Only in the loosest sense of the word can Atlanta be characterized as a "city." Even at its intown core, Atlanta is and always has been a collection of distinct communities. Unlike other cities, the cultural and economic life of Atlanta has never been concentrated in a single hub, but instead it has been dispersed across many different areas. So while the region has certainly been sprawling at an unprecedented rate over the past 20 years, to some extent Atlanta has always been a place where the whole is somewhat less than the sum of its parts.

That said, those parts are becoming better and better every year, and particularly in the core "intown" area within Fulton and DeKalb Counties. While Atlanta’s 13-county metropolitan area continues to sprawl, the intown neighborhoods have become more desirable in recent years. People are tired of the traffic and complete auto-dependence that comes with a home in the outlying suburbs. Fortunately, intown Atlanta has many great options to offer those who are seeking a better quality of life: a rapidly growing number of lofts and condominiums in downtown, midtown, and prestigious Buckhead; and many lovely homes in historic, walkable communities.

Although Atlanta is notoriously forward-looking and eager to destroy any building that is older than 30 years, many of Atlanta’s historic neighborhoods have escaped this misfortune. In fact, intown Atlanta is blessed with an extraordinary variety of old homes and architectural styles. While real estate values are rising rapidly, Atlanta is still less expensive than San Francisco or New York.

The trade-off is that Atlanta does not yet have all the nearby amenities of these cities. Whether it is intown or metropolitan Atlanta, almost everyone who moves here brings at least one car with them, and all the extra costs that a car entails. Even in intown Atlanta, there are few residential areas within convenient walking distance of the nearest supermarket. Nonetheless, it is possible to live in Atlanta, and almost fully enjoy everything it has to offer, without owning a car. If you want to go car-free, or at least car-light, this chapter will offer you some tips on where you can live and what you can do.

This chapter divides neighborhoods into six categories: Downtown, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest; and other suburbs.  Within the city of Atlanta, city streets are officially designated as falling within one of these four quadrants.  Where neighborhoods straddle the east-west line, such as in Buckhead, we have chosen to place those neighborhoods in the "Northeast" category, since the eastern halves of those neighborhoods tend to be more walkable and more lively.  In placing suburbs within the quadrants, we have chosen the following criteria: (1) suburbs in DeKalb County are eastern, while those in Fulton and Cobb Counties are western, and (2) suburbs north of downtown Atlanta are northern, while those south of the city are southern.  For example, South Fulton suburbs such as East Point are in the Southwest quadrant (because they are south of downtown and in Fulton County).

In most of the second half of the 20th century, the north side (in city and suburb alike) was white, rich and booming (except for the city's industrial belt in the far northwest and a few eastern neighborhoods bordering the north and south sides, such as Inman Park and Virginia-Highlands).  The south side, by contrast, was poor, African-American and declining. 

But these boundaries have started to blur in recent decades. Over the past decade, many southside neighborhoods have started to improve-  especially areas in the southeastern part of the city, such as Grant Park and East Atlanta.  Northside neighborhoods, while still wealthy and majority white, are more racially integrated than they once were, as Atlanta's black community has become more affluent.   

We have rated these neighborhoods from 0-4 stars based on their pedestrian- and transit-friendliness. All of the neighborhoods have their virtues and disadvantages, but our sole interest is in how easy, or difficult, it is to live in them without having to depend on a car.

Buses: 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 21, 31, 42, 49, 55, 72, 74, 97, 186

Rail: Omni, Georgia State, Five Points, Peachtree Center, Civic Center, Garnett

Sidewalks: Always

For most of the 1970s and 1980s, Atlanta’s central business district experienced the slumps common to many downtown areas. But over the past decade, downtown Atlanta has made an impressive recovery. In downtown’s main commercial streets, the population more than doubled between 1990 and 1999. Downtown’s small number of high-rise condos is more expensive than ever, and once-vacant office space above businesses is being converted to loft housing. Downtown rents are as high as those in Midtown and Buckhead. Most housing in the area is in smaller loft buildings. To look for downtown housing, you can either walk around downtown looking for it or consult Central Atlanta Progress’s Housing Directory (available online at http://www.centralatlantaprogress.org/LivingHere_Housing.asp)

Safety is still a concern, but to a lesser extent than a decade or two ago. Downtown’s private "Ambassadors" – you will know them by their white helmets and friendly dispositions – have been instrumental in making the area safer and more enjoyable. The general rule in downtown Atlanta is that the safest areas are the busiest ones: Peachtree Street (the area’s commercial hub) between Baker Street and Five Points (the area’s transit hub) and the Fairlie-Poplar district, a low-rise area just west of Peachtree near the Peachtree Center rail stop. By contrast, the blocks near the Civic Center and Garnett stations are pretty deserted.

Each part of downtown, indeed each train stop, has its own personality.

Five Points is downtown’s traditional hub, and is still very lively during the daytime, with plenty of small street-level shops.

The Peachtree Center station is a tourist attraction in itself; it was carved out of solid rock, and the subway tunnel is made of gneiss rather than being paneled over with tile.  The Peachtree Center area is the part of downtown most favored by upscale law firms and similar businesses, and is less deserted than most of downtown after dark.

The Omni stop is dominated by the CNN Center and Centennial Park, gleaming, clean, and a bit sterile. However, the loft-dominated, once-industrial Castleberry Hill neighborhood begins a couple of blocks south of Centennial Park.

The area near the Georgia State stop is dominated by the Georgia State campus.

Civic Center and Garnett have fewer points of interest. However, the Garnett stop does have the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and there is a great deal of development planned around Civic Center, such as a children’s museum and new condominiums.

The best thing about living downtown is that a wide range of amenities are within walking distance – and because all three train lines meet at the Five Points rail stop, transit-accessible amenities outside downtown can easily be reached. The Five Points station has a transit store and maps for every bus route in the city. Downtown attractions include Underground Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park, and the city’s sports arenas (Turner Field, Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome). More information about these as well as other downtown amenities may be found in the previous chapter.

Adjacent to downtown, the Auburn Avenue district – once the commercial core of Atlanta’s African-American community -- is now experiencing a renaissance of its own. Just a few blocks east of Five Points, this area contains several noteworthy attractions, including the APEX Museum, the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. You can take a guided tour of the childhood home of Dr. King at 501 Auburn Avenue. The Sweet Auburn Curb Market at 209 Auburn Avenue has a range of tasty food. In addition to rail stations at Five Points and King Memorial, Auburn Avenue is served by the 3 and 99 buses.

NORTHEAST

Buses: 23, 36

Rail: This area begins a block south of the Arts Center station.

Sidewalks: Nearly always

Like several other intown neighborhoods, Ansley Park was developed as a streetcar suburb in the late 19^th century. It has some of the loveliest and most expensive homes in the city, along winding and thickly forested streets. In terms of walkability, and access to recreation, shopping and work areas, Ansley Park is near the top of the list among Atlanta neighborhoods (if you can afford it). In a neighborhood just a few blocks wide, Ansley Park has five small parks -- not counting Piedmont Park, a large park bordering Piedmont at the neighborhood’s eastern edge. The neighborhood begins just east of Peachtree Street and midtown, one of Atlanta’s major office corridors as well as its cultural center. Ansley Park is also a great area for bicycling, with wide streets, slow-moving cars, and a bike lane along its main road, Peachtree Circle (not to be confused with Peachtree Street).

Because the Arts Center train stop and the 23 bus run up and down Peachtree Street, auto-free Ansleyites have access to all of the amenities of Buckhead and downtown. The train can take you to downtown and lower midtown. During rush hours, the 23 bus consistently runs about every five or ten minutes between Arts Center and Lenox Mall, making bus use relatively convenient for Ansleyites and other residents along the Peachtree corridor.

Ansley Park’s major shopping area is Ansley Mall, a strip center at the neighborhood’s northeast end on 1544 Piedmont. However, Ansley Mall’s bus service is not as good as Peachtree Street’s: the only bus going from the Arts Center station to Ansley Mall, the 36 bus, stops running at around 8 PM.

Ansley Park does have a couple of imperfections from the pedestrian perspective. For a visitor, Ansley Park’s confusing maze of streets requires a map. There are no square blocks, no straight avenues, no apparent pattern to the area’s winding lanes, which invite even the most careful pedestrian to get lost. Second, the nearest commercial street, Peachtree, is not the most pedestrian-friendly commercial street; it is six lanes wide and its traffic moves quite fast.

Buses: 121, 122.

Rail: None inside city, though the Kensington stop is a block east of the Avondale city limits and the Avondale stop is seven blocks west of the city limits.

Sidewalks: more often than not, especially in city’s northern half near commercial center on Avondale Road.

Decatur and Avondale Estates are more similar than different: both are antique, pedestrian-friendly suburbs with downtowns dominated by narrow streets and small businesses, and residential streets that are just a short walk from those downtowns. Even so, the two suburbs do have significantly different personalities. Decatur is lively and diverse, with a much larger commercial area. Decatur also has rail service. By contrast, Avondale Estates’ commercial street, Avondale Road, is tiny and sedate, and the area is more socially homogenous and family-oriented.

Avondale Estates was founded in the 1920s by one developer, patent medicine millionaire George F. Willis. Because Avondale Estates reflects one man’s vision, its housing stock is far less diverse than that of most Atlanta suburbs: 88% of Avondale housing consists of single-family homes (as opposed to 65% in Decatur).

Avondale Estates’ most noteworthy feature is its commercial area on Avondale Road: a row of Tudor-style buildings created to simulate an English village. The city also has two parks reserved for the use of Avondale Estates residents.

There is a train stop called Avondale, but do not be fooled: it is not in Avondale Estates, and is in fact no closer to the commercial area than is the Kensington stop. Both the Avondale and Kensington stops are in somewhat seedy areas, so if you are going to Avondale Estates after dark you may feel safer using the 121 and 122 buses, both of which go to Avondale Road.

Buckhead's neighborhoods

This web page focuses on Buckhead neighborhoods east of Peachtree; Buckhead west of Peachtree (except for the area's western fringe on Howell Mill Rd.) is almost entirely dominated by single-family homes, has minimal bus service (except for the 12 bus running up and down Howell Mill), and has almost no sidewalks on residential streets (with a few magnificent exceptions such as Peachtree Battle Avenue).

Buckhead Village (3 stars)

Buses: 23, 38, 44

Rail: Buckhead Station

Sidewalks: Consistently

The center of Buckhead Village is at the intersection of Peachtree Road, Roswell Road and West Paces Ferry road. The Village extends along these roads and Pharr road in each direction and is bounded by Piedmont Road to the north and east and by East Wesley and West Wesley Roads to the south.

Buckhead Village is organized around the extant buildings that were built at Peachtree and Roswell Roads during the railcar era. Those on foot can reach a wide variety of shops, restaurants and bars from this intersection. Walking up and down Peachtree and along the side streets is safe if not pleasant, and numerous condos and apartments are very close to the action. Despite the number of cars that come through and to this area, most of the buildings are very close to the street and accessible to pedestrians. At night, because of the bars, Buckhead Village is one of the most active pedestrian environments in the city.

Automobile traffic moves slowly in the area because of the congestion and the number of traffic signals. On Peachtree Road, the lack of turn signals causes some conflict at the intersections and there is otherwise a lot of lane changing and jockeying going on. Most of the other streets remain relatively quiet.

For most of the past half century, Buckhead has been known throughout the Atlanta region as the ritziest neighborhood in the city. However, there are also some housing choices for middle-income types. There are quite a few apartments and a limited number of affordable condos in the immediate area of the village. All types of apartments can be found. Most condos are in the $300,000 to $1,000,000 range, but there are a few converted apartment buildings that go for $250,000 and under.

The Buckhead rail station is just under one mile from the intersection of Peachtree Road and Roswell Road. Although there is no rail station in the immediate vicinity of the village, bus service to the district is good. The main route is the 23, which runs up and down Peachtree frequently until midnight.

In addition to being served by MARTA buses and trains, Lenox also has a neighborhood shuttle called "the Buc" (www.bucride.com) that serves the neighborhood, running from the intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont on the south to Phipps Plaza on the north.  The Buc serves a variety of destinations, including the Lenox and Buckhead MARTA stations and the Lenox and Phipps Plaza malls. The Buc is free and runs from 7 AM to 10 PM, every 8-15 minutes.

Buses: 5, 6, 23, 27, 30, 33, 38, 39, 44 and 245 buses.  Also, the Buford Highway Royal Bus Lines bus (discussed in more detail in the Chamblee/Doraville section below) begins at the Lindbergh MARTA stop in South Buckhead.

Rail: Lindbergh Center Station

Sidewalks: Usually

South Buckhead is the area north of Buckhead Village, south of Midtown, and between Piedmont Road and Peachtree Road. On Peachtree, it runs roughly from the Amtrak station near Midtown to Lindbergh Drive and on Piedmont it runs from the I-85 underpass to Pharr Road. South Buckhead is not very well known among most Atlantans. In fact, the area is not usually thought of as Buckhead at all. When people think of Buckhead, they usually conjure up images of Lenox Mall, Phipps Plaza, the Buckhead financial district, and the very popular shops and restaurants of Buckhead Village. South Buckhead is often conceived of in terms of its constituent parts: Lindbergh Center and Peachtree Road. With respect to getting around the area without a car, it is best to talk about it in these terms as well.

The main transportation routes in the area are Piedmont Road, Peachtree Road, Lindbergh Drive and Peachtree Hills Avenue. Lindbergh Center MARTA Station is on the corner of Piedmont and Lindbergh Drive and is one of the busiest on the system. This is because the station is a bus hub, a commuter park-and-ride facility, and because there are many people who walk to and from the station. Peachtree Road is served by the 23 bus in this part of town. The Peachtree corridor in South Buckhead is a viable place to live in and use without a car because of the 23.

In general, the pedestrian environment is good on Peachtree Road and not so good on Piedmont Road. Peachtree Road, between Brookwood Station and Lindbergh Drive, is hospitable to pedestrians for a number of reasons. There are no major cross-streets and thus no daunting intersections. In addition, most buildings have a street-oriented presence and scale or are at least close to the street. The only drawback is that traffic moves a little bit quicker here than on other parts of Peachtree, but there are plenty of opportunities for signalized crossings. On Piedmont Road, between the I-85 underpass and Pharr Road, the roadway and the buildings are clearly designed for automobile travel and access. Crossing can be dangerous, but there are usually enough people coming to and from Lindbergh Center Station to alert drivers to the presence of people. The portion of Lindbergh that runs between Piedmont and Peachtree is far less hospitable for pedestrians due to the absence of sidewalks on most of this part of Lindbergh.

South Buckhead’s two major commercial districts are Lindbergh Center and the stretch of Peachtree Road from Brookwood Station to Peachtree Battle Shopping Center. The commercial development along Peachtree Road is heavily oriented towards restaurants and specialty stores and has little discount merchandise- facts that do not keep Peachtree Battle Shopping Center from being very popular and busy. It is between Lindbergh Drive and Peachtree Hills Avenue and is accessible by bus on the 23 or the 44. There are no other major shopping destinations along this stretch of Peachtree, but there are a few highlights to the south that can either be walked to or reached on the 23 bus.

The Lindbergh Center area, by contrast, has historically been more "big box" and discount-oriented, and has historically drawn shoppers from throughout the city. However, the Lindbergh area is undergoing redevelopment, and so may be unrecognizable in a few years.

Most of South Buckhead's apartments and condos are either on, are within a block of, Peachtree and Piedmont.  The majority of South Buckhead's side streets are devoted to single-family houses.  South Buckhead's single-family blocks vary dramatically in pedestrian-friendliness.  The blocks just east of Peachtree and south of Collier (generally known as Brookwood Hills) nearly always have sidewalks, and are among Atlanta's most desirable blocks.  Areas further north and west are less likely to have sidewalks.

Most of the houses in South Buckhead are fairly expensive by Atlanta standards. Even the smallest of homes are hard to find for a price under $300,000 and most hover around $500,000. Despite the cost of houses, the rental market and condo market in South Buckhead are quite reasonable compared to the up-and-coming "intown" residential areas just to the south. There is a wide variety of living options with regard to both price and quality. Lindbergh has very affordable places to live to the east of Piedmont and more expensive places to the west, all within a short walk to the station. It is host to several apartments and condos, and there are several residential projects under construction right around the station. In fact, the site of the station itself is now being developed as a mixed-use center with office, retail and residential buildings and should be completed within the next few years. To the west of Piedmont Road along Lindbergh Drive and Peachtree Hills Avenue there are numerous apartments and condos that have very good access to Lindbergh and to Peachtree Road. Peachtree Road itself offers many places to live. As a general rule, they get more expensive as you get closer to Buckhead Village and less expensive as you make your way south through Brookwood.

Brookhaven (2 Stars)

Buses: 25 (Chamblee only), 29 (Chamblee only), 33 (Chamblee only), 39, 70 (Chamblee only), 91 (Doraville only), 103 (Chamblee only), 104 (Doraville only), 124, 126 (Chamblee only), 132, Royal Bus Lines

Rail: Chamblee, Doraville

Sidewalks: Rarely

Most larger, older cities have a Chinatown: a small, tight-knit urban neighborhood dominated by recent Asian immigrants. Atlanta has nothing like that. Instead, it has Chamblee and Doraville, two sprawling working-class suburbs dominated by recent immigrants from Asia and (to a lesser extent) Latin America. Many Atlantans visit Chamblee and Doraville to soak in Asian food and culture. The Chinatown Mall (5389 New Peachtree Rd.), just a couple of blocks north of the Chamblee rail stop, contains two white-tablecloth Chinese restaurants, a food court with several fast-food Chinese restaurants, an Asian grocery, and a Chinese bakery. The restaurants are not limited to the Americanized foods available at Chinese restaurants throughout Atlanta, but also boast more exotic entrees like Mongolian venison.

The other major attraction in this area, Buford Highway, runs from Buckhead through Chamblee to Doraville, although the largest concentration of interesting restaurants and markets is at the Doraville end of the highway. Buford Highway contains too many Chinese and Korean markets, restaurants and bakeries to count, as well as the occasional Malaysian or Hispanic restaurant. Especially noteworthy are Little Szechuan (5091-C Buford Highway 770-451-0192), one of the area’s most interesting and best Chinese restaurants, Santo Domingo (5310 Buford Hwy., 770-452-3939), specializing in the foods of the Dominican Republic (including goat stew), and the Buford Highway Farmers’ Market (5660 Buford Highway, 770-458-2296), which is not a farmers’ market at all but a huge supermarket specializing in every manner of Asian and Hispanic food. Buford Highway is served by the 39 bus south of the Doraville rail stop, and by the 91 bus north of the stop. (The rail stop is south of the Farmers’ Market but north of nearly everything else.)

Nearly all of this area’s immigrant culture is east of the rail stops. West of the Chamblee rail stop is a small, slightly rundown district of antiques stores.

Although Chamblee and Doraville have ample public transit, the pedestrian environment is one of the worst in metro Atlanta. Buford Highway itself is a six-lane highway with almost no sidewalks. But many of its residents do not own cars and walk there, and have worn a dirt path through the grass. One or two blocks have shrubbery and hills where the grass should be, forcing people to either be very agile or risk it all by walking on Buford Highway itself. The residential blocks almost never have sidewalks.

In addition to being served by the 39 bus, Buford Highway also has a private bus service: Royal Bus Lines, which runs from the Lindbergh MARTA station to the Doraville MARTA station.  Royal's 20-seat minibuses run every 10 or 12 minutes from 4:30 AM to 8 PM, and cost a quarter less than MARTA buses.  Royal drivers pick up anyone they see waving in their direction, and make change for riders (unlike MARTA drivers).  But riding Royal has some disadvantages: the buses don't run as late, the fare does not include subway transfers.  Royal may expand service beyond Buford Highway next year.

Decatur: The Transit-Friendly Town (3 Stars)

Buses: 5, 87, 132, 150, 151

Rail: Dunwoody

Sidewalks: Rarely (especially on residential streets; more frequent on commercial streets)

One of the richest suburbs in Atlanta is Dunwoody, an unincorporated part of DeKalb County north of I-285, and bounded in other directions by the DeKalb county line. The median household income in Dunwoody is $89,252, about 20% more than that of Buckhead, Roswell or Alpharetta and about twice the regional median. However, Dunwoody’s average housing price is below that of Buckhead or Sandy Springs. That’s because Dunwoody has plenty of upper-middle class residents, but (unlike Buckhead and Sandy Springs) very few super-rich people with million-dollar homes. Dunwoody is the default choice for the executive willing to obey whatever his or her real estate broker steers them toward, a suburb of huge malls, cul-de-sacs, wide streets, heavy traffic and prestigious schools.

If you don’t live or work there, there is little reason to go into Dunwoody. Dunwoody’s major attraction is Perimeter Mall, one of the area’s largest regional malls (adjacent to the Dunwoody rail station), and the area around Perimeter Mall, generally described as Perimeter Center, is infested with "office parks" (that is, office towers surrounded by huge parking lots and long driveways). However, there are plenty of other malls closer to intown Atlanta (most notably Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza in Buckhead).

Dunwoody is not a friendly place for the pedestrian, but unfortunately, other parts of metro Atlanta are far worse. On the positive side, Dunwoody has some public transit, including the Dunwoody rail station and numerous buses, some of which run as late as 11 PM or so. Also, some commercial streets (and even some of the wider residential streets) have sidewalks. More importantly, many of Dunwoody’s sidewalk-less residential streets are often fairly walkable (at least for non-disabled people in good weather) because one can usually walk on the area’s lawns. By contrast, in other suburbs and in many parts of the city of Atlanta the absence of sidewalks usually forces people to walk on the street, because people let their trees and shrubs go up to the street.

On the negative side, Dunwoody’s population density is so low that many residential streets are miles from a bus stop, and the Dunwoody train stop, which should be a showpiece for transit-oriented development, is instead a pedestrian nightmare: once you leave the grounds of Perimeter Mall, there are almost no sidewalks nor housing within walking distance of the mall. So if you want to live in Dunwoody and use transit to reach your intown job, you must resign yourself to transferring from a bus to a train.

Buses: 7, 17, 34, 48, 107

Rail: Inman Park/Reynoldstown (2^nd stop from Five Points on East/West line).

Sidewalks: Present on all major streets. Pay close attention to where you are stepping at most places due to crumbling and uneven sidewalk surfaces.

Founded by entrepreneur Joel Hurt in the 1880s and surviving several threats of destruction, Inman Park is now a thriving historical neighborhood just 5 minutes from downtown (by MARTA rail). Having boasted one of the first streetcar systems in the nation, built in the 1890s and connecting downtown to Edgewood Avenue (where the trolley barn can still be seen), Inman Park continues to be one of Atlanta’s more transit-oriented intown neighborhoods. Located on the East/West rail line, Inman Park has many transit options. Hopping on the train at Inman Park/Reynoldstown station, you can be in Decatur in about 10 minutes and at the Five Points Station downtown in 5 minutes.

The neighborhood today is defined by North Highland Avenue to the west, DeKalb Avenue to the south, Freedom Parkway to the north, and Moreland Avenue to the east. It’s a relatively small area, but offers diverse living arrangements, from lofts and apartments to rental houses and $1.5 million mansions. The old Bass High School off of Euclid Avenue in the heart of Little Five Points offers attractive and hip dwelling space for the young professional. Walking around Inman Park is a joy in itself. Being a registered National Historic Place, it offers architectural nuances bound to activate one’s imagination. As you take in the sites, the lush tree canopy offers you plenty of shade. Be careful not to trip on one of the many crumbling sidewalks – this is a real problem on some streets. Though there is no "Inman Park," the walker still has plenty of greenspace to enjoy. Springvale Park, originally designed by Joel Hurt himself, exists right smack in the middle of the neighborhood.

Biking is especially easy in Inman Park. PATH cuts right through Inman Park, going from Freedom Parkway to the Inman Park/Reynoldstown rail station. In fact, this is one of only two examples where the PATH has been integrated with a MARTA rail station, offering a true alternative to using a car.

If you get a hankering for something other than history and shady lanes, Little Five Points – not to be confused with Five Points downtown! -- is a short walk from any place in Inman Park. Offering a wide variety of restaurants, shops, entertainment and eccentric people, Little Five Points adds a little edge to the otherwise peaceful neighborhood. On its southwestern edge, Inman Park has another colorful commercial district currently in its infancy, but showing great promise with its seed establishments: Dad’s Garage Theater Company (at Lake and Elizabeth) Johnny’s New York Style Pizza, the outstanding Italian restaurant Sotto Sotto, and Jaya Deva Yoga. Interesting and abandoned buildings in the area just wait to be transformed into the next hip café or boutique.

So if you’re looking for a convenient, transit-oriented, quiet and beautiful intown neighborhood to live, Inman Park could be the place for you.

Buses: 2, 10, 13, 23, 27, 36, 37, 45, 98

Rail: Arts Center, Midtown, North Avenue

Sidewalks: Generally

With many new office towers, condominiums, and trendy restaurants, Midtown has been at the epicenter of the recent intown boom. The potential for Midtown to be a dense urban center that is also a great place to live is being marketed to the hilt. The area is still waiting for pedestrian-oriented amenities other than restaurants and bars, but other types of retail are now in the works.

Midtown is a fairly large area that has as its center a fairly significant business district. To the east, west and north of this district are several neighborhoods that lie within the official Midtown boundaries, but are discussed elsewhere in this guide. For the purposes of this discussion, Midtown should be understood as being the business district. Georgia Tech is adjacent to this district on the west side of the downtown connector.

The business district is generally understood as two places, Upper and Lower Midtown. Upper Midtown is bounded by I-75/85 to the west, I-85 to the north, Ansley Park and Piedmont Park to the east and extends south to 10^th Street. Lower Midtown is the area between Monroe Drive on the east, I-75/85 on the west and North Avenue on the south.

Although somewhat staid, Upper Midtown offers a fairly good environment for the walker. Peachtree Street north of 14^th Street is one of the more pleasant walks around. This area boasts the Woodruff Arts Center and High Museum as well as several smaller theaters on West Peachtree Street. The restaurants and cafes in this area are mainly oriented toward the business community, and the street life here becomes considerably quieter after 5 p.m. and on weekends. West Peachtree and Spring Streets are both wide, fast and dangerous for people on foot. Cycling along the major corridors in Upper Midtown may be best left for the seasoned cyclists due to the speeds and the take-no-prisoners drivers.

Lower Midtown feels different from Upper Midtown for several reasons. There are more people living in this area, more historic buildings and a street grid that speaks to a more traditional notion of what a city neighborhood looks like. Lower Midtown is probably a little safer for the pedestrian because the streets are straighter, there are fewer hills and there is better visibility. Traffic is also a little slower and less intense in Lower Midtown. To date, there are few neighborhood-oriented services in Lower Midtown, but the area is changing quickly.

There are two rail stations that serve Upper Midtown: Midtown Station is at the south end on 10^th Street just west of Peachtree Street, and Arts Center Station is on West Peachtree Street just north of 14^th Street. Arts Center Station also backs up to the Woodruff Arts Center. Bus service to the district is not particularly good, especially if you are trying to move east to west. North-south routes are numerous and run along Peachtree Street, but it is usually easier to take the train when taking trips within Midtown and from Midtown to Downtown. The two main bus routes are the 23 and the 10, which leaves from Arts Center Station and continues south on Peachtree, terminating in downtown Atlanta.

Midtown is becoming a well-known center for nightlife. Bars and restaurants dot the landscape, ranging from the moderately priced to the extremely expensive. However, the only place that can boast a critical mass of food and drink establishments in Upper Midtown is the Crescent Avenue area near the Midtown MARTA Station. Midtown is also Atlanta’s cultural center, serving as home to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Opera, the Atlanta Ballet (all housed within Woodruff Arts Center) and several theater and dance companies. The most memorable theater in the city is the Fox Theater, a 1920s movie palace which now hosts plays and the occasional old movie. The High Museum is more memorable for its architecture than its permanent collection, but it does get the best temporary exhibits in the city. Other places of interest that can be reached without a car include Piedmont Park, Margaret Mitchell House, the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Buses: 16, 27, 36.

Rail: None

Sidewalks: Usually

Morningside is a lovely, quiet, and expensive neighborhood between Virginia-Highland and North Druid Hills. The area has a small commercial district of its own, at the convergence of Highland and Lanier Avenues. There are fewer rentals and condominiums available than in Virginia-Highland, and most houses range from $400,000-500,000. Morningside Drive in particular is graced with beautiful houses and sloping lawns. The area has lots of greenspace, and a prestigious elementary school that children can walk to. However, Morningside has fewer transit connections than many other intown neighborhoods.

Morningside begins on Amsterdam Avenue and its eastern border runs up Highland and Lenox Avenues, reaching its northern boundary at Wildwood Avenue. To the west, the area extends to Monroe Avenue. The area is predominantly occupied by single-family homes, and it is characterized by winding streets, giving it a slightly more suburban feel than the gridlike patterns of much of Virginia-Highland. However, the neighborhood is also very close to several commercial areas—Sage Hill (Briarcliff and Clifton), Ansley Mall (Piedmont and Monroe), and Cheshire Bridge Road—each of which it connects with through a separate bus line. Closer to home, Morningside has a classy two-block commercial strip of its own. You can buy some of the best bread and pastries in Atlanta at Alon’s. The area has several bars and restaurants. It also has one of the best video stores in the city, Movies Worth Seeing. Every Saturday morning, there is an outdoor market that features organic produce and other wares. Morningside also has some wonderful forested parks: the Taylor and Johnson Nature Preserve, Lenox Wildwood Park, and Sussex Park.

The most useful buses serving Morningside are the 16 (which runs to Virginia-Highlands and downtown) and the 27 (which runs to the Lindbergh and North Avenue stations). Both buses run until around 11 PM, while the 36 stops running a few hours earlier.

Buses: 2, 16, 46, 99

Rail Stops: King Memorial

Sidewalks: more often than not, but not always

Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, which is bounded by Dekalb Avenue on the south, North Avenue on the north, Boulevard on the west, and Freedom Parkway on the east, is one of Atlanta’s oldest neighborhoods—and one with a complex history. This area (named after a city council district it once encompassed) was first settled before the Civil War, by merchants and businessmen who wanted to be close (but not too close) to downtown. But when Union forces burned the city, the neighborhood went up in flames. The area was slowly rebuilt in the late 19^th century with a mix of Victorian and Queen Anne homes—and fell to the flames again in 1917, in an enormous fire that destroyed buildings in a 73-block stretch from Auburn Avenue to Ponce de Leon. Most of the Fourth Ward’s current homes were built just after the 1917 fire.

The Fourth Ward was a stable middle-class neighborhood for some years after it was rebuilt, but, like many intown neighborhoods, deteriorated in the 1960s and 1970s. To quote neighborhood activist Stan Hathcock (whose remarks have been memorialized in a plaque at the corner of Highland and Glen Iris Avenues), homeowners "lost touch with who lived next door, who lived down the street, whose house belonged to whom. Out of fear of retribution from drug dealers they began to seal themselves in their houses 17 to 18 years ago. In 1993, after construction of the new Freedom Parkway, crime escalated, drugs escalated and prostitution escalated. City services just evaporated. We became a no-man’s land."

But in the late 1990s, the neighborhood began to come back to life. A neighborhood association started a neighborhood watch and worked with police. To quote neighborhood association head Dave MacDonald, "The seniors down the block who have been hiding in houses for the last 15 years are coming out on their porches." Some dilapidated houses have been removed, others have been rehabilitated, there are loft developments on Edgewood Avenue and new small houses scattered among other streets. Today, new houses in this area sell for $300,000 or more, and old houses are no longer worthless, as the Old Fourth Ward moves from being a monument to urban decay to a more stable area.

The Old Fourth Ward is certainly not as consistently well kept as Virginia-Highland or Inman Park. For every new house in the neighborhood, there is an abandoned or dilapidated house with an overgrown yard or a vacant lot with no house at all. But there are enough bright spots to attract visionaries.

One reason that the Old Fourth Ward has only recently become attractive is that by and large, it is more of a single-use neighborhood than some other intown areas: except a few gas stations and convenience stores, the core of the neighborhood is dominated by small homes (mostly about 1200-2000 square feet). One exception is on Highland Avenue just east of Glen Iris, which has a few small shops. This street also contains a couple of other small shops. Also, there are numerous commercial streets on the area’s fringes (most notably Ponce de Leon on the north and Auburn Avenue on the south), and Atlanta Medical Center (formerly Georgia Baptist Hospital) dominates the area’s western edge.

Another neighborhood amenity is a multiuse trail that takes cyclists, walkers and joggers from Freedom Park near the Highland Avenue shops to Ponce de Leon Avenue, Inman Park and Candler Park. However, not all streets have sidewalks, an unfortunate omission for a neighborhood so close to downtown. Bus service in the neighborhood is excellent, and the Martin Luther King rail stop is only a few blocks from the neighborhood’s southern tip.

Buses: 5, 41, 85, 87, 128, 132, 140, 143, 148

Rail stops: North Springs, Sandy Springs, Medical Center, Dunwoody

Sidewalks: Sometimes

The term "Sandy Springs" is generally used to designate unincorporated Fulton County north of the city of Atlanta and south of the city of Roswell and the Chattahoochee River. Sandy Springs, like Dunwoody, is an affluent Atlanta suburb with very low population density. Almost all of the buildings in Sandy Springs were built after World War II, and most of them were built in the 1960s and 1970s. Sandy Springs is just west of Dunwoody, and the Perimeter Mall area straddles the two suburbs.

Sandy Springs contains a wider range of neighborhoods than some other Atlanta suburbs. The northern and southwestern fringes of Sandy Springs are very affluent. The blocks east of Roswell Road and inside the I-285 Perimeter are racially integrated (though still predominantly white) and somewhat less affluent, but the real estate values and income levels are still higher than the region’s norm. Sandy Springs is also slightly less unfriendly to pedestrians than other Atlanta suburbs; although sidewalks are not exactly normal here, they are less rare than in Dunwoody or other northern suburbs.

Although Sandy Springs is served by four rail stops, none of them border the kind of communities where you can fulfill all your needs without a car. Instead, each stop is devoted primarily to one type of land use. The part of Sandy Springs just west of the Dunwoody stop is devoted mostly to low-rise office buildings. The Medical Center stop is devoted primarily to medicine; it is surrounded by Northside Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital, and has little or no housing nearby. The Sandy Springs stop is surrounded by "big box"-dominated outdoor shopping centers. The North Springs stop is next to an apartment building (the Post Dunwoody apartments, 7150 Peachtree Dunwoody, 770-671-1590) and a small office park, but is not close to any retail stores.

If you want to live in Sandy Springs and take transit to work, your best bet may be to live near a bus stop, preferably in an area served by the 5 (which runs down Roswell Road in Buckhead and Sandy Springs seven days a week until after midnight, and terminates in the Dunwoody station) or the 85 (which serves the northern end of Sandy Springs, and runs just as late).

Rail: None

Buses: 6, 30, 33

Sidewalks: Sometimes (usually yes on LaVista, no on side streets)

Most Northern cities have cohesive European-American ethnic neighborhoods. But Atlanta has none, with one exception: Toco Hills.

If you aren’t paying attention, Toco Hills may look like a colorless 1950s inner suburb. But a closer look reveals what makes Toco Hills special: its status as the center of Atlanta’s Orthodox Jewish community. Orthodox Jews, to a much greater extent than the majority of American Jews, observe traditional Jewish dietary restrictions (which prohibit the consumption of pork, shellfish, meat that has not been slaughtered in a certain specified manner, and other foods not produced under rabbinic supervision) and rules requiring complete rest on the Jewish Sabbath (which runs roughly from sundown Friday to an hour after sundown on Saturday). The latter principle requires Jews to walk to synagogue on Friday night and Saturday: hence, Orthodox Jews prefer to live in walkable, cohesive neighborhoods. LaVista Road, Northeast Atlanta’s major "synagogue strip" (served primarily by the 30 bus, as well as by other buses that intersect with LaVista) contains three Orthodox congregations: Beth Jacob (1855 LaVista, 404-633-0551), Young Israel of Toco Hills (2074 LaVista, 404-315-1417) and Ner Hamizrach (1858 LaVista, 404-315-9020). Beth Jacob is the largest of the three.

This area also contains a kosher restaurant, the Broadway Café (2166 Briarcliff, 329-0888), a kosher food market, Quality Kosher Emporium, (2153 Briarcliff, 636-1114), a Kroger with a huge selection of Kosher products (at the corner of LaVista and North Druid Hills, 404-636-7409), and other Jewish-oriented businesses.

From a pedestrian/transit standpoint, Toco Hills is a mixed bag. On the positive side, the synagogues and stores of Toco Hills are within walking distance of each other, though commerce and housing are on separate blocks. LaVista generally has sidewalks between Briarcliff and North Druid Hills (though not east or west of these streets). On the negative side, side streets typically do not have sidewalks, but are nevertheless fairly walkable (by Atlanta standards) for the able-bodied because grass paths are available. Unlike other Atlantans, Toco Hills residents rarely impede pedestrian access by planting shrubs and trees up against the street, because they are often pedestrians too on Saturdays.

Bus: 2, 6, 16, 27, 45

Rail: None

Sidewalks: Usually

In the last decade, Virginia-Highland has emerged as one of the toniest Atlanta neighborhoods and a popular destination for nightlife and shopping. The area is named after its two main streets, which meet in the center of its commercial district. The area is bordered on the south by Ponce de Leon Avenue and, on the north, by Amsterdam Avenue, which marks the beginning of Morningside. To the east and west, the area is bordered by Briarcliff Road and Ponce de Leon Terrace. With its many bars, restaurants, and shops, Highland Avenue is often packed with pedestrians—as well as car traffic—on weekend nights. Built close to the street, the businesses lend themselves to the kind of window-shopping and strolling that is the hallmark of a healthy city.

Virginia-Highland has some young families as well as young, single professionals. Most of the residential buildings are single-family houses, with a smattering of apartment buildings and rental units. Real estate values have risen dramatically since Virginia-Highland’s days as a seedy intown neighborhood in the 70s and 80s. Its resurgence began about twenty years ago when the Georgia Department of Transportation tried to build a freeway through it connecting the northeastern Atlanta suburbs with I75/85. Virginia-Highlanders protested vigorously and successfully; the eventual compromise was the construction of Freedom Parkway. As a result, Virginia-Highland drivers enjoy the best of both worlds: easy access to I75-85 through Freedom Parkway, which begins on Ponce de Leon, without the kind of invasive, destructive road-building which has beset less fortunate neighborhoods in Atlanta and elsewhere. In addition, Virginia-Highlanders are only a few minutes away from the PATH bike trail.

Virginia-Highland seems to have become a victim of its own popularity, since it is now not only a lovely residential area but also a nightspot with a restaurant and bar scene that competes with Buckhead and draws residents from all over the Atlanta area. Indeed, the commercial development along Highland Avenue is noticeably slanted toward bars, restaurants, and boutiques, and somewhat lacking in the kind of diversity that would make it a 24-hour community. To purchase groceries, residents can walk to several stores on Ponce de Leon Avenue, including a small upscale grocery store in the historic Plaza Theatre arcade and a Publix supermarket.

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