[NA] Where to live near Atlanta? [NA]

WannFly

WannFly

Final Approach
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KLZU
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Priyo
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KLZU
its getting somewhat official, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I am moving to Atlanta area June of 2021.

Looking for a place to buy that is :
Relatively close to Atlantic Station - not a super deal breaker since I work from home and the "friend" will work from home as well
Close to KATL (I travel for work, a lot) and a GA airport
School in the area is not a concern
looking for a safe neighborhood with diversity, restaurants and good night life

currently my research has narrowed me down to Marietta, Mableton, smyrna and alike but open to suggestions. I dont know what I dont know.

PS: initial plan was to live in Alpharetta, but I am leaning to find something closer to midtown / KATL.

What say POA?
 
Having been to Atlanta more times than I can shake a stick at over the years, my suggestions are as follows -

Doraville/Dunwoody, Decatur and Marietta. Of course all of these are in the northern suburbs of the city, Decatur being off to the east, but Doraville and Dunwoody have nearby public transportation access via the Marta, that can get you into the city or down to Hartsfield in a jiffy. I have some friends that live around that area and it’s a good part of town to hang your hat, same for Marietta and you’d have RYY nearby, but it’s not that close to Atlantic Station.

I haven’t been to Mableton or Smyrna, so I can’t offer any opinions on those. Alpharetta and Johns Creek are both nice area’s, but they’re a good ways out from the city <pro’s and con’s> so it just depends on the overall proximity of where you’re wanting to be.

It will be nice having you nearby to join in on our fly-in’s!
 
Marietta is no closer than Alpharetta to Atlantic Station. I'd suggest you try a simulated commute from any of the areas you are considering for both the morning and afternoon commutes. In certain areas, it can take an hour to go 10 miles. I75, I85 and GA400 are parking lots during the commute. From the North, it's often longest to get to the perimeter.

I lived in Alpharetta and liked it. My job took me to KATL every monday (passenger, not pilot). I would leave my house at ~5:30 AM to avoid traffic and security backups regardless of when my flight left. I worked from home on Fridays so not a lot of commuting. There are some cool areas closer in. Mid-town itself has been getting developed rapidly over the last 10 - 15 years and seems like an ok place to live if you are into that more packed in living.
 
I'm here and in the area you are looking. I've lived in Atlanta since 1990, and in this area for 22 years.

More than happy to help.

Buying, renting? House, townhome, apartment, condo? Getting a hangar can be tough.

Do you like walking to restaurants or more space and privacy?

Feel free to send me email/phone in a PM.

No, I'm not a realtor, nor is my wife. Just happy to help.



Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk
 
WannFly said:
its getting somewhat official, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I am moving to Atlanta area June of 2021.

Looking for a place to buy that is :
Relatively close to Atlantic Station - not a super deal breaker since I work from home and the "friend" will work from home as well
Close to KATL (I travel for work, a lot) and a GA airport
School in the area is not a concern
looking for a safe neighborhood with diversity, restaurants and good night life

currently my research has narrowed me down to Marietta, Mableton, smyrna and alike but open to suggestions. I dont know what I dont know.

PS: initial plan was to live in Alpharetta, but I am leaning to find something closer to midtown / KATL.

What say POA?
Click to expand...

Alpharetta is actually a really nice area, but way too much traffic at traffic hour on GA400.

Closer to Atlanta your airports on the north side will be Fulton Co. FTY or PDK. Those will be the closest to you.

You can actually live in Atlantic Station but you probably already knew that. Condos and apartments there.

Vinings and Buckhead area are nice too.
 
Vinings, Smyrna, West-Midtown all have walkable areas with good to excellent dining options. We lived in the heart of Vinings for 20 years. Then we downsized. Love our new townhome. Wish it was in Vinings sometimes, but we have restaurants to walk to as well, plus the Silver Comet Trail (PATH) will be extended very near us next year; we currently walk over where it will be on a regular basis. Later it will connect to the Beltline.

We can get to Atlantic Station easily. We're only 7.5 miles from it. We're at the south end of Smyrna on Atlanta Rd.

I work in downtown, well I did before COVID, and that took 15 min from Vinings and 20 min from our new location. Not at 5:30 am, but ~6:45 am. "Downtown" is south of Atlantic Station, so it would be quicker to get to.



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I've lived here for <all> 56 years. Drop me a PM.

I'd run away and hide from Atlantic Station at this point. Too many problems there. Depending on your budget and domicile size/type considerations, there are plenty of good options and several disasters. Alpharetta is a hike from Atlantic Station, IMO, compared to Vinings or the South part of Marietta.
 
Hang 4 said:
I would leave my house at ~5:30 AM to avoid traffic and security backups regardless of when my flight left.
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That is exactly what i want to avoid. I have been to Alpharetta exactly once and the plan was to travel to ATL a few times, meet customers and get a feel of the area in 2020. well with Covid, no work travel now. the irony is there are 2 offices that i might have to go may be once in 2 weeks - one in Alpharetta and the other one in Atlantic station. so i am not too worried about commute to work. I am more worried about my travel time to KATL to catch a flight and go somewhere. dont want to spend 2 hours going to the airport. and on similar lines, definitely dont want to spend an hour going to the GA airport to putz around for 30 mins. but from what i hear about the traffic over there, this might be unavoidable depending on the time of the day. Last 12 years living in Fargo has really taken a toll. there are 3 red lights from my house to work and if one of them is red, i get pretty upset lol. Before moving to US, i spent 4.5 hours in Bangalore, India. 5 miles to work used to take 45 mins on a good day..... so not totally unfamiliar with that, just not looking forward to it.

wayne said:
Buying, renting? House, townhome, apartment, condo? Getting a hangar can be tough.

Do you like walking to restaurants or more space and privacy?
Click to expand...

Buying house. townhome, apartment, condo is out. We like a house with a garden / backyard. the type of area we are envisioning, walking to restaurants is probably not going to happen and i am absolutely ok with that. She can drive me to the restaurant, I aint driving in that mess unless i am going to the airport to act as PIC. for KATL Uber it is. I will drop you a PM


kyleb said:
I've lived here for <all> 56 years. Drop me a PM.
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Will do
 
I live in Roswell. We have a pretty nice walkable area on Canton Street, lots of restaurants, some friendly bars and a few shops. If you're looking for a house with a yard, we do have that.

If I have to go to KATL, especially during the week, I get on MARTA. GA airports in the area, PDK is kind of in the Doraville/Chamblee area, that would be in the northeastern part inside of I-285. The airport is busy and expensive. I lived not far from it for 10 years and liked it very much. Nothing walkable there. FTY is on the west side of town, ouside I-285 near I-20. I hear it's pretty dead, and it's not an area I'd care to live. RYY is in Kennesaw, not too far from Marietta and Vinings. CNI is up in northern Cherokee county and may very well be that hour from anywhere you'd care to live. That's about it for the north side, though I should mention LZU, in Lawrenceville. It's a fair piece, as we say in the south, from any of the places you've mentioned

If you're set on a single family house with a yard, that's going to be a pretty penny in Vinings. Marietta has a wide range of properties available, from smaller, older homes for not too much to palatial digs with a palatial price tag. Smyrna is kind of an extension of Marietta. Mableton is west of the perimeter, it's going to have an exurb feel, you won't be walking to anything but your mailbox and you're not going to like the restaurants. The area around PDK has some homes that are not too crazy expensive, and some that are, depending on where you're looking. You asked about Decatur, that's more or less east of downtown Atlanta. Most of your neighbors will be affiliated with either Emory University, Emory Medical Center, or the Centers for Disease Control. It looks like a nice place to live, it's a bit of a hike to Alpharetta, and the only airport convenient to it is PDK.

I suspect between the all of us, we can show you around this area and give you the inside scoop.
 
As FH posted, living close in gets pricier, which tends to make the yard smaller; to the point of lots of apartment/condos/townhomes being built now. Sometimes you can get around that by buying an older home, but in some locations just the size of the land drives the price up significantly.

Time to get to ATL depends heavily on when you go. More so outside of COVID than now. From one location it can easily take from 20 to 60+ min to drive to the airport, from non-rush hour to rush-hour/accident. It always pays to look at GoogleMaps, Waze or something like that before traveling in Atlanta in case there's an accident and you can take another route. Traffic has picked up substantially, but it's not back to pre-COVID. Our unemployment in October is back down to 4.5%, so I'm stunned to keep seeing 800k filing for unemployment (nationally) every time there is a report.

You may want to look at Mableton, Marietta, Smyrna and Roswell. Mableton will have you close to FTY. Marietta and Smyrna are about even drives for RYY and FTY depending upon where in each. Roswell is generally closer to PDK, but northern parts are maybe even with PDK and RYY. In Vinings I was pretty even with RYY and PDK, with FTY being a little closer.

I like FTY, but they are desperately trying to cater to corporate jets only. PDK's new Master Plan has more t-hangars and tie-down locations along with new large hangars as well. FTY's new Master Plan only has hangars for corporate jets. They could fill every t-hangar they could build and still have a waiting list for both PDK and FTY. Sadly for us, the money is with the Jet-A burners.

To get a lot of land you'll have to go way out or the cost goes way, way up. You may be able to find an older home in some of the towns listed with bigger property.

Another option would be to live further out on the south side. That would keep you close to ATL, but make your drive to Atlantic Station be longer and the drive to Alpharetta quite long. Then you could be closer to FFC (Peachtree City) or HMP (Henry County). My folks moved to the Atlanta area 4.5 years ago and they are in Palmetto, on the south side; they are not near much.

Atlanta is a huuuuge area. Back before cellphones made everything a local call it was the largest tollfree calling area in the US if not the world. I lived in north Cobb many years ago and made a local call to a friend in Conyers, it was over an hour drive to get to his house from mine and it was mostly interstates going at 80 mph. :eek: Neither of us were at the edge of the local call area. o_O Being near where you need to go the most is key. Lots of good parts of the metro area, but if you live in one and work in another it can be a major hassle.
 
FormerHangie said:
I live in Roswell. We have a pretty nice walkable area on Canton Street, lots of restaurants, some friendly bars and a few shops. If you're looking for a house with a yard, we do have that.
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+1 for Roswell. We've been here for 8 years now and love it. We're in the historic district (walking distance to Canton Street) and a 20 minute (+/-) drive to PDK.

@FormerHangie Sounds like we're neighbors. What part of Roswell are you in?
 
FormerHangie said:
I live in Roswell. We have a pretty nice walkable area on Canton Street, lots of restaurants, some friendly bars and a few shops. If you're looking for a house with a yard, we do have that.
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That sounds like a great area. I had explored that before when i was looking at Alpharetta as my base, I will explore some more. I explored LZU as well as my home base for the a/c and i hear there are some t-hangars to be found there as well, but if i end up living on the east side, that could be quite a hike just to get there.

Yard - well, I am not looking for a big piece of land, but ideally a single family home with a yard of some sort. I have been around gardens all my life and like doing a little bit here and there and would like to continue doing so. So is she, so kinda important.

b/w if my posts sounds like I am more interested in "how long do i have to spend on the road before i can get to my plane rather than work" - that is absolutely correct :d

@Flocker - per your location looks like you are based out of PDK? What is the hangar situation there? I hear there is a very long list

@wayne - Those are some great inputs. Mableton area looks alright (well on the internet anyway), and we can find the type of houses we like in the budget that we would like to spend. same in Marietta and Smyrna
Not planning to spend half a mil on the house - already have a expensive hobby and about to pick up another - priorities lol.

So how safe are these areas? dont tell me like any other big city - because I dont know what that means :p . out here most doors and garages are unlocked, sometime garage door stays open 3 days straight and we dont have to worry about anything missing.
 
I’m in Marietta, outside the the city limits, so close to Roswell and Alpharetta as well. We’ve been here 22 years and really like it. As others have said, commuting is all about the timing.
 
Dave Theisen said:
I’m in Marietta, outside the the city limits, so close to Roswell and Alpharetta as well. We’ve been here 22 years and really like it. As others have said, commuting is all about the timing.
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Dave - which airport are you based and more importantly is there a hangar available ?
 
LZU often has hangars available, and much cheaper than at PDK or RYY. PDK does have a multi-year waiting list for a t-hangar. Being near LZU puts you a good ways from ATL though.

Sadly I wouldn't recommend leaving a garage door open in Atlanta. Generally you are fine, but too many opportunistic thieves. Deep in a subdivision would be pretty safe for that, but not near an exit route. The city of Atlanta and Fulton county are the worst as they don't prosecute as much for "the small stuff". :mad: I'm in Cobb County; we have a lot of little counties in Georgia. That said my wife and I laugh as we will often find our front door unlocked the next day. We lived in Vinings for 20 years and never armed our alarm system, only had it for insurance purposes. Next door got robbed four times, but I blame him for hiring the cheapest people for jobs, and their day laborers seeing a nice TV or whatever and coming back later. Some of it was they had a carport (now a garage) and traveled a lot for work (airlines), but generally got robbed when he was in-town. We had a much bigger and newer home, but they got robbed. Go figure.

We have video from a neighbor (townhomes and most of the homes have Ring or similar). Someone pulls up in a pick-up truck to make a delivery. While they are at the door, up steps, a car drives by, turns around then stops by the truck and someone jumps out to steal the truck. :eek: Or maybe just seeing if they could steal something from inside the truck. One of the people from the truck runs down the stairs and jumps in the passenger door and the thief jumps out and into the car and they drive off. That's incredibly ballsy with the people from the truck just 30' away. We are in a good part of the metro area. Definitely not the ritzy-est, but nice.
 
WannFly said:
Dave - which airport are you based and more importantly is there a hangar available ?
Click to expand...

I work at PDK, used to work at RYY as well. I’m 15-20 minutes to RYY, worst case 30. Going to PDK normally 30-45 minutes, worst case traffic has been over an hour

I don’t have a plane, so I don’t keep up on the hangar availability.
 
When Sue and I moved to Atlanta area 20 years ago, we had three criteria. 1. Reasonable commute to ATL (Sue was a Delta FA). 2. Access to a GA airport. 3. On east side because a partner in my business had property he was going to build a home on. We ended up in Covington a city I had never even heard of before this. It's right in I-20 so getting to Hartsfield was reasonable (33 miles). KCVC has turned out to be a great airport for me. Made many friends, city supports it, good approaches, cheap avgas. And it was close to my partner's property.
We've been very happy with the choice and 18 months ago moved into a new house we had built here. Costs for housing are a whole lot lower than in town; we have a vibrant town square with restaurants.
It's not millennium heaven and many would consider I'm in the sticks, but it's been a good choice for me both for normal living and my aviation interests.
 
wayne said:
We have video from a neighbor (townhomes and most of the homes have Ring or similar). Someone pulls up in a pick-up truck to make a delivery. While they are at the door, up steps, a car drives by, turns around then stops by the truck and someone jumps out to steal the truck. :eek: Or maybe just seeing if they could steal something from inside the truck. One of the people from the truck runs down the stairs and jumps in the passenger door and the thief jumps out and into the car and they drive off. That's incredibly ballsy with the people from the truck just 30' away. We are in a good part of the metro area. Definitely not the ritzy-est, but nice.
Click to expand...

WOW!! well guess some lifestyle changes are in order for me... out here, people have their car running, unlocked and they are in walmart ...
 
WannFly said:
WOW!! well guess some lifestyle changes are in order for me... out here, people have their car running, unlocked and they are in walmart ...
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That would be an effective way of getting rid of a car in Atlanta. There are regular reports in the news of cars getting stolen at gas stations as people leave the car on and walk in to get a snack or drink. Sometimes they just leave the keys in the car. Gone! Occasionally there will be a child in a car seat in the backseat. :eek: Those cars get found really quickly. The thieves usually stop nearby and leave the kid in the car, apparently they want nothing to do with kidnapping.

Oh, your girl friend will need to _not_ leave her purse in the car, even to fill up the gas. People will pull up beside a car with a woman filling it up and open the passenger door (for those cars with the gas cap on the left) and grab the purse, which apparently normally sits on the passenger seat. Happens regularly.
 
WannFly said:
WOW!! well guess some lifestyle changes are in order for me... out here, people have their car running, unlocked and they are in walmart ...
Click to expand...
Last week in DC someone carjacked an Amazon delivery van....
 
wayne said:
Oh, your girl friend will need to _not_ leave her purse in the car, even to fill up the gas. People will pull up beside a car with a woman filling it up and open the passenger door (for those cars with the gas cap on the left) and grab the purse, which apparently normally sits on the passenger seat. Happens regularly.
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I will let her know. this is why she should occupy the right seat of the archer more often...
 
When I left the area I was in a shared hangar at RYY. Pretty happy overall with it as I got in without a wait. Rent got jacked to about $500 right before I left. RYY was a good airport to get in and out of. Tower guys were good (except for "mumbles" and it a bizarre way he was helpful as you had to be on your toes when he told you something wrong :) ).
 
Flocker said:
+1 for Roswell. We've been here for 8 years now and love it. We're in the historic district (walking distance to Canton Street) and a 20 minute (+/-) drive to PDK.

@FormerHangie Sounds like we're neighbors. What part of Roswell are you in?
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We're about a mile and a half west of Canton Street, in one of the neighborhoods off of Lake Charles Drive, so it sounds like we're pretty close

WannFly said:
That sounds like a great area. I had explored that before when i was looking at Alpharetta as my base, I will explore some more. I explored LZU as well as my home base for the a/c and i hear there are some t-hangars to be found there as well, but if i end up living on the east side, that could be quite a hike just to get there.

Yard - well, I am not looking for a big piece of land, but ideally a single family home with a yard of some sort. I have been around gardens all my life and like doing a little bit here and there and would like to continue doing so. So is she, so kinda important.

b/w if my posts sounds like I am more interested in "how long do i have to spend on the road before i can get to my plane rather than work" - that is absolutely correct :d

@Flocker - per your location looks like you are based out of PDK? What is the hangar situation there? I hear there is a very long list

@wayne - Those are some great inputs. Mableton area looks alright (well on the internet anyway), and we can find the type of houses we like in the budget that we would like to spend. same in Marietta and Smyrna
Not planning to spend half a mil on the house - already have a expensive hobby and about to pick up another - priorities lol.

So how safe are these areas? dont tell me like any other big city - because I dont know what that means :p . out here most doors and garages are unlocked, sometime garage door stays open 3 days straight and we dont have to worry about anything missing.
Click to expand...

None of the areas mentioned in this thread are dangerous, although there are some spots in Marietta and Smyrna where I'd worry about my car getting broken into if I left anything in it. I've lived in the area for 27 years and have never had anything stolen. I did get my car broken into in Buckhead, but that was when stealing car radios was a thing.

If you have a price point in mind, that might help narrow things down.
 

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Like most (sub)urban areas, crime can happen almost anywhere. But it is concentrated in certain areas. Any decent real estate agent should be able to steer you away from the bad areas of town. After that, it comes down to the cost/benefit analysis tradeoffs between location (commute), cost, and size/type of domicile. We live at the intersection of Power's Ferry and Terrell Mill at the South East edge of Marietta. Kelly has a 20-30 minute commute to Midtown and I have a 40 minute commute to Cartersville (35 miles up I-75). Our neighborhood is older with >1 acre lots and a mix of homes. The values are somewhat depressed because we map to an elementary school that feeds from too many bad apartments. Move a mile East and our house gets a couple hundred thousand more expensive on 1/3 the lot, and the elementary school gets much better. The kids in my neighborhood go to private elementary and middle schools, the kids in the nearby neighborhoods to to the great public school they map to.

There are plenty of great in-town neighborhoods I'd look at if I didn't have children and worked in town. But even the smaller houses are getting expensive because people have figured out that long commutes suck.
 
kyleb said:
Like most (sub)urban areas, crime can happen almost anywhere. But it is concentrated in certain areas. Any decent real estate agent should be able to steer you away from the bad areas of town.
Click to expand...
Agents have to be very careful with this to avoid potentially running afoul of anti-discrimination laws. A lot of agents won't give you much advice in this regard. Some will.

You will need to make sure you do your own homework.

And note that crime can happen even in good areas. A DC councilwoman had her car stolen today in a very good are of the city. Of course, she let it running while she went into a store.....
 
FormerHangie said:
We're about a mile and a half west of Canton Street, in one of the neighborhoods off of Lake Charles Drive, so it sounds like we're pretty close
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I’m off Shallowford, past Johnson Ferry, but before you get to Sandy Plains. So if you guys ever want to grab a beer, let me know.
 
Dave Theisen said:
I’m off Shallowford, past Johnson Ferry, but before you get to Sandy Plains. So if you guys ever want to grab a beer, let me know.
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We can do that, but we're going to have to wait until it's warm enough to be outside. Pandemic be bad now.
 
WannFly said:
@Flocker - per your location looks like you are based out of PDK? What is the hangar situation there? I hear there is a very long list
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Last I heard, there were 100 +/- people on the list. They are working on the airport Master Plan now and there are plans to add more hangars. If you're thinking of setting up shop at PDK, I recommend putting down the deposit and getting on the list pronto.
 
Update: got on the wait list at RYY, they are saying these is a good chance they can me in by June . The price is , well kinda atrocious and their 100LL is listed at some 6.50

Anyone here hangared at RYY?
 
I lived in Atlanta for two years while doing my BEE at Ga Tech. The closest I ever want to live to Atlanta is Florida.

Terrible crime. My car was burglarized several times. Two friends were mugged violently, another had her purse stolen at gunpoint. Drugs everywhere.

The Dunwoody / Sandy Springs area is nice, and I had some close friends who lived out there. Today though it's had explosive growth and the traffic is horrible.
 
While I would never encourage anyone to live in Atlanta, the Peachtree City area is pretty nice.
 
WannFly said:
Update: got on the wait list at RYY, they are saying these is a good chance they can me in by June . The price is , well kinda atrocious and their 100LL is listed at some 6.50

Anyone here hangared at RYY?
Click to expand...
I was for about 2 years. I likely bought 50 gallons of fuel there during that entire time. KJZP (Pickens County) is about a 15 minute flight and usually $2.50/gal cheaper. Paulding is also nearby and less, but not as much less as Pickens. I was in a shared hangar there. I'd call when I left my house in Alpharetta and plane was on the ramp by the time I got there. Line guys were friendly. They were also pretty good letting me out of the lease when I moved to FL.
 
Hang 4 said:
I was for about 2 years. I likely bought 50 gallons of fuel there during that entire time. KJZP (Pickens County) is about a 15 minute flight and usually $2.50/gal cheaper. Paulding is also nearby and less, but not as much less as Pickens. I was in a shared hangar there. I'd call when I left my house in Alpharetta and plane was on the ramp by the time I got there. Line guys were friendly. They were also pretty good letting me out of the lease when I moved to FL.
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Yeah I am talking to Dave from the FBO and the community ones they are saying seems pretty ok, even though I prefer my own T. But if I can get into a smaller shared one with not more than 3-4 planes, I will manage (like I have a choice). LZU likely have too, waiting for a call back, but if I am living near Marietta , I am not sure if I would like to spend an hour cursing while going to the airport. Thanks for the tip for cheap avgas. Even out here, I normally don’t buy from fargo, they are usually 1.5 /gal more proud than the one that’s 8 miles out.
 
Grum.Man said:
While I would never encourage anyone to live in Atlanta, the Peachtree City area is pretty nice.
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That’s in my list of research too and FFC is not too far. I hear a lot of delta people stay around that place and easy (relatively) commute to ATL
 
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