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

Half Fast said:
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.
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It is mostly about exactly where you live and how cautious you are. I lived at GA Tech for 5 years and hung out in and around the area on the weekends for 5 years post-school. Never had a problem, nor did any of my friends. OK, one story. My best friend was sitting in his living room in Home Park (a little mill village adjacent to Tech) organizing his dive gear. A homeless guy walked right in through the front door. My buddy picked up his spear gun and convinced the homeless guy to leave and not come back.

On the other hand, one of the local premium malls (Lenox) is installing metal detectors at the entrances. Too many problems with the local yutes poppin' caps in each other at Macy's.
 
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WannFly said:
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.
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Calhoun (CZL) which is 30 miles N of RYY is a very friendly GA field with excellent fuel prices and a lot of great people. CTJ (West Georgia) is 30 miles West and generally has the best fuel prices around.
 
kyleb said:
It is mostly about exactly where you live and how cautious you are. I lived at GA Tech for 5 years and hung out in and around the area on the weekends for 5 years post-school. Never had a problem, nor did any of my friends. OK, one story. My best friend was sitting in his living room in Home Park (a little mill village adjacent to Tech) organizing his dive gear. A homeless guy walked right in through the front door. My buddy picked up his spear gun and made a convinced the homeless guy to leave and not come back.

On the other hand, one of the local premium malls (Lenox) is installing metal detectors at the entrances. Too many problems with the local yutes poppin' caps in each other at Macy's.
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When I was there, '82-'84, GT rented out the Lucky Street YMCA as an overflow dorm and that's where I lived. You could step onto the fire escape and hit the Peachtree Tower with a rock; we were in the heart of downtown. Lots of crime. There was a church across the street and drunken bums used to sleep on the church steps, since the church would not complain to the cops.

That's downtown Atlanta - where life is cheap. And parking isn't.
 
Half Fast said:
When I was there, '82-'84, GT rented out the Lucky Street YMCA as an overflow dorm and that's where I lived.
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I was right across the street '82-87. But when we were there, Techwood Homes and one other notorious housing project were a stone's throw away from campus. Gone now. That whole scuzzy area has seen 35 years of gentrification. Lots of upscale bars, the Georgia Aquarium, and the College Football Hall of Fame have all moved in. Certainly, you *can* get mugged or panhandled, but that's true in most any urban area.
 
kyleb said:
I was right across the street '82-87. But when we were there, Techwood Homes and one other notorious housing project were a stone's throw away from campus. Gone now. That whole scuzzy area has seen 35 years of gentrification. Lots of upscale bars, the Georgia Aquarium, and the College Football Hall of Fame have all moved in. Certainly, you *can* get mugged or panhandled, but that's true in most any urban area.
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Good to hear. I remember driving through the Techwood project late at night and not daring to stop; just slow down at lights and stop signs, but keep rolling.
 
Atlanta really is about what do you want to be near. If you go to the office 5 days a week you want to be near work or a quick route to work.

Sounds like you may only need to go to the office once every two weeks. If that's right, I'd put that drive lower on my list. One long drive every other week is not so bad.

If you want to fly a lot find somewhere near the airport and then just commute from there the few times you need to do so. How often do you fly commercial? That would weigh how much you want to be near ATL.

If you really want a t-hangar, you may need to focus on LZU, FFC, HMP, CVC and maybe CNI. Problem is that most of those are far from ATL and Alpharetta.

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WannFly said:
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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I was actually going to bring up PTC. You'll be close to FFC wherever you are. Good neighborhoods, as well as some houses that have a lot of land not in neighborhoods but still close in. Maybe 30 min to ATL airport. Lot of Delta pilots live there as you said. Also everybody uses golf carts to get around with miles of golf cart paths. But there probably is a several year wait for a hangar at FFC. Also Falcon Aviation Academy went out of business during the shutdown so not the training traffic there now that there was. I live in north Fayetteville which is next to PTC.
 
There are a ton of fly-in communities in and around PTC. Could solve the waitlist problem. Getting around ATL from south to north can be a heck of trip in rush hour though.
 
wayne said:
Atlanta really is about what do you want to be near. If you go to the office 5 days a week you want to be near work or a quick route to work.

Sounds like you may only need to go to the office once every two weeks. If that's right, I'd put that drive lower on my list. One long drive every other week is not so bad.

If you want to fly a lot find somewhere near the airport and then just commute from there the few times you need to do so. How often do you fly commercial? That would weigh how much you want to be near ATL.

If you really want a t-hangar, you may need to focus on LZU, FFC, HMP, CVC and maybe CNI. Problem is that most of those are far from ATL and Alpharetta.

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I would be flying out of ATL, at least twice a week. Some weeks even more, but that’s an exception. If I can find something close to a MARTA stop, that will solve my ATL commute problem. Don’t want to be too far like Alpharetta or Cummins, the girl friend might have to commute to work more than me, once or twice a week (May be, not entirely sure how things will pan out after covid is over), if she has to spend 2 hours commuting twice a week, I might have to live under the low wing shortly and permanently.
 
BrianNC said:
I was actually going to bring up PTC. You'll be close to FFC wherever you are. Good neighborhoods, as well as some houses that have a lot of land not in neighborhoods but still close in. Maybe 30 min to ATL airport. Lot of Delta pilots live there as you said. Also everybody uses golf carts to get around with miles of golf cart paths. But there probably is a several year wait for a hangar at FFC. Also Falcon Aviation Academy went out of business during the shutdown so not the training traffic there now that there was. I live in north Fayetteville which is next to PTC.
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Good to know about hangar situation in FFC, someone mentioned Covington, I will research that too.
 
Hang 4 said:
There are a ton of fly-in communities in and around PTC. Could solve the waitlist problem. Getting around ATL from south to north can be a heck of trip in rush hour though.
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Now THAT I would love.... but not sure if that will fly with the captain, worth a shot though
 
WannFly said:
I would be flying out of ATL, at least twice a week. Some weeks even more, but that’s an exception. If I can find something close to a MARTA stop, that will solve my ATL commute problem. Don’t want to be too far like Alpharetta or Cummins, the girl friend might have to commute to work more than me, once or twice a week (May be, not entirely sure how things will pan out after covid is over), if she has to spend 2 hours commuting twice a week, I might have to live under the low wing shortly and permanently.
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There are many people that spend 2+ hours of commuting a day in Atlanta. o_O
 
As much as I hate to say it (because I don't want to attract more traffic to the growth we're having down here lately), the south side is closer to ATL. I live in the Newnan/Peachtree City area and it is 30 minutes door-to-door to the airport from here. I leave the house 2 hours before my scheduled departure time and the vast majority of the time, I have time to finish off a biscuit before boarding at the gate (and that includes using the Park-Ride shuttle at the airport). I'm not sure how much longer that will last, though based on how traffic has been growing steadily in town and on I85 around Union City/Fairburn the past couple of years. They just opened up a 1MM+ sq ft Amazon DC off the end of the runway near KCCO and are clearing more land in the area for even more DCs.

For a short period of time, I worked in Vinings. It was 42 miles one-way and took 1:15 one-way on a good day (there weren't many 'good' days). There is a digital sign on 285 just after you cross the 'Hooch that every morning said "Paces Ferry exit 5 miles - 35-45 minutes". I worked with a couple of guys that actually lived in Vinings - they said they lived 5 miles from the office and it took them 45 minutes to get to work every day.

My parents used to live on the north side between Buford and Braselton and in normal non rush-hour traffic, it was 1.5hr one-way to go see them. Now they live down here and it's 15 minutes away. :)

As someone else mentioned, you need to look at travel TIME not DISTANCE in the ATL area. Pick out your likely travel routes and plug them into Google Maps and select the time of day you will typically be driving them to see what kind of time you'll be looking at. Some companies are starting to leap-frog the Alpharetta 'zone' around ATL and moving farther out because that area is already so saturated that it's borderline intolerable.
 
There’s great value in Georgia and a number of airparks. I haven’t checked them out personally but they look nice and reasonable prices too. How is it living outside of Atlanta (most seem to be an hour outside of ATL), more concerned about convenience (great food, shopping, etc) and don’t want to be stuck in a faraway suburb although not necessary to commute to work.
 
WannFly said:
What say POA?
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I say you have conflicting requirements.

A neighborhood with good night life is going to imply (to me) a walkable area, but that will be less safe. When I hear your requirements, I think midtown - lots of bars and restaurants mixed in with condos and apartments.

If you want to be out in the suburbs, don't leave out the south, especially if Atlantic Station isn't a high requirement. It's closer for that weekly drive to/from KATL and there are more than a few GA airports down there.
 
Thanks everyone. I will expand my search to South as well.
 
There's a paved private airport in Villa Rica. It has a 4,500' paved runway, but no approaches. If you are VFR only that's not a problem. They have cheap 100LL, and they may have hangar space too. It is west of Atlanta, off of I-20. The I-20 / I-285 interchange can get jammed up though.

Not sure how well that goes with 2 trips a week out of ATL though.


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wayne said:
There's a paved private airport in Villa Rica. It has a 4,500' paved runway, but no approaches. If you are VFR only that's not a problem. They have cheap 100LL, and they may have hangar space too. It is west of Atlanta, off of I-20. The I-20 / I-285 interchange can get jammed up though.

Not sure how well that goes with 2 trips a week out of ATL though.


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Stockmar. I *think* I mentioned it earlier. A good choice, if you're on the West side, IMO.
 
kyleb said:
Stockmar. I *think* I mentioned it earlier. A good choice, if you're on the West side, IMO.
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Never been there but there was someone here a couple of years ago that was trying to sell a share of a Mooney that he had based there.
 
kyleb said:
Stockmar. I *think* I mentioned it earlier. A good choice, if you're on the West side, IMO.
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Yep, Stockmar. If you did, I missed it; on Tapatalk on the phone when I thought about it.

When I flew out of FTY we used to fuel up at Stockmar regularly. It was $2+/gal cheaper than FTY.



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Shall we recap?

@WannFly is likely to be transferred to Atlanta. His employer had done him a triple nasty by expecting to visit two different offices AND to travel regularly. He also has an airplane that needs a home. His lady friend would like to be able to walk to restaurants and have night life nearby. They would like a single family home with a yard, in an upper middle class price range.

For those of you who are not familiar with the area, here's a map:
WannFly.jpg

See the problem? Office 1 and Office 2 are spread apart, and the two most likely airports are nowhere near anywhere he has to be.
 
Description sounds like Brookhaven. Safe (it's its own city with its own police force), walkable shops/dining/nightlife if you're in or near the Town Brookhaven development, MARTA to KATL or Atlantic Station, and close to PDK, which does have tie down space available. Some parts of Chamblee, which is nearby, would check most of those boxes too.
 
Girlfriend commute, work commute, proximate airplane storage? Pick two cuz you won't meet all three. You may be able to meet all three if you're willing to tie down.
 
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?
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I just left Atlanta 6 months ago.

I hate Alpharetta, it is everything about a suburban hell you can imagine:
More expensive than almost anywhere else in Atlanta
Nothing walkable
No way to avoid traffic, no transit
Does not have an airport nearby

I used to live in Smyrna, and I have friends in Mableton (I would lean to that side because it's cheaper due to worse schools, but I don't have kids). It's pretty accessible to a lot of Atlanta, but Cobb Community transit is specifically designed to make accessing MARTA from Cobb county difficult. Also, not very walkable due to the "Suburban Atlanta" layout, but better than Alpharetta, and for the difference in rent/mortgage payments you can nearly hire a chauffeur. Fulton field is nearby, you can get a tiedown, but fuel is expensive, and it's not a great airport bum airport.

Lawrenceville is commutable to the offices you listed and KLZU is a nice airport with a cafe and an EAA chapter. It's not very walkable and the commutes will be a lot longer time wise than the maps suggest. Transit is better than Cobb county, but that is more an insult to Cobb than a complement to Lawrenceville. You are looking at a long drive to KATL.

If I were moving back, I would try to go South.

I liked living in East Point. It put me right next to ATL and walking distance to a MARTA rail stop. Plus it has some nice restaurants locally and a great little cupcake shop. In addition it's a 30 minute drive to KHMP (again, not really an airport bum airport, and I have been on the hangar wait list for 3 years now), but tiedowns and gas are cheap there. If I were renting, I would lean toward East Point. You are looking at a shortish drive to Atlantic station, and a nothing drive to the Atlanta airport, but you will be at least 1.5 hours from the Alpharetta office.

If I were buying, I would look for something on an airport. Lenora will probably the shortest drive to all of the options, but there are a lot of small airfields to the south. If you don't make the office drive very often, look at those. But keep in mind that KATL to Alpharetta can be a 2-3 hour trip at a bad traffic time, so if you are going in to that office even once a week it may not work well.
 
Hang 4 said:
There are a ton of fly-in communities in and around PTC. Could solve the waitlist problem. Getting around ATL from south to north can be a heck of trip in rush hour though.
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I can tell you from experience it does not, I have been on FFC's Hangar waitlist for years, and last I spoke to them I wasn't even on the front page.
 
MarkH said:
I can tell you from experience it does not, I have been on FFC's Hangar waitlist for years, and last I spoke to them I wasn't even on the front page.
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Wait lists at all the airports down here yet none of the management wants to build more hangars - or even allow private investment at the airport. It makes no sense.
 
CJones said:
Wait lists at all the airports down here yet none of the management wants to build more hangars - or even allow private investment at the airport. It makes no sense.
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They are holding the space for kerosene burners. Show up with a Citation or Kingair and you'll have plenty 'o friends on the Airport board and in FBO mgt.

Once all of the available hangar space for kerosene burners is used up, they will start tearing down T-hangars that currently house recips.

At least that's how it went at McCollum.
 
CJones said:
Wait lists at all the airports down here yet none of the management wants to build more hangars - or even allow private investment at the airport. It makes no sense.
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GA2 (Alexander Memorial/Peachstate Aerodrome/Candler Field, 1 hour S of ATL) nearly doubled the number of hangars last summer, and they were all rented before construction finished.

HMP Just lost a line of hangars in a wind storm last summer, I wonder if they even bothered to repair those.
 
I guess the money is very little for the airports and one off. Most of the money goes for the construction costs of building a hangar.
 
FormerHangie said:
Shall we recap?

@WannFly is likely to be transferred to Atlanta. His employer had done him a triple nasty by expecting to visit two different offices AND to travel regularly. He also has an airplane that needs a home. His lady friend would like to be able to walk to restaurants and have night life nearby. They would like a single family home with a yard, in an upper middle class price range.

For those of you who are not familiar with the area, here's a map:
View attachment 92643

See the problem? Office 1 and Office 2 are spread apart, and the two most likely airports are nowhere near anywhere he has to be.
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You left off several GA airports in the area. PDK happens to be just about the middle between office 1 and office 2. And lots of nice "upper middle class" neighborhoods within a mile or five.
 
That said, You could also go way north, around the Canton area. The commute to atl in the morning is not too bad, but the return trip is a whole 'nother ball of wax. There is a commuter transit system from Canton to mid town, and from there Marta can get you anywhere you want to go inside the city. From Canton to KATL via mass transit costs about 3 bucks, and is pretty quick. Then there are more GA friendly airports available, KCNI, and KJZP come to mind. There are several nice neighborhoods inside the perimeter, But the cost is pretty high per square foot, compared to not very far out.
 
bluerooster said:
You left off several GA airports in the area. PDK happens to be just about the middle between office 1 and office 2. And lots of nice "upper middle class" neighborhoods within a mile or five.
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The hangar situation at PDK is bad enough to where the OP crossed it off
the list
 
FormerHangie said:
The hangar situation at PDK is bad enough to where the OP crossed it off
the list
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The hanger situation anywhere within 50nm of ATL is very bad. At JZP there are no hangers, but plenty of room to build your own hanger, :rolleyes:
 
bluerooster said:
The hanger situation anywhere within 50nm of ATL is very bad. At JZP there are no hangers, but plenty of room to build your own hanger, :rolleyes:
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Are they actually leasing space to build? KHMP has space but isn't actually willing to lease it.
 
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