Atlanta review - 10 months in (Savannah, Sandy Springs: transplants, real estate market, apartment)
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As a thunderstorm is getting ready to roll right through I feel like now is a good time to just chime in and throw a 10 month review to Atlanta in the mix.
I had previously lived in Chicago for 15 years but moved to Atlanta last August for an amazing professional opportunity - a two year opportunity that will either lead to something permanent here in Atlanta or at least be something absolutely worth putting on my resume/CV. It was not an "I don't like Chicago so I want to leave" situation, it was a "go-to-the-best-professional-opportunity" situation. I know Chicago has its faults, but overall I liked it a lot, so my reason for coming here was only for the career. But now that I'm here, might as well review Atlanta in and of and for itself.
With that context, here's the review of Atlanta so far. I'd been here a couple of times (music festival, hockey game, etc) and it left a decent impression, so moving here I was thinking the job would be A++ and the city a solid B, trading in an A city in Chicago for the career. Turns out the job so far is indeed A++, but also Atlanta has been better than expected and I place it currently in the B+/A- range, with a chance to improve especially since it's growing.
Weather - A. Perfect in the fall. Extremely comfortable in the winter - cools down and is very comfortable cool with some variability. Spring is very nice also. As of July it's just now starting to get hot, and it seems there are summer rains all the time. Still a curiosity/interesting thing and not annoying yet. Weird thing is today everyone in Chicago is at the beach but here we're dodging Thunderstorms and there doesn't seem to be the stark seasonality like Chicago in terms of social activity. In Chicago, there's summertime Chi, football season, holiday season, and then the dead of winter and 7 years out of 10 it's still freezing cold for St. Patrick's Day. Here it seemed like things really picked up in the fall. Overall throughout the course of the year there's a lot of light jacket weather so for me that's a huge plus.
LGBT friendliness - very LGBT friendly city but I'm not sure yet which bars to go to by myself mainly for personal safety. I've been to a few that I totally feel fine in, and one of my friends visited one time and we went to a few places, but I wouldn't feel comfortable at those by myself. There's a few others I want to go to but haven't been able to yet; part of that is safety and part of that is just due to time/work. Chicago I knew the scene very well. And here there are LGBT sports scenes, but I can't yet find an LGBT basketball group/organization.
Restaurants/food scene - A. Just way better than one would know. Buford highway area is amazing. Food from nearly everywhere here so I feel like Atl swings above its weight in the food scene. Have had/found Indian, Colombian, Japanese, Korean BBQ, Middle Eastern, Hawaiian. Great burger restaurants also. Also Waffle House.
Arts/cultural scene - not assigning a letter grade but decent overall. European Film Festival was great. Art fairs in Piedmont Park. Progpower music festival is here and that's a huge plus. Been to the art museum and that was very good. Only negative is that since I moved here there's been at least 4 concerts that did not come through here that went through Chicago that I would have seen. So there's decent but not ideal concert tour coverage here so that means having to plan either road trips or weekend trips to Chi/NY to see some that I really want to see.
Beer - B-. OK, there is some, but does not compare to Chicago.
Urbanity/public transportation/traffic. Not letter grading this because I can't really judge. I lucked into a place where I don't need a car, there's a grocery store right across the street from my bdg, CVS's are 24/7 which believe it or not are hard to find in Chicago. For all this talk about expanding Marta to Outside the Perimeter, I think they're better off improving Inside the Perimeter, and having more consistent bus service. OTP is just too many miles away and those people want to drive anyway. So for me it's been great. Note that my work is hybrid and I picked my location to be close to work. Going from ~~Lindbergh through Piedmont Park all the way downtown including Georgia Tech there is a very sizable walkable area which is lively but is not too over-run. Cute areas there too. Piedmont Park is absolutely amazing and its layout. Direct train access to the airport is outstanding, but flights to the west coast from here are annoyingly difficult and expensive, though understandable. That said, super easy flight access to Chicago. Also, general life quality is very nice - still urban but a little more spacious but not too sprawly like a Kansas City or something along those lines. My apartment unit is amazing and overlooks a pool which stays open year round, so that's a definite more-than-adequately fair trade from being a 5 minute walk away from the beach in warm months. Been on the beltline a few times and I like it. Kinda reminds me of the lakefront trail in Chicago in a weird way but in the city instead. Atlanta itself kinda reminds me of a mixture between NY, LA, my college town, and some Americana suburbia, but it's a neat blend.
I miss the beach a little bit but not horrendously mainly because I feel like it's analogous to living inland in Los Angeles - you'd have to drive a few hours to get to the ocean and here it's essentially the same thing. I road tripped to New Orleans and swung by Biloxi, MS on the way, so given that Savannah is closer between Savannah and Biloxi, that's close enough road-trippage for me. Also Florida is just one state away. Here, the tree canopy/forest is amazing and hope they keep it.
Just only being here 10 months and so much going on with career and everything else besides urbanity, I haven't really had the chance yet to make a lot of friends here outside of work. But people seem friendly so I think that will come with time. A lot of my friends are in/from SoCal so I had gotten used to making the Chicago-LA jaunt a lot, especially in the winter-time, but here that's one more time zone to travel through and there isn't the imperative of traveling in the winter-time so we'll see how that evolves. That said, so far in I really like Atlanta so far. Abrupt close but my computer battery's almost dead lol.
Great review! It sounds like you're enjoying your time overall here in the Atlanta area.
Interesting you mention L.A., Chi, KC to name a few, as I lived extensively in KC, L.A. and my wife is from Chicagoland (we visit frequently). I'm in the ATL burbs, but I too am a big fan of ATL so far and the weather here is a lot milder than most people realize nationally.
I can't speak of the LGBT community, but I do agree that ATL's food scene is pretty decent. I miss the beach too- but luckily Destin is only 5.5 hours away by car. I've been to a lot of beaches in Cali from OB, PB near S.D. up to Laguna, Huntington, Long Beach, Redondo, Hermosa, SM, Zuma etc., but I LOVED the sand/water in Destin, FL over Cali beaches. I think Cali is more beautiful overall than FL/GA, but in terms of water/sand Florida is on another level.
It sounds like you're fitting in nicely here in GA. I LOVE Chicago-- but I really hate cold weather and their property tax situation really scared me away. I'm not sure if you're in to hiking mountains, etc., but there's lots of beautiful places about an 1.5 hour north of Atlanta that are really worth a short trip to. Wineries, lakes surrounded by mountains, etc.
I do miss the 24/7 QuikTrip's and drugstores everywhere in and around ATL. Seattle doesn't seem to have the equivalent of them, or much of anything that's open past midnight or 1am.
That's a good point you made about Chicago's nice central location, being a little more accessible by flight to the west coast.
I prefer the non-muggy summers in Seattle. I was in ATL a couple weeks ago, and the heat was oppressive and after being this far north for a few years, it felt like the sun was obnoxiously close.
I prefer the winters in ATL. (Seattle winters suck unless you're one of those weirdos who like the constant overcast.)
flights to the west coast from here are annoyingly difficult and expensive, though understandable. That said, super easy flight access to Chicago.
The irony is that it reportedly has been the relatively very high number of direct flights between Atlanta and the West Coast (particularly between ATL/Atlanta and West Coast airports like LAX/Los Angeles, SFO/San Francisco, SJC/San Jose and SEA/Seattle) that have played a direct role in helping to establish Atlanta as both a massive international hub of television/film and music entertainment production and a major regional hub of tech industry activity for the Southeastern U.S. in recent years and decades.
I suspect that for many airline travel customers, a significant reason why airline travel between Atlanta and the West Coast may be more expensive may be because of increased demand for airline travel between ATL/Atlanta and the aforementioned major West Coast airports in recent years.
The explosive and stunning growth of the television/film entertainment production industry in Atlanta over the past 15 years (along with the continued dominance of Atlanta’s Hip-Hop music production scene which has been a dominant force in American music since the very early 1990’s) and the explosive growth of tech in Atlanta probably has played a noticeable role in the increased expense of air travel between ATL/Atlanta and major West Coast airports like LAX, SFO, SJC and even SEA.
An 11Alive Atlanta news report from last year (2022) attempted to examine why airfares seem to be noticeably higher in Atlanta than in Chicago.
Quote:
THE QUESTION
11Alive viewer LaTina P. asked, "For Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to be the busiest airport in the world, why are airline tickets always double or triple the price of a plane ticket flying out of Chicago-O’Hare airport?"…
… THE ANSWER
Yes, flying out of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport can be more expensive than Chicago O'Hare, but other factors impact prices…
And demand for air travel between Atlanta and the West Coast interestingly has seemed to increase even more since the start of the pandemic with Atlanta (particularly Atlanta’s highly affluent and amenity-rich northern suburbs) apparently becoming a major non-Texas relocation destination for Californians seeking more affordable living costs in other states.
The significant increase in the number of people moving to metro Atlanta from California particularly seems to have been felt in an affluent North Atlanta suburban area like North Fulton and South Forsyth counties where upscale homes (which were already in very high demand before the pandemic) have become noticeably scarce on the real estate market since the start of the pandemic.
Lots of affluent California families with children have been moving into North Fulton and South Forsyth counties for the extremely high quality of life public schools in that area and because of the ascendance of the North Atlanta outer suburb of Alpharetta into a major hub of tech industry activity for the Southeastern U.S. over the last decade or so.
The noticeable significant increase in the number of Californians moving to metro Atlanta is in addition to the very high number of people that historically have relocated (and continue to relocate in high numbers) to the Atlanta area from the Northeastern, Midwestern (including Illinois) and Southern parts of the U.S.
I do miss the 24/7 QuikTrip's and drugstores everywhere in and around ATL. Seattle doesn't seem to have the equivalent of them, or much of anything that's open past midnight or 1am.
That's a good point you made about Chicago's nice central location, being a little more accessible by flight to the west coast.
I prefer the non-muggy summers in Seattle. I was in ATL a couple weeks ago, and the heat was oppressive and after being this far north for a few years, it felt like the sun was obnoxiously close.
I prefer the winters in ATL. (Seattle winters suck unless you're one of those weirdos who like the constant overcast.)
Seattle has 7-Elevens. That's probably about the closest thing.
As a thunderstorm is getting ready to roll right through I feel like now is a good time to just chime in and throw a 10 month review to Atlanta in the mix.
I had previously lived in Chicago for 15 years but moved to Atlanta last August for an amazing professional opportunity - a two year opportunity that will either lead to something permanent here in Atlanta or at least be something absolutely worth putting on my resume/CV. It was not an "I don't like Chicago so I want to leave" situation, it was a "go-to-the-best-professional-opportunity" situation. I know Chicago has its faults, but overall I liked it a lot, so my reason for coming here was only for the career. But now that I'm here, might as well review Atlanta in and of and for itself.
With that context, here's the review of Atlanta so far. I'd been here a couple of times (music festival, hockey game, etc) and it left a decent impression, so moving here I was thinking the job would be A++ and the city a solid B, trading in an A city in Chicago for the career. Turns out the job so far is indeed A++, but also Atlanta has been better than expected and I place it currently in the B+/A- range, with a chance to improve especially since it's growing.
Weather - A. Perfect in the fall. Extremely comfortable in the winter - cools down and is very comfortable cool with some variability. Spring is very nice also. As of July it's just now starting to get hot, and it seems there are summer rains all the time. Still a curiosity/interesting thing and not annoying yet. Weird thing is today everyone in Chicago is at the beach but here we're dodging Thunderstorms and there doesn't seem to be the stark seasonality like Chicago in terms of social activity. In Chicago, there's summertime Chi, football season, holiday season, and then the dead of winter and 7 years out of 10 it's still freezing cold for St. Patrick's Day. Here it seemed like things really picked up in the fall. Overall throughout the course of the year there's a lot of light jacket weather so for me that's a huge plus.
LGBT friendliness - very LGBT friendly city but I'm not sure yet which bars to go to by myself mainly for personal safety. I've been to a few that I totally feel fine in, and one of my friends visited one time and we went to a few places, but I wouldn't feel comfortable at those by myself. There's a few others I want to go to but haven't been able to yet; part of that is safety and part of that is just due to time/work. Chicago I knew the scene very well. And here there are LGBT sports scenes, but I can't yet find an LGBT basketball group/organization.
Restaurants/food scene - A. Just way better than one would know. Buford highway area is amazing. Food from nearly everywhere here so I feel like Atl swings above its weight in the food scene. Have had/found Indian, Colombian, Japanese, Korean BBQ, Middle Eastern, Hawaiian. Great burger restaurants also. Also Waffle House.
Arts/cultural scene - not assigning a letter grade but decent overall. European Film Festival was great. Art fairs in Piedmont Park. Progpower music festival is here and that's a huge plus. Been to the art museum and that was very good. Only negative is that since I moved here there's been at least 4 concerts that did not come through here that went through Chicago that I would have seen. So there's decent but not ideal concert tour coverage here so that means having to plan either road trips or weekend trips to Chi/NY to see some that I really want to see.
Beer - B-. OK, there is some, but does not compare to Chicago.
Urbanity/public transportation/traffic. Not letter grading this because I can't really judge. I lucked into a place where I don't need a car, there's a grocery store right across the street from my bdg, CVS's are 24/7 which believe it or not are hard to find in Chicago. For all this talk about expanding Marta to Outside the Perimeter, I think they're better off improving Inside the Perimeter, and having more consistent bus service. OTP is just too many miles away and those people want to drive anyway. So for me it's been great. Note that my work is hybrid and I picked my location to be close to work. Going from ~~Lindbergh through Piedmont Park all the way downtown including Georgia Tech there is a very sizable walkable area which is lively but is not too over-run. Cute areas there too. Piedmont Park is absolutely amazing and its layout. Direct train access to the airport is outstanding, but flights to the west coast from here are annoyingly difficult and expensive, though understandable. That said, super easy flight access to Chicago. Also, general life quality is very nice - still urban but a little more spacious but not too sprawly like a Kansas City or something along those lines. My apartment unit is amazing and overlooks a pool which stays open year round, so that's a definite more-than-adequately fair trade from being a 5 minute walk away from the beach in warm months. Been on the beltline a few times and I like it. Kinda reminds me of the lakefront trail in Chicago in a weird way but in the city instead. Atlanta itself kinda reminds me of a mixture between NY, LA, my college town, and some Americana suburbia, but it's a neat blend.
I miss the beach a little bit but not horrendously mainly because I feel like it's analogous to living inland in Los Angeles - you'd have to drive a few hours to get to the ocean and here it's essentially the same thing. I road tripped to New Orleans and swung by Biloxi, MS on the way, so given that Savannah is closer between Savannah and Biloxi, that's close enough road-trippage for me. Also Florida is just one state away. Here, the tree canopy/forest is amazing and hope they keep it.
Just only being here 10 months and so much going on with career and everything else besides urbanity, I haven't really had the chance yet to make a lot of friends here outside of work. But people seem friendly so I think that will come with time. A lot of my friends are in/from SoCal so I had gotten used to making the Chicago-LA jaunt a lot, especially in the winter-time, but here that's one more time zone to travel through and there isn't the imperative of traveling in the winter-time so we'll see how that evolves. That said, so far in I really like Atlanta so far. Abrupt close but my computer battery's almost dead lol.
You're skating. It not a few hours to the beach. Food scene is good but wish more of what all enjoy along Buford was evident in other pockets around the metro; lived in several metros and you find more than one notable cluster. Arts C+ - the investment in major culture centers (Opera house as an example) just hasn't happed. Public Transit, you know its nowhere near as good as metro Chi-town but that's the south in general. LGBTQ relative to most southern metros, its top 5 for feeling inviting as I recall not much open hostility. City itself has real good urbanity to it and the Belt Line is a great investment, maybe the best idea that has occurred in 25 years.
You're skating. It not a few hours to the beach. Food scene is good but wish more of what all enjoy along Buford was evident in other pockets around the metro; lived in several metros and you find more than one notable cluster. Arts C+ - the investment in major culture centers (Opera house as an example) just hasn't happed. Public Transit, you know its nowhere near as good as metro Chi-town but that's the south in general. LGBTQ relative to most southern metros, its top 5 for feeling inviting as I recall not much open hostility. City itself has real good urbanity to it and the Belt Line is a great investment, maybe the best idea that has occurred in 25 years.
Have you visited Duluth and Suwanee? Some of the best Korean and Chinese in the nation with Vietnamese, Thai growing. Nearby Cumming and Alpharetta is great for Indian.
Have you visited Duluth and Suwanee? Some of the best Korean and Chinese in the nation with Vietnamese, Thai growing. Nearby Cumming and Alpharetta is great for Indian.
Yep, there's a direct pipeline of transplants now from K-Town in L A. and Seoul. Korean folks love it here.
You're skating. It not a few hours to the beach. Food scene is good but wish more of what all enjoy along Buford was evident in other pockets around the metro; lived in several metros and you find more than one notable cluster. Arts C+ - the investment in major culture centers (Opera house as an example) just hasn't happed. Public Transit, you know its nowhere near as good as metro Chi-town but that's the south in general. LGBTQ relative to most southern metros, its top 5 for feeling inviting as I recall not much open hostility. City itself has real good urbanity to it and the Belt Line is a great investment, maybe the best idea that has occurred in 25 years.
Fair assessment, though I don't think that lack of a dedicated opera house is really a strike against the metro area, as they're really not common in major U.S. cities, and newly constructed ones seem especially rare. Besides, views and acoustics at the Cobb Energy Center, where the Atlanta Opera resides, are very good; for all the Fox's charms, and they are many, its acoustics and sightlines aren't very good, especially for something like an Opera, because it's just too cavernous. And though I never visited the Civic Center (the Opera's last home before Cobb Energy), I have never heard it held in particularly high esteem. Atlanta Symphony Hall's acoustics aren't great, either, though the ASO itself is great. I've been here long enough to remember when the ASO was on the verge of getting a new concert hall designed by Santiago Calatrava. That would have been something (though it probably would have been plagued by cost overruns and engineering debacles, like so many of his other admittedly beautiful projects).
I have to admit that I don't really share the general enthusiasm for the dining along Burford Highway, in large part due to the fact that a significant proportion of the cuisines featured there tend to be pretty heavily laden with cilantro, and I can't stand the stuff. That's no one's fault but my genes, though, and I can see the appeal if those cuisines are up your alley. But I will say this - I really don't think you need to go to Burford Highway to find interesting food. There are plenty of interesting restaurants in town, ethnic and otherwise, and many of our other suburbs also feature some great choices - Persian in Sandy Springs and Alpharetta, the metro's best French bakery and a tiny but nationally acclaimed restaurant in Marietta, great Jamaican in a virtually abandoned shopping center on Old National Highway... There's plenty of good stuff to be had.
Aside to OP: Glad to hear you're enjoying it so far. I think your assessment is good. Keep exploring - there is still a ton of great stuff you've yet to see!
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