Two years ago, a noted economist wondered in print if Atlanta was another Detroit, a place where “the American dream seems to be dying, where the children of the poor have great difficulty climbing the economic ladder.” Earlier this year, AJC reporters Dan Chapman, Jeff Ernsthausen and Michael Kanell compared Atlanta to Charlotte and the Dallas-Fort Worth market in a series of articles that found our city didn’t measure up so well. Today’s writers, though, say our major hub has challenges but suggest the good outweighs the bad.

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Voting rights activists gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, early Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, as the justices prepare to take up a major Republican-led challenge to the Voting Rights Act, the centerpiece legislation of the Civil Rights Movement. (Cliff Owen/AP)

Credit: Cliff Owen/AP

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Mathew Palmer, a former Delta Air Lines employee, at his home in Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.  Palmer was fired less than two weeks after writing a post on social media about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Natrice Miller/AJC)