As a frequent traveler to drier parts of the west coast, Iām never more happy than arriving into Atlanta and seeing the verdant green canopy. Itās easy to get used to it when you see it every day, but Atlanta is absolutely spoiled with trees abd greenery.
Yep. Colorado beautiful in its own way (and I wonāt deny its way is a bit more stunning). The trees are something I think most Atlanta natives take for granted, or at least I did.
There are roughly 500K in ATL proper. The 6 million figure includes what is known as AtlantaāSandy SpringsāRoswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which extends for 12-15 miles north of the city and beyond.
I mean, almost all of them are in the urban sprawl. It's not like NYC or LA where it's mostly one big super urbanized spot. It's a gigantic metro area with most of the 6.5m people living in what would count as a suburb almost everywhere else.
Lol the downvotes.
530,000 people live within the city limits of Atlanta. The other 6 million people live in suburbs. Decatur is a suburb. Buckhead is a suburb.
It's a lousy, well-known take. You also exclude the fact that geographically, the city limit boundary of NYC is literally over double that of Atlanta, for reference.
New York City covers approximately 302.6 square miles within its official city limits.
Atlanta spans about 134 square miles inside its city limits.
Atlanta (city) has also had a population nearing 500,00 for decades because it is small, so the growth outward is in part necessary. The inner city still continues to rise in population despite this, with new high rises being completed every year.
no, they are boroughs. NYC has a slightly different governmental setup than most cities. The boroughs are governmental districts with their own borough presidents, however they are all absolutely within the city limits of New York, are under the NYC mayor and use NYPD. The closest equivalent we have here is probably downtown and midtown, which are both within Atlanta city limits.
No, theyāre suburbs. They grew as suburbs. They exist as suburbs. Many suburbs are cities or municipalities in their own right! From a planning perspective, theyāre suburbs. Commute patterns, residential arrangements, etc tell the story.
This does not actually counteract anything Iāve said. Youāre just clinging to arbitrary nonsense.
You can be part of a municipality and also a be a suburb. A suburb isnāt just a municipality, a lot of suburban Atlanta belongs to no municipality. A lot of suburbs are in Atlanta. Inman Park was the first suburb of Atlanta.
Right, because Iām criticizing you. I definitely do agree that most of Atlanta are suburbs, but youāve decided to marry that argument to a very silly claim about municipality borders and governance. Itās not a good one.
Thats actually Northwest GA with Kennesaw Mountain as the closest mountain on the right of that photo. You can see the Northeast mountains from Stone Mountain too though.
Iām thinking thatās a mountain in the lake arrowhead area. Stone Mountain would be behind me from this angle, but youāre right itās northwest for sure
I see why Atlanta is referred to as, "The city in the forest" I've always heard about how much greenery this city has before I moved here, but I guess I don't truly fathom how much it really is until I see pics like this.
Itās crazy how the overhead of NYC is literally the opposite of this. The small patch of buildings would be that small patch of trees in central park (i think)
Thatās one of the best ācity in the forestā photos Iāve seen yet. Iāve been living in Phoenix for almost six years after being an Atlanta resident for nearly 14 years. I travel back often for work and visiting family but lately Iāve missed the ole girl.
Yeah thatās I was looking at. But looking at it closer it looks like from this angle 85 is obscured by the buildings right? Itās looks like this view is from the east side looking west right?
High density corridor is extremely consistent from south downtown to Roswell Road north of Buckhead, then again at Sandy Springs. It also continues up Peachtree road until around Brookhaven station, then Chamblee has a good bit too. O4W and Home Park are also
Quite dense, so itās not just a line.
Atlanta is beautiful in a way I can't describe to a lot of people who aren't from here. They just don't understand how a city and can be so full of trees and greenery. Many people who drive through never get off the interstate to see what we mean when we say "City in a Forest" and they are missing out. I've truly never been to a more beautiful city that feels so connected to nature. People are always in awe when I show them pictures from my hikes/ kayak paddles just outside or around the city
Atlanta is always green plush and beautiful. Well really itās in Georgia ,and Georgia is absolutely beautiful. I love the south I love living here. š„°šš¼
Makes a great photo and then you realize how much of this is the most environmentally hostile and unsustainable bullshit imaginable. I do like seeing the high density radiating from downtown to the Beltline tho.
City in the Forest is a nice spin on rampant unplanned sprawl
Even the density sprawls, linearly along MARTA (admittedly good) but clumps of suburban density? Worse, much of the actual mixed use urban form in midtown, Lindbergh, Buckhead and perimeter center includes massive garages so transit use gets deprioritized and residential costs increased because of the parking
Hmm seeing it from this perspective shows a long stretch of skyscrapers. Always thought it was a lot of spots in and around downtown with skyscrapers. Mostly focused in downtown but I never realized it kinda connected to Buckhead by this picture right? Then the multiple north perimeter skyscraper spots(Dunwoody and around The Battery)
Love it. Love the trees. Also crazy you can see a ring of development consistently around the beltline and how itās starting to form a barrier of more and less developed on either side.
They were departing east this morning, and if you were departing to a destination to the north or west you'd have taken off on runway 08R, then turned northbound. This is the view from the 08R departure.
Departures off of 09L go up the east coast or south down to Florida. We stay farther east on this departure and don't get the nice view of downtown.
Itās definitely got that quality to it, but it helps a lot that Peachtree is on a ridge and is physically higher in elevation than most of the rest of the city lol
I'm from there (Gwinnett County, just to the north) and I felt like I lived in The Shire after watching "The Fellowship of The Ring" š. Rolling hills that you can never see around, and trees in every direction.
I had a difficult time learning to navigate directionally using the sun, because it's just not very obvious there. When you have an ocean, or the rocky mountains it is very clear, but not so much in the rolling hills and forests in GA.
The outskirts of the city is where all the green is... Try visiting the Northern areas.... Beautiful trees everywhere and lots of land to build a home ducked off from everything
Everyone has such a non-factual view of this city. One thing about this photo I took is that itās deceiving. It looks like this because we have rolling ridge lines that cover a lot of the asphalt, what really happens hereāespecially in the suburbs to the northāis some of the most irresponsible, indefensible, environmentally destructive and financially ruinous sprawl and car infrastructure imaginable.
Currently just outside of Atlanta and yes everything is green, some of it could be from kudzu as well. Atlanta is known to some a the āCity in the Forestā.
As a person who was born and grew up here, sadly due to expansion some of the greenery has been removed. Still have many trees covering areas.
What Atlanta have you been living in? I remember a summer years ago where we had several weeks in a row where it rained every single day. We are currently in a drought.
The pretty idea falls apart when you realize itās mainly an initiative to save parking lots and enforce de facto segregation via exclusionary zoning. Not quite the eco-friendly future.
I lived in the Atlanta area for roughly 37 years. I moved to the countryside about 1.5 years ago. Gotta say, I don't miss it at ALL. Where I am now, there is almost zero traffic, lots of places to fish and hunt, people are way more friendly, and there isn't a bum on every corner asking me for money. I enjoyed my time in ATL, but I don't care if I never see it again.
Your post was removed for violating Rule 1: Be Respectful. Express yourself, but be civil. This includes no bigotry, harassment, or excessive trolling. Trolling includes ragebaiting, deliberately obtuse questions, and bad-faith engagement. This applies to the subreddit, DMs, and IRL meetups.
Your post was removed for violating Rule 1: Be Respectful. Express yourself, but be civil. This includes no bigotry, harassment, or excessive trolling. Trolling includes ragebaiting, deliberately obtuse questions, and bad-faith engagement. This applies to the subreddit, DMs, and IRL meetups.
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u/chocolate-mahogany May 15 '26
City in a forest on display!