Trailer Parks, Ghettos, and gnarly places in ATL and surrounding areas... (Atlanta: motels, neighborhoods)

[Jackalope]

There are indeed, still some decent places to live in East Point and College Park. Quite a number of older folks got caught there as property values declined and are still taking very good care of their homes. On the other hand, there are some really expensive homes there that are great values.

As for worst, I'd have to say Metropolitan Ave/Cleveland Ave and Fulton Industrial would be right at the top of my "worst" list.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

#1 area in atlanta that is the roughest is the bluff. it's worse than anything else in the entire metro area, times ten. if you're a photographer looking to take pictures or something, i would really advise against it.

Where on Google Maps is the bluff? Not Bluff St NW?

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I have seen very small areas with trailers here and there. They aren't the trailer parks that you think of where there is an office and mailboxes and everything, they look more like a parcel of land that has allowances for 5 or 6 trailers. Most of them look pretty old, so I imagine they have been there for a long time.

But you're right, they aren't very common at all.

I would expect to see them maybe in small town outside of the Atlanta Metro, but Atlanta does not have enough flat land to set those things up.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

bankhead is in northwest atlanta. clayton county is southeast of atlanta. for all we know, you could've been in alabama instead of east point.

LOL. I love it when know-it-alls get royally owned.

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

#1 area in atlanta that is the roughest is the bluff. it's worse than anything else in the entire metro area, times ten. if you're a photographer looking to take pictures or something, i would really advise against it.

for rough looking trailer parks, i've got a place that beats the one listed above:

Google Maps

also, the entire area around jonesboro road in lakewood:

https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.70411...40.53,,0,-0.98

immediately around campbellton road, and cleveland avenue on the part east of the city of east point *looks* rough, but mainly because the shopping plazas and such are just old.

if you want to see something interesting, there are old shopping plazas around norcross on buford highway and whatnot where all the signs are in korean— it isn't a really rough area though.

pittsburgh and mechanicsville are pretty rough crimewise, but they don't approach the bluff in terms of just out-and-out third worldness.

What corridor is the The Bluff?

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Where on Google Maps is the bluff? Not Bluff St NW?

It's heart is English Ave. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Engli...90.33,,0,14.25

[arjay57]

Funny how people think it's fine to rag on trailer parks but politically incorrect to refer to other neighborhoods in a negative way. Having lived in manufactured housing on two occasions I can tell you that there are plenty of decent, hardworking folks there. Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Funny how people think it's fine to rag on trailer parks but politically incorrect to refer to other neighborhoods in a negative way. Having lived in manufactured housing on two occasions I can tell you that there are plenty of decent, hardworking folks there. Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

We looked at manufactured housing in the Twin Cities at one point, and my wife decided to buy a trailer just out of college rather than rent. There's no shame in that at all...

[Mal93]

Regarding specifically "poor white" areas (with the disclaimer I am not sure why white is a factor here as to me unless you are looking for the old school stereotypical idea of "poor white southern trash" in the city)-- there are still some of the old "cabbageheads" in cabbagetown. There was an old apt building behind Carroll St. for a while that was basically an old folk's home for some of the millworkers whose rent was paid partially from their old pensions. We looked at an apt there in the early 90s and the landlord (a millworker himself) said that part of the (cheap!) rent deal would be to look after the aging tenants and maybe help them with their meals/meds. We didn't want a ground floor apt and he literally told us "oh, I can probably move you upstairs in a couple months-- Mr. So-n-So's health is bad and he'll be dead soon."

Similar situation around lakewood, conley (inside the triangle made by 285 and 675 near all the truck stop areas), parts of Sylvan Hills and Hapeville-- although the poorer populations seem to be aging. When I was a kid I remember seeing the KKK in their hoods passing out literature between Hapeville and East Point...I guess they weren't wealthy enough to up and move during the white flight era so they just stayed put and made their opinion known? First time I ever heard my saintly mother curse was when one white-hooded guy came up to our car on Cleveland Ave and tried to hand her a pamphlet!! To this day I remember she told him "I might be white, but I'm also a Yankee and a Catholic so ___ your racist redneck ___!!"

You also had a lot of poorer white neighborhoods around the military bases like Ft. Gillem/Ft. Mac that were part of base housing (a lot of the boarded up or older apt bldgs around Sylvan Rd were soldier housing).

That trailer park on Jonesboro rd used to be mainly white in the early 80s. Its condition is so sketchy now it reminds me of some third world tenement. There are chickens running around if you look through the gates, and some dubious looking businesses being ran from the trailers.


Mobile Home Parks in Atlanta, GA on Yahoo! Local
There are quite a few "mobile home parks" listed here which is surprising to me as a lot of the ones I remember as a kid have been removed or changed to rent-scaled low income housing. I think the difference is they tend to be very compact...you don't see acres of singlewides or doublewides like you do in FL.

There is a big difference now in mobile homes/manufactured homes today and the literal tractor trailer metal singlewide "trailers" that were around in the last half of the 20th century. I have seen some mobile homes get remodeled with higher rooflines, nicer finishes, better windows and they look as good or better than the cheap-looking new houses that popped up all over Atlanta's suburbs in the 2000s.

If I remember correctly there were also restrictions put in place at some point to ensure trailers/mobile homes had permanent foundations and I know in some areas you can't put more than one on X # of acres to prevent mini-trailer parks of families popping up (there are hardship exceptions). There is also a revitalization of the "mobile/readymade home" with the popularity of pod houses and shipping container homes. To me these are just a modern version of the trailer park home-- cheap to make, economical (and now- environmentally friendly with "modern design aesthetics"). SEED [pod] Incremental Housing from Binary Studios : TreeHugger
Crate expectations: 11 shipping container housing ideas | MNN - Mother Nature Network
So would this be considered "trashy" and "low income" if twelve of these popped up in an intown development? Or "cutting edge" and "green"?

One of the things a lot of newcomers to ATL don't realize is HOW MANY apartment complexes have sliding income scale rent/Section 8 housing. So you might be looking at a new complex intown that's advertising $1400 / rent, but there could be folks living there who are below the poverty line whose old house or sec 8 apt complex was torn down. If you are looking for "poor white trash" stereotype, I think that is harder to find intown "neighborhoods" of that nowadays due to gentrification and diversification. But between mixed income housing, halfway houses, flop houses, and cheap motels, trust me you'll still find we have low/no-income whites in the city!

[RNF]

NW atl.