ATL for Michiganders

May 14, 2007 10:45 AM

[Atlanta Filter] Where should two mid-twenties kids who love rock and roll and museums and books and indie films live in Atlanta, GA?

My fiancee will have his third interview with Cartoon Networks in Atlanta for its T3 internship program in the next week or two. I'd like to be proactive and look for apartments so we're prepared if and when he starts the program in July.

However, we know absolutely nothing about Atlanta. Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, yes. Atlanta, no.

Here's what we know:

1. The studio where he'll work is at 1050 Techwood (Atlanta, 30318). I think this means that he'll be working in Little Five Points.

2. We can afford about $600-800 worth of apartment.

3. We're fine with public transportation and very small apartments.

4. I have checked rent.com, apartments.com, and the AskMeFi post about Atlanta housing.

Here's what we don't know:
Where should we begin to look?
What's safe and not safe?

posted by santojulieta to work & money (19 comments total)

Some links for you:

AskMe post about Atlanta housing. This offers us a little help, but more specific links would be super helpful.

This is the location of the studio. As far as I can tell, google maps lists it in L5P.
posted by santojulieta at 10:50 AM on May 14, 2007

You'll want to live in L5P. It's where the 'cool kids' are. Also, you'll want a car. Public transportation in Atlanta not only sucks, but is a little sketchy apparently.
posted by greta simone at 10:54 AM on May 14, 2007

Check out Little 5 Points, and Midtown. Little 5 Points is cool, but a little juvenile at times. Midtown is conveniently located, especially if you have a car. It's close to a lot of venues for shows.
posted by crackingdes at 11:03 AM on May 14, 2007

I work in 1060 Techwood at Turner. It's not in Little Five Points, but in Midtown (near Georgia Tech). Your map points to Marietta St. The closest MARTA station is the Midtown station. Nearby neighborhoods are Ansely Park (between Peidmont Park and the High Musuem of Art) and Virginia Highlands (there's a Landmark theater there which shows indie films and hosts the Atlanta Film Festival - this area just got its first Trader Joes too). Both are kind of ritzy, but there are affordable apartments. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment in Ansely and pay about $950. Check Craig's List and the apartment listings in Creative Loafing.
posted by Constant Reader at 11:08 AM on May 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Little Five or nearby Virginia Highlands.
posted by JacksonEsquire at 11:16 AM on May 14, 2007

I missed the safe/not safe portion of your email.

We moved to Atlanta from Boston about a year ago. Our first apartment (across from the very first Krispy Kreme) was on Ponce de Leon Ave (known mostly just as Ponce). We didn't have a car and our friends had told us the neighborhood was fine. This was not true. We dodged zombified crackheads and prostitutes daily. The building across from us was a minimum security prison release house and trash littered the street. Not exactly my idea of safe.

There's a ton of gentrification/rebuilding going on here. Many neighborhoods have both good and bad sections. A good book to pick up is the NFT (Not For Tourists) Atlanta guide. They also have a website with PDFs. It shows a breakdown of each Atlanta neighborhood complete with sarcastic yet realistic commentary.
posted by Constant Reader at 11:16 AM on May 14, 2007

Little Fives

Cabbage Town

Reynolds Town

All affordable, up and coming, and for the most part, good places to live and work without horrendous traffic. It will be very difficult to live in ATL without a car, although there are major improvements coming within the next five to ten years.
posted by kosem at 11:21 AM on May 14, 2007

First, 1050 Techwood Dr. NW is not the same as the Turner Networks map link you posted. The former is north of GA Tech, the latter is in Five Points, both of which are distinct and distant from Little Five Points.

Second, I really have to disagree with greta simone and crackingdes re: L5P. It's cool if you're 17, but if you're in your mid-20s, it's probably way too juvenile. It's a lot like Philadelphia's South Street or NYC's St. Marks' Place, if you're at all familiar with either.

After conferring with my girlfriend (an ATL native), we can't really think of a great place for people like us (and, by extension, you, as we're both mid to late 20s indie-rock-and-film types) in Atlanta. Athens is great, but it would be ridiculous to commute back and forth. Virginia Highlands would be great, but is probably way too expensive.
posted by The Michael The at 11:21 AM on May 14, 2007

Good luck to your fiancee by the way. Turner is a great place to work and the Techwood campus is quite nice.
posted by Constant Reader at 11:24 AM on May 14, 2007

The link above isn't in Little Five Points, but downtown, although they are kind of close to each other...
Good Neighborhoods in your price range:
Inman Park, Candler Park, Poncey-Highlands, Parts of Edgewood and Old Fourth Ward, Midtown, Cabbagetown
greta simone is right, public transportation is a joke, but if you live close to where you work, you can get by on a bike and using Marta for the most part although trips to the grocery store might be tricky...
Every intown neighboorhood has its share of car break-ins, petty theft, etc...but for the most part, I feel safe in most of these neighborhoods...Just use common sense and if it seems sketchy, it might be...
posted by priested at 11:28 AM on May 14, 2007

Little Five Points is a basically a collection of hippie stores, not necessarily a neighborhood you'd want to live in.

I'd check out East Atlanta Village, but apartments might be more plentiful around Cabbagetown.

The difference between a cool, funky area and a scary, dangerous area can be a matter of a few blocks, so you'll want to check the place out in person first, if at all possible.
posted by designbot at 12:09 PM on May 14, 2007

Second designbot. EA Village is a really cool area with lots of character. PriestD also gets a second. Any of those areas have good and bad sections but if you have common sense, you'll be fine. Lot's of chancge going on in Atlanta, great place to live and work!! Good Luck and Welcome Ya'll!!
posted by pearlybob at 12:44 PM on May 14, 2007

Working at the Cartoon Network building is accessible MARTA trains, at the Midtown station. But it's not *that* close to the station -- probably a 10 minute walk (and over a main highway to boot). In the summer, that will be a sticky-hot walk, though it is do-able. You are allowed to bring your bike onto MARTA at all times, so that's another possibility.

But since you won't work directly across from a MARTA station (don't feel bad, almost nobody does), I think you guys need to consider having a car in Atlanta. Atlanta does have all of the things you mention: there are 3 indie movie theaters, some cool bookshops, and lots of great rock-n-rolly-type music clubs (of all types), but no one neighborhood has more than a smattering of each. So to enjoy all that atlanta has to offer, you'll need a car. And it
'll be an added bonus that your finance won't arrive at work all sweaty.

Other posters have mentioned GOOD neighborhoods. Or at least mostly so. You can find a 1 bed in those hoods for under $800 but going down to $600 will put you in a less than charming spot (at least from the outside).

GOOD Neighborhoods in Atlanta (close to CN)

Ansley
Midtown
Atlantic Station (not in it but surrounding it)
Inman Park
Candler Park
Howell Mill Rd / 75
Smyrna (only 10-15 minute drive into CN, but at the Perimeter -- so MUCH less culture and hipness)

CHEAP Neighborhoods in Atlanta (close to CN)

Homepark (aka "Georgia Tech Student Ghetto")
Luckie Street / Centennial Park (though this is not as cheap as it used to be... this is the neighborhood just south of GT)
GSU / 5 Points (above posters are right -- 5P is not L5P)
Edgewood
Kirkwood
Grant Park

Atlanta is generally safe, though it's a big city with a wide SES spectrum, so there is crime. There are breakins in Homepark with some regularity, as well as a smattering of muggings and the like. Other neighborhoods are similar -- it's where in the neighborhood you go, not where you are.
You say you've been in other big cities so I'm sure you'll be fine -- it's nothing as bad as Chicago (I lived on the southside in hyde park as a student) in terms of feeling unsafe. However, I'll give the following bounds on where you should live, based on where you'll work and that you're looking to stay safe: There is a perimeter "ring road" in atlanta, 285. There are bisectors of that circle - 75/85 and 20. Stay in the upper right quadrant. That's where all of the hipsters are, except now it's gotten pretty pricey in much of this quadrant so the hipsters are pioneering into the lower right quadrant as well (but only just into -- so within a couple of miles of I-20).
posted by zpousman at 1:01 PM on May 14, 2007

Thirding EAV and/or Cabbagetown. Little 5 Points has basically devolved into an Alterna-teen Epcot Center.
posted by spilon at 1:05 PM on May 14, 2007

Look for something near the Candler Park/Edgewood MARTA station. That’s in Dekalb County, where property taxes are lower, hence rent should be more affordable. It’s only about a mile or so from L5P and EAV, where you’ll find the music venues The Variety Playhouse and The Earl. You’ll also be only a couple of miles from Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market, where you’ll find the cheapest produce and the most variety of pretty much any place in Atlanta.

You can get around in a limited way by MARTA, probably well enough to get to work. I know there is also a MARTA shuttle that visits the Kroger/Target/Lowe’s shopping center in the Edgewood area, so you may be able to do your shopping that way, as well.
posted by ijoshua at 1:14 PM on May 14, 2007

I have a friend that goes to Ga Tech and lives in Midtown off of Howell Mill Rd. on Defoors Ave.
It seems to be a nice enough neigborhood with cheap rent.
posted by ijoyner at 1:41 PM on May 14, 2007

Check out MetroPoint lofts or nearby (Howell Mill and W. Marietta). I think a lot of GSU and GT students live there and they have free shuttles to MARTA. You'd be on a couple of MARTA routes and walking distance from the GT shuttles (free to all). It's walking distance to shopping, restaurants, live music (Compound, Northside Tavern).
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:51 PM on May 14, 2007

Agreed with those that say Little 5 Points is not what it used to be. "Alterna-teen Epcot Center," as spilon says, is just about right.

I would recommend Poncey Highlands, but far enough away from Ponce that you wouldn't get the crackhead prostitutes, and near enough to Piedmont Park that you could easily go walking or jogging. This would put you walking distance from Midtown which has good restaurants, and near to the shopping centers on Ponce. Without a car, you could get away with a bike with big saddlebags for grocery shopping in this neighborhood. There's a Whole Foods.
posted by hazyjane at 5:05 AM on May 15, 2007

Decatur stays open later
posted by clunkyrobot at 9:45 AM on May 15, 2007