Small town feel near Atlanta? Possible??? (Columbus, Alpharetta: low crime, house, established neighborhood) - Georgia (GA) - City-Data Forum

brittabake · 07-06-2007, 01:33 PM

My husband and I currently live in Tampa, FL with our 2 year old daughter. We are considering relocating to the Atlanta area when he finishes his residency in December. Neither one of us wants to live in the "big city" but most of my family is in Ohio so I want to have access to a major airport. He's from Augusta, GA and he'd like to get back close to "home" but for several reasons, I don't want to live in Augusta. He would like to live in the country where as I am more attached to the sort of things I've gotten used to in Tampa like the zoo, activities for kids, symphony, shopping, festivals, etc. We both love to get outside and hike in the woods. I'd like more of a small town feel with access to the bigger city. I'd love to be able to go to the grocery store without fighting endless traffic. We hope to send out daughter to a private school when she's old enough. We don't want to live in a planned community with homeowners assocations dictating what we can plant or what color the house has to be. Low crime is very important...is that even a possibility around Atlanta? Living in Tampa I'm frustrated with the traffic so I'm wondering if the Atlanta area is a lost cause just based on that? He doesn't have a job offer at this point so I'm trying to find information on areas where he could start job hunting that wouldn't require a long commute. He will be an anesthesiologist and I don't know much about the jobs around Atlanta though there are plenty of listings.
I envision a nice established neighborhood with big trees, kids riding bikes, crickets at night, birds and hopefully no one giving me a hard time for being a "yankee"! Does anyone think any of this sounds realistic?
Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

sweettea1 · 07-06-2007, 03:14 PM

Will your husband need to be near a major hospital? I'm assuming yes, which means that you should definitely work on the job first and then find the "small town" community nearby. You may want to check out Athens, GA or even Madison, GA for starters. Atlanta does have towns nearby but if your husband is going to have to commute into the city you may as well live in a city (like Athens) that's smaller to begin with. If you're only coming into Atlanta for recreation then the hour commute won't be a big deal.

There's also a Northside Hospital 'branch' heading up toward the N. Ga mountains. This would give you access to areas like Blue Ridge, Ellijay and other great mountain and lake towns. Have you looked into jobs at all? I think this should be the priority. You can always find a smallish town atmosphere afterwards as they exist most anywhere.
Good luck!

itpgardengal · 07-09-2007, 06:04 PM

Check out Decatur, it is a really cool city right outside of ATL.

tsdon · 07-09-2007, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brittabake

My husband and I currently live in Tampa, FL with our 2 year old daughter. We are considering relocating to the Atlanta area when he finishes his residency in December. Neither one of us wants to live in the "big city" but most of my family is in Ohio so I want to have access to a major airport. He's from Augusta, GA and he'd like to get back close to "home" but for several reasons, I don't want to live in Augusta. He would like to live in the country where as I am more attached to the sort of things I've gotten used to in Tampa like the zoo, activities for kids, symphony, shopping, festivals, etc. We both love to get outside and hike in the woods. I'd like more of a small town feel with access to the bigger city. I'd love to be able to go to the grocery store without fighting endless traffic. We hope to send out daughter to a private school when she's old enough. We don't want to live in a planned community with homeowners assocations dictating what we can plant or what color the house has to be. Low crime is very important...is that even a possibility around Atlanta? Living in Tampa I'm frustrated with the traffic so I'm wondering if the Atlanta area is a lost cause just based on that? He doesn't have a job offer at this point so I'm trying to find information on areas where he could start job hunting that wouldn't require a long commute. He will be an anesthesiologist and I don't know much about the jobs around Atlanta though there are plenty of listings.
I envision a nice established neighborhood with big trees, kids riding bikes, crickets at night, birds and hopefully no one giving me a hard time for being a "yankee"! Does anyone think any of this sounds realistic?
Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

You said you don't want a big city. Then Atlanta is not it. It's the biggest city in the SE.

tsdon · 07-09-2007, 06:31 PM

Atlanta has almost worst traffic in country in terms of commute time. Wrong choiice!

rpmgatech · 07-09-2007, 07:45 PM

Just live in Alpharetta, it is a clean nice place. It is Family USA. All that lives up there is families. And there are plenty of hospitals in that city for your hubby to get a job.

atlantagreg30127 · 07-09-2007, 08:25 PM

Here's the thing...

People suggest Decatur and Alpharetta, and yes, they do have MORE of a "smaller town appearance" to them than inner city Atlanta does, or many of its suburbs. However, there is no way around it - you're in the largest city in the region with some of the most congested and worst traffic in the country - period. If it puts it in perspective for you, a coworker just got back from a week long vacation in Tampa visiting relatives and one of the comments she made to me was, "I wish Atlanta's traffic was as good as Tampa's". So if you think it's bad there, well... that says something. Atlanta's crime rate varies from insane to not quite as insane, but per capita it's very high overall.

If you want smaller towns, then places like Dahlonega, Columbus (GA), etc., fit the bill, but they're not that convenient to the Atlanta airport, really. Cities like Chattanooga however, are very nice. Chattanooga has lots of stuff to do being a tourist town, but traffic is manageable compared to Tampa or Atlanta, crime is much lower, and they do have an airport (though not a major one). If you do desire "big city" things, then Atlanta is just under a two hour drive south of there.

KevK · 07-09-2007, 08:58 PM

Covington or Woodstock

brittabake · 07-12-2007, 11:14 AM

Thank you all so much for your comments. It has been very helpful.

snapdragon · 07-12-2007, 07:41 PM

Pine Lake! Pine Lake! It is right outside Decatur which is right next to the city of Atlanta, it's on the east side of Atlanta.

My husband did his residency at Emory and we wanted all the same things you listed. We LOVED Pine Lake! We lived there for 4 years and it was awesome. I loved my neighbors and felt VERY safe inside the neighborhood. (It's really a city)

Since you said you would be sending your daughter to private school, I think you would enjoy this city.

Good Luck with his residency. We are finally finished and he is about to start working. If you have any other questions feel free to pm.
p.s. We did fellowship in Cleveland, so I've been to Ohio.