I'll give them the point about Atlanta. It is a city with no clear plan whatsoever. It really is a small core surrounded by a hodgepodge highway-riddled suburb.
It's got all the negatives of a suburb with all the negatives of a city. You simply cannot walk anywhere. I'm used to a cute little town called Webster, NY, where you could -- if you wanted the exercise -- walk to all your places of importance, yet was only 13 miles from Rochester, a traditional city.
In Atlanta, they seem to have the idea of having beautiful houses set back from the highways and nice .7 to 1 acre plots that are on extremely busy thoroughfares. I don't get it. Then the little cul-de-sacs are these cheesy little crowded thingEys on .2 acre miniplots.
I just don't get the place. I'm relocating pretty soon.
No offense, Laz, but as a Southerner I would say the problem with Atlanta is that it is populated by too many Yankess who'd rather not be there in the first place. I think the fact that so few people on this lengthy thread have said anything one way or the other about Atlanta solidifies its place on this list. The Yankees who live their don't much like it because as a major city they know it fails, the Southerners who live their don't much like it because as a Southern city they know it fails. It's apathy city, baby.
They don't care about their sports teams, even the Braves. I'll never forget the empty seats during the mid-90's NL championship games, and when the Cubs come to town, they've got more fans than the Braves.