What is the state of the West End these days? Safe? (Atlanta: houses, neighborhoods)

[cqholt]

Visit the area different times (at night, weekday, weekend.) Get out your cars, walk around and talk to the people you see in their yard, or their porch, etc. All types of people; black, white, old, young, families, and singles. Buying a home is a huge purchase and you want to make sure you will feel comfortable and like the area. The West End has a strong community.

[MikeHonchoATL]

There are huge numbers of unemployed bums wandering the streets at all hours of the day contributing nothing to society. Contributing nothing other than to the crime rate and the trash littered all over the place. Take a drive through that neighborhood and look at how the residents treat it. If they can't respect it enough not to have it littered with all sorts of garbage, why would you want to live among that? I sure wouldn't. People live there because that is the best they can afford. If you can afford more, you look for something safer, cleaner and nicer.

[tikigod311]

I drove through West End today and was shot numerous times in the face. Not the first time, it happens mostly when I get stuck behind a litter drift. So much litter, YUGE amounts of fantastic litter. Terrible place I tells ya

[Othello Is Here]

Originally Posted by MikeHonchoATL

There are huge numbers of unemployed bums wandering the streets at all hours of the day contributing nothing to society. Contributing nothing other than to the crime rate and the trash littered all over the place. Take a drive through that neighborhood and look at how the residents treat it. If they can't respect it enough not to have it littered with all sorts of garbage, why would you want to live among that? I sure wouldn't. People live there because that is the best they can afford. If you can afford more, you look for something safer, cleaner and nicer.

There are plenty areas around Atlanta that were worse than that area is now.The vast majority by far are hardworking people.
Once you get off the busy Abernathy/Cascade Rd you dont see any of that the neighborhood themselves.When I lived on South Gordon more than 15 years ago,it was not that bad then and its much bettter now as prices of those houses have gone up dramatically.'
I bought a house during the housing crisis for $28,000 that was made of a really nice stone nd had new storm window installed before I bought it.
Did not have to do much to it and sold it a year later for around $60,000.Houses now around it renovated are going for over $200,000 which used to un heard of for that area so apparently there is value in investing and living in the area.

[MikeHonchoATL]

Originally Posted by Othello Is Here

There are plenty areas around Atlanta that were worse than that area is now.The vast majority by far are hardworking people.
Once you get off the busy Abernathy/Cascade Rd you dont see any of that the neighborhood themselves.When I lived on South Gordon more than 15 years ago,it was not that bad then and its much bettter now as prices of those houses have gone up dramatically.'
I bought a house during the housing crisis for $28,000 that was made of a really nice stone nd had new storm window installed before I bought it.
Did not have to do much to it and sold it a year later for around $60,000.Houses now around it renovated are going for over $200,000 which used to un heard of for that area so apparently there is value in investing and living in the area.

$60,000 house... sounds nice.

[keeeeeeef]

Originally Posted by MikeHonchoATL

$60,000 house... sounds nice.

Sounds like he bought a house in pretty miserable shape for $28k and put a fair amount of sweat equity into getting it into livable condition for himself and then flipped it to someone who was going to gut/reno the whole thing and then flip it for $120-160k.

I can't see anyone among of the parties involved who got a bad end of that deal and the neighborhood benefited from a house being occupied and maintained for the year that he lived in it.

I'm not sure why you're intent on being negative.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

My personal favorite is the West End. It's always been my favorite Atlanta neighborhood, like others have said on here, it's always had a lot of its own character and vibe. And it's not just from the style of houses or the layout of the area. The people from the West End always seemed to be really cool, they had a nice mix of street, sophistication and consciousness that was pretty unique to that area. I really hope it doesn't lose that vibe. Far as value and safety Cascade west of Adams Park is cool for the most part. I could even do Cascade west of John A White but I realize that I may be in the minority on here with that one. I'd be careful looking around Childress because it has some sketch apartments and folks from other areas use it as a cut thru. Same with Kimberly Rd further down Cascade, but outside of those 2 side streets I'd be more than happy to live anywhere over there. My top favorite SW non West End blocks would be those streets like Cativo Dr, Harris Manor, Oriole Dr off of Peyton Rd going south from MLK. Beautiful homes over there and it's kinda in it's own bubble, totally in the cut but you can get out and get to other areas easily. Looking at the stuff that goes on at MLK and Holmes/Peyton you'd never know that area is even there.

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

Interesting. The Mall itself is actually what bought my family down here to ATL initially. My pops worked for Sears corporate in Chicago and they moved him down here to work in the Sears store that used to be in the mall back then, he worked there for about 4 years before I was born. And talking to him he probably saw all of what you said your husband saw in the span of those 4 years, not just a single a week. Must have been a super turned up week back then in '75. Lol.

With that said the Mall is in the NE corner of the neighborhood. 2 blocks east of the Mall and you're not even in the West End anymore. The Mall is right across from a MARTA station and it also sits on Lee St which is used as a corridor for people to pass thru the West End to get to other areas. Just the commercial nature of the area itself will make it so that there will always be street level activity on that side of the West End. And with that does come some crimes of opportunity, see Lenox, Cumberland etc. But that stuff always has stayed in and around the Mall area, it didn't really leak west across Lowery into the residential parts of the West End. It didn't then and it doesn't now. Why you may ask?

I'll give you and others on here a quick Westside ATL history lesson. The West End is a predominantly Black area, and even more so back in the day than now, it was mostly low to middle income. So yes there was some rough looking people in the West End, but it never experienced the problems that other westside areas went thru. The reason for that was the West End had a very, very tight knit group that kept all that foolishness out. The Muslims in that area back then were known for running off drug dealers and robbers. It wasn't even up for debate, if you went into the West End with thoughts of crime you were taking your life into your own hands. Those guys wouldn't call the police. They would just wait until the sun went down and they would literally just snatch you up off the street. This isn't a rumor, this isn't flexing for the Internet. These are facts. Any hustler in Atlanta 25 and up worth his salt would tell you the same. The FBI even was in the West End investigating these dudes, and while they were for sure not some saints, they were at best a vigilante force that kept the neighborhood a lot cleaner than the other neighborhoods that were adjacent to the West End. There is a reason why if you look at crime maps now and historically why as soon as you cross outside of the West End boundary, the crime blotter shoots thru the roof. The Muslims funneled all that foolishness to the areas outside the West End. That's why I call BS on all the posts on here that spout out nonsense like the West End is some drug haven where robberies and murders are rampant. I've been posting/lurking on here for YEARS and I've seen that line perpetuated on here more than once. And every time I see it I just shake my head and laugh because folks have no idea what they're talking about. They just drive by the Mall, see the people waking around, and make assumptions based off of that. I know the truth. I'm old enough to remember the Jamil Al Amin organization and how they handled business and they didn't play. Old head from my hood even used to warn us with cautionary tales of going down there acting up.

ITA with both of these.

West End is my favorite neighborhood in Atlanta. I went to the AUC in the 90s and lived in the neighborhood off and on for about 5 years. I knew a lot of Muslims in the neighborhood and htey also told me about the history of the neighborhood similar to what Chevy mentions above. It has never had the issues with crimes as other Atlanta neighborhoods on the west, northwest and southwest sides. Of course there is some crime, crime is everywhere but to act ike West End is a hell hole is ridiculous. It also has a great community of people and lots of neighborhood amenities to enjoy.

I used to love West End Mall too lol. It was just a "real" place to me and I never experienced any sort of craziness there. I used to walk with some of my friends/classmates from CAU campus up the big hill through Morehouse and past all the projects back in the 90s that lined the street to go to the mall. Never had anything happen to me.

[keeeeeeef]

Thanks to the very helpful posters in this thread - @oldschoolChevy, @Clayton white guy, and @waronxmas. You have all helped me find my way around the neighborhoods and steered me toward places where I think my family would feel comfortable living.

I think I've narrowed down my SW Atlanta locations to the West End, Cascade Heights (which I'm learning bleeds into Beecher Hills a fair amount), and Adams Park. Looking as well in Collier Heights, though that's NW Atlanta. Still looking on the east side in Edgewood, Kirkwood, East Lake, Ormewood Park, and East Atlanta, but it seems like the west side is where the huge deals can be had at the moment.

Also, while I googled around I came across several great pieces of writing that someone who has read this thread until now might find interesting. Here's an article about the history of Collier Heights (A Separate Peace: Collier Heights - Atlanta Magazine) and here's a photo essay documenting many of the homes there (https://southernspaces.org/2016/bric...ollier-heights). A similar history of Cascade Heights and Peyton Forest here (Atlanta's "Berlin Wall" - Atlanta Magazine).

[Othello Is Here]

Originally Posted by MikeHonchoATL

$60,000 house... sounds nice.

Pay attention That was several years ago when the economy was bad.It was below value but as I said before houses in that area are going for more than double that now.

[Othello Is Here]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

ITA with both of these.

West End is my favorite neighborhood in Atlanta. I went to the AUC in the 90s and lived in the neighborhood off and on for about 5 years. I knew a lot of Muslims in the neighborhood and htey also told me about the history of the neighborhood similar to what Chevy mentions above. It has never had the issues with crimes as other Atlanta neighborhoods on the west, northwest and southwest sides. Of course there is some crime, crime is everywhere but to act ike West End is a hell hole is ridiculous. It also has a great community of people and lots of neighborhood amenities to enjoy.

I used to love West End Mall too lol. It was just a "real" place to me and I never experienced any sort of craziness there. I used to walk with some of my friends/classmates from CAU campus up the big hill through Morehouse and past all the projects back in the 90s that lined the street to go to the mall. Never had anything happen to me.

Ive lived all over the city and the Westend by far is the best since of community ive ever lived in.
People actually look out for each other and they have a strong sense of neighborhood pride.
A good friend that used to live there for several years used to pay local "bums" to do neighborhood projects.
Sure they were down on their luck but it made them feel like they were apart of the community as theye were.
Just because you got a job does not give you your worth.Plenty of terrible people get up every day for a job that pays them a lot of money.