Moving to Atlanta

[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/), the Dekalb County Farmers Market (http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/), Traders Joe's (http://www.traderjoes.com/), and Harry's Farmer's Market (http://www.harrysfarmersmarket.com/). 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!

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*

[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.