ATL suburb residents only! What keeps you form moving Downtown? (Atlanta: apartment, condo)

[ATL Golfer]

1. Property
2. Crime
3. Schools
4. Crime
5. Cleanliness

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by Mike_IN_AUG

You could not find any areas close to Downtown with little crime?

Not that I can afford, no. I'm probably going to end up moving to an ok location. Transit is mediocre, it's a tad sketchy too, but that's what the 2nd amendment is for.

[David1502]

There are several reasons for not wanting to live downtown and preferring the burbs:
1. Less congested - in the Smyrna/Vinings area everything is close by and the traffic isn't that bad. (You can do most errands without getting onto Cobb Pkwy.)
2. Trees and greenspace. In most of the northern suburbs, the counties have installed landscaped medians and also installed wide sidewalks with extensive planting of trees and shrubs. This time of year with the Crepe Myrtles in bloom, these roads are quite attractive and have a park like feel to them- For example, check out Spring Rd. in Smyrna. Also, the burbs offer the Silver Comet Trail and the Big Creek Greenway as well as the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area. Who needs the concrete jungle of downtown Atlanta?
3. Lower cost of housing - why pay twice as much to live inside of 285? What is so magical about crossing that highway? I am a mile and a half outside the Perimeter and I can't see paying two times as much just to be on the other side of a highway.
4. In general, the retail is often newer and larger in the burbs. For example the Publix in Vinings is a much better store than the small, 1960's era Publix at the West Paces Ferry store (which was originally built as an A& P).
5. Free Parking is everywhere in the burbs - why mess with valet parking intown?

In general, life is less stressful with fewer hassles in the burbs. When you drive on 285 between I-75 and 400, you hardly know that you are in the middle of a large metro area when all you can see is trees on the side of the road. Contrast that with driving the downtown connector where there is hardly a tree insight.

[cwkimbro]

At the end of the day much of intown Atlanta actually grew as suburbs of a much smaller Atlanta. In fact much of it has a suburban feel, even if it is that more town-like style design from the early 1900s.

Consequence is the land lots were subdivided fairly large and neighborhoods organized historic preservation groups like crazy.

The private and public infrastructure intown was not built to handle 5 million residences and all of the jobs for them either.

Virtue from that alone has pushed out growth into suburbs. The rest of the talk is just simply why different people locate where.

[erick295]

When I lived out there, price was the only reason. Living in town is much more expensive if you want to be in a good neighborhood and have nice amenities. That will probably always be the case.

I can't believe people are citing traffic as a reason. That's the complete opposite of my experience. The traffic I saw in the suburbs was an order of magnitude worse than what I see in town, and I had to sit in it to go anywhere. When there's gridlock here, I just wave at it as I walk by.

Originally Posted by Mike_IN_AUG

So would you guys say that native Atlantans are more likely to live in the suburbs?

I wouldn't be surprised if that was true since things were so bad in the 80s/90s.

Originally Posted by DaBurgh

I work in the Burbs. If I worked in town, I'd live there too. I'd prefer to be in town, so I am actively making plans to find work there.

Not sure how far out you work, but the reverse commute makes living in town and working OTP very easy.

[sedimenjerry]

Well I just graduated and live with my parents so I don't have much choice. But if I could afford to move I definitely wouldn't choose downtown. Maybe midtown or buckhead if I could afford it. Cost is a major reason for not living intown. Also, most of the time I don't mind being in the suburbs. It's peaceful. And Atlanta suburbs are pretty with trees and hills. The sprawl really isn't visible from ground level here like in other cities. At 22 being close to nightlife would be nice but that would at most be Friday night and Saturday night. The rest of the week I'm too preoccupied with work and relaxing for a few hours. I don't have time for the city. Cities have never really interested me that much anyway. It's nice to visit every once in a while but that's about it for me. The parks in Gwinnett are plenty interesting for me. Local shopping is easy. There's no pay to park or one way narrow roads dodging pedestrians or trying to figure out where you can turn onto Peachtree in downtown (still trying to figure that out). People on this board act like it's a huge ordeal but it's really not if you know which roads don't have too bad of traffic. Yes you have to drive everywhere but some in rural areas people have to drive over 15 mins one way just to get to a tiny grocery store. Lastly, I work in the suburbs. There's no way I'm gonna live intown when I don't even work there. If I had a family? Suburbs without a doubt. Space, safety and schools would outweigh anything else in the city unless I worked downtown.

[Larry X]

For one, I dont wanna live downtown, too crowded
For two, too expensive I can't afford it
For three, I need more apt space
For four, too much traffic
For five, too nosiy

I stay the Austell/Mableton area- I do wanna move to COA, but it's hard finding nice size affordable homes with a decent size yard in the city. The next best thing for me would be the Sandtown/30331 area. You seem to be able to get nice size homes with big yards, for a decent price while receiving an Atlanta mailing address.

[BR Valentine]

Originally Posted by erick295

Not sure how far out you work, but the reverse commute makes living in town and working OTP very easy.

The reverse commute from the city to Alpharetta and points north is horrendous because of the awful traffic on 400. It's the primary reason we moved from Ormewood Park to the suburbs. My wife commuted for a year to a job in Forsyth just across the border from John's Creek. 2hrs RT on a good day and 3hrs+ RT on a bad day. Life's too short to waste all that time commuting.

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

At the end of the day much of intown Atlanta actually grew as suburbs of a much smaller Atlanta. In fact much of it has a suburban feel, even if it is that more town-like style design from the early 1900s.

So true. I enjoyed living in Atlanta a lot. But when I first arrived here from Manhattan having never lived in the suburbs in my entire life up to that point, my first thought was, "Holy ****!. We've moved to the suburbs."

[jero23]

I'm currently working in the suburbs, so I stay here in the suburbs. However, I will be moving into the City of Atlanta the moment I'm able to land a job intown.

I'm an urban dweller and has been one my adult life. I will be rearing my future family in an intown urban environment as well. I grew up in the suburbs of another major city and feel they are overrated and not conducive for a healthy lifestyle or mindset for my future family.

[erick295]

Originally Posted by jero23

I grew up in the suburbs of another major city and feel they are overrated.

I think a lot of that comes from outdated perceptions. Most cities were garbage in the 80s/90s and suburbs were much better. That's changed a lot recently, but perceptions haven't caught up.

The idea that it's noisy, crowded, dangerous, etc. is just silly... there are a lot of very safe areas in town, and there are also a lot of quiet, family-friendly neighborhoods with yards and everything. You're going to pay more for them than you would in the suburbs, of course, but it's not like they don't exist. It's not all skyscrapers, gunshots, and sirens down here.