Family of 2. Moving to Douglasville. Maybe..... (Atlanta, Smyrna: middle-class, rent, crime)

[Rony Wright]

Hi-

My wife and I are considering moving to Douglasville from Pittsburgh.

She's entertaining an offer from Piedmont Hospital for Director of Nursing. I work for Oracle, from home. Once a month I fly to the home office.

We are black, 45 and 50 years of age. We don't have children.

We like nice amenities in terms of restaurants and shopping. We want a diverse population but with a strong black middle class presence. We also don't want to live too close to Atlanta.

We do want a safe, peaceful community. We will probably rent the first year with plans to build later on.

Your good, bad or neutral opinions about Douglasville would be helpful.

[Born 2 Roll]

With a fairly strong Black middle class presence, Douglasville is a good area for you to target.

Racial and ethnic minorities currently make up about 73% of the population of Douglasville proper (the area inside of the Douglasville city limits) and 63% of the population of Douglas County as a whole.

(Douglas County is the home county of Douglasville.)

Black residents in particular make up about 63% of the population of Douglasville proper and about just under 50% of the population of Douglas County, demonstrating that the Douglasville area is a popular draw for African-America families (including many middle-class Black families) relocating into the Atlanta metropolitan area.

... An Atlanta metropolitan area that is an especially extremely popular draw for African-American families relocating from Northeastern, Great Lakes and Midwestern states (including Western Pennsylvania).

The retail and dining amenities that the Douglasville area offers, while not as upscale as the retail and dining amenities that are offered in other parts of the Atlanta metro area located north of I-20, are good for a middle-class suburb.

Douglasville’s retail amenities are centered around Arbor Place Mall and the two major exits off of I-20 (Chapel Hill Road and GA-5 Bill Arp Road) on either side of the mall area along with many roadside dining amenities (including many national restaurant chains).

More specialized dining options are located in and around the walkable downtown village area in historic Downtown Douglasville.

Meanwhile, because of its relatively close proximity to the Atlanta Airport, Douglasville can be really good for commuting to and from the Atlanta Airport (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) for air travel... When I worked at the ATL Airport, I had many co-workers that commuted to work from their homes in the Douglasville area, often using routes like South Fulton Parkway and GA-92 as alternatives to sometimes delay-prone routes like Interstates 20 and 285 West.

While I-20 (the main commuter route between Atlanta and a western suburb like Douglasville that also carries much east-west transcontinental freight truck traffic across the bottom part of the continent) often can be okay (but not perfect) for commuting to and from jobs in Downtown and Midtown Atlanta.

Also keep in mind that part of the area with a Douglasville mailing address (in the Douglasville 30134 zip code) spills over to the north into neighboring Paulding County where the demographics are still majority-white (roughly about 66% White, 23% Black, 8% Hispanic) in the South Paulding High School attendance zone.

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by Rony Wright

Hi-

My wife and I are considering moving to Douglasville from Pittsburgh.

She's entertaining an offer from Piedmont Hospital for Director of Nursing. I work for Oracle, from home. Once a month I fly to the home office.

We are black, 45 and 50 years of age. We don't have children.

We like nice amenities in terms of restaurants and shopping. We want a diverse population but with a strong black middle class presence. We also don't want to live too close to Atlanta.

We do want a safe, peaceful community. We will probably rent the first year with plans to build later on.

Your good, bad or neutral opinions about Douglasville would be helpful.

From my own understanding, Douglasville sounds good for what you are looking for, although admittedly I've not spent much time there myself. Mableton and Powder Springs might also be a good options as well

[Born 2 Roll]

I also used to live in Lithia Springs and my friends and family that live out that way in the Douglasville area love living out there because (except for some crime in the commercial areas at and around the interchanges along I-20) it’s a fairly quiet area.

And the farther away that one gets away from I-20 and the commercial area around and near Arbor Place Mall, the more quiet and safer it gets.

Housing costs in an area like Douglasville also are less expensive than housing costs may be throughout other, more affluent parts of the Atlanta suburbs (including in extremely high-demand North Atlanta suburbs like Smyrna/Vinings, Cumberland, East Cobb, North Fulton/South Forsyth counties, Dunwoody/North DeKalb County, west of the I-85 corridor in Gwinnett County, etc.).

[Rony Wright]

I appreciate the information and the depth.

We also toyed with Grayson. The median income is high and it's in Gwinnett. To my understanding Gwinnett is a good county.

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

I also used to live in Lithia Springs and my friends and family that live out that way in the Douglasville area love living out there because (except for some crime in the commercial areas at and around the interchanges along I-20) it’s a fairly quiet area.

And the farther away that one gets away from I-20 and the commercial area around and near Arbor Place Mall, the more quiet and safer it gets.

Housing costs in an area like Douglasville also are less expensive than housing costs may be throughout other, more affluent parts of the Atlanta suburbs (including in extremely high-demand North Atlanta suburbs like Smyrna/Vinings, Cumberland, East Cobb, North Fulton/South Forsyth counties, Dunwoody/North DeKalb County, west of the I-85 corridor in Gwinnett County, etc.).

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Rony Wright

I appreciate the information and the depth.

We also toyed with Grayson. The median income is high and it's in Gwinnett. To my understanding Gwinnett is a good county.

You are right that, though it admittedly is not without its challenges, Gwinnett is generally overall a very good county and Grayson IS a good area, especially with what you seem to be looking for in a suburban community with a strong black middle class presence.

The area in question (Grayson and Gwinnett County) is a ‘majority-minority’ area where racial and ethnic minorities make up a majority of the population.

I don’t have the exact demographical statistics for the Grayson area, but citing the demographical stats for Couch Middle School, which serves much of the Grayson 30017 zip code, black residents appear to make up about at least 45-47 percent of the population, while racial and ethnic minorities as a whole appear to make up about as much as 80 percent of the population of the area.

Grayson is also an area that appears to give one access to more retail amenities than the Douglasville area, courtesy of the numerous retail amenities available along nearby major highways like GA-124 Scenic Highway through the north side of the Snellville area, and US-78/GA-10 Atlanta Highway through the Loganville area.

Amongst the numerous retail amenities available in the area are the upscale The Shoppes at Webb Gin retail development at GA-124 Scenic Highway at Webb Gin House Road, in addition to 2 Walmart Supercenters, Sam’s Club, Target, multiple Publix and Kroger grocery stores, Ingles grocery store, 2 Lowe’s and 2 Home Depot home improvement stores, etc.

The only real potential drawback of the area might be that traffic is likely to be much heavier along a route like GA-124 Scenic Highway on the north side of Snellville than on the surface roads in a west metro suburban area like Douglasville.

[Rony Wright]

Thanks again for the information. I like what I'm seeing on the Webb Gin website.

Grayson looks peaceful. It we need to ride to Atlanta it's not too far BUT far enough away to where we don't feel like we're too close. My wife is more familiar with inside the perimeter than I am and we both want noticeable distance between where we live and Atlanta.

Also, Grayson is small enough for me to get involved with local politics like Zoning boards, committee's, etc.....I've always been involved with my local political scene.


PS- the wife says thanks a ton!

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

You are right that, though it admittedly is not without its challenges, Gwinnett is generally overall a very good county and Grayson IS a good area, especially with what you seem to be looking for in a suburban community with a strong black middle class presence.

The area in question (Grayson and Gwinnett County) is a ‘majority-minority’ area where racial and ethnic minorities make up a majority of the population.

I don’t have the exact demographical statistics for the Grayson area, but citing the demographical stats for Couch Middle School, which serves much of the Grayson 30017 zip code, black residents appear to make up about at least 45-47 percent of the population, while racial and ethnic minorities as a whole appear to make up about as much as 80 percent of the population of the area.

Grayson is also an area that appears to give one access to more retail amenities than the Douglasville area, courtesy of the numerous retail amenities available along nearby major highways like GA-124 Scenic Highway through the north side of the Snellville area, and US-78/GA-10 Atlanta Highway through the Loganville area.

Amongst the numerous retail amenities available in the area are the upscale The Shoppes at Webb Gin retail development at GA-124 Scenic Highway at Webb Gin House Road, in addition to 2 Walmart Supercenters, Sam’s Club, Target, multiple Publix and Kroger grocery stores, Ingles grocery store, 2 Lowe’s and 2 Home Depot home improvement stores, etc.

The only real potential drawback of the area might be that traffic is likely to be much heavier along a route like GA-124 Scenic Highway on the north side of Snellville than on the surface roads in a west metro suburban area like Douglasville.