Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
After moving to Atlanta and living there for some time. What were the things you wished you knew before you moved? What shocked you the most about the area? And knowing what you know now would you still have moved to Atlanta. And if not why? Thanks.
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 26,081,428 times
Reputation: 3995
Quote:
Originally Posted by CUDavidBanner
After moving to Atlanta and living there for some time. What were the things you wished you knew before you moved?
Not much. We didn't move down here blindly (a little nearsighted perhaps, but...), and we rented for several months before taking the step of actually buying a home.
Quote:
What shocked you the most about the area?
Southern ice storms are actually kinda nasty down here (I wouldn't drive in one). The lack of heat in the summer (I was expecting a summer that was hotter than a Minnesota summer -- instead, Atlanta has more of the same, but for three times longer). The fact that some things related to roadways ... reflectors, dotted line guides across intersections for turn lanes, some type sof road signage) are done much better here than they are in the Twin Cities (and some things are not as good here, like a lack of right turn lanes in some very surprising places on major roadways).
Quote:
And knowing what you know now would you still have moved to Atlanta. And if not why? Thanks.
Yes. It's different than the midwestern city where we came from, but it's a lot less different in many ways than I thought it would be before I actually moved down here.
Not that it necessarily would have stopped us but I had no real knowledge of the extent of the crime problems in suburban Atlanta areas.
This is what happened last night. We came home from a family gathering about midnight. My wife, 18 month old son and myself. Since it was raining a bit I stopped close by the entrance to our building so that my wife could get out and take the baby upstairs before I found a parking spot. Then I parked and headed upstairs myself. Within a minute of getting inside the apartment there was a banging at the door. My wife went to the door and looked outside the peephole to see who was out there. She then asked who it was and was met with a response that it was a Sheriff's officer. This led to a tug of war that went on for several minutes because my wife is naturally worrisome. She was paranoid about it being some person pretending to be a law enforcement officer. Even after he placed his badge up to the peephole. I must say it did seem suspicious if for no other reason than as I said we had just entered so anyone lurking could have known that. And there was no squad car parked outside visible from our window. The man speaking said that it was parked at the entry to the complex. Eventually he said that to allay any fears we could call 911 to speak with the Douglas Cty sheriffs dept which my wife immediately did. Then satisfied she opened the door and was met with two officers with rifles and attack dogs. This didn't do much to clam her because one officer had his finger placed squarely over the trigger. In the meantime the baby is in his room screaming because he was cranky after having been awakened after being asleep in the car.
The first officer then asked that the man who had just gone inside step outside. That being me. When I stepped outside he wanted me to show them the jacket I was wearing moments earlier. I promptly went and picked up the New York Mets jacket I had just taken off and went back outside.
At that time they decided to let us know what the drama was all about.
Said that the Shell station around the corner on Thornton Road had just been robbed and the suspect had been described as a 6 foot tall Black male wearing a Timberland jacket. I'm 6'3". He said that from where he was watching my Mets jacket had the appearance of possibly being a Timberland jacket. They then sort of apologized and added that they weren't trying to harass us. We understood and voiced to them that they were just doing their jobs but that from our perspective we have to be somewhat protective, especially during the Holiday season when crime in general seems to spike and in this area where home invasions seem to happy pretty frequently.
My biggest surprise is the overall decay of the Atlanta area.
Granted, since 1999 I traveled back and forth from Atlanta to both Philadelphia and Chicago, then in 2004 we were transfered here.
Overall, one cannot point to the decay of Atlanta without including the rest of the United States as well, but for the most part I cannot find much difference in the Atlanta area in comparison to Detroit, Newark, Camden NJ, and New Orleans. along with the overall speed Atlanta's quality is taking this nose dive.
Here it seems crime issues are all around. In NYC, Washington / Baltimore, Philly, and Chi'town, you know where to go and where you do not even dare to go.
To be honest, Georgia is a beautiful location, the "native" Georgians are great hospitiable folk, even the City of Atlanta has the potential to be the jewel of the South, however, weak to crooked leadership keeps this from happening.
With this to answer the last part of the question; the answer is NO I would not have taken the transfer. Actually, I check my company board everyday for a transfer out. The sad part in my company if you transfer out you have to find a replacement to transfer in. Overall, I guess the current reputation of Atlanta is getting around since in the last "2" years I have been attempting this there have been no takers from any other part of the country outside of California, which of course is another country.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,758,986 times
Reputation: 3587
I came here on assignment for the Olympic Games. I arrived to work from Jan 14 through the games. So being here for 6 months and living in a weekly residential hotel in Norcross, I already know the area pretty well before I made the decision to make it a permanent home. I would have to say that the only real surprise I got was the Ad Valoreum vehicle tax when I first went to register my car. She said $267 and I said "oh &%#$"! I told her I will be back on payday and I rode on my Illinois tags for 2 more years until the value dropped enough that I did not have to pay an arm and a leg. Illinois did not have such a tax. Tag renewals there were $20 and the emissions test was free.
I came here on assignment for the Olympic Games. I arrived to work from Jan 14 through the games. So being here for 6 months and living in a weekly residential hotel in Norcross, I already know the area pretty well before I made the decision to make it a permanent home. I would have to say that the only real surprise I got was the Ad Valoreum vehicle tax when I first went to register my car. She said $267 and I said "oh &%#$"! I told her I will be back on payday and I rode on my Illinois tags for 2 more years until the value dropped enough that I did not have to pay an arm and a leg. Illinois did not have such a tax. Tag renewals there were $20 and the emissions test was free.
The old ad val tax. This is something that was special to the southern states. I grew up with it in West Virginia and then Virginia. A friend of mine told me that Maine and Rhode Island now loves to jab folks to on their cars.
The ad val is just one of many items I point out to Northern folk who feel coming to the south will grant them big breaks in cost of living.
By the time you add the 6% income tax
Ad val
Sales Tax
Development Association Fees
and the termite and quarterly bug treatments the difference is not all that much
As basically a native, I want to point out a few things that I notice that newcomers find and are surprised by.
1. You can often afford to rent in much nicer areas than you could afford to buy. So, if you have children and you want to rent to get to know an area first, you may not realize that simply affording the rent in an area doesn't mean you will be able to afford a home. Thus, you will have to uproot your child again once you buy a home.
2. Salaries are often lower than where you come from and this is a very service based economy which pushes salaries even lower. Jobs aren't as easy to find as many are lead to believe. Administrative (secreterial) jobs pay much less here than in other large (non-Southern) ciities.
3. Those lovely NEW houses that seem so affordable and large that you see on the real estate websites are 30 or more miles from major employment centers and in areas with no public transportation. If you work in or near one of the large employment centers (Perimeter, Midtown, or downtown) and want to live close and own an home, expect to pay big $ or have a small (most likely attached home.)
4. You can have old friends or family across town that you simply can't see during the week.
5. There are places that you really can't get there from here -- unless you have unlimited time.
6. School systems are large in Georgia (and really the South). Very few small city systems. Yes some of the schools are really that bad. Two DeKalb middle schools just posted averages below 35 percent on the ITBS (a nationally normed test). However, to many parents rent (and occassionally buy) without doing one iota of research on the school. Most school systems in Metro ATlanta offer no school choice -- so you are stuck.
7. For teachers, we don't have collective bargaining in Georgia, but what we do have is job protection cause demand for teachers pretty much equals or exceeds supply. However, we are seeing a slowdown in growth in many school systems in the Metro area. Special Ed and math/science are always in demand.
8. Services (both educational and government funded health) for disabled children are not great. Less than 1/2 of Georgia special ed students graduate high school. It sometimes is very difficult to get Georgia school's to follow an IEP, necessitating the hiring of advocates and attorneys. Georgia is equally unkind to the poor -- be prepared to support yourself and your family, this is the most Republican state in the country and it shows in welfare benefits.
9. For me -- far to many people don't research nearly enough and end up having a rough time once they are here.
After moving to Atlanta and living there for some time. What were the things you wished you knew before you moved? What shocked you the most about the area? And knowing what you know now would you still have moved to Atlanta. And if not why? Thanks.
I moved here in 1984 after getting out of high school, so I've seen the city change enormously over the years. If I had any clue whatsoever back then the city would grow so quickly and uncontrolled, I would never have picked Atlanta to relocate to for college.
Nothing really shocked me about the area back then - I had been to larger cities with my father before and Atlanta was actually pretty tame compared to some. Today, it's somewhat out of control and there's little left of the Atlanta of 1984 at all. If I had a time machine and could go back and smack myself on the back of the head I think I would have picked one of the other cities where schools accepted me instead. Portland or Denver to name two.
Here it seems crime issues are all around. In NYC, Washington / Baltimore, Philly, and Chi'town, you know where to go and where you do not even dare to go.
That's what I hear from lots of people, and I agree.
But Atlanta was not always that way. When I moved here (in 1984 per an earlier post) Atlanta had good and bad neighborhoods that were much more clearly defined than they are now. There were the areas you stayed out of, where crime pretty much stayed in those areas as well. Today, the criminals just hop in a group into their SUV and drive here and there throughout the metro area randomly and do what they're going to do. That used to be a VERY rare event back then - now it's every day.
In the mid-late 80s you could move to "neighborhood A" and rest assured that if you were 8 miles from "neighborhood B" that you were safe. Today, the gang bangers from B drive up to A and commit the crimes, so it doesn't really matter what neighborhood you live in here anymore. Some are still worse or better than others, but crime on all levels happens from the ghetto to the million dollar streets now.
That's what I hear from lots of people, and I agree.
But Atlanta was not always that way. When I moved here (in 1984 per an earlier post) Atlanta had good and bad neighborhoods that were much more clearly defined than they are now. There were the areas you stayed out of, where crime pretty much stayed in those areas as well. Today, the criminals just hop in a group into their SUV and drive here and there throughout the metro area randomly and do what they're going to do. That used to be a VERY rare event back then - now it's every day.
In the mid-late 80s you could move to "neighborhood A" and rest assured that if you were 8 miles from "neighborhood B" that you were safe. Today, the gang bangers from B drive up to A and commit the crimes, so it doesn't really matter what neighborhood you live in here anymore. Some are still worse or better than others, but crime on all levels happens from the ghetto to the million dollar streets now.
True Enough!
I remember when the Gwinnett Place Mall was a nice, quaint, area.
Used to stay at the hotels by the mall a decade back on business when I lived in Philadelphia.
In the evenings I would take long walks through the mall, and even down to Steve Reynolds. Today? No way!
I work close there today, I think just in the Mall area from Pleasant Hill to Satellite Blvd there have been well over a dozen shootings, 3 murders, and 1 disappearance. Even during the day we have instructed our employees if they go to lunch in the area, especially female, to go in groups.
It's a darn shame that people have to be this way. There is absolutely no excuse for it. Just a sign of the times and decades result of liberal PC BS.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
