I don't know Cincy, so I'l take your word. But yes, Atlanta proper is a small part of the metro -- about 5 million in the MSD (Metropolitan Statistical District, a Census bureau term) and about 500K in the city limits.
There are still some pretty bad areas to be found, though, as you’d expect.
In any city. But they're getting fewer. There are neighborhoods I wouldn't dare to live in a decade ago, and now I can't afford to live in.
The current mayor down there, while far from a conservative, is so much better than the previous two decades’ mayors, that it’s pretty amazing. She is really trying to make things work and get better.
I'm a huge Shirley fan. When it comes to local governance, give me pragmatism and results over ideology every day of the week. Being mayor is about potholes, sewer lines, water mains, law enforcement, schools and parks.
I don't give a good damn what a mayor thinks about Roe v. Wade or the war in Iraq. That is not a mayor's responsibility. Mayor Franklin is kicking ass and taking names, not jockeying for national prominence, but doing the job she was elected to do. I'm impressed, especially after the corrupt mess Bill Campbell handed her.
It wasn’t just Bill. It was two decades plus of Maynard + Andy + Bill. Andy I don’t think was corrupt, but corruption grew under him, he didn’t do much to root it out or otherwise make the city “run”. The other two were definitely slurping at the trough, Bill hugely so. It really, really pissed Boortz off, he’d get on a Bill Campbell rant, and you could see him turning red through the radio, which takes some doing.