Future of Stone Mountain/Lithonia area (Atlanta, Smyrna: crime rates, big home, neighborhoods)

[dark_knight08]

Currently, Stone Mountain and Lithonia are not the best areas to live. The schools are bad, crime is becoming an issue, and businesses are closing in favor of dollar stores. However, downtown Stone Mountain has a lot of potential. The park and mountain brings visitors from all over. I'm surprised that gentrification has not hit this area yet. What are your predictions on the area?

[MrJones17]

If they made it their mission to improve the schools, the area wouldn't have that difficult of a time turning around. In my opinion. Just doesn't seem like enough effort is being made. Or maybe there is a lot of effort but for whatever reason the progress just isn't there.

If it had a great school system it would be a fast growing area just like Smyrna and places like that close to ATL.

[ATLTJL]

If it had a great school system it would be a fast growing area just like Smyrna

I think there's more at play.

Smyrna isn't exactly known for its stellar schools.

[jeoff]

My guess is that we will see a a wave of low-level revitalization to flow from the city back up Memorial Drive toward Stone Mountain.. I don’t expect for it ever to hit city-like prices for the area, but it will be seen as more of a legitimate fallback for folks who want to be closer to the city, and some amenities will follow—more like current Buford Hwy.

[ATLTJL]

I think the biggest hindrance facing this area is it has no direct artery into town.

Your only options are to take a bunch of surface streets, or take 285 to I-85 or I-20. Most people understand once you introduce the necessity of taking 285 to your commute or a bunch of awful surface streets, it's game on.

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I think the biggest hindrance facing this area is it has no direct artery into town.

Your only options are to take a bunch of surface streets, or take 285 to I-85 or I-20. Most people understand once you introduce the necessity of taking 285 to your commute or a bunch of awful surface streets, it's game on.

78, 285 to I-85 or I-20, and a very high capacity Memorial Dr to 285 (or straight to the city) is still much better than most of neighboring Gwinnett, plus it has two or three MARTA stations, and nice proximity to Decatur-Avondale and the rest of the east-side. These are intrinsic positives to the Memorial drive area outside of the city that could-should be leveraged into something much more than it is today. Actually, I think we are already seeing the East-side growth already spreading in that direction with spreading of the City is Decatur growth blending east and south into the unincorporated areas of DeKalb. Similarly the development of Memorial drive is marching East also.

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I think there's more at play.

Smyrna isn't exactly known for its stellar schools.

The main issue is poor proximity to jobs.

That's why Douglas County is also growing slowly despite somewhat decent schools.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by dark_knight08

Currently, Stone Mountain and Lithonia are not the best areas to live. The schools are bad, crime is becoming an issue, and businesses are closing in favor of dollar stores. However, downtown Stone Mountain has a lot of potential. The park and mountain brings visitors from all over. I'm surprised that gentrification has not hit this area yet. What are your predictions on the area?

I agree that downtown Stone Mountain may appear to have some growth potential because it is a walkable village area that is close to an extremely popular attraction and recreational amenity in Stone Mountain Park.

Though, overall I think that the area in question (the greater Stone Mountain and Lithonia areas) will continue to urbanize as post-suburban/urban suburbs that appeal primarily to working-class minorities and some immigrants.

I think that the area in question is kind of a victim of leapfrogging development patterns that emphasize newer development and higher growth in further-out outer-suburban and exurban areas (like Conyers and Covington further out the I-20 East corridor, and Snellville, Grayson, Lawrenceville and Loganville further out the US 78/GA 10 East corridor).

The greater Stone Mountain area (along with the GA 10/US 78 corridor) was a high-growth area in the past (from the 1960's into the early 1990's) while the Lithonia area experienced high growth rates from the very late 1960's until about around the turn-of-the-Millennium (late '90s-early 2000's).

But even with the leapfrogging development patterns that have resulted in newer development and higher growth several miles further to the east out the US 78 and I-20 corridors and a relative decline of the area in question, there are still some notable pockets of positivity in the area that should be recognized.

The greater Stone Mountain/Lithonia area continues to be a magnet for working-class minority families moving into the Southeast U.S. from both less-appealing areas in the Great Lakes/Midwest (like higher-crime areas in Illinois and lower-opportunity areas in Michigan) and higher-cost areas in the Northeast and on the West Coast.

Miller Grove High School in Lithonia has emerged as a national power in high school basketball over the last 15 years or so, while Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain has developed a reputation as a highly-competitive football program that annually graduates and sends high numbers of student-athletes onto college with full-ride athletic scholarships.

The greater Stone Mountain and Lithonia areas are also the sites of some consequential clusters of industrial/commercial development that are vitally important revenue generators to the DeKalb County tax base.

Not to mention that the area in question is home to two of the most popular recreational areas in Georgia and the Southeast in Arabia Mountain (in Lithonia) and the wildly popular (and even iconic to some) Stone Mountain Park.

Yeah, sure, the Stone Mountain/Lithonia area may not have the gaudy growth rates and development appeal of other parts of the Atlanta metro area/region... And, of course, crime rates may be noticeably higher than one might like to see and the schools are not rated as highly as other parts of the Atlanta region (particularly in the North Atlanta suburbs).

But there are still good qualities to the area that should not be completely overlooked, and there are still people living decent, good and even happy lives who like where they live.

Just because it is not a super-high growth area on the Northside does not mean that there are not good people doing good things (or good stories happening) there... Which seems to be something that we, myself included, seem to need to keep in mind a little bit more on this board... That North Fulton/Forsyth, Cobb/Cherokee and Gwinnett counties are not the only places where good things (including good stories) can and do happen in metro Atlanta.

[SAAN]

The main problem with Stn Mtn, Lithonia, and Decatur for a while is way too many renters, and not enough owners. Alot of folks were given housing vouchers when Atlanta closed up the projects and other bad areas, and pushed them East. The result is nice neighborhoods with big homes with the same issues you would see in projects and bad parts of town, yet alot of the homes are the same or nicer than other parts of town to the North, yet those cost $100K+ more, simply due to the fact that those areas dont have alot of people living on vouchers that come and go, and they upkeep the neighborhoods better. Way too many LLCs bought up houses during the recession and then turned around and rented them to anyone with a pulse for a while.

The housing boom has helped with alot of this now, by getting more owners into these homes vs renters, so its slowly improving again.

DeKalb PD is also short staffed, which doesnt help the crime situation either.

There are some very nice neighborhoods in Stn Mtn off Stn Mtn Lithonia Rd and going toward the Gwinnett border and Tucker, Lithonia south of I20 going towards Henry county and Dectaur as well aorund Covington and Hairston.

Until DeKalb can find a way to push its problem crowd to someone else, not much will change an things will only get worse, since all these new dollar stores stops major retailers from coming to an area too and alot of retail theft is causing places to close.

Build up Stonecrest and get rail out there and I think the Eastside can come back up, but it will be mainly a place to live and you have to drive 30min to 1hr to work though, since no employers seems interested in setting up around there.