[rayiner]

I suppose it all depends on what you mean by that. The best phrase for describing Atlanta is probably "liberal suburban." That is to say that the dominant cultural phenomenon is middle/upper middle class whites (and in the Valley, Asians) with strong suburban upbringings living in a semi-urbanized area with liberal leanings, though ones that fall short of say San Francisco or New York.

One of the strong counter-forces to the otherwise suburban cultural norm that exists in Atlanta, but does not exist in Silicon Valley, is the strong professional urban black community. It's a phenomenon you'll see in literally no other city in the country--upscale retail/entertainment venues whose clientele is dominated by upper middle class blacks. Quite a distinctly un-suburban phenomenon.

[rdl]

I'm confused by Atlanta -- it seems like a very racially polarized place, but it's not split across wealth/professional status/etc. like the racial polarization in SFBA -- it's just parallel everything by race, which is even weirder. I actually know more black people in Atlanta than I know white people, since a lot of the black military officers I met (who tend to be middle or upper middle class, either going in or coming out) had some connection to Atlanta.

There seemed to be a lot of interest in business startups, but not the kind of scalable tech startups you would find in the Bay Area -- more like consultancies or other professional services. Still, a good way to a $200-300k/yr income. They may have been as much a "getting out of the Army" thing as an Atlanta thing, though.

[rayiner]

Yes, parallel is the way to describe it. Not driven by racial animosity, I don't think, but just people keeping within their own circles (kind of like Jews and Asians in New York).

The interest in professional services makes sense when you consider that Delta, UPS, Home Depot, etc, are headquartered there. Logistics services, consulting, legal services, etc, are all in high demand, and the city is the hub for that sort of work for the surrounding region.