re: Work in Downtown Atlanta?

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GTFO

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I live in downtown Decatur. I'm not getting trashed and driving back from up there.

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Woman killed in Downtown Decatur

Yep, seems safe to me.

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That was completely random and literally in the heart of downtown. I actually drove by the police taping the parking lot off that night as I'd gone out with some friends to a bday party at a bar on the square. He killed three homeless guys before that and this one was just completely out of nowhere.

Decatur has some crime, but it's not like unlike any other area in town. shite happens unfortunately. I know first hand, but that doesn't change the fact that city of Decatur, not Outkast's "Decatur", is safe for being in town.

I grew up in East Cobb and my parents, who still live there, had an actual car chase shootout through their neighborhood a couple years ago. Some guy living in his parents basement had a drug deal gone wrong and it ended up in a car chase out of the neighborhood with both cars firing guns out the window at each other in the dead arse middle of the day. shite happens everywhere. That being said, I grew up there and it's a great place to raise kids. If you're young and single or with no kids, I wouldn't want to live there, but it's got good schools and pretty low taxes. It just sucks getting in town from there.

As for city of Decatur, it's a great place to live for families. Property values are at an all time high because of the schools, which does have drawbacks - high property taxes and the schools are getting pretty crowded, but the positives outweigh the negatives by far. fwiw and a possible humblebrag, my house is being renovated right now. Turning a 1k sq/ft 2/1 into a 2700 sq/ft 4/3 and the bank appraised the new house for the loan at just under $740k. We'll have almost $350k of instant equity when it's done. There have been an amazing amount of remodels and teardowns in the past 2-3 years and the property values just keep going up.

As for working downtown, unless you live in town, you're pretty much up the creek as far as a commute. Marta does have park and ride options for their stations all the way out on each line, which is a viable option if you don't have to have a car in town. I work downtown and my commute from Decatur isn't that bad, but it all depends on the day. I used to have to drive from Decatur to the Mansell exit off 400(Alpharetta) and it took me around an hour in the mornings and an hour + in the evenings. It sucked something holy.

I rode the MARTA once that was enough. ill stick with my own car

Kennesaw is growing quickly, with KSU. Tons of college kids and relatively cheap living. I love it in kennesaw personally. 20 min from atlanta, decent bars, good looking women, and don't have to put up with any of the bullshite in atlanta.

It is a nice backyard, me and the gf hiked about 3 miles of the trails. I loved the view from the top of big Kennesaw. Our road trip to GA sold her on the possibility of working there

You're graduating undergrad and looking to move to Kennesaw?

I wouldn't, no offense to our friends in Cobb. I'd be bored to tears as a young single person there. If anything check out Smyrna/Vinings to be on that side of town but in a hipper/younger area.

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And people are bitching about Decatur crime.

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Decatur is fricking Mayberry... and I love Savannah.

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Smyrna/Vinings

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If he´s caucasian, I don´t know........

Moreso Vinings. It's a place young people are definitely increasing % wise.

Some good white collar employment right around there which keeps a pipeline of college graduates interested.

ETA: To chime in on the Decatur-Savannah comparison, I don't think a lot of Atlantans realize the crime problem in Savannah.

Decatur's nice, including downtown and everything between it and including the Druid Hills area, but it very much has a "side of the train track" dichotomy and you need to possess at least a little bit of intown courage to live there. I do, but anyone sensitive at all to urban issues won't likely love it.