Apartments & Walking Routes (Atlanta, Marietta: houses, neighborhood, restaurants)

[EPAstor153]

Hi all,

I'll be working in Atlanta for a month this summer (at a lab at Georgia Tech, on Strong Rd NW), and am currently in talks with a place that says it's in the Westside Waterworks area, at 965 Howell Mill Rd.

Two questions, if you will:

1) How's the area, and has anyone heard anything about the place? I'll be looking to park my car there for most of that time, so I want to be sure the neighborhood's reasonably safe.

2) The place appears to be about a mile from the lab - and I'd much prefer to make my commute a walking commute. Does that look feasible without taking myself through any problematic areas?

Thanks!

[netdragon]

Yeah, that's a pretty long walk (over a mile). I would be careful about heading through there at night by yourself because although that area isn't bad, people could wander over there to cause trouble. I would head down Tech Parkway or W. Marietta Street and then cut over on 10th and not go the way Google Maps suggest. Essentially, this keeps you closer into midtown most of the way and W. Marietta has quite a bit of residential. Heading along Northside will be taking you further into the cluster of warehouses around there.

[buzzjackets]

Your lab on Strong Avenue is not on the main Georgia Tech campus. It a rather obscure outpost south (on an island of its own) of the campus in a transition neighborhood literally on the other side of the train tracks about a 1/2 mile or so south of the main Georgia Tech campus.

The Westside Waterworks area is perfectly safe at any time of day and night. There are lots of bars and restaurants that are open late and people are mingling around all hours of the night. Actually, it's a great area - developers turned an industrial wasteland into an entertainment mecca if you like funky places and exposed brick warehouses.

Walking to the main Georgia Tech campus from the warehouse area is no problem at all at any time. But the route to Strong Ave requires you to take a right turn on Northside Drive, go over a very long bridge over the railroad tracks, and head South away from the main Tech campus.

In fact, most of your route is after you turn right and go over the bridge and head south away from the Tech campus. You then head into a transitional neighborhood. That could be problematic late at night. In the morning it is no problem nor would I think it is a problem at night before 10 or 11 pm.

The area from Howell Mill, then Marietta Street, to the Tech campus is safe including a very visible West Midtown neighborhood security patrol. The mayor and city council are proud of the rebirth of the Waterworks area and make sure it is patrolled heavily by the city police including stopping and questioning people who look like they might be up to no good.

I would walk all the way to the Coca Cola headquarters at the south west corner of the Tech campus and then head back north up North Avenue. That avoids some of the worst transition area about a 1/2 mile south of the railroad tracks and bridge. You will then be completely safe at any time of day or night all the way to the Coca Cola building, and then you need to start being careful if it is later at night about 1/4 mile up North Avenue.

But your apartment in the Waterworks Warehouse area will be fun and safe. Your work location is not so safe. The problem occurs when you leave the Westside Waterworks area. Too bad your lab is not on the main Georgia Tech campus because then you couldn't be safer coming to and from.