City of Atlanta Grows By 20,623 People In One Year
Decatur Metro | July 10, 2008More evidence that Decatur residents are on the right side of the population trend (writes the sweaty MARTA commuter)
The AJC reports that the city of Atlanta added 20,623 people to its census from 2006-2007; the seventh largest jump nationwide. According to the article, it’s perhaps the largest population in the city’s history.
On a related note, I noticed that the city of Decatur was quoted with now having just over 19,000 in this recent article about cops in Dunwoody (not sure of the source).
What’s all this mounting evidence show?
Like it or not, Atlanta and Decatur’s populations will continue to grow as people begin to feel the pinch from an unsustainable lifestyle in the ‘burbs. Some will inevitably miss the “small town feel” that the city once had, but in my humble opinion this nationwide transition is inevitable. City policies have done their best to make sure that Decatur handled this influx in a way that maintained a walkable, well thought-out community. But sometimes it seems like the policies that get blamed for our growing population. We can pretend like real estate values haven’t skyrocketed in the past 5 years and lament what’s been lost, blaming it all on the catch-all “city”. Or we can recognize and embrace this transition, making sure we have a say in how we handle this new popularity.
Just my two cents.
Latest from Decaturish
The census estimate that was released yesterday says that Decatur has 19,168 residents. That’s down about 60 from last year, but up about 1,000 since the year 2000.
Here’s the link if you’re into that sort of thing.
I dunno, a lot of people work out there. Lots of major corporate HQ along the northern perimiter: UPS, Home Depot, etc. Those folks have no reason to move to Decatur or Atlanta proper, and I doubt their lifestyles are unsuatinable. Now, the people who work in Midtown and live in Alpharetta are, and always have been, nuts. But many of those folks are relatively high-income and won’t care about gas prices, and since they already put up with hellacious traffic, I doubt adding another 10 minutes tot heir commutes will matter to them. And although it’s safe to say we all find it perplexing, some people actually seem to like living in cookie-cutter, gated, unwalkable suburban communities. Bring them to Decatur and show them the very average 3 bedroom for $550,000, and they’ll be running back to Marietta where the same price gets you a McMansion.
As long as there is land to be developed, we will have both “in-densification” (my made-up word) and suburban sprawl. So no worries! There’s a future for commute-happy suburbanites and segway-dreaming urbanites!
I think the principle that has always driven development is that “like attracts like.” Urban tends to beget urban, suburban tends to beget suburban, and within each – commercial tends to beget commercial. Managing the last bit within each environment seems to be the key to the balancing act; the borders and transitions between urban and surburban are doomed to always be an expanding battle-ground.