[Xcelerate]

As someone from Atlanta, I can confirm that there is a growing interest in start-ups (or at least at GT there was). My goal after grad school is to start a company; I just don't know in what yet :)

I should mention that it's difficult to characterize all people in Atlanta under one sort of personality type. In my experience, it varies wildly. Atlanta is more of a commuter city where a lot of people from the suburban area surrounding it drive to work each day. Of those who actually live in the city, I believe liberal is more frequent (particularly in the Midtown area), but again, there is a wide variety.

Atlanta has a reputation for crime, but this has actually improved significantly since the Olympics and I don't believe Atlanta is any worse than other big cities now.

There's also a variety of things to do in Atlanta. Some examples including the High Museum of Art and many local jazz clubs. There's also a number of outdoorsy things. Two prominent bike trails (Silver Comet and Freedom/Stone Mountain trail) + a new one they're building through Atlanta called the Beltline.

[TechNewb]

I also live, work, and have grown up in Atlanta. I have to say he gives a realistic and well made argument. I'd personally rather live/work in Atlanta over Austin, but the culture of Atlanta, while improving, is nowhere near the likes of San Fran or NYC.

But there have been many successful start ups through out Atlanta's history, such as Coke, Turner Broadcasting System(CNN/Turner/etc), UPS, and more. All of these were revolutionary start ups at the time, and now are massive corporations. I expect future companies like this to be founded here in Atlanta, because it is essentially the capital of the South East, geographically about a quarter of the country.

What makes me want to move away from Atlanta is the poor city infrastructure, the dependence on suburbs, and the lack of culture. In Atlanta there is possibly less muse than in San Fran or NYC, and the city as a whole can sometimes come across as anti intellectual, which is quite the opposite of most of San Fran and NYC. Beside GA Tech and Emory college students, networking would be relatively small when compared to NYC or San Fran. But for someone who already has their network built out, such as a start up from SF/NYC trying to cut costs, Atlanta could be the place. And it's also ideal for people moving from smaller cities who don't want the large city feel.

If Atlanta had a more walkable and livable environment, it's be quite amazing.

[waterlesscloud]

I grew up in Atlanta, moved to Los Angeles 11 years ago.

The Atlanta suburbs were awful for me. Bland, completely unplanned messes dominated by big box stores with massive parking lots and endless subdivisions of cookie-cutter houses.

But the city was pretty cool. The Midtown-Little 5 Points-Candler Park axis was quite livable, with plenty to recommend it day and night. If I ever moved back, it would be to that part of town. Most jobs, though, tend towards the suburbs. And most of the cheap housing.

Traffic is bad there, but nowhere near LA or DC bad. Maybe like Bay Area 101 bad.

There's some geeky culture there, particularly geeky pop culture. Dragoncon, big anime community. Science/Tech geekwise there's a fair amount. GaTech and Emory, of course, and the CDC draw their share of talent. Lots of my friends or spouses worked in places like that.

Art culturewise there's not a lot. A solid underground band scene, you could see good hardworking indie bar bands nightly if you wanted. A world-class but underappreciated symphony. So-so art museum. Great archaeology museum at Emory, better than anything LA has. Gallery scene is eh. Theater scene is eh. Some film culture, but spotty. Decent foodie culture, though not on the scale of a major foodie hub. A much, much, much more vibrant LGBT culture than you might expect.

A good number of outdoorsy people. Appalachian Mountains with tons of trails, rock climbing, kayaking, serious caving. Finding people to backpack with was never a problem. Hunting and fishing culture strong too, of course.

Crime wasn't all that bad. I spent a lot of time out and about in the city itself late at night. I never really felt unsafe, but then I knew the city intimately. Did some construction work in housing projects for a summer job, that was pretty sketchy at times. My brother saw a running shootout doing the same work. But that kind of thing was very limited to very specific areas.

For me it'd be the best place to live between DC and New Orleans, but there are a number of other places I prefer.

[lgleason]

The anti-intellectual nature is quite frustrating at times and outside of a few pockets is something that could benefit from more intellectuals coming into the area.

[melonakos]

It's not "anti-intellectual", it's a refreshing dose of anti-snotty-ism (not typically synonymous with cities containing top research universities).

[TechNewb]

I agree, there is very little snotty-ism compared to other cities. And one would not feel the 'anti-intellectual' nature of the city if working in certain environments, such as GATech, Emory, CDC, ect. Atlanta is a great city, and for many people may be the best, but to compare it to San Fran and NYC, there is still much room for improvement on many areas. GATech is just awesome though.

[gte910h]

>Atlanta has a reputation for crime,

Atlanta's population swells by 50% during the day.

This causes massive crime rate distortion issues (aka, using night population figures, aka, people with the actual address of the city on their driver's license, when really day population figures are much more appropriate for daylight crimes during the week).

[Inebas]

How can I get more connected? I live in the suburb and it's quite difficult and the traffic through Atlanta is a pain...

[melonakos]

Xcelerate, shoot me a tweet to talk startups (@melonakos)

[evoxed]

Unrelated, but there's something at least mildly amusing about "shooting a tweet". With email it was just a metaphor for sending a message quickly/lightly. Shooting a tweet makes me think of picking off tiny birds (tweets) a la skeet shooting. Carry on ;)

[melonakos]

Yeah, I started by saying shoot an email, but realized I didn't want to post my email address here :)

[gtank]

I do post my email here (profile) and would love to chat with some HN people around Atlanta and/or GT.