Atlanta jaunt (and bonus Toronto-by-air shots)

[adma]

Cobb County relative to Republican outposts of places like DuPage County, Illinois or Orange County, California is still an intensely religious place.

I don't think people of Marietta care about MARTA or transit in general, still today.

So far as politics, Cobb County is so Republican that I would have expected that seat in rural northern Mississippi just outside of Memphis to have flipped before ever expecting a place like Cobb County, GA to flip.

There's a LOT of factors playing here, the Congressional seat that flipped in Mississippi is radically different from the demographics found in suburban metro Atlanta.

To be honest, you might be surprised how non-religious some of the rural south can be. Although I'm not referring to the district in Mississippi particularly. The suburbs are the places you find megachurches, not the rural south. They just have a million small congregations on every corner.

Although...

 

[Brandon716]

Having just read the article, I'm not sure what new the article states about metro Atlanta that I didn't already know.

Cobb isn't going Democrat in my lifetime unless a major national political shift occurs that is far beyond what we have going on today, and that was the core of our discussion.

On the other issues, I definately see places like Marietta and Lawrenceville, GA becoming more transit-friendly areas when energy becomes more expensive and traffic continues to snarl. But that's largely a bi-partisan issue of life itself, people don't like to stand in traffic regardless whether someone is Republican, Democrat, or Independent.

 

[adma]

Looking things up via CNN for 2006:

Three congressional districts include bits of Cobb: 6, 11, 13.

In the Cobb part of Georgia 6: Republican 40,779 (71%); Democrat 16,385 (29%) (vs 72% to 28% at large)

In the Cobb part of Georgia 11: Republican 48,179 (71%); Democrat 19,631 (29%) (same % at-large)

In the Cobb part of Georgia 13: Democrat 30,684 (61%); Republican 19,544 (39%) (vs 69% to 31% at-large)

So, even if there's always the gerrymandering default alibi, some of Cobb (basically, the Smyrna/Mableton/Austell southern part) is already represented by a Democrat.

Of course, congressional races are a funny creature; and it may take a combination of vaguely favourable redistribution and an open seat, plus more widespread anti-Republican sentiment and Blue Dog Democrat strategizing, to do the trick. Though yes, there's a likelihood that outer, "whiter", more "Jesuslandy" parts such as Kennesaw might be gerrymandered away to allow for such a thing to happen--but I'm looking at this hypothetically as a long-term, creative Democratic strategist, looking for opportunities anywhere he can.

You may not change their Jesus-and-faggot-fearing ways; but you can still get them--or a surprising lot of them--to vote Democrat...

 

[Brandon716]

Yea, but those are state Democrats in the state legislature. Hardly news to me...

But I thank you for being positive and having a positive outlook, I just feel its a lost cause.

 

[adma]

Yea, but those are state Democrats in the state legislature. Hardly news to me...

Actually, it's U.S. Congress.

 

[Just_Chris]

Thanks for sharing. Kind of like LA, this seems to be another one of America's largest cities that yet doesn't really have an urban vibe, despite being so populous. Like allabootmatt said, it makes T.O. looks pretty much like heaven, in terms of urbanity.
A month from now I'll be living five hours of driving due south of Atlanta, yet this thread somewhat persuaded me that I shouldn't include Atlanta on my list of cities to visit in America's south.

I actually found L.A. to be quite urban. Downtown and much of Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey and numerous other areas were urban. And many of these urban areas were quite large. There were huge swaths of areas of high density with plenty of pedestrian traffic when I was there. You can see the density in aerials of the city. To me L.A. was much more urban than it's reputation. The only way it really doesn't measure up in that respect is transit ridership.