OT: General ATL questions

[theagent]

The general board doesn't really produce productive responses and google can only tell you so much. So mods please allow this thread because i would appreciate the feedback.

I'm debating whether to relocate to the ATL. However, I'm curious to know what areas around ATL have decent communities and apartments. Case in point I was under the impression that College Park was a nice area....until I took a drive around. I even toured a couple of apartments in the area and one lady had the audacity to show me an apartment with a dead roach on the bathroom floor and ignored it.

Can some one tell me which parts of ATL or even the surrounding towns/counties are NOT disappointments when it comes to apartments, rates, communities etc??

[dms269]

How far outside of the "city" are you looking at. Is there a job lined up, if so where? Do you want to be outside the perimeter (more of the suburb type) or inside?

[theagent]

How far outside of the "city" are you looking at. Is there a job lined up, if so where? Do you want to be outside the perimeter (more of the suburb type) or inside?

It could be within a radius of 20-30 minutes of the city. I've looked in to areas like Smyrna, Lithonia and Marietta. I could do with living inside the city but apartment rates seem to be highly overrated.

[monsterblock]

everything north is good and everything south is not so good.

everything above I20 and to the right of I75 is nice. everything else is kinda ghetto.

Decatur is the place i prefer the most, because it is still really close to down town and affordable and nice. Marietta, Sandy Springs, and Chamblee are also nice.

Buckhead is the rich part of town. if you have the money, then go their.

anything south near the airport like College Park or Forest Park or Riverdale is kinda ghetto, but if you are okay with the ghetto, then its up to you.

[monsterblock]

How far outside of the "city" are you looking at. Is there a job lined up, if so where? Do you want to be outside the perimeter (more of the suburb type) or inside?

It could be within a radius of 20-30 minutes of the city. I've looked in to areas like Smyrna, Lithonia and Marietta. I could do with living inside the city but apartment rates seem to be highly overrated.

Roswell and Duluth are nice, Lithonia and Conyers are not so nice.

[Superiorblogman]

I live in Marietta it is nice for the most part but has projects and hoods if that is where you wanna go for whateva reason. Kennesaw is good also. Smyrna has some rough spots like everywhere else but it is good for my liking. Roswell, Duluth, Dunwoody, Alpharetta are all good also. I frequent Riverdale, Stockbridge, and Fairburn. Personally, I like Cobb and North Fulton and I am a relatively young male. If I were telling my brother somewhere to stay it would be Marietta, Kennesaw, or Alpharetta. If you send or post addresses or specific apartments, townhouses or such I will tell you what I know.

Finally, I hope you are not like most of the leaches that move here from other places. Want to move here because of cost of living and such but add nothing to the community you currently live in, plus show up to games cheering for other teams when you know you would be eating ramen noodles every night if you had stayed in that place you come to the game to cheer for.

[monsterblock]

if you are a foodie, i still think Decatur is the best place, that is why i prefer it. Decatur has alot of really good asian restaurants, mexican places, and two really great NY pizza joints.

Bones, which is a really great steakhouse, is not that far from Decatur, and Chamblee which is pretty close has some great dim sum places.

Roswell, Alpharetta, and Buckhead has some really great french restaurants and fine dining places, but i am disappointed with their asian and pizza places.

Duluth has come up in the last decade, their alot of great korean and asian restaurants in that area.

i'm not really a fan of brazilian food, but for some reason, Marietta has alot of brazilian restaurants, but nothing much else after that, but if you are into brazilian food, then their you go.

generally a good rule of thumb is that their are alot of great places to eat anywhere on I85

[dms269]

Duluth is hit or miss depending on where you are. Parts of Duluth are nice, other parts are not so nice. You could go a little farther up 85 to Suwanee which is a bit nicer, or up to Buford which might be a bit nicer still.

In terms of apartments, I'm not sure there are a ton of really "nice" ones around Duluth. There are a handful around Gwinnett Place, which is turning into a large Korean community. Duluth is kinda segmented since you have the mall area then the downtown area which there aren't a ton of apartments.

The area up 400 is starting to be the "new" Gwinnett...the areas like Roswell and Johns Creek. They have some apartments as well, but it may be outside of your time, but not by much.

I haven't looked a ton at apartments but for Gwinnett it depends on how nice you want. Most of the ones I have looked at are around the $1000 or so for a 2 bedroom.

Like everyone said, there are good places to eat just about everywhere.

To those who have posted, where are some of the really good places in Duluth? I have noticed that a lot of the Korean places seem to be Korean BBQ/all you can eat-grill your own stuff type of places, which seem to run in the 15 or so per person level.

[theatlfan]

Where you would live in Atlanta depends on what you're life situation is. Are you single or married? Kids? Homebody or Socialite? Do you prefer going out to bars and/or restaurants or do you prefer to stay behind closed doors and have parties? Also, what your race? (Sorry, don't mean to sound racist, but there is a divide between which areas you'd want to live in - some communities have more black professionals while some have more white professionals. Since I'm white, the rest of this can be viewed under that scope...)

Some things to know:
- Last time I checked, Atlanta has the 2nd longest average commute times in the nation to New York city (yes, longer than LA). So, if your commute is to a downtown office, expect a LOT of traffic on both highways/interstates and back roads. Literally, if you're 20-30 minutes from your downtown office without traffic, then you can expect an hour+ during the rush hours. This has a lot to do with the downtown apartment prices.

- Our public transportation system isn't that great. MARTA only runs to midnight and you can't get anywhere in the city via the train lines like some other cities. Hence, if you think you'll be going out in the city some, then the further you live from the city, the more you really want to be closer to an Interstate (I-75, I-85, I-20, I-285) so that you can easily slip into and out of the city. You can commute using MARTA, but you need to ensure you can before making this plan.

As for generalizations, monsterblock put it well. The Buckhead / Midtown area is probably the ritziest for the young, white, single or newly wed crowd. If you go South from there, you get into the Urban Renewal areas which didn't really take too well (basically, when it was getting into full swing is when the housing market crashed). There are areas along I-20 that are nice, but then you're only a mile or 2 from not so nice areas. Anything South of I-20 is dominated by the federal pen, so you have to get to the airport before you're back into a "nice" area (nice is in quotes since living near the airport has it's own issues).

If you go East or West (EDIT: or North) from Buckhead/Midtown, then you're still in decent areas for a young single professional. Just note that the closer you get to I-285 (locally called "The Perimeter"), you closing in on areas that are more likely to contain more married couples. Once you get outside the Perimeter, then those areas are predominantly married couples although some do have some things to do for a young single professional - especially if you're close to the city center of that community. (As a side note, many who live inside the perimeter, or "ITP", don't really interact with those who live outside the perimeter, or "OTP". "ITP" people generally consider themselves more city while "OTP" people consider themselves more suburban.)

As a radical generalization then I'd say this: If you're a young single professional, then I'd really suggest living in a area with about 10-15 minutes from the Buckhead/Midtown area. If you're a newly wed or have a significant other of the opposite sex (if you're a part of the LGTB community, then I'd doubt you're asking this on this forum), then I suggest getting closer to the North End Perimeter, but stay inside the Perimeter. If you're establish and have kids, then I'd go outside the perimeter.

If you give you're situation, then we could give more localized feedback on the areas you'd want to look into...

[Rip2137]

No matter where you go, you are going to have the ghetto areas and the not so ghetto areas honestly. You want to stay on the side of the city you are working if possible. Trust me traffic is a nightmare here.

I live in Sandy Springs and a very nice part of it. Of course the complex a few thousand feet down isn't so great. thats just how it goes.

Asking what race you are, that was a pretty good question honestly. You will find more black professionals out in places like Marietta and Lithonia and Douglasville. Midtown and other places tend to be more the professional white crowds (generally of course, not the rule). The outer perimeter north areas are alot more diverse honestly (which is why I live in Sandy Springs) The point is, this place is huge. If you want nice area, avoid Marta busline access for the most part, stay out the southend and the extreme north (two different kinds of ghetto, both equally bad).

[evildallas]

I agree with Rip that you can find downer properties and community dropoff rather quickly almost anywhere in Atlanta. So it is hard to recommend an area and not have you stumble upon something bad nearby by chance.

NW and NE of Atlanta have big population clusters and are growth areas but they don't play well on mass transit. Marta doesn't go all the way out into Gwinnett (Duluth) or Cobb County (Marietta), but does extend a fair distance due north into Roswell/Alpharetta. If mass transit to downtown Atlanta is important that should be a consideration.

Mass transit has never been a consideration for me, so I've lived on the NW side for 17 years. More specifically Vinings right inside the perimeter which is a nice area, but might be considered a bit pricey. I've got easy access to I-75 and I-285 to get anywhere in Atlanta, plus more locally options for drug and grocery stores and plenty of restaurant choices (including fast food, mid-level, nice, and delivery). Places like Wal-Mart and Target are a little further away but not horribly far.

On your initial post you mention College Park. I never had the impression it was nice, too close to the airport and too many bad areas. I had heard about a development area around Camp Creek Parkway and I-285 that should be fairly new and cool. That would be due west of College Park.

Regardless of where in Atlanta you choose, you are normally safe with any Post Properties. They tend to be newer and well maintained apartments. Other companies I've tried over the years have been hit and miss.

Personally if I was younger I would probably check out the Atlantic Station area. If I had children I'd probably look in the East Cobb area.

[theagent]

thanx for everyone's feedback. I was told Cobb county was nice. I've been down there twice and didn't know college park was.....well what it is. I was looking at apartment in that area and you had some complexes where the doors look like they had been raid by police and the property managers were ignoring it like it was nothing lol.

well I'm not tyler perry so buckhead is out....so I guess I'll have to narrow down my search to north atlanta and cobb county

[theagent]

can anyone explain why the crime rate in ATL is higher than that of Chicago? 21 people shot this past weekend in Chitown.......... yet ATL is ranked 5th vs Chi @ 10?????

[MaceCase]

can anyone explain why the crime rate in ATL is higher than that of Chicago? 21 people shot this past weekend in Chitown.......... yet ATL is ranked 5th vs Chi @ 10?????

Well crime encompasses more than just murder. Theft, burglary, assault, rape, destruction of property, drug possession/selling etc. etc. etc. are all included in crime statistics. In fact, Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel was on Meet the Press the other day discussing precisely how they had gotten crime stats to drop despite murder going up.

[GrimeyKidd]

Also douglasville is a pretty nice place, low crime, great community.

[fuzzy1]

I would agree that Decatur is a really nice place to live/grow up.

Edit: I say that in large part because it's got a nice mix of people (some of the other places mentioned are REALLY white, which gets a little boring). Great food too. Plus lots of music.

Edit 2: When I say Decatur, I mean within the city. Some of the greater Decatur area ain't so hot.

[PandaKidd]

I live in Centennial House by Centennial Park, love it.

In the city:
Brookhaven
Centennial Park
Buckhead
Atlantic Station

Outside the city:
Kennesaw or northern Cobb County (mainly east cobb)
Smyrna
Vinings
Pockets of Marietta are decent


Aboveatlanta.com, has places for rent that are pretty nice you can check out.

[theagent]

Does Atlanta have a water shortage?