South Fulton and Clayton Co. (Atlanta, Alpharetta: crime, how much, new home)

[ole_boi]

I am originally from Knoxville, Tn. My wife, son, and I just recently moved back to Knoxville after spending 4 years in Las Vegas with the military. We both love southern living, but Knoxville is not a place that we want to raise our children and we kind of got used to living in a semi-big city. I am somewhat familiar with Atlanta, and I was thinking about moving down there. I know that we need to live relatively close to where our jobs are, but I have been recently looking at the Fairburn and Riverdale areas. Housing prices I am seeing online seem too good to be true. Is there an insane amount of crime in these areas? what about schools? I guess I am looking for opinions on these two areas as well as any thoughts on the powder springs and marietta city locations. I would like to stay under 250k range for a new or used home in an area.

[stvincent]

Right now Fairburn is considered to be the "boonies". Even though it is in Fulton County and only 25 minutes south of Downtown Atlanta, nothing is really there. The town has one grocery store, a Food Depot(a store you couldn't pay me to shop at), one CVS, and a couple of chain restarants like Wendy's and McDonald's, and a few gas stations. That is about all there is in Fairburn. You will hae to do all your shopping and dining in Tyrone, Peachtree City, or Union City. While the area is starting to see more homes being built, and at cheap prices, that's the only new development going up in the sleepy town. There aren't any shopping centers or restaurants in the works and there probably won't be for years. The schools in Fairburn are horrible, as are most of the schools in South Fulton County. Look up the stats for Creekview High Scool, the school which serves Fairburn and neighboring Union City and Palmetto.

There are some nice and inexpensive parts to Riverdale but once again you are going to run into the school issue as Clayton County as a system has the worst schools in the metro area. But at least there is plenty you can do in Riverdale. It is a typical self sustaining suburb with all the chain stores and restaurants you could hope for.

If you can find a home in your price range in Powder Springs, then I would suggest you move there. The schools are decent(the best schools are located in extreemly affluent areas and while Powder Springs' schools might not be at the top of any lists, none of them are even close to being at the bottom either). When your children gets to high school they can choose schools outside the Hillgrove/McEachern districts by attending one of the excellent Magnet High schools in Cobb County. Also, Powder Springs is a little sleepy like Fairburn but feels more like a suburb that hasn't gone out of control with growth as opposed to a rural town in the middle of nowhere. You would also be close to the huge and booming commercial districts along the East-West Connector and Barrett Pkwy.

[sprtsluvr8]

When I see incorrect information I feel like I have to respond...Fairburn is boomtown right now. Creekside High is bursting at the seams and there are new subdivisions sprouting up everywhere. It used to be country roads and woods, but the past 5 years has seen a flurry of development. It's not a shopping destination or anything, but to say there is nothing there is not correct.

I teach in one of the schools there (thank you very much) and all I can say is the teachers are excellent and work as hard as possible. I have to say that the schools are not "horrible" but the test scores at some are not as high as schools in North Fulton. To put the population growth in perspective, my school has doubled in size to 1,100 plus student, and that includes opening two new elementary schools that sliced into our zone. It's not an easy environment in which to teach or learn...but I just wanted to let you know the real story about Fairburn.

[stvincent]

Originally Posted by sprtsluvr8

When I see incorrect information I feel like I have to respond...Fairburn is boomtown right now. Creekside High is bursting at the seams and there are new subdivisions sprouting up everywhere. It used to be country roads and woods, but the past 5 years has seen a flurry of development. It's not a shopping destination or anything, but to say there is nothing there is not correct.

I teach in one of the schools there (thank you very much) and all I can say is the teachers are excellent and work as hard as possible. I have to say that the schools are not "horrible" but the test scores at some are not as high as schools in North Fulton. To put the population growth in perspective, my school has doubled in size to 1,100 plus student, and that includes opening two new elementary schools that sliced into our zone. It's not an easy environment in which to teach or learn...but I just wanted to let you know the real story about Fairburn.

I acknowleged that Fairburn was growing rapidly with residential development. But with hundreds if not thousands of new homes being built down there why aren't there more shopping and dining options. I think the area is neglected by commercial developers and wanted to make the poster aware of that if they decided to make a move down there.

As for the schools: When comparing the scores of North Fulton to South Fulton, none of the south fulton schools compare. You might be a teacher and I commend you on wanting to teach in such a district but those schools aren't considered "good" by anyone and I can't imagine the people that are moving down there in droves are doing so because of the schools but rather for the cheap housing. Creekside is bursting at the seams because a $150,000 home still exsists in the district, not because the graduation rate is above 80% or the SAT/ACT/GHSGT scores. The schools down there need some major improvements. Maybe when people realize the schools in South Fulton are not up to par and stop defending their mediocracy, the parents and board members down there might actually reform local education to make the schools comparable to North Fulton and East Cobb.

Fairburn might be growing but how many years will it take for it to look like every other Atlanta suburb...and how many people are actually willing to wait that long for neighborhood conviences? We all know why commercial development is slow to come to any part of South Fulton...I am just informing the poster on the way things are in Atlanta.

[sprtsluvr8]

I don't use test scores as a way to judge good/bad schools...standardized tests are not a good measure of the job teachers are doing or how much a child knows. So if you feel they are the way to go then that's fine.

Do you think Dunwoody came the way it is? Alpharetta? They've been developing for years, and that's why you see a big difference in the things they offer compared to Fairburn. First the people move in, then retailers see the huge opportunity and they start moving in. You sound like an expert on the situation in all of South Fulton. You must live there or visit quite a bit? I'm just wondering where you get your information. It's silly that you think development is "slow" there, but I could care less. I know what is really happening...

[ole_boi]

I appreciate the info. It'll be 2 years before we move down and I'm still in the gathering information stage. I'm sort of torn on the issue. On one hand, I want my children to grow up around middle and upper-middle class african-americans to show them that it is not an anomally to see such a thing. Then, I think that it is not good to be in an "ALL-ANYTHING" environment. I guess I am looking for diversity- I guess that was one GOOD thing about raising children in Las Vegas. At anyrate, thanks again.

[backfist]

Originally Posted by sprtsluvr8

I don't use test scores as a way to judge good/bad schools...standardized tests are not a good measure of the job teachers are doing or how much a child knows. So if you feel they are the way to go then that's fine.

Do you think Dunwoody came the way it is? Alpharetta? They've been developing for years, and that's why you see a big difference in the things they offer compared to Fairburn. First the people move in, then retailers see the huge opportunity and they start moving in. You sound like an expert on the situation in all of South Fulton. You must live there or visit quite a bit? I'm just wondering where you get your information. It's silly that you think development is "slow" there, but I could care less. I know what is really happening...

I certainly appreciate the suggestion that South Fulton residents are best qualified in criticizing South Fulton. At least they should be. But just as North Fulton residents are probably the last people to be critical of North Fulton, it doesn't mean that outside criticism isn't warranted. Or accurate for that matter.

The last people to criticize North Fulton as snobbish, provincial, hypocritical, and a tendency to be bigoted, would be North Fulton residents. But as a North Fulton resident, those criticisms (in my mind) are true. By the same token, the criticism that Clayton and South Fulton tend to have worse schools and higher crime appear to be true, even though the critics aren't residents there.

[south-to-west]

If you're looking at places in South Fulton, then two areas I recommend are Cascade Road and Sandtown.

Cascade Road, both inside and outside the city limits, has a huge inventory of nice houses at decent prices. The schools in the area tend to be good and the current mayor resides in the area, as well as former Mayor Andrew Young. There are also numerous parks and rec facilities for your children.

Sandtown, which is off of Campbellton Road west of the city limits, is a fairly affluent area that has homes in the range that you're looking for. There is also a lot of commerical development occurring along Camp Creek that provides as good as a retail mix as any other suburban area. Also, there are a lot of new homes being constructed in this area.

People in North Fulton who criticize South Fulton frankly need to detach their heads from their "you know whats". I don't mean to incite controversy, but there are a lot of nice areas of South Fulton that others choose to remain ignorant about.

The best thing to do is to come down here in drive around the different neighborhoods and discover them for yourself. Good luck!!

[sprtsluvr8]

Originally Posted by backfist

I certainly appreciate the suggestion that South Fulton residents are best qualified in criticizing South Fulton. At least they should be. But just as North Fulton residents are probably the last people to be critical of North Fulton, it doesn't mean that outside criticism isn't warranted. Or accurate for that matter.

The last people to criticize North Fulton as snobbish, provincial, hypocritical, and a tendency to be bigoted, would be North Fulton residents. But as a North Fulton resident, those criticisms (in my mind) are true. By the same token, the criticism that Clayton and South Fulton tend to have worse schools and higher crime appear to be true, even though the critics aren't residents there.

Where does it appear to be true? Where are you getting your information? I don't live in South Fulton as you assumed I do, but I work there.

"the criticism that Clayton and South Fulton tend to have worse schools and higher crime appear to be true, even though the critics aren't residents there." It's an ignorant statement and it's false.

[backfist]

Where does it appear to be true? Where are you getting your information?

A good brother I know who works for Atlanta PD sends me bi-weekly e-mails with "highlights" of arrests made. The majority of those busts occur in south Atlanta. And since these are actually documented arrests/contacts, and not just opinion, I tend to accept it at face value.

School-wise, we considered schools in Atlanta, south Fulton and other areas on the south side. Grady High or Druid Hills would be nice, but I'm not trying to afford those neighborhoods. Suffice it to say that the vast majority of central and south Fulton schools did not measure up. They might have had test scores that were middle-of-the-road, but that's not good enough. North Fulton schools were better, but not dramatically better.

So my opinion of crime and education is based on information and understanding. Not ignorance.