[poohsfolks]

No one on here is insulting Macon or any other town in this state. It's just the posters from Macon tend to be a bit immature. You can brag about your town all you want to, but in the end, the statistics and the census reports don't lie.

[poohsfolks]

Atlanta is about to undertake the construction of the Fifth Runway project to relieve some of

the congestion Hartsfield is experiencing. However, it will be five to six years before this project is completed and the relief can be provided. The congestion cries out for a solution today. I believe that the City of Macon

can be a major part of the solution to Hartsfield

[dougtha1]

Not sure where you got this, but it's very, very old news. The "five to six year" fifth runway project at Hartsfield-Jackson ended months ago when the runway opened. The renovations to the terminal building at the Macon Airport have also long since been completed.

[PJA]

Speaking of airports, here's an article in today's paper about how the the Augusta Regional Airport is gearing up to focus on economic development.

the article

[ATLman1]

Speaking of airports, here's an article in today's paper about how the the Augusta Regional Airport is gearing up to focus on economic development.

the article