Moving to Atlanta

[Zuuswa]

Hey all! I have been considering a move to Atlanta, GA with my girlfriend as of late, pending her acceptance into Savannah College of Art and Design. I am hoping to be able to join the GA LoCo team as well, and possibly meet other enthusiastic Ubuntu-ers. I do have a few questions about the city though. Mostly, is there a section of the city that has affordable living for a student? Preferably close to Savanna's Atlanta campus (I'm not familiar with the city at all), and also rather cheap and safe . . . I have heard there is some sort of public transportation system that Atlanta has that works rather well, but I would like to know from the residents which places would be better to search online for apartments. (I dont want to end up miles away from campus in a bad neighborhood). Perhaps somebody knows of some quality co-operative housing around, that would be great. Also, are there many organic grocers in the area? I would prefer to buy organic and local food, as I am an ueber hippy. Anyways, thanks for your interest and hopefully I will be joining the Atlanta community soon.

[boredandblogging.com]

Hi Zuuswa, SCAD is located in midtown, which is definitely not a cheap place to live especially for a student. The transit system is a bit tricky. I believe the Arts Center Marta station is close to SCAD, but Marta may not be the most convenient method of transport.

Here is the map of the rail system: http://www.itsmarta.com/getthere/schedules/index-rail.htm. It all depends on where you live. There are buses, so it might not be too bad for you. Seriously, the city is very spread out, its a car city.

As far as housing goes, there are a lot of apartment complexes around. I can't vouch for any online service since I've never used one...but I might recommend promove. Basically, you walk into a promove store, tell them where you want to live and how much you want to spend and they give you list of options and they call the apartment complexes and get you prices. It may not be the absolute best deal, but its not bad either. I would suggest looking at the home pages of colleges in Atlanta and searching for off-campus living. There are a lot of college students here, so you aren't alone.

As far as organic food, Whole Foods has quite a few stores around town. Also check out the Dekalbs Farmer market.

Check us out on IRC, we can probably help you out more.

[Zuuswa]

Wow, over 150+ different bus routes . . . seems quite intimidating, especially compared to my current towns 20 bus routes.

[rudder]

Wow, over 150+ different bus routes . . . seems quite intimidating, especially compared to my current towns 20 bus routes.

BoredandBlogging.com is right... Atlanta is very much a car town. I know some folks who went to SCAD in Midtown and found decent living around the Freedom Pkwy area... there are a lot of houses there that people have converted for renting and such. Here is a google maps link that kind of shows where I am talking about:

http://www.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=freedom+pkwy,+atlanta,+ga&daddr=1600+Peachtree+St+NW,+Atlanta,+GA+30309,+USA&layer=&sll=34.02211,-84.241135&sspn=0.762602,1.256561&ie=UTF8&z=11&ll=33.832779,-84.247284&spn=0.38215,0.628281&om=1

The general rule of thumb in Atlanta is that living inside the perimeter (that highway that runs around the city; it's called Interstate 285) is very expensive vs. living outside the perimeter. Also, just an FYI: Atlanta is a city that swells during the day... many, many people live outside the perimeter and commute each day. I live in Villa Rica, GA and commute in at about 40 miles one way. That is on the extreme end of things but an hour commute between work and home isn't all that uncommon.

[jhenager]

Our public transit sucks for me. I would love to take the bus or train. Unfortunately, a half hour ride in my car would translate into a 4 hour bus ride with five stops and about $8 fares.
It is no wonder we have a traffic problem. Cities like Boston and San Francisco are light years ahead of us. MARTA is pathetic.
As for affordable housing, I would recommend finding one of those free apartment booklets available just about anywhere, and look for a locator service. When I moved here, I used one and they drove us around to many different apartment complexes until we found one we liked and could afford. It didn't cost anything. I believe they get some kind of commission from the landlords, but I don't know.
The Marietta area is where I ended up living for a few years. I think the rent was about $600-650 a month for a two bedroom apt.

[boredandblogging.com]

Atlanta is simply too spread out for public transport. There are no natural barriers to the city. You need relatively high population density to support public transport and we don't have it. The wide open spaces is one of the reasons people move to Atlanta, you can buy that big house on a big chunk of land or whatever at an affordable price (hence spreading out the city even more, etc, etc).

Pulling up numbers from wikipedia, look at the densities:

SF: 15,834/sq mi
Boston: 11,543/sq mi
Atlanta: 3,162.4/sq mi

This is with all 3 cities having 4-5 million people in their metro area.

This isn't to say that MARTA is well run by any means, but its not completely their problem.

[JReagan1990]

lol. yeah. MARTA is always an interesting ride.

[daynah]

I'm going to go out to eat with some of my hippy friends soon and I'll ask them where they get their real hippy food. I say real hippy food because Whole Foods does have organic food but... Whole Foods is catered to like the new, up coming hippies. Like the soccer moms that do yoga and really just care about their health.

Not that they're any less of hippies! There's a billion and two (exact number there) type of hippies. But that's kinda what I think Whole Foods is advertising too. Whole Foods is also very expensive (soccer mom hippies can afford it).

If you'd like to get in touch with some non druggie hippies, and some soccer mom hippies (moving to a new place can be scary with no friends), try going to some classes at meditationforeveryone.org. The closest one to you will be the Sandy Springs one. If you wanna meet there with me some day, just pm me. Last time I went (and I'm sure they still do this, I've been too busy and ill to go), on Sundays they would have a class and afterwards a hippy brunch. They're also just about to open up a "World Peace Cafe" where the people who work there are all volunteers, so there's higher profits and the proceeds go to charity. Hippy food.

:) I live in Marietta, but am in Kennesaw like 80% of the time (work, school, and boyfriend), those are both on the north west of Atlanta about 30 minutes, so I don't know much about the place. I do know you MUST go to The Fox Theatre, alright? Just see a movie there or something. It's a drop dead gorgeous building. :)

And everyone does drive into atlanta, if you're living IN Atlanta, I would try to use Marta. Traffic is heinus. Like... more heinus than heinus. So heinus if you get killed on Marta you'll think, "well at least I didn't have to deal with Atlanta traffic" as you die. Only sad, sad, people who have to commute into Atlanta (everyone in North Georgia over 23) HAVE to deal with the traffic. Since you wont have to, don't. :)

My friend rides a bike. :)

[Zuuswa]

thanks, I think my bicycle shall prove invaluable then. Daynah, I might just take you up on that offer, if/when we go down there to visit. And I definately do not relate to the 'Soccer Mom' hippies. I have more of a 'live free' attitude, so it would be great to learn about a good local organic food store (local as in the food is grown locally, or at least very close). I like to meet the guy who is growing my food, and have a beer and a smoke with him if possible.
You all make the Marta train line sound rather risky . . . does that mean it is mainly used by shady-type people and isnt very safe? And I can already fathom the logistics hell from the bus lines just by looking at the system route map.
Anyways, thank you all for your input! :popcorn:

[volfro]

You should definitely check out housingmaps.com (http://www.housingmaps.com/). It's a mashup of craigslist and Google Maps, searchable by price, location, and size of homes. Searches not only Atlanta, but also the surrounding Metro areas. Pretty great.

[Sektion9]

Hello,

I saw someone was asking about local 'coops' or places for 'organic' foods. My wife and I are fond of Sevananda in Little Five Points (http://www.sevananda.coop/ (http://www.sevananda.coop/%29)), the Dekalb County Farmers Market (http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/ (http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/%29)), Traders Joe's (http://www.traderjoes.com/ (http://www.traderjoes.com/%29)), and Harry's Farmer's Market (http://www.harrysfarmersmarket.com/ (http://www.harrysfarmersmarket.com/%29)). Yes, I know Whole foods owns Harry's but the selections at Harry's are far greater than most Whole Foods and I can usually find the organic things we need, like whole wheat we can grind ourself. There is also Life Grocery Natural Food Co-op (http://www.lifegrocery.com) in Marietta but we haven't been to that one yet.

Regards,
-S9-

[Sektion9]

You all make the Marta train line sound rather risky . . . does that mean it is mainly used by shady-type people and isnt very safe? And I can already fathom the logistics hell from the bus lines just by looking at the system route map.
Anyways, thank you all for your input! :popcorn:

Hi,

Marta is no more dangerous or risky then any other mass transit rail line. I lived just south of Downtown Atlanta for a year without a car. I worked at the northern perimeter of 285 and found Marta met all my needs for transit. It can be problematic if you have to hold a tight time schedule as they are known for having delays but all in all, it is a decent transit system for what they have to work with and accomplish.

-S9-

[joshkidd]

I just relocated to Atlanta last August because my wife is in a PhD program at Emory. We found our apartment on craigslist and it was a great find. I'm not sure I can make any recommendations on neighborhoods that are good for access to SCAD.

The local/organic food options mentioned here already are great. Though they are not all necessarily providing locally grown produce. The best way to get local food is a CSA, which definitely gives you the opportunity to meet the growers of your food. We have local food resource guides in the office somewhere, but I can't put my hands on one now. But yes, there are plenty of options.

[Sektion9]

The local/organic food options mentioned here already are great. Though they are not all necessarily providing locally grown produce.

Correct. Sevananda has more locally grown produce than the others I mentioned and it isn't usually a big selection. The farmers market in Jonesboro has the biggest selection of locally grown produce we have found but we didn't find much in the way of 'organic' the last time we were there.

So... we started growing our own in isolated raised bed gardens. Currently we have 4 4'x4' beds using the 'square foot gardening' technique. We still shop often at the mentioned shops because it isn't really feasible to grow something we might only use once a month or so but for the basics (lettuces, tomatoes, peas, green beans, potatoes, squashes, melons, peppers, etc) they are turning out to be great.

If you run across the materials you mentioned, please post some of the info. :)

-S9-

[joshkidd]

Not surprisingly, the local food guide that I mentioned is available on the internet. Here's where: http://www.georgiaorganics.org/Files/LFG.pdf

[Sektion9]

Not surprisingly, the local food guide that I mentioned is available on the internet. Here's where: http://www.georgiaorganics.org/Files/LFG.pdf

Not surprisingly, my wife has already seen that link and I hadn't. Thanks anyway.

-S9-

[SnotRocket]

If your girlfriend isn't already in the area, then stop her from coming here, for your own good.

Atlanta is by far the worst area I've ever lived in. The traffic is absolutely atrocious, honestly some days I think I'm better off walking. The drivers are by FAR the worst I've ever seen. I can't recall the last day that there haven't been about 8 million accidents on I-75, which coupled with the millions driving on the road, = standstill.

The whole area really is just a joke, MARTA is the scariest ride you'll ever take, and the school systems around here are some of the worst in the country. If you ever end up marrying that girlfriend and having kids, then move FAR away from Georgia for schooling.

[juveduke]

If your girlfriend isn't already in the area, then stop her from coming here, for your own good.

Atlanta is by far the worst area I've ever lived in. The traffic is absolutely atrocious, honestly some days I think I'm better off walking. The drivers are by FAR the worst I've ever seen. I can't recall the last day that there haven't been about 8 million accidents on I-75, which coupled with the millions driving on the road, = standstill.

The whole area really is just a joke, MARTA is the scariest ride you'll ever take, and the school systems around here are some of the worst in the country. If you ever end up marrying that girlfriend and having kids, then move FAR away from Georgia for schooling.

What other cities have you lived in? Atlanta isn't any worse than LA, Houston, Dallas, DC, etc. for traffic. Welcome to major cities. I'd actually give Atlanta the advantage because of the winter commute. I lived around Baltimore in the 90s and it was an absolute nightmare when there was snow/ice on the ground.

And, there are excellent public schools in the more affluent suburban areas (e.g. north fulton, IIRC all of the Roswell and Alpharetta public schools were present in the USNews top 1000). HOPE is a nice perk as well.

[SlowYaRoll]

I just moved to Atlanta from Ewing/Princeton/Trenton, NJ on March 4, 2007. This post has a lot of info. I used to work for NJ Dept. of Agriculture. . .so I appreciate all the info to find local growers. For a while, when I worked for BMS (Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma. Co.) in Hopewell, NJ, I'd frequent Kerr's Farm. HANDS DOWN BEST CORN YOU'LL EVER HAVE! As for the melons, I'd walk over to the farm from the BMS campus, purchase a few melons, come back to work, cut them in half and eat them like cereal out of a bowl. =)

Oh yeah, when I worked at NJ Dept. of Ag. . .I left them with a few Ubuntu LAMPS

When I left BMS in March to move here, I decorated my wall with Ubuntu CD's and popped a few LiveCD's in various computers so when they were booted up they'd get a fresh dosage of Ubuntu

Now for the traffic. HOLY MOLY! Living in central NJ, I also had the pleasure of working in Killadelphia (Philadelphia), Pistolvania (Pennyslvania). Traffic was a nightmare! A 30 minute commute turned into an hour and 15 minutes. Snow. . .CAN YOU SAY TELECOMMUTE OR DIE?!?! The thing is, I-95 was 2 lanes or 3 depending on the area. Here the roads are like 10 lanes wide and you still end up in a parking lot. People drive like there's not a care in the world. Needless to say, when I traveled back and forth, I took that into account and found myself a nice gig and house that didn't put me on the major roads. Clayton County to Grant Park. . .15 minutes! Oh yeah, I'm a Sys Admin for a Web Hosting company. Unfortunately we use CentOS; Ubuntu is out of the question since cPanel/WHM won't run on it.

Atlanta is pretty cool. . .just stay clear of Greenbriar Mall. Christ have mercy. . .the only place where being a criminal is legal!!! Oh yeah, if you're used to good old country style Pizza or Pasta dishes. . .forget it! I asked for a pizza place and was directed to Pizza Hut and Papa John's. . .LEGAL POISON! For some reason, people are under the impression that Olive Garden is real Italian food. . .*blah*

:KS

[daynah]

If your girlfriend isn't already in the area, then stop her from coming here, for your own good.

Atlanta is by far the worst area I've ever lived in. The traffic is absolutely atrocious, honestly some days I think I'm better off walking. The drivers are by FAR the worst I've ever seen. I can't recall the last day that there haven't been about 8 million accidents on I-75, which coupled with the millions driving on the road, = standstill.

The whole area really is just a joke, MARTA is the scariest ride you'll ever take, and the school systems around here are some of the worst in the country. If you ever end up marrying that girlfriend and having kids, then move FAR away from Georgia for schooling.

Yeah, maybe you don't know about HOPE... HOPE is a government grant that Georgia gives to all Georgia students, no matter what, as long as you graduate with a B average and go to college within the state Period. They give you money. If you go to a public college, it will pay for basically, all of your tuition, all of your student fees, and most of your books (you have to pay all your living expenses). If you go to private school, I believe when I went to Berry, I believe everyone was talking about $1000. Maybe $1000 a semester? Maybe per class? Private school it's not that much, you should have a scholarship to help you. :)

But, yeah, in Georgia, if you aren't going to college... it's by choice. No one here doesn't go to college because they're too poor. It's because you made the choice to made too low of grades, or because you had every opportunity in front of you and you said "whateva." It amazes me that Georgia students will go to the military because it will pay for their college. You are in a state that is already doing that for you! Did you not hear it on the high school intercom every morning for 4 years?!

This means that we have some real duds go to college and take the SAT. Everyone in our schools are expected to take the SAT. Even people who are quite literally retarted are encouraged to take the SAT. I took the SAT when I was in the 7th grade. I did fabulous for a 7th grader who wasn't even in pre-algebra, but I was one of those many Georgia middle schoolers taking the test who was lowering Georgia's SAT average. It's important to take everything into account when you look at a system's scores.

I wouldn't say Georgia is the top state for schooling, but it is definately not anywhere near the bottom. Our state makes a lot of effort into giving every student every opportunity in life, and the ways Georgia does this ACTUALLY "leaves no child behind." ;)

Some other things... you can homeschool in Georgia, you can group school in Georgia, you have school choice in Georgia (just give them any weak excuse other than "because I want to" the secretary just needs something to write down, and do it early, they can only allow so many requests), and there are great private schools of all religions and not religions and claim to be religous but not really (Berry's private school is "nondemoninational" so to keep that way, they don't talk about religion!).

:) It's a good place.

[heathen]

atlanta is not as bad as some people make it out to be..

[Zuuswa]

Thanks for all the info, it will surely help. Cheryl (my girlfriend) just got a call today from the admissions counselor and she was accepted, so hopefully we will be visiting Atlanta some time in the summer, hopefully around june. I also just landed a web design job here in Michigan, hopefully I will be able to find a web design job in Atlanta. That would be terrific. Maybe I will see you all in the future!

[Zuuswa]

oops, double post . . . I'm 'borrowing' my neighbor's wireless and the service is shotty at best

[barraug]

Hi-

My husband and I and our two kids are moving to the northern Atlanta area this summer. I work from home and my husband got a job in a south Cobb County school. We used to live in Seattle, overseas, and lately, Miami.

We are looking for a progressive, kind, green, organic, diverse, peace loving, and artistic area in which to live. My kids play guitar, drums, and keyboard so we would want a good music program in the school or at least a music school nearby. My husband does not want to drive more than half an hour to his work place.

In my preliminary research, I found only one middle school in northern Atlanta that has a guitar program offered in school- Durham in Kennesaw. This seems awfully far away from MARTA and we wanted to enjoy Atlanta as opposed to driving an hour to get to public transportation. We also have spent several summers in the Marietta area with a relative so we were wondering about Sandy Springs, Marietta, and Roswell. I read about a really neat music store in Roswell.

Would anyone be able to suggest a great place to live for us?

New to the forum but I liked the thoughtful and friendly posts for the last person.

[JReagan1990]

Welcome to Atlanta!

I have never been to Sandy Springs or Roswell, but Marietta seems to be a nice place. I have some family up that way, and it is always nice to go up there. Crime is relatively low, and there are several schools in the area. I am not sure about music, though.

[heathen]

My husband does not want to drive more than half an hour to his work place.


Good luck with that... I lived 4 miles from my last place of employment. some days it was 10minutes in.. somedays it was 45...

[Zuuswa]

Hey everyone, I would first like to thank you all for your input. I will be down in Atlanta visiting next week (June 2 through the 7th), so along with apartment shopping, what other attractions would you all suggest? For instance, nice coffee shops, record shops (not the virgin megastore kind), museums, parks, etc. I would definately like to know of a good coffee shop with wireless, as I would like to get some work done whilst on vacation. Maybe I will have a chance to meet some of you, fellow ubuntu-ers. Thanks in advance!

[k1001001]

For that kind of environment, you might want to check out Athens, GA. It's about an hour away, but I've heard it's an awesome town for artsy-type stuff.

[saphil]

You pretty much bring all your demons with you wherever you go. :-)
Atlanta is generally a friendly sort of place filled with friendly people as long as you can bring yourself to be a friendly sort of person who is interested in other people.

I have lived here for 6 years, and just love it. The only issue with Marta is that its routes do not run very late - after midnight. Sort of like BART in San Francisco, where I once spent the night on a stone bench because I missed the last train to Berkeley, and didn't feel like a swim past Alcatraz.

--Make friends with your neighbors and almost any place is safe and fun.

We are looking for a new place now, and craigslist is probably the most fun place to hunt rentals. We have found inexpensive places all over the place ($Inexpensive 2 or 3 bedroom=$1000 in the ATL) We even found $600 - $750 in Buckhead, which is considered a pretty pricey place to live..

[Seaxneat]

We're also planning a move to Atlanta this year and we've made a few trips to look around. You can find almost any lifestyle you like in Atlanta. Zuuswa, sounds to me like you're looking for a place like Castlebury Hill or Cabbagetown, both of which have a night life, relatively low rents and an artsy flavor. barraug, you should definitely be looking at Marietta or Woodstock. Roswell is getting pricy but given the market, you can stil find good deals on housing.

[saphil]

Good coffee shops with wireless:
Hueys on peachtree in Buckhead can be fun, it is open only breakfast and lunch --> 3:00pm
Has wireless, Cafe Au Lait and begnets. New Orleans style food.

Things to see:
Underground Atlanta, It is a little bit touristy, but it is fun and the venue is interesting and historically important.
The Horse Park out in Conyers - oops.. Equestrian Center. Built for the Olympics
The Farm on White Road in Conyers - about 3.5 miles from where I am moving out of. Site of over ten years of miraculous visions. Very interesting in a Catholic sort of way - not as touristy
Little 5 Points - where the hippies used to hang out. You can see the organic food co-op and try Vortex hamburgers. Vortex is a rush of "not-PC" Kind-of a biker-fern-bar. Also a great middle-eastern restaurant there where the owner will teach you to dance in an ac-hoc way. Fun place
Really good diner - don't know about the wireless- Marietta Diner. Huge portions 24-hours

[LastHylian]

Atlanta..that's where I live! Well, about 40 min away, but I lived there for 10 yrs. Be careful. Georgia is a beautiful place (with the exception of pollen and unpredictable weather). I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Little bit of advice, if you can afford it. Buy a home and not an apartment. Georgia in general has been building up left and right. If you are lucky, they might try to pay you off for your house. They will offer a NICE chunk of change! ^_^