New Charlotte resident happy to leave ‘mess’ of Atlanta behind

Not to end 2016 on a negative note, but like Nashville and Birmingham before it, Charlotte’s been talking smack about the Capital of the South again.

The latest missive comes from the appropriately named Charlotte Agenda blog, which recently published an opinion piece titled “I moved to Charlotte from Atlanta 6 months ago, and this is my initial reaction” that some 15,000 people have read.

In it, real estate broker Chad Floyd waxes comparatively about Atlanta, where he lived for five years, and his newfound home of Charlotte, a rival metro with some 3.4 million fewer residents but 100 percent more NASCAR museums.

Beyond sheer size, Floyd has picked up on more differences between the metros than similarities. He accurately asserts that Charlotte’s traffic issues seem “homey” in comparison to ATL’s “hour-plus commutes” and “15-minute left turns.”

A little more suspect are Floyd’s knocks against Atlanta cuisine and his observation that Decatur is overrun with hipsters.

In summation, he offers this:

“Compared to Charlotte, Atlanta becomes an inconvenient mess of subgenres too distant to conveniently access, and too easily forgotten.”

An inconvenient, forgettable mess? Ouch.

That same blog issued a three-step process earlier this year advising the Queen City “How Not to Become Atlanta,” complete with a Snowapocalypse dig and questionable crime statistics.

Cityminded.org

SCAD.edu

Granted, this most recent column isn’t nearly as flagrant as the one penned by a former Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce chairman, who wrote last year: “Why would anyone in their right mind want to live in Atlanta? ... It is too big, unwieldy, and totally out of control.”

And lest we forget the candidate for Nashville mayor who, before losing the race, based his campaign ads on promises to not make Music City like Atlanta.

Can’t we growing Southern cities all just get along?

• I moved to Charlotte from Atlanta 6 months ago, and this is my initial reaction [Charlotte Agenda]
• Charlotte Blog Issues Instructions for Not Becoming Atlanta [Curbed]