Are there any bad (crime) parts of Ellijay or Blue Ridge? (Atlanta: purchasing, place to live)

[GeorgiaLady]

Hi there. We are considering purchasing a small mountain cabin in Ellijay or Blue Ridge. I talked to a realtor in Ellijay today who said avoid the Charlotte's Web and Roger's Creek area of Ellijay. She said "the sheriff goes out there a lot." Does anyone know this to be true? I didn't want to just take one person's word for it, but I certainly did not want to disregard it. And/or can you please also tell me what parts of Ellijay and Blue Ridge to avoid in regard to crime and anything else - if you know more. In advance, thank you

[ReneeP80]

Concerning Blue Ridge and the rest of Fannin County, Ga:

The town of Blue Ridge sounds small statistically(less than 1300 people) but the "within the city limits" population is just a fraction of fannin county(population of around 25,000 -not including the multitude of tourists at any given time and the populace of neighboring Copperhill, Tn residents), which functions as a whole ( not necessarily governmentally, but communitywise).

As far as people go, there are some who will give you the shirts off their backs, and there are just as many who are all about appearances, very clannish, two-faced, and judgemental. You might want to read the posts on the Blue Ridge [domain blocked due to spam] website if you would like some insight into the local mentality.
This is a small town, but as I said do not be fooled. Crime does take place, only you don't hear about it as much. Local officials don't want to tarnish the image of their tourist town. Get a local paper and read the arrest/incident reports, this will give you greater insight, but be aware that some of the newspaper higher-ups are majorly involved with the local chamber of commerce, so some information could possibly be biased and some of the noteworthy happenings pertinent to your query might possibly be left out. For an example of local crime, just recently a man shot and killed 3 members of his extended family because of a dispute concerning property lines, just 10 miles down the road in the "Grassy Creek" area of Polk County, Tn. Crimes do take place. I would never sleep with my windows open in this town, and havent for years.


Meth and prescription drug abuse is rampant in this area. It is a way of life for a lot of these people. Burglaries are on the rise and this place had over 20 suicides in one year! The yearly suicide rate, especially in winter, is staggering. Look on some of these statistics sites and you will see that the likely hood of injury in this area is almost twice as high as Ga average. Access to good medical care is lacking. The larger majority of the population of the county is on welfare or elderly retirees. There is very little for young people to do in this town which has led to a higher rate of teenage pregnancy. Neighboring Gilmer county supposedly has a larger percentage of their population that are HIV positive than the city of Atlanta. There are limited job opportunites. It is no Mayberry by a long shot, but Mayberry is what they want people to think. I live here and believe me, I would LOVE to move to some place more rural. Rapidly this town is becoming merely a suburb of Atlanta and losing its rural charm. Much of the way of life that made this area a wonderful place to live is quickly dissolving with the influx of population from other towns, and their subsequent push for change and growth is destroying that very small town atmosphere for which the area is so touted. This explains the unfriendly attitude of locals who do not wish to see a bar on every corner, and other such insults perceived to be at the hands of local authorities who seem to cater to the tourist and neglect to try and make this town a great place to actually live in (not just visit).
If you want a truly rural atmosphere, try Ironsburg, TN or some place in North Carolina. Both are growing much more slowly and retaining much more of a neighborly attitude toward one another, imho.