Seeking Atlanta Location Similar for Chicago Native

[maga2012]

We ended up in Atlanta for work, we had different options to choose from, but like you said we really wished for a multicultural city with warm weather and a big airport ! We decided to rent this first year to know the city a little bit better before doing any investment and we picked a house near Emory where i work (Druid hills location, Dekalb County very nice! here the Fernbank Elementary school I heard is really good) . For a couple of years we will pick a private school for our daughter (preschool age) because we don't know in which area we will settle yet. I also like buckhead and midtown of course if you like to live around highrise buildings, otherwise for more quite and charming neighborhood the three i mentioned before for sure (consider also old fourth ward and Inman park but I'm not sure about the schools in these two areas). One thing you should eliminate from your list from now is public transit. it's "work in progress", not the public service you are expecting in a city. you will always use the car or walk. so choose your neighborhood for all the other reasons you listed but not because it's close to transit (at least this was my experience).

[Clayton white guy]

Old Fourth Ward (OFW) actually feeds into the Grady High/ Inman Middle cluster along with "Fashionable Northeast Atlanta" (Morningside/ Virginia Highland/ City of Atlanta portion of Druid Hills) it is arguably the best "feeder" pattern in the City of Atlanta Schools (APS). The problem with Old Fourth Ward is the elementary school (John Hope Elementary I believe) The Inman Park/ Candler Park areas also feed into Grady/ Inman and they have stellar elementary schools (Mary Lin and Springdale Park) which I feel you will be more than happy with. Morningside feeds into the acclaimed Morningside Elementary, parts of Virginia-Highland, too, the part that doesn't feed into the aforementioned Springdale Park. Most elementary schools that feed into Grady High and Inman Middle are some of the best in the City of Atlanta, and are even highly rated throughout Georgia. The exceptions to this are Old Fourth Ward's John Hope Elementary (as I have mentioned) and Centennial Place Elementary (Centennial Place serves the west downtown/ south downtown and is a k-8 school, so it does not feed into Inman, but does go into Grady High) You really sound like you would enjoy "Fashionable Northeast Atlanta" as we jokingly call it. Many of its neighborhoods have "walkable" neighborhood business districts with shops, restaurants, post offices, etc: Morningside has the Morningside Village, Virginia Highland has the intersection of of Highland Avenue and Virginia Avenue (which of course gives the community its name) with shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants, Inman Park/ Candler Park share Little Five Points (a "bohemian district") plus Candler has its own further east in the neighborhood along McClendon, and Druid Hills has Emory Village's vintage shopping district at the gates of Emory University. Big box retailers like Target, grocery stores, and Pet Smart are also very accessible to all the aforementioned neighborhoods both at the nearby Edgewood Retail District off Moreland Avenue and along Ponce de Leon Avenue (the main east/west artery through Atlanta's northeast side that connects Peachtree Street Downtown/ Midtown Atlanta with the courthouse square in the highly rated City of Decatur mentioned in earlier posts that is the close-in suburb that connects seamlessly to some of the City of Atlanta's most sought after addresses.) With your criteria, I don't see how you could go wrong with either these northeast Atlanta neighborhoods or the City of Decatur. I will point out that, while Henry Grady High School is a fine institution, Decatur High does have an overall higher rating.