People who have moved here in the past year (Atlanta: crime, home)

[Group Hug]

Originally Posted by afdinatl

Can you all explain more about the extended daily light hours because I never really paid attention to this when I'm out of town in other cities. I always thought that outside of Seattle that daily light hours were the same everywhere....generally speaking.

Two reasons for this:

1. You are right that daylight hours are the same everywhere, but only if you're averaging it for the year. The closer you live to the poles, the more difference there is between your summertime daylight hours and wintertime daylight hours. So when you live in the North, it may already be getting dark out by 4:00 pm. The South doesn't have the extent of beautiful, crazy long days in the summer like the north does, but at least it's not dark at 4:00 during the winter! So the more correct way for me to say it would've been, I love the increased daylight hours during the winter.

2. This one depends on where your old location is respective to its time zone. Before moving to GA, I lived towards the east of my time zone. GA is at the west of its time zone. I love being to the west of my time zone because that means the sun sets later. If someone re-zoned Georgia to be Central Time, it would be sunset around 4:30 instead of 5:30. Of course, the trade-off is that it doesn't get light in the morning until later (clock time). Some people prefer to be on the east of their time zone, especially if they are morning people. For me, early mornings are for sleeping.

[Group Hug]

Questions:

1. What is the best library to take kids to in Fulton Co?

2. If you're taking off to do errands, when is a safe time to do it so you don't get stuck in long lines of commuter traffic? 7:00? 7:30?

3. If you moved here from the north, what elements of Southern culture did you find besides friendliness and sweet tea? Or do you find that ATL metro doesn't have much Southern culture due to influence of so many transplants?

[DaBurgh]

#2. More like 9am

[Group Hug]

Originally Posted by DaBurgh

#2. More like 9am

I meant in the evening. Like if I need to run to the grocery store at night.

[afdinatl]

If you have a smartphone go to your map app

Click on traffic. Green is good, yellow is so so and red is horrible.

Use this on a daily basis

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by Group Hug

Questions:

1. What is the best library to take kids to in Fulton Co?

2. If you're taking off to do errands, when is a safe time to do it so you don't get stuck in long lines of commuter traffic? 7:00? 7:30?

3. If you moved here from the north, what elements of Southern culture did you find besides friendliness and sweet tea? Or do you find that ATL metro doesn't have much Southern culture due to influence of so many transplants?

2. I want to say it depends on the routes you take. The worst traffic I feel is from 4:30-6:00. I have noticed traffic is significantly worse heading out of Atlanta to the suburbs (Gwinnett, Cobb, etc.). People tend to complain about 285 and 75 often and are afraid of what will happen when the Braves have games.


3. I'm not sure if I ever experienced this 'southern hospitality.' People love the fact that they can afford homes in Georgia. Most transplants I would say move to Georgia with this reason being top on their list. Some people move because they prefer warm weather. Others have moved to the Atlanta metro area because it is said to be diverse and will continue to become more diverse. I know I haven't said much about southern culture but I feel as if moving to Georgia to buy a house has become a part of its culture. That's what people do. They want a nice house with a yard without having to spend a million+ dollars. I want to say that Atlanta is also known for its clubs, so that may attract young people/people who like to party.

[DreamerD]

Georgia does have longer day time hours. I notice many states up north (that use EST) tend to get dark an hour before it would start getting dark in Georgia. Same thing during summer time. During winter time, that extra hour of sun is really appreciated.

[Group Hug]

Originally Posted by DreamerD

People love the fact that they can afford homes in Georgia. Most transplants I would say move to Georgia with this reason being top on their list.

One of our neighbors has this same story. He moved from NY and the thing he likes most about here is having his huge house and yard. I really had to bite my tongue to not tell him that the hardest thing for me is having a tiny house and nearly non-existant yard. We probably have close to the same size house and yard.

Relevant side note, and a surprise about ATL area homes:

Oddly enough, there isn't that much difference between my old home's square footage and my new home's. Even though the square footage is close to the same, every single room in the new house is smaller than the old house, so we have trouble fitting all of our stuff. The way many homes are constructed around here, the hallways and foyers are longer and wider, and many (most?) of the master suites have a sitting room. I wish I could take the sitting room square footage and parcel it out to other areas of the home! Garages are also tiny around here. Even homes worth more than twice ours have only 2 car garage.

Right now, of course, we have no cars in the garage because we have a ton of boxes that the moving company needs to pick up. But I don't know if we will ever be able to get both cars in because we have kids and they like to ride their bikes, scooters, etc. Plus, our garbage and recycling cans are not supposed to be visible from the street. How do people work this? Our home doesn't have a nice side area behind a bush that we could drag the cans to.

[Group Hug]

Correction: every single room is significantly smaller in the new home except the master suite, the hallways, and the foyer.

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by Group Hug

One of our neighbors has this same story. He moved from NY and the thing he likes most about here is having his huge house and yard. I really had to bite my tongue to not tell him that the hardest thing for me is having a tiny house and nearly non-existant yard. We probably have close to the same size house and yard.

Relevant side note, and a surprise about ATL area homes:

Oddly enough, there isn't that much difference between my old home's square footage and my new home's. Even though the square footage is close to the same, every single room in the new house is smaller than the old house, so we have trouble fitting all of our stuff. The way many homes are constructed around here, the hallways and foyers are longer and wider, and many (most?) of the master suites have a sitting room. I wish I could take the sitting room square footage and parcel it out to other areas of the home! Garages are also tiny around here. Even homes worth more than twice ours have only 2 car garage.

Right now, of course, we have no cars in the garage because we have a ton of boxes that the moving company needs to pick up. But I don't know if we will ever be able to get both cars in because we have kids and they like to ride their bikes, scooters, etc. Plus, our garbage and recycling cans are not supposed to be visible from the street. How do people work this? Our home doesn't have a nice side area behind a bush that we could drag the cans to.

I feel as if a lot of New Yorkers would actually love to mow a lawn. They probably take great pride in it. It's like whenever Georgia gets snow. It is admirable how people in Georgia can build a snow man from two inches of snow (or maybe even one). These people will ask their neighbors if they can use snow from their lawn to complete it. It's wonderful that people can still appreciate things. Mowing a lawn is an inconvenience for some but for others, having a lawn to mow is a dream.

As for the rooms in your house, perhaps they put less room in the bedrooms and more room in the living room/dining room for entertaining? Sorry just read your post better. I have no clue about Atlanta area homes. Maybe someone can add their two cents to that.