Canton always that crowded? (Atlanta, Columbus: university, live, cabin)

[NC2ATL60]

Originally Posted by JMatl

When I worked at Five Points a few years back, I had two friends that came all the way in from Blue Ridge every day. I thought it was nuts, but they said it was worth it to live up there.

I work in Alpharetta off 400, and I work with people that commute from Dahlonega and Blue Ridge too. I was shocked at first, to me that seems like a long commute. But it works for them with the hours they work.

[budgetwise5]

Originally Posted by Otakumaster

Agreed.

Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, Columbus ( GA or SC), Huntsville, Chattahoochee, Macon, Savannah, Asheville, Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Louisville, Ocean Springs, ect and any small towns between are all more conservative, cheaper, more country and less hectic then ATL, so why don't these folks move to these places.

I can’t speak to all of these cities, but I would move to Jacksonville, although I understand that it still has a lot of the congestion and other medium-to-larger city problems that Atlanta has, including rapid growth. I lived in Macon for a very short time, and quickly moved to Atlanta. If you are from a smaller southern city or town, you may prefer it to a large city like Atlanta (which happens to have poor planning and transit options compared to other large cities and international ones). Otherwise, you might be like almost everyone else that I met that was not from Macon (including those that were other medium size cities in the south) and be leaving or wanting to leave. I gladly deal with the traffic in the Atlanta region for everything that it has to offer.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Otakumaster

Agreed.

Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, Columbus ( GA or SC), Huntsville, Chattahoochee, Macon, Savannah, Asheville, Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Louisville, Ocean Springs, ect and any small towns between are all more conservative, cheaper, more country and less hectic then ATL, so why don't these folks move to these places.

SC doesn't have a Columbus; it does, however, have a Columbia, which is the state capital.

And don't look now, but plenty of folks are already moving to several of those places you listed.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by JMatl

When I worked at Five Points a few years back, I had two friends that came all the way in from Blue Ridge every day. I thought it was nuts, but they said it was worth it to live up there.

Yep, I've known a few folks like that.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by JMatl

When I worked at Five Points a few years back, I had two friends that came all the way in from Blue Ridge every day. I thought it was nuts, but they said it was worth it to live up there.

Originally Posted by NC2ATL60

I work in Alpharetta off 400, and I work with people that commute from Dahlonega and Blue Ridge too. I was shocked at first, to me that seems like a long commute. But it works for them with the hours they work.

During a series of special reports on Atlanta's sprawling development patterns about the turn-of-the-Millennium, the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) wrote about a guy who had commuted to work at the old General Motors plant in Doraville from Murphy, North Carolina in the mountainous southwest part of the state not too far from the Georgia-North Carolina state line.

That particular report was written and published in early 2001 or so and the guy had been commuting between his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern North Carolina and the old GM plant in Doraville since about at least 1972 or so, meaning that he had been executing that 2-plus hour each way commute for about nearly 30 years or so at that point.

In the report, the guy remarked about how he had seen Atlanta's outer-exurban land development patterns gradually creep from northern Cobb County in the early 1970's up highways like GA 5 and later I-575/GA 515 out to as far as Jasper/Pickens County and Ellijay/Gilmer County by the late 1990's and early 2000's.

I think that this guy in the AJC report made that 2-hour commute each way every day for about 30 years between southwestern NC and Doraville because he grew up in southwestern NC (where high-paying jobs like at GM pretty much do not exist) and wanted to live and raise his family in that slow-paced mountainous rural environment where his extended family and friends lived.

Commutes from very far-flung outlying areas like Dahlonega and Blue Ridge and even Murphy, NC may very understandably may seem like they are insane, but for the people who make those very long commutes each day to work at jobs in the metro area, it is worth it to make those very long commutes because of the outer-exurban and rural lifestyle that they may enjoy.

Other people make those very long commutes to jobs in the metro area from far-flung outlying areas each work day because they grew up in those far-outlying outer-exurban/rural areas and that is where they consider their lives to be. I mean, those very long commutes are obviously extreme, but the people who make those commutes have their own deeply held reasons for making them each day.

[Soccernerd]

Originally Posted by arjay57

What about Emory, Buckhead or the 400 corridor?

Well ok. Those are both ITP, and Sandy Springs isn’t much further out. If you worked in Alpharetta, then Forsyth Co is a reasonable commute.

[Saintmarks]

I would offer that a good percentage of the people that continue to move farther out are probably native to the area and remember the closer in counties when they weren't so built out. They love the area in general but want a quieter pace of life.

There will be differing degrees in this desire to move further out. Someone in Atlanta may pine away for a place like Cobb and move there. That person and others like him have caused a long time Cobb resident to flee to Cherokee. That new Cherokee resident is causing a long timer from Holly Springs or Hickory Flat to look to Jasper or Ellijay.

There are as many reasons people choose to live where they live as there are people. The broad brush assumptions here need finer points.

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Yep, I've known a few folks like that.

I was that guy for a little over 10 years. I lived in Franklin County [on my wife's family's land] and commuted 72 miles to Alpharetta 5 days a week. Different people who've done the same thing have different experiences, so I can only give you my own thoughts looking back on it. When you spend that much time commuting, you don't have much of a life on any given work day. You get up, drive 90 minutes to work, put in between 8 and 9 hours, drive 2 hours home, have dinner, and eventually go to bed. You make some friends among co-workers, but, in order to 'hang out' with them outside of the workplace means making another trip into town. And good luck getting them to come up to your house more than a couple of times a year. If you need to make a medical/dental appt, you can find one near your workplace during business hours, or find one near home who works weekends. There's a period from late fall to early spring where you don't see your beautiful country home in daylight for 5 days at a time.

As I said, maybe some people can do it. I thought I could, until I couldn't. Even in my 30s, it was just plain exhausting.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by DJDeadParrot

I was that guy for a little over 10 years. I lived in Franklin County [on my wife's family's land] and commuted 72 miles to Alpharetta 5 days a week. Different people who've done the same thing have different experiences, so I can only give you my own thoughts looking back on it. When you spend that much time commuting, you don't have much of a life on any given work day. You get up, drive 90 minutes to work, put in between 8 and 9 hours, drive 2 hours home, have dinner, and eventually go to bed. You make some friends among co-workers, but, in order to 'hang out' with them outside of the workplace means making another trip into town. And good luck getting them to come up to your house more than a couple of times a year. If you need to make a medical/dental appt, you can find one near your workplace during business hours, or find one near home who works weekends. There's a period from late fall to early spring where you don't see your beautiful country home in daylight for 5 days at a time.

As I said, maybe some people can do it. I thought I could, until I couldn't. Even in my 30s, it was just plain exhausting.

I took a position in B'ham right before I moved to Texas. The EX had just started back teaching school in Cobb and wasn't ready to make a move. I went there for Monday thru Thursday, roomed with friends and even tho I had three full days back in Marietta, it was the most miserable year in my life. Resignedt after a year. One of the reasons she is now an Ex, it exposed all our junk.

[ATLTJL]

I can’t speak to all of these cities, but I would move to Jacksonville, although I understand that it still has a lot of the congestion and other medium-to-larger city problems that Atlanta has, including rapid growth.

Well, Jacksonville has the ocean, and the St. Johns River.

It also has SOME congestion, but it can't hold a candle to Atlanta's. And it has the ocean.

Jacksonville has some great restaurants, but definitely lacks the amount we have here. But it has the ocean.

I don't think there are as many trails, and outdoor recreation activities in Jacksonville either. However, did I mention that it has AN OCEAN?????

That's a pretty powerful trump card, IMHO. The beach in Jacksonville doesn't get the buzz of other Florida beaches, but in my experience, it's as good as ANYTHING on the east coast, with the possible exception of South Florida.

t was the most miserable year in my life.

May I ask where you lived in Birmingham? I know brownhornet hated Birmingham, but he lived in Bessemer. That's like someone complaining they hated Atlanta and then you found out it's because they lived in Loganville.