Moving to Atlanta Soon - Any Advice Appreciated!

[a2t]

Matt, I never use Marta, nor anyone I know for work commutes. Do you ? Ask around.

I wish it werent true but Marta :

a. does not have routes to most locations
b. is slow considering wait times
c. is often difficult to park at

Atlanta is set up to drive EVERYWHERE. I wish Marta made more sense, I really do. I drive a Leaf and before that drove a veg oil old Benz so Im all about reducing and mass transit. Sadly, Marta rarely fits the bill. Great for concerts at Phillips tho.

[MattCW]

Yes, I do, every day for four weeks now. Right now it's Xpress to Five Points, then Five Points to Lenox. It's faster than trying to drive would be even with the bus stuck in the "same" traffic. Far more relaxing too. Will be using only MARTA in the very short term. Yes, I still have to drive to the park and ride or station respectively, but that's 5 minutes...to go 2 miles. MARTA does the same distance in about 2.5 minutes.

[a2t]

Good deal man, I wish I could do same / pissed I cant. Whats your route if you dont mind me asking ?

Just telling the OP not to plan life around atlanta mass transit, and I think thats a fair statement. I am glad you can make it work though and wish Marta would get more funding to make it work for rest of us.

[MattCW]

420 out of West Conyers. But I can make it work because I did plan my life around it. Atlanta isn't a city where you can just live anywhere, apply to any job and expect transit to work. I put effort into both sides of that coin. If someone wants to put the effort into making it work like I did, then they should be supported all the way. Decatur to Downtown Atlanta per the Op is an ideal MARTA trip, especially if "Downtown" means near Five Points since it's a one-seat ride.

To the Op, I can't speak for everyone, but if you aren't comfortable posting specifics such as what neighborhoods/apartments you're looking at, and where your wife is heading downtown (an even touchier subject I know), I would be happy to provide assistance via direct message (PM on any other forum) if you would like. Now I'm not an expert on all areas with a Decatur address, and anything between there and Atlanta is flyover country for me, but I generally know the bad neighborhoods from the good.

[SeaTacJack]

Hey guys,
Thanks for the all the info so far. As far as the MARTA, we're pretty sure we're going to be using it extensively for work. My wife doesn't like driving much and there is a MARTA stop across the street from where she'll be working. We have a friend who used to work in the same building and she found it to be the easiest/most convenient way to get to work. Unfortunately, that friend lived in Fayetteville at the time and told us that required around a 30 minute drive to the MARTA station at College Park so we don't think we want to live that far out.

If all we can afford is an apartment, we're also fine with that. We're currently in the top floor of a triplex in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Seattle and only paying $925 for a one bedroom with a lot of storage. When we were in Houston we were paying between $900 and $1100 for a one bedroom townhouse with a garage in a gated community.

We've been able to find places that work for us within our price range in every place we've been. It's always the narrowing down of where to live that's been the issue. With both Houston and Seattle we arrived to both places with no info on them and had to learn along the way. With Houston, we had corporate housing to cover us for a few months. In Seattle, we arrived on a Friday and had to start work by Monday! We definitely lucked out here.

If our $1000 budget is low for a house, how much would you guys estimate a house or townhome with a garage would rent for in the neighborhoods you recommend? We have room to budget more for rent if we have to, I think we're just used to trying to keep that expense as low as possible if we can.

[tikigod311]

Check out historic College Park around Rugby Ave. Close to MARTA and you can rent a single family home for that price.

[a2t]

what i would do is start looking at craiglist rentals near the following marta stops along dekalb ave on the east side :

Inman Park
Candler Park
East Lake
Decatur

Avondale Station

Dont go as far out as Kensington Station (the neighborhoods get rough near 285 on east and west sides of town).

you should be able to find apts or houses/duplexs renting 1 or 2 rooms around these places. remember the farther in towards the city you get (past Inman) the more dicey it becomes, same is true for past avondale heading east. in between, its great/safe (relatively speaking for a city) on both sides of dekalb ave.

the garage thing will be tough. drive a cheap car, leave NOTHING in it, leave it unlocked, and have a local shop install a fuel pump kill switch (or just do it yourself, not hard). It will get rummaged through from time to time but if its cheap and nothing in it, the crack heads will mostly leave it alone. you WILL have to contend with that esp living near a marta stop, unfortunately thugs from all around use marta for this. they also use their own/stolen cars to get anywhere too but more prevalent near marta stops since you get both forms of low lifes.

the east side (decatur side) is my preference because I lived there for a long time and most comfortable there. You have decatur, L5P, VA Hi, Emory, Oakhurst, Midtown, Kwood, EAV, Eastlake, ect... all within few miles of one another. All these areas are mostly upscale, lots of good restaurants, young people into being out and about, generally just a fun area. Whereas college park is somewhat of an oasis south with not much around it that you would want to venture to. you will find yourself driving north to get to the action. still a really cool area with lots of great restaurants, but not where i would pick if i could get near decatur. if you can rent a house there for $1K close to marta that meets your needs, hell you might not be able to beat that though !

jump on craiglist and see if you can find a rental, let us know streets nearby, we can advise ...

[MattCW]

*sigh* don't listen to him about "MARTA's crackheads." I've parked plenty of times with a nice car at Indian Creek and Avondale and not even had a scratch much less my car broken into. Also there aren't any "thugs" hanging around MARTA. Their PD is pretty good.

[a2t]

im not saying in the marta parking lots, im saying if you live NEAR a marta stop and are street parking. speaking from exp. here (2 cars stolen in Dekalb, many many many conversations with APD about the subject). Cheap car, NOTHING in it, kill switch = no more cars stolen or windows smashed.