Seeking greater diversity in Roswell or Alpharetta (transplants, apartment)

[coco's first]

We moved from Southern California (Orange County) to East Cobb about 2 years ago. We are in an excellent school cluster academically but this area leaves much to be desired culturally. We are a young interracial family and are looking for an affordable area with more diversity (cuturally and economically) We have a "gifted" rising 5th grader and 2 preschoolers following and are looking to rent and then buy in either Roswell or Alpharetta. We've narrowed our search to the Holcomb Bridge Middle/Centennial High zone in Roswellor the Webb Bridge Middle/Alpharetta High zone in Alpharetta. The work commute for either is not a problem. Both have apartment rentals that will work for us until we find the right neighborhood to buy in. We really want an area that we can commit to for a minimum of 4 years so our oldest can finish the year at the new elementary and move on with those children to middle school. We also desperately want to be in an area that is safe, family friendly, diverse and welcoming. (East Cobb is a nice area but very "click-ish" and the other parents are much older than we are)

Does anyone have any feed back about Roswell and Alpharetta, specifically regarding the social atmosphere?

[Jomaark]

We live in Alpharetta West of 400. It's a very safe, family friendly, diverse area and we feel very welcome here. There is a great library, an amazing Y, plenty of shopping and restaurants all within 10 minutes. We just put our house up for rent or sale. If you are interested PM me. Regardless I would really recommend this area. Living West of 400 getting to GA 400 is much quicker and the traffic is less than East of GA 400. The schools are Hopewell and Alpharetta HS.

[rackensack]

We're in the River Eves elementary district, which is part of the Holcomb Bridge/Centennial cluster. We're very happy with River Eves in general -- our son just finished up his last day of fifth grade there today and is headed to HBMS next year, while our middle daughter will be in fourth grade and our youngest is starting kindergarten. I really don't think you could ask for a more positively diverse student population -- the class pictures in the River Eves yearbook this year really tell the story: about half white kids, about 1/4 black kids, another 1/5 or so Latin American, and most of the rest Asian (primarily Indian or Korean, but some of everything). Even among the half the kids who're white, there's a quite a bit of diversity -- plenty of children of European immigrants, traditional Southerners, Northern transplants, etc. Culturally/ethnically, I'm 7/8 English/Scotch-Irish, and 1/8 Italian, raised Methodist. I converted to Judaism and am married to a wonderful Jewish woman whose family is mostly migrated from Russia around a century ago. My kids are rarely the only Jewish kids in their classes, but more importantly they're not the only ones who're outside of the traditional mainstream Christian culture. My two daughters' best friends are the age-matched daughters of a black family (who're the wealthier of the two families by far).

We moved to this area a couple of years ago and have had no trouble settling in and getting involved in things. One concern I'd have from your original post is that I think many of the neighorhoods, PTAs, etc. in this area do seem (and to some extent no doubt are) cliquish -- I can't believe our PTA gets away with having meetings only during the day, which pretty much precludes working parents from being involved, for instance. In my experience, the parents in these areas also do tend to be slightly older than in other areas -- I'd say the typical parent of an elementary schooler in this area is between 30 and 40 years old. My wife and I are in our mid-forties, and our youngest will be in kindergarten next year. We're a little older than the norm, but not dramatically so. If you think that's likely to make you feel as unwelcome or out of place as you seem to in East Cobb, you should be aware of it -- though frankly, I think you'll find that to be true of most of the affluent suburban areas with solid school systems (perhaps less so inside the perimeter).

The athletic/recreation/cultural programs at both East Roswell Park and Newtown Recreation (just a couple of miles away in John's Creek) are both quite good and also provide a great opportunity for both you and your kids to meet other people -- we've developed close aquaintances with several other families through those activities that we wouldn't have otherwise.

Here's an experiment for you: pick a busy weekend afternoon and drive over this way and hang out for a bit at East Roswell Park -- there are a couple of playgrounds, and there's almost always one or more groups at the one by the tennis courts. Spend some time observing who comes and goes. Then, head across Holcomb Bridge Road to the Kroger and do your regular shopping. You should get a pretty good sense of the diversity of the area just by checking out your fellow shoppers.