Atlanta vs Richmond (places to live, safety, celebrities)

[AutumnD]

One more thing....I noticed that there are several "temporary" schools in Decatur that are very good. They only go through 3rd grade though. What do they mean by "temporary" and where do the kids go after 3rd grade?

We are planning a trip to check out Atlanta in a few weeks. I am waiting to hear from my doctor to make sure it is okay to travel since I will be about 36 weeks pregnant at the time.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by AutumnD

One more thing....I noticed that there are several "temporary" schools in Decatur that are very good. They only go through 3rd grade though. What do they mean by "temporary" and where do the kids go after 3rd grade?

It's been a while since I had a third grader, so I'm not sure what this means; as far as the public schools here in the city of Decatur go, it's like anywhere else: elementary, middle and high school. It's also IMO an excellent system, but there are posters on here that can speak to this with far more authority than I can.

Good luck with your decision...there are some terrific neighborhoods in the Emory area (but having grown up in them, I'm a bit biased ).

[lastminutemom]

Actually, Decatur schools are set up differently.. they go k-3, 4-5, middle and then high.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

Actually, Decatur schools are set up differently.. they go k-3, 4-5, middle and then high.

Aha! I knew I'd get an answer sooner rather than later...lmm, are the k-3 and 4-5 levels in different school buildings?

[MiriL]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Aha! I knew I'd get an answer sooner rather than later...lmm, are the k-3 and 4-5 levels in different school buildings?

Yes, they are. There are a few k-3 schools, then one 4-5 school, one middle school and one high school. I'm not sure what the "temporary" tag means, though... haven't heard that before.

[MMANN]

Good areas around Emory are Briarcliff, North Druid Hills, Druid Hills, Ashford Park (bookhaven) - all unincorporated northern dekalb county. Also, check out the atlanta city neighborhoods of candler park, lake clare, inman park. Close to downtown decatur is nice to.

[Georgia]

Greg pretty much hit the nail on the comparison.
Some differences, you will find about a 15% cost increase in housing from Richmond (Henrico and Chesterfield Counties) vs. Atlanta.

Cost of living overall is a little less than Atlanta due to the overall tax rates

Richmond has one tenth of the gridlock than does Atlanta, mostly because the surrounding counties of Richmond require the builders to supply the road access along with schools (depending upon development size) vs. Atlanta who just hands any builder mutliple permits to slap together developments so the people can find a way to pay for it later.

Crime: Toss-up. Atlanta is more in less the Detriot of the south when it comes to crime, it is hard to compare to Richmond since it outnumbers the Richmond city area by 4 million. For the most part Richmond's crime is segregated to the Broad Street area downtown, parts of Hull Street, and areas on the East end. Hanover, West Henrico, North and West Chesterfield County are rather quiet. The Atlanta burbs are quite the opposite as I have concluded that with all the places I have lived Atlanta's crime is the surrounding burbs crime as well. All in all, Richmond wins on safety due to the overall numbers of population.

End result, I would choose Richmond by far. Actually, I may be tranferring back to the area within the next year and trust me, I'm counting the days.
No offense to those who love it here, but this area is not my cup of sweet tea. Between the heat, the traffic, and the pollen, add the overall crime rate, the pee poor school systems, and developers allowed to run amuk, if this is the "new" south, they can have it.

[bayarea-girl]

Henrico (I initially referred to Henrico as Henry in my original post) & Chesterfield Counties are nice and very expensive if you are trying to buy. The schools in Richmond are excellent (nationally ranked better than GA schools) & in VA you can easily get a job (there are too many jobs than there are people). The city of Richmond I found to be very sketchy and very, very boring for a city and the burbs even more boring. I was really disappointed with the areas especially coming from California. Hopefully you will be able to really spend some time in both GA & VA before making a decision on either place. Most of the posts on this site have been really helpful but I feel and or at least sense that some people are not happy with outsiders moving to their community and what to detour new comers. I lived in GA 7 years ago for a year and prior than that 10 years ago for 2 years and I have always had GA on my mind. Unless things have drastically changed from 7 years ago I think GA is one of the best places to raise kids (it isn't perfect and has its own issues but it isn't boring). No matter where you go there will always be some aspect of crime and GA & VA are no exception it really is where you and your family feel most comfortable.

[willrusso]

Richmond is too small for me.

[AutumnD]

Thank you everyone for your posts! They have all been helpful! In the end, we have decided to stay in San Diego. It was a tough decision for my husband to turn down MD/PhD programs in either city to just do MD here, but we talked and decided that we eventually wanted to end up back in San Diego since this is where I am from and 99% of my family is here in southern california...and the weather is half bad either.