Adam's Neighborhood

I grew up in a neighborhood between Powder Springs and Lost Mountain, GA. Like Niall's neighborhood, I would consider my neighborhood a great example of suburban sprawl. The
picture shows my house and everything that is near it. Most of the surrounding area is spaced-
out buildings and miles and miles of neighborhoods. Also like Niall's neighborhood, my neighborhood has a small town center with a variety of shops, but the majority of people living in the Powder Springs district do not shop there. Most residents shop in a neighboring town called Hiram, where there many strip malls. As a matter of fact, my parents commute to Hiram every day because we own a business there. In addition, Paulding County, the county in which Hiram is located, was ranked the fastest growing county in the nation a couple years ago. Economically, this is a very impressive trait, but the negative aspect of this trait is that Paulding's growth can all be considered sprawl. There are hardly any means of mass transit in Powder Springs or Hiram. Everyone uses their own cars. Traffic on US-278 which goes through Hiram has constantly gotten worse and worse from increased conjestion.

There are also many residents living in Powder Springs that commute to Atlanta every morning for work. MARTA offers a bus route from Powder Springs to Atlanta, but a small portion of these commuters acually use that service. Most drive their own cars which contribute to traffic on I-20 and I-75 and pollution in the metro-Atlanta area.

Eventhough I would consider my neighborhood an example of suburban sprawl, I really enjoy living there. I would rather have my own house and yard than an apartment. I feel like I have more space living in the suburbs versus living in the crammed up city.

My Town

So, I am from a town located about thirty minutes to an hour outside of Atlanta called Suwanee. Suwanee can be described as the quintessential suburban sprawl town. The geography of Suwanee includes a small town center with subdivision upon subdivision, and strip mall upon strip mall extending out of it, until it blends in to the next town. When I first moved to Suwanne it was considered to be on the outskirts of of the metropolitan Atlanta area. However, in the ten years that I have lived there 2 major shopping malls, and three knew schools have been built either around my home or north of it. There used to be woods surounding my neighborhood and fields with horses in them. Now, knew subdivisions have taken there place with no sign of stopping. All this knew development has not necessarily been a bad thing. Diverse groups up people are allways moving in bring with them knew cultures to explore, and with more buildings comes more activities for me to do and places for me to eat. Despite all the changes that have taken place to Suwanee in the ten years that I have lived there, there is still a sense of comradery and community that will never go away.

-Niall Longobardi

Blog setup

I guess this is our blog! I don't know how it's going to recognize who is posting something because we all sign into the same account, so just put your name at the end of your post. I think that will work out. I'm also going to friend you all on facebook, so we can discuss the blog.

-Adam Karabenli