Acworth, Kennesaw, Cartersville, traffic ... making a decision (Atlanta, Brooks: homeowners association, mobile home)

[meep]

The kennesaw-acworth corridor has few hundred thousand people with states largest university (?). The traffic on Cobb pkwy through kennesaw can feel unbearable imo.

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by meep

Really? Acworth has a super target.. it’s not really large enough to have “sides” either lol

I've seen some trailer parks in acworth and woodstock that genuinely made me feel unsafe. I'm NOT implying they made up a majority of these otherwise decent suburbs, but trust me when I say they exist.

[BobbyJayATL]

Originally Posted by meep

Really? Acworth has a super target

And Vine City has a Walmart and a Chick-fil-a.

it’s not really large enough to have “sides” either lol

You clearly haven't spent much time there.

There are half million+ houses on the lake, and there are trailer parks and multi-family housing that I've been to that as I said, made me more uncomfortable than some of the "roughest" parts of Atlanta.

And much more of Acworth is more similar to the latter than the former.

[meep]

Yes, Vine City is a central Atlanta neighborhood that is currently transforming. Acworth isn’t being “redeveloped” like the inner city so that isn’t analogous. I’ve spent lots of time in those areas of north Cobb. Sure, they have very small pockets of working class people, but to say “I’ve felt safer in the bluff than in Acworth” to someone on a board asking about the area is misleading. And you know it.

If the OP were to repeat to ppl in the metro irl, they would get laughed at.

95% of the kennesaw/acworth corridor is friendly and welcoming.

[meep]

https://censusreporter.org/profiles/...obb-county-ga/

To the OP. Above are stats about that reigon of the metro. The median household income is approaching 90k. Poverty rate in the single digits. It’s really a great place thats growing. I would just steer clear of Barret Parkway area if traffic is annoying to you.

[FindingHomeATL]

Does anyone happen to know anything about about Awtrey Middle School in the Cobb County system? The place I'm looking at in Acworth is Awtrey for middle and the Allatoona for high school.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by BobbyJayATL

Argue semantics with me if you want.

I've felt safer in the Bluffs in Atlanta than certain corners of Acworth (that is not an exaggeration; I won't go into the objective events that led to my feelings on either side of that comparison here).

Given where it is in the metro area (and in Cobb County), I think most long-time Atlantans (much less a new transplant) would be surprised that rough corners of Acworth exist.

They do.

I’m not arguing semantics.

While it might have a few comparatively minor working-class, industrial and utilitarian visual elements (including a couple of important light industrial areas, a scant few small mobile home parks, a scant few multi-family housing complexes and a couple of commercial strips along US-41 and GA-92), Acworth deservedly does not have a reputation for being an unsafe area.

While very, very few, if any, areas can claim to be 100 percent completely safe, Acworth generally is a very low-crime community that has a reputation for being very safe.

Acworth definitely is not anywhere near being in the same league as “The Bluff” (near-Westside of Downtown Atlanta) when it comes to crime, and Acworth does not have a reputation for being rough.

In fact, Acworth (much like other nearby suburban communities like Kennesaw, Marietta, Woodstock) has in recent years been making significant investments to its older city center area.

One of the biggest investments that the City of Acworth has made is in the recent expansion of Logan Farm Park by demolishing some aging homes, doubling the size of the park, adding a new playground, and building a new community center.

The city has also been working to expand its popular historic downtown village area to the area north of the railroad tracks, with the construction of a new small roundabout and a new pedestrian bridge over the tracks connecting the north and south parts of its small, yet growing, downtown area.

While it may not necessarily be in the same league as some other Atlanta Northern Arc suburbs when it comes to affluence and upscale development, Acworth has definitely been in a mode of ascendance in recent years before the pandemic hit.

Having a relative few working-class, light-industrial and utilitarian areas (like many, if not most Atlanta suburban communities) does not take away from the fact that Acworth is an amenity-laden suburban community with good schools, good access to retail amenities, and great access to numerous outdoor recreational amenities.

Acworth is a good choice for relocation by most any measure.

[BobbyJayATL]

Originally Posted by meep

Yes, Vine City is a central Atlanta neighborhood that is currently transforming. Acworth isn’t being “redeveloped” like the inner city so that isn’t analogous.

Good point. The Bluffs is getting better (Vine City anyway; I have my doubts about English Avenue).

Acworth isn't getting better. It's not being "redeveloped". What it is is what it is, and is what it'll be for the next 20 years.

If OP were looking to invest in property, the Bluffs would be the clear choice.

to say “I’ve felt safer in the bluff than in Acworth” to someone on a board asking about the area is misleading. And you know it.

I'm sorry if relaying my personal experience having spent more time in both of those areas than 99% of folks offends you.

But OP isn't asking about moving to the Bluffs. If he were, that'd be a different conversation, and would also be a poor decision.

He's asking about a possible move to Acworth; I'm sorry that pointing out to someone that seems to think that Acworth is great that many areas of Acworth (especially those where renters would live) isn't the nicest part of suburbia offends you.

[BobbyJayATL]

Originally Posted by FindingHomeATL

Does anyone happen to know anything about about Awtrey Middle School in the Cobb County system? The place I'm looking at in Acworth is Awtrey for middle and the Allatoona for high school.

Awtrey is good. I've got friends with kids that have gone through and been pleased.

I would just suggest to the extent you can avoiding multi-family/high density housing; even if you're renting try to get in a SFH neighborhood. The multi-family stock in Acworth tends to be older/dated/low rent, and where the issues are by and large. Places that many (including some commenting on this thread) don't even realize exist.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by BobbyJayATL

Good point. The Bluffs is getting better (Vine City anyway; I have my doubts about English Avenue).

Acworth isn't getting better. It's not being "redeveloped". What it is is what it is, and is what it'll be for the next 20 years.

If OP were looking to invest in property, the Bluffs would be the clear choice.



I'm sorry if relaying my personal experience having spent more time in both of those areas than 99% of folks offends you.

But OP isn't asking about moving to the Bluffs. If he were, that'd be a different conversation, and would also be a poor decision.

He's asking about a possible move to Acworth; I'm sorry that pointing out to someone that seems to think that Acworth is great that many areas of Acworth (especially those where renters would live) isn't the nicest part of suburbia offends you.

You raise a good point that some places where renters might would live may not always be “the nicest part of suburbia.”

But on the whole, an outlying outer-suburban area like Acworth rates as a generally very safe community where crime generally is most often not an overriding concern.

That is not to say that an area like Acworth is completely free of crime. It’s not.

Like pretty much almost anywhere else, crime does happen in the Acworth area, albeit at a generally low rate overall and seems to happen most in the form of property crime - most often in the form of shoplifting and automobile break-ins in the heavily developed retail/commercial strip along the US-41 North Cobb Parkway corridor.

But even with the (relatively modest amount of) crime that is largely generated by the activity that occurs along the US-41 North Cobb Parkway commercial strip, an outer-suburban area like Acworth is nowhere near in the same universe as a historically higher-crime inner-city Atlanta neighborhood like The Bluff.

As reflected by the crime stats of the Acworth 30101 zip code and the crime stats of the Atlanta 30318 zip code (where The Bluff neighborhood is located immediately west of Downtown Atlanta on Atlanta’s near-Westside), Acworth experiences only a mere fraction of the amount of crime that the Atlanta 30318 zip code experiences annually.

When rated on a scale of 1-10, Acworth experiences only about one-fourth of the amount of violent crime and only about one-third of the amount of property crime as Atlanta 30318, with crime rates in the Acworth area largely being noticeably below average U.S. crime rates...

Crime in Zip 30101 (Acworth, GA)
Crime is ranked on a scale of 1 (low crime) to 100 (high crime)

Acworth (zip 30101) violent crime is 18.0. (The US average is 22.7)
Acworth (zip 30101) property crime is 26.5. (The US average is 35.4)

Crime in Zip 30318 (Atlanta, GA)
Crime is ranked on a scale of 1 (low crime) to 100 (high crime)

Atlanta (zip 30318) violent crime is 71.7. (The US average is 22.7)
Atlanta (zip 30318) property crime is 84.0. (The US average is 35.4)

And while the crime rate in Atlanta proper did appear to improve markedly from 2015 through 2018, when rated on a basis of per 100,000 population, the crime rate is still between 7-9 times lower in Acworth than in Atlanta proper...

- The Acworth GA crime rate for 2018 was 104.22 per 100,000 population, a 40.73% decline from 2017.
- The Acworth GA crime rate for 2017 was 175.85 per 100,000 population, a 8.12% decline from 2016.
- The Acworth GA crime rate for 2016 was 191.39 per 100,000 population, a 51.9% increase from 2015.
- The Acworth GA crime rate for 2015 was 126 per 100,000 population, a 31.56% decline from 2014.

Acworth GA Crime Rate 2000-2018 (Macrotrends)

The Atlanta GA crime rate for 2018 was 768.79 per 100,000 population, a 17.84% decline from 2017.
The Atlanta GA crime rate for 2017 was 935.72 per 100,000 population, a 13.65% decline from 2016.
The Atlanta GA crime rate for 2016 was 1083.63 per 100,000 population, a 3.21% decline from 2015.
The Atlanta GA crime rate for 2015 was 1119.62 per 100,000 population, a 8.78% decline from 2014.

Atlanta GA Crime Rate 1999-2018 (Macrotrends)

It’s unfortunate if you might have had an uncomfortable experience in the past while in the Acworth area.

(I worked some customer service routes all over metro Atlanta and North Georgia for many years, including in the relatively few noticeably working-class parts of the Acworth area, and I personally never felt uncomfortable or unsafe in Acworth like I sometimes might have felt while working customer service routes in some parts of ITP West Atlanta neighborhoods like The Bluff, Vine City, Bankhead, Adamsville.)

But an outlying outer-suburban area like Acworth just is nowhere near in the same universe as a historically high-crime inner-city West Atlanta neighborhood like The Bluff when it comes to both crime concerns and the number and/or rate of crime incidents, and the crime statistics reflect that reality.