Clayton County:If its so bad,why is it Growing? (Atlanta: apartments, rental)

[atlantagrl]

I would NEVER live in Clayton County! Lots of crime in areas there. Sucks!

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by society619

When people think Clayton County, they see poor black people. Sad but true

You mean when uppity white people think Clayton County.

[ATL_II_DMV]

Clayton County has a kiddy gang issue, but there are still plenty of decent areas.

The crime stats are still low.

The bottom line is that the area has had a large influx of blacks moving in (ala Dekalb in the 90's) and people don't like that.

There is nothing wrong Clayton County beside the small gang issue and minimal crime here and there.

Me personally, I think that people will never accept a majority black area as a decent place to live.

North Clayton, Jonesboro, and Riverdale high are all decent schools.

I'm tired of people thinking an area isn't decent if it's not Gwinnett, parts of Cobb, or North Fulton

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by ATL_II_DMV

Me personally, I think that people will never accept a majority black area as a decent place to live.

Truth. And its funny when you see how/where some of the critics live to think they have the nerve to criticize.

[ATL_II_DMV]

Right, I don't care for Gwinnett, Cobb, or any of the northern areas in the Atl metro.

There are many parts of South Fulton, Clayton, and Fayette County that have nice areas.

Haven't experienced many issues at all in Fairburn, which is only 10 minutes away from Clayton Co

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by aries4118

http://www.city-data.com/forum/14458371-post8.html

I actually forgot I posted that.Well done by me!lol.But I saw the current numbers and it still has me perplexed.Whenever I go there i see a nice livable community.So I wanted to know with these current numbers ,why it does not reflex such a gloomy area you would thi nk it would be?

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by brownhornet

Truth. And its funny when you see how/where some of the critics live to think they have the nerve to criticize.

I mean really.Forsyth County 20 years ago was trailer parks and woods.Now its "chic".No one wrote it off like they do Clayton.

[jp01358]

Once upon a time in College Park, where they live life fast and they scared of dark...

[cwkimbro]

Ok I wanted to help you out with your question with some detail and point you in certain directions of some more information.

To put it bluntly alot of it has to do with job accessibility... not just presences of jobs, but also how much you can make from them. It is a mixture of how many jobs are available and how much those jobs pay.
However, there is a cyclical force here... companies locate to areas where the workers they need already live... whatever the trend happens to be.

The most accessible jobs, besides retail near residential areas, are large amounts of freight/logistics based, airport, and there is potential commute to downtown, but it is a tougher commute the further north you go, so Midtown, buckhead, perimeter, cumberland, peachtree corners, etc start to get out of reach.

Now two quick notes... there are two variables that are highly related this (for different reasons). One is home prices, which is tied to salary. The other is education attainment, which is tied ability to get a higher paying job.

I got some census ACS data from 2008 on -Median- home price, -median- monthly cost to a home owner (not renter), and -median- rent. (notice I am emphasizing median and these are not averages)

Clayton- 134,300, 1,264, 847 (home price, monthly cost to homeowner, rent)
Gwinnett- 206,900, 1,594, 929
Cobb- 222,800, 1,637, 932
Dekalb- 202,700, 1,559, 905
Fulton- 284,400, 1946, 919

I would also like to spot out many cities, counties and areas that tend to have cheaper property tend to have higher tax rates to make up for the tax disparity between cheaper and more expensive properties. This can be problematic in that is discourages higher property values in some areas. This is one reason why so many wealthier people on the southside tend to cluster in Fayette (sorry I forgot to look up that data).

For Clayton County.. I would also like to spot out that there aren't many jobs in the county for it's residents... most are commuting to outside... alot more so than in Gwinnett, Cobb, and North Fulton.

74.4% of Clayton employed residents work outside of Clayton. Now, ironically, 80% of those employed in Clayton live outside the county. I think this is partly because of the airport. Alot of it is in Clayton County, but it is very accessible to South Fulton and South Dekalb.

For the northside these rates would be lower as more residents can find jobs near where they live and those jobs pay more, but they might require more education.

This is a good ARC map of where people who make different salaries live and where the jobs are
http://www.atlantaregional.com/File%...orkersLive.pdf

This is a good ARC map of where people with different levels of college attainment live
http://www.atlantaregional.com/File%..._Education.pdf
(btw...side note for anyone interested... I want to spot out that strip of blue in southeast Dekalb near Stonecrest. I have just about decided this has become a hot spot for the well educated middle/upper middle class black people. I don't live too far away it is just an interesting trend I have noticed and this data seems to back that up when mixed with the demographic charts Demographics of Metropolitan Atlanta as of April 1st 2010 with Maps )

So when we take all this in... basically there are jobs accessible to that area, but they just don't pay as much and they don't demand as much education. This is also one reason why I spot out Clayton County's past issues with their Board of Education. People who have college degrees expect that of their kids and when they see school system trouble they get veeeery fickle about it. Between that and a slightly higher millage rate people will look more at neighboring counties if they make more money and have more money to spend on a house.

[Listennow32]

Cwkimbro good stats. Thank you for sanely explaining why the county does not attract more wealthy people. However, other than that if you do have money then your fine. Beautiful Homes, Safe Neighborhoods, Great Ethnic Culture,and Great Parks. Other than the fact there were problems with the school board, a large minority population, and a retarded BOC, the county is a nice place to live. Thanks to ajc and other regional sources they do a great job at hyping up the dirt of the county and they tend to ignore the good things that go on. Which to some people, it may be a surprise that good can occur in the county. Please don't say its crime ridden because it is not. Its not true, simple as that. Out of the top 5 most populous counties in Atlanta metro ( Fulton, Gwinnett, Dekalb, Cobb, and Clayton) Clayton has the least crime.

http://gbi.georgia.gov/vgn/images/portal/cit_1210/13/41/1598322302009%20Summary%20Report.pdf (broken link)

So people whine and complain saying that the county is a horrible place and have never even been there. As I have said in another discussion, the ARC would be remiss for not accounting for the geographical wealth that the region has to provide. There are too many amenities in the county for Clayton not to be an important asset to the Atlanta Metro region. Quite frankly, I think the decade long slandering of the county was and is simply to help lower property values across the area so that developers can snag great deals once everything is in place. I mean think about it. The county is close to being a logistical masterpiece when it comes to transport of regional and national goods.

You don't think that Hartsfield became the world's busiest by being an airport with no roads or rail? No it was the connectors and rail lines that ran through the county that helped transport goods across the state and country in an orderly and timely fashion. Clayton literally is Atlanta's gateway to the world. So moan and complain about the one bad experience that you had while dealing with a rude cashier you met in Clayton or when you saw that particularly ghetto minority that made you stiffen with fear while driving through the county. Or better yet listen to the AJC's or WSBTV's frantic screams that essentially say Clayton is the worst, most dangerous, impoverished area for metro Atlantan's to inhabit.

Despite these experiences or these claims, that doesn't discount the fact that you can find beautiful lake front properties in the county that have homes that range in the millions, or that it has a internationally recognized water system or the fact it has the country's most diverse university, or that it is home to the Southern National Archives... I mean the list goes on. The reason why it is still growing is because people who move to the county realize that it is not as bad as the world makes it out to be. My advice as always for current Clayton residents. Stay. If you believe the mess and flee from the county because of "nonsense news" you will regret it. Because once you leave it will be hard to get back in.