Trouble in Paradise
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Broc or other Atlanta peeps
My parents are thinking of moving to one of the ATL suburbs. Being that my mom thinks a city larger than 200,000 people automatically means that armed thugs roam the streets looking to assualt "active adults", she wants to know where she can safely drive her Honda to the local Publix with a minimum amount of armed robbery and forceable rape.
In other words, where's a nice place for an older retired couple to live? My dad doesn't golf and my mom is prone to yelling at children to get off her lawn. They both reject the Old South thing pretty thoroughly, if that helps. Is there a suburb that makes you think "Gee, this is just like a small city in the Midwest?" That'd be perfect for them.
This is my siggy.
Re: Broc or other Atlanta peeps
First of all, how close do they want to be? I assume outside the perimeter (if you look at an overhead map, Interstate 285 draws a loop for truck traffic around ATL proper, and a lot of things are defined by inside/outside the perimeter). There are a lot of really nice "suburbs...?" an hour or two out, like Kennesaw. My FIL just moved to Ellijay, which is like that, but it's at least 2 hours outside the perimeter. In general, think North by Northeast. Southwest is where the airport is, and it's kind of sketchy.
The issue is, Atlanta itself is not old south at all, but the further you go the more Deliverance it gets, so you kind of have to find the sweet spot. There's a really cute little town called Jackson in North Georgia, which shares an exit with a massive weekend flea market and H & I were all, awwww, until we noticed the massive monument in the town square to the glorious confederate heroes. eeeep.
My ILs just moved to Marietta and they really like it. We went and visited a couple weeks ago and it was really nice. We went out in downtown Roswell and it was so cute!
I've heard Alpharetta is a nice place to live too.
Yep, Alpharetta is really nice, though the property there is at a premium since it's really close to the 85/400 corridor where a lot of the cushier tech jobs are (it's where we're planning on moving, yay). Marietta is kind of genteel southern, too. Roswell kind of starts to get 'city' though, imo.
Stick to Cherokee and Forsyth counties though. North Fulton is pricey as sh*t, and Gwinnett has a bizarre complex where they want to be like ATL proper so the taxes are out of control, but they're generally both nice places to live. South Fulton, Clayton and Douglas counties are kind of horrible.
Yeah, Forsyth County is supposed to be really nice. Also, MIL said if you move to Cobb County, you want to live in West Cobb, not East Cobb.
No, no no. There are some areas of West Cobb that are OK, but generally speaking East cobb is much much nicer.
Alpharetta is OK if you like really congested areas.
Lurker on your board, but I have to agree here. East is by far nicer than West in Cobb. Roswell and Alpharetta are other good options--traffic in Alph. is crazy though. Forsyth starts getting more "old south" as do the more northern counties. Your mom is probably going to yell her head off though in many of these areas since the suburbs are swarming with kids. There are some "active adult" neighborhoods--maybe she would be interested in those
I have a kid and am still the neighbor yelling at the boys to stop climbing my magnolia tree and teasing the dog 
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
Hmm. I think I have them backwards then. Whichever county Marietta is in is the one she said was better.
ETA: They live about 10 minutes from downtown Roswell, which I think is East.
Yep...they live in East
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
I grew up in metro Atlanta and East Cobb is a great neighborhood in terms of taxes, safety, and property value. The schools are generally very good, so there are a lot of kids. I'd say the same is true of any suburb in the metro area, though.
My parents live in East Cob near Sprayberry High, which has slightly older homes and is not as good of a school, so prices are more reasonable (you can get a single-family home in a decent subdivision for around 200k). It's convenient to Roswell, Marietta, and about 20-30 minutes from downtown.
South Forsyth is reasonable and nice, too. I'd avoid Fulton county for buying a place, since taxes are very high in comparison to other places in the metro area. My MIL lives in Roswell and it's very nice, but the taxes suck.
If your parents don't need to be near a city and are willing to be about 2 hours from the airport, Athens was Forbes #1 city for retirement. It is a college town, but if you live away from campus it's quiet, nice, and soooo cheap, but not redneck because of the university. The towns around it are pretty hick, though.