PJA

You may not understand what an urbanized area is. The urbanzied area is the developed part of a metro. That means that in the Augusta metro, there are 231.79 sq. miles of continuous developed area. The consolidation has nothing to do with how much urban area a metro has. As a matter of fact, in Augusta-Richmond county there are some rural places that are not included in the urbanzied area because there is not enough development. Even if Augusta deonsolidated, there would still be 231.79 square miles of development because those businesses and houses in the urban area would not disappear.

For the last time the US census does not include Warner Robins in Macon's metro. Wikipedia is not a reliable the source. All you have to do is go to www.census.gov and you will see that Macon and Warner Robins are seperate. No matter what other "unreliable" information you look for, Warner Robins and Macon do not interact enough to form a Metropolitan area. That is from the US census, not from me. BTW, nowhere have I ever said that Augusta was better than Macon. Yerocal would have you to believe that there are just as many businesses in Macon as the other second tier cities. I have proven with facts from the cenus site that his beliefs are very incorrect. That is my whole point.

Aiken is a suburb of Augusta...Warner Robbins is it's own metro. Those are two totally different relationships. The Galleria is in Warner Robins.

The Macon Mall is 1.4 million sq. feet. There are three malls that I know of that are bigger, and they are the Mall of Georgia, Lenox Mall, and Stonecrest Mall. The Macon Mall has over 100,000 sq. feet of vacant space due to the closing of Parisian which put its current active square footage at 1.3 million. Augusta has two enclosed malls, the Augusta Mall (1.3 million square feet) and the Aiken Mall (couldn't find the exact size). Savannah has two enclosed malls as well. Savannah Mall (960,000 sq. ft.) and Ogelthorpe Mall (948,000 sq. ft.)

That article is 10 years old. The Mall of Georgia wasn't built yet, Augsuta Mall was 900,000 sq. feet at the time and has expanded twice since then, the Perimeter Mall has expanded since then, and the Stonecrest Mall wasn't built then. That article has Lenox Mall listed as the largest mall which is wrong. Now it may still be the largest outside of Atlanta but there are a few malls in Atlanta that are bigger than the Macon Mall. Isn't the Macon Mall like 1.3 millions square feet?

I think Augusta Mall and Macon Mall are the same size. How big is the Macon Mall?

The Perimeter Mall and the Lenox Mall are bigger than the Macon Mall. There are probably more.

In order to even pass Columbus in retail, Macon would have to add 2 lifestyle centers or shopping centers with 100 stores each and Columbus would have to add none. And looking at the Columbus forum, they have projects going on as well so I dont expect that to happen. Plus Columbus had the biggest increase of population last year which is going to bring them more retail. In order to catch up with Savannah, they would have to add 5 lifestyle centers with 100 stores each and Savannah would have to add zero. And with Augusta, they would basically have to double the amount of retail they have and hope Augusta adds none, and as someone from Augusta there are new businesses opening every week.

You're right a lot of business is still coming to the central city which is what you see. So despite the drop in population, you still had increase in businesses. The population is starting to grow again as south Augusta begins adding new developement and downtown is adding new developments as well. Hopefully we will start to see bigger increases in the city population. Augusta has done a good job in bringing in new retail to keep the surrounding communities coming to the city.

All of the information was obtained from the www.census.gov.

No that's the amount of retail in each metro. Check out the census website for yourself. I had already given the amount of population growth in another thread and those are not the same numbers. This was taken from the 2005 Msa Business section from the line marked retail trade. This also falls in line with what I said a few months ago when I said that population is the real determing factor of growth. If a metro is the twice the size of population than another metro, it's only natural that it would have twice the amoun of retail. More information form the census webiste. This includes the number of lodging and restuarant establishments in each second tier metro. Augusta = 1,287 Savannah = 1,161 Columbus = 705 Macon = 580 This includes the amount of Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation Establishments in each second tier metro Augusta = 1,076 Savannah = 900 Columbus = 484 Macon = 413 Ths includes the total amount of business in each metro (health, retail, wholesale, arts, lodging, restaurants etc.) Augusta = 40,873 Savannah = 28,733 Columbus = 22,017 Macon= 19,774 The follwing is the ranking of who had the most development or new business from the previous year 2004. Augusta = 2,152 new businesses Savannah = 1,734 new businesses Columbus =1,575 new businesses Macon = 1,051 new businesses

I took the liberty of compiling some data from the US census website about the amount of retail in each second tier metro and here are the results. Augusta = 5,081 Savannah = 2,982 Columbus = 2,465 Macon = 2,225

Those are not a part of the town center. They may be on land that was going to be included in the town center...but they are not anymore. Frankly they didn't need a town center that big anyway..they are not even an official city. So I'm happy that Evans is doing what it's doing in it's town center.

Yeah it's interesting that our cities do have a lot of population...but most people only go by the metro statistics and that is why some of those smaller cities may be more well known...their metros are bigger. Atlanta is considered one of the ten biggest cities in the country...but I had no idea it was number 34 and I'm sure most people don't. This topic mostly started off talking about metros...but Disgusta had to bring up the actual city population to try to put Augusta down....for what I don't know. It's the same exact argument, verbatim he used on the city data board that socaguy mentioned. And he can deny all that he wants that he is the not the same person....but I was born 25 years ago, not yesterday.

According to the census websites in 2003 Columbus lost over 3000 people...so really you can't predict whats going to happen. The bottom line is the metro population since that is what everyone goes by anyway...the msa or the csa are the main sources of population. But if it makes you feel better thinking about Augusta negatively, go right ahead.

Augusta gained in population last year. I already told you that on the other board. It would be nice if you are going to make comments that you use facts to back them up.

Graniteville, Vaucluse and Warrenville are close to becoming one merged city. If approved by the state, thjey would be eligible for federal grants and tax dollars would work directly in their community.