RE: Is Atlanta bus friendly? Kinda depends on where you live. If you are in the metro area, then they have MARTA. Basically a partial subway system (which has it’s detractors, but hits most of the high points of town) and the MARTA bus system which covers more ground. You can check them out at MARTA
Last time I checked, MARTA did not go into Gwinnett county, which is popular to live in. As for biking, it is possible if you live in Buckhead and work in the downtown/midtown area or if you live and work in the same suburb area. Can’t think of trails specifically for that, but I imagine it could be done.
You generally would not bike to work unless you live in certain areas.
Around here, bikes are more for exercise. There are plenty of bike trails for exercise, but they do not lead much of anywhere.
As for buses, Cobb does have its own bus system, Cobb County Transit, it does link up with MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority). If you get on a bus in Cobb, you can ride to a switch over spot and get on MARTA for no extra money ($1.50 per ride on both busses and trains).
Trains take you from the West to the East and from the North to the South. Most of the malls are also on the bus or MARTA system as well as many of the downtown businesses.
Solomon Brothers is another Diamond Store and I think you can get to it via MARTA.
You would not want to move outside of Cobb or Fulton or the other counties of Metro Atlanta (Gwinett does not have MARTA or any bus service, but all the other counties do).
What kind of photos do you want? I will see if I can dig some up.
Jeffery
Whatever you do, avoid Mississippi and Lousiana like the plague. (With the notable exceptions of Jefferson Parish & Orleans Parish in LA)
I’m not sure why you even want to move. The last real winter we had was '83-'84 and it has been getting warmer, longer each year. We’re down to about one week of winter each year, now. (That week is usually pretty intense, but they get storms down South, too.)
Tom~
A quick glance through the paper says that $385 for a one-bedroom is gonna hard to beat, unless you go out of the city and even then it’s gonna take some work to find something and it’s not gonna be the Ritz.
However, salaries are probably also a tad higher here and other things can be lower, so you might well offset those higher housing costs with savings elsewhere.
There is some rapid rail and bus service, but it doesn’t cover everywhere and every time and this is a very car-based sort of place; it’s one of those “only losers take the bus” sorts of societies. And the town is full of lousy drivers, too; go figure.
Auto insurance tends to be higher also, not as high as say, New Jersey, but higher than it should be.
And . . . don’t know if this makes a difference to you or not, but it’s a “right to work” state, so the unions are toothless and not much help. You can be fired for no reason at all, anytime, no recourse. However, the place is slopping over with employers looking for workers, so unemployment is usually not a problem.
Hope this helps. You might as well come on; we get approximately 50,000 transplanted New Yorkers a year that come down here for something, fall in love and come back to stay. 50,000 Yankees can’t be wrong . . .
your humble TubaDiva
We elected Al D’Amato didn’t we?
tommn,I want a place where I don’t have to wear a winter jacket! You do remember last January? 
Thank you all so. I’d never thought of Atlanta before,but everyone seems to be promoting it. Its either that or NC. Maybe Texas. I’ll figger it out by next summer,y’all!
You are already using y’all, so you have to move down to GA.
Y’all would fit right in.
We could show you the sights Doc Jackson, Tuba, GregAtlanta, and myself.
Jeffery
I was hoping this thread was about oral sex.
sulks away
Sucks to your assmar.
I think Satan covered it pretty well.
I agree with everything in his post.
I also agree with what he said in not saying anything about certain areas.
Specifically, he mentioned areas all around non-coastal SC. Rightfully so–nothing of value here.
I also like southeastern NC (like Wilmington), and the Savannah and Brunswick areas of GA.
(minor hijack for you Atlanta folks: There is a BIG, BIG mall about an hour north of Atlanta in a place called Dawsonville. Really surprised me how such a big shopping center could be located in an otherwise small town–and STILL be packed with cars.)
If you don’t mind heavy traffic then I recommend Dallas. I grew up here and I love it. I spent a few years in B’ham AL and couldn’t wait to get back. There are lots of things to do here and the weather isn’t bad.
According to orangecakes: *I want a place where I don’t have to wear a winter jacket! *
The only places that warm are central Florida and points south. Although we don’t get much snow, most of the Sunny South does get plenty chilly in the winter. According to today’s paper, last night it got down to freezing in Houston, Birmingham and Atlanta.
When I decided I couldn’t take the Washington, DC area any more, I drove around much of the South checking out where to move to. I chose Raleigh-Durham, NC and haven’t looked back.
People also seem too like Charlotte (too conservative for me) and I’ve never heard anyone say a bad thing about Asheville.
Mjollnir added: I also like southeastern NC (like Wilmington),
As a person who lived there for four years–long, hard, difficult years–Wilmington is a nice place to visit but a lousy place to live. The cost of living is high, but salaries are low. Years ago Wilmington was NC’s largest city–now it’s around 11th. There’s a reason why so many people are voting with their feet…
Yes, it did get down to freezing last night, but by early next week the lows will be in the 50s.
I guess it depends on you idea of a winter jacket. I do not own nor need a parka, that I would likely need in Ohio or other places up north.
I own a windbreaker, a slightly heavier leather jacket and an over-coat. Not too bad. I would say.
Jeffery
Orangecakes, I was at my last client in Euclid from March '87 through July '99 and I think only two people there (250+ in the building) had ever seen me wear a jacket. My wife gave away my winter coat when we’d been married for 12 or so years on the grounds that she had never seen me wear it. (I admit, I do drive a car with a heater–very significant–and I do own a hooded sweatshirt.)
Tom~
I’ve been in Atlanta. Seemed pretty nice to me, if you can stomach the fact that Ted Turner also lives there and seems to own most of it. I rode MARTA and didn’t have any problems, though I was told that some people refer to it in a derogatory way. Then again, I’m a big guy and was with several other big guys; I might have felt differently otherwise.
I have never had any problems with MARTA. There are plenty of cops around patrolling the trains and stations. Everybody there is just trying to get to and from work and all that. We are just used to driving.
I do not see Ted around that much. He doesn’t actually spend that much time around Atlanta, his big ranch is in Montana.
Jeffery
DO NOT MOVE TO HOUSTON. It is the asshole of the universe, metaphorically speaking. I remember a certain pit topic abou the worst places to live in the US, and Houston was right down there in the ninth circle of hell.
I would also recommend staying away from the Carolina coasts. Regardless of your religious beliefs, I think some sort of higher power has made in eminently clear that that area is not meant for human habitation.
I reccomend Georgia or Northern Florida. One of my two most favorite places in the world is a smallish town in N-East Florida. Unfortunately, I refuse to tell you the name of that town- it’s growing too fast as is.
Well, how far south do you wish to go?
I live in Vero Beach, Florida, on the East coast (also known as the Treasure Coast because of all of the treasure wrecks found off shore). Aside from some hurricanes now and then – none of which ever do much in the way of damage to areas of the city located off of the heavily developed barrier island – the place is OK. Low crime. No major industries – not allowed. Kind of expensive to live in though, because of John’s Island - a very exclusive community for the very wealthy built on the barrier island and the Disney Resort being established not far from it.
Rental range from $375 to $400 for a single bedroom apartment. Rental houses start at around $400 and go up. Gas is high $1.28 for regular (the wise city fathers added a tax to it for some reason or other) electrical power is high, though power from the city is the highest. Power from Florida Power and Light in the county is lower. Average city bill for 1 living with a/c (a necessity) can be up to $195 a month. City water is high, though if you have a well it is much cheaper (iron water = a softener needed).
You can find Vero Beach online Click here:Vero Beach, Florida - Home Food prices are higher than in most places here in Florida. (Vero is just too damn expensive, but it is a safe community. Enforced restrictions keep out commercial pollution, though the local river gets hit now and then.) Winters are very mild and the rainy season often very rainy. Being tropical, everything grows like a weed and the climate is often very hot and humid.
Mark
“Think of it as Evolution in action.”
When I first moved to Atlanta the joke (somewhat off in my viewpoint now that I have been on it quite a few times) was that MARTA stood for Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta.
If you want to avoid air pollution avoid Raleigh–they have very bad ozone problems. I got asthma from living there. Traffic is horrible and rents are outrageous. I was paying $600/month for a 2 bedroom dump.
I’m in Mississippi now and love it, despite the previous post (I would flame him, but I’m a Mississippian and am not that rude 
). Nice climate, friendly people, beautiful countryside, and clean air. Tupelo, Jackson, the coast, and suburbs of Memphis are good places to live with fairly progressive people. Housing is increasingly expensive, however, and land prices are going out of sight due to investment in timberlands and city folks wanting to have hunting preserves. BTW, most people think of Mississippi as all Delta land–we have a varied landscape–from delta to prairies to bluffs to rolling hills to foothills of the mountains.