Anyone moved to atlanta and regretted it? (Smyrna, Alpharetta: layoffs, transfer)

[stormy39]

I have been living here for 17 years now and loooove Atlanta! However, being from the Midwest there are a few things I miss such as: bike riding without having to find a bike trail (since there are very few sidewalks here on the main roads) and walking to a lot of places. It's so spread out you have to drive practically everywhere. Parks, I miss those. Oh and lakes. And it seems to be great for singles who are looking for the nightlife. I would like to find more to do with my family during the daytime without having to spend a lot of money. Any suggestions? Guess I need to get out more LOL! I'm going to start checking out Access Atlanta more because it does seem like I keep missing things.

As with anything or anywhere there will always be some things that you desire or wish was better, but I wouldn't trade the ATL for anywhere else!

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by crux

Sat in traffic for 3 hours today. Just one of those days where i felt like I made a mistake, but bottomline --- happy with the better than average housing options, shopping, low cost of living, and better than average salary range.

I still maintain that sitting in traffic for 3 hours is nobody's fault but your own. I have lived here for 15 years and have NEVER sat in traffic for more than half an hour, and that has been very seldom. It's all about planning and minimizing your commute.

[YBF]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

Why do you live so far away from work? To me there is no reason to commute in Atlanta or anywhere else - I wouldn't like it here either if I had a frustrating, stop-and-go commute every day.

Because that was that place that wanted to hire me after being unemployed for quite sometime. Ppl in this forum keep pushing the same "its your fault you work so far from where you live" ...if you lose your job today and the job that called you is and hour away are you going to be the idiot to wait for a job in your area to become available....in this economy? Yeah right...everyone cant live in north Atlanta....I wish ppl would open there eyes to see that.....I polled some ppl I work with and most of them are making almost the same if not more of a commute than I.....so I know its not just me that figured out you take a job where you can get it......Besides what companies are located outside of N Atlanta, downtown, midtown outside of retail? Not many that from what Ive seen when I was looking for a job.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by YBF

Because that was that place that wanted to hire me after being unemployed for quite sometime. Ppl in this forum keep pushing the same "its your fault you work so far from where you live" ...if you lose your job today and the job that called you is and hour away are you going to be the idiot to wait for a job in your area to become available....in this economy? Yeah right...everyone cant live in north Atlanta....I wish ppl would open there eyes to see that.....I polled some ppl I work with and most of them are making almost the same if not more of a commute than I.....so I know its not just me that figured out you take a job where you can get it......Besides what companies are located outside of N Atlanta, downtown, midtown outside of retail? Not many that from what Ive seen when I was looking for a job.

Reverse commute or use Marta, or move to somewhere that is near your job. Or sit and complain about it until you move to another city and end up in the same circumstances.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by YBF

Because that was that place that wanted to hire me after being unemployed for quite sometime. Ppl in this forum keep pushing the same "its your fault you work so far from where you live" ...if you lose your job today and the job that called you is and hour away are you going to be the idiot to wait for a job in your area to become available....in this economy? Yeah right...everyone cant live in north Atlanta....I wish ppl would open there eyes to see that.....I polled some ppl I work with and most of them are making almost the same if not more of a commute than I.....so I know its not just me that figured out you take a job where you can get it......Besides what companies are located outside of N Atlanta, downtown, midtown outside of retail? Not many that from what Ive seen when I was looking for a job.

I can attest to this. The job I had previously was right down the street from my apartment. So of course, I signed a year long lease and then out of nowhere the office where I was working closed down within a couple of months. I got another job that was totally on the other side of town but I had been unemployed so long that I was so happy just to be working again I definitely wasnt turning it down.

Ironically, the job that I had across town is the job that I got laid off from in September and I just got a job even closer to where I live now than my first job was...but that was just a blessing.

[YBF]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

Reverse commute or use Marta, or move to somewhere that is near your job. Or sit and complain about it until you move to another city and end up in the same circumstances.

Yea everyone can just afford to move somewhere else for a job.....then what happens if that job starts laying off? then what? I'm not sitting and complaining the OP needed a reason why some ppl didnt like the city. That is my opinion and I stand by it. You and others may not agree but you are entitled to your opinion....but please be smart and think for a minute if it was that simple to just work where you live or vice versa or if Marta wasn't a joke half of this forum would be empty.....

[brownhornet]

Worst thing about Marta is that it isnt even accessible to so many places in the Metro area. That is the one thing I really dislike about Atlanta is the public transportation. When I was living in DC you could get on the metro and go ANYWHERE in the city..I didnt even have a car then and could still get anywhere within a reasonable amount of time. You could go as far as Alexandria, VA. and MD on the metro. Also they had commuter rail lines you could hop on for a few bucks that people commuted between Philly, DC, Bmore, & Alexandria on.

Have their ever been any talks on expanding the Marta rail lines? Out of all the major cities ive ever been to the Marta rail lines have to be the worst. Imagine how much traffic could be saved if you had the rail lines that extended as far as Alpharetta to the north, Kennesaw to the northwest, Doraville to the northeast, Lithonia to the east, Austell/Thornton Rd to the west, and maybe Fayetteville or so to the south.

Atlanta has just grown so much in population and not in infrastructure....thus the nightmare traffic problems. On the flip side, I have a friend that lives in Stone Mountain that works in Smyrna. She has to leave home 3 hours early to get to work on time. I didnt believe her until I saw it for myself. She has to catch like 4 buses, a train, a connector bus... it's just CRAZY. To go that same distance in DC basically the only thing she'd have to do is hop a bus to the rail station and maybe one train transfer.

Only downside about DC is it is super expensive.

[ArthursChoice]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

It's not confusion, it's misconceptions and misinformation.

I'll accept that! lol!

[ArthursChoice]

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

Arthurschoice, start a new thread and let's take a poll.

lol...I don't think it will help determine anything. It would prollly be split down the middle. How hard is it to know if something closes at 2 AM or stays open...don't dey put lil signs on the windah. :-)

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by YBF

Yea everyone can just afford to move somewhere else for a job.....then what happens if that job starts laying off? then what? I'm not sitting and complaining the OP needed a reason why some ppl didnt like the city. That is my opinion and I stand by it. You and others may not agree but you are entitled to your opinion....but please be smart and think for a minute if it was that simple to just work where you live or vice versa or if Marta wasn't a joke half of this forum would be empty.....

Your dislike for Atlanta traffic is the joke...Marta is no joke - it gets many thousands of people to work and back with no traffic worries every day. Still...you can do something about your traffic situation or you can sit and complain about it, but it sounds like you've chosen the latter.