hello,
my husband 2 kids and myself are thinking of moving to ga. we like the atlanta area, but don't want to live in the city. we are also pretty liberal in our thinking. will we feel out of place in gwinnett cnty? is there a better place for us near atlanta?
thks in advance,
kerry

Well, you would have Ralph Reed as a neighbor if you move to Gwinnett.

The most liberal areas of Atlanta are inside the Perimeter. Decatur is a great place to live. I was there this weekend when they had music on the square. It was great seeing all the families bringing in chairs and treats to enjoy a concert on the square.

Did you know it is against the law NOT to own a gun in Kennesaw? (Cobb County)

we were looking at kennesaw until we saw that. we thought it was a joke at first!

Starrsville, for heavens sake, what do they do to you if you do not own a gun, throw you in jail? Also, how do they know whether you own a gun or not? Does the city government make annual house inspections? How very strange!! Well the old saying must be true, truth is stranger then fiction.

WADR, wouldn't you consider living in some prime "blue" areas:

Hawaii (!)
SF
Seattle
DC (although the exburbs are pretty "red")
Boston
etc.

Loveitaly!

No, it is not an enforceable law, but a law nontheless. It was passed to make a point.

It's an interesting county. Olympic events were pulled from Cobb County when the county commission passed an anti-gay resolution in 1993 condemning the gay lifestyle as incompatible with community standards. Never mind, that the commission chairman's daughter was a lesbian. Guess the county commissioners wanted to make it illegal to be gay in the county.

The most recent bruhaha is the stickers attached to every biology textbook stating that evolution is a theory, not a fact. To date, the stickers have been found to be unconstitutional, but they are still on the textbooks.

Nope, if Kerry is looking for liberal, she probably doesn't want Cobb County either.

i'm actually in md right now. we want to be closer to our family in jax fl. sorry about the no caps, holding a baby while i type. so is all of the atlanta area off limits to liberals?

No, we are here and all about the metro Atlanta area. Please move down - we need more!

I prefer North Fulton to Cobb or Gwinnett and anywhere inside the Perimeter is more liberal than elsewhere.

I live in Gwinnett County. While it is cnosidered conservative, we have lots of liberal neighbors/friends. We love living here.

Is there an area that we should avoid? I think we have it narrowed down to Gwinnett or Forsyth county because of the schools. We'd also love to live near a YMCA.

Yes, please move down!!! Plenty of us here and plenty of room for more! I'll be daring and say that we're moving to Cobb county (for the taxes - sorry guys, but hey, maybe the more of us who move there will be able to make some changes...) closer in to the Vinings area. There are others who are doing the same. But Starrsville has good recommendations. Cheaper (and more for your money) housing is outside the perimeter, up north in Roswell and Alpharetta, more in-town offers lots of diversity but it's also more expensive. Do you know where you'll need to commute, if anywhere? This is important. We can talk politics after!

Move down and shore us up. Some friends who were NEVER political became very much so to fight the foolishness going on in Cobb in the 90's. I got weekly play by plays.

The Johnny Isakson Y in Alpharetta is very nice, but there are good ones in Gwinnett. I don't know that Forsyth has Y's yet...maybe they do.

Syd is right. Your #1 consideration should be your commute. Traffic on the north side can be hell. There are NO good routes going east-west and 400 is always clogged. 5 miles anywhere can / will take 20 minutes on the north side, so choose carefully and take trial runs to job, school, baseball, etc. before you decide where you buy.

A good friend is Ralph Reed's neighbor and friend...and we still speak to each other. We just never talk politics

Hi Starsville, thanks for your explaination. After I posted my question I got thinking and realized that years ago when we had neighbors who were born and raised in Switzerland that they told us that it was the law there also that every household (or was it every male?) had to own a gun. It was the law. Do not know if this is true any longer.

I loved Atlanta when I was visiting there last month, to be with OWJ. But sure know the traffic is a problem. Same for us that have to drive on I-80. It gets worse every year. Recently a report said it was one of the worse commutes in the US. Take good care.

And keeryfsu, I know this is not where you are planning to moving to, but if you want liberal, move to San Francisco!

my husband will be able to work from home, but will have to fly out every now and then. so we need to be kind of close to an airport. we have very young kids (5mths and 2 years) so we thought a new subdivion would be good.

Hi serryfsu, with young ones SF is not the place to move to. Housing cost are ridiculous. Not only in SF but all aroud the surronding areas. And schools in SF are nothing to brag about.

Have you thought of Porland OR? That is a liberal city, although they are having budget problems with their schools. Airport is very user friendly.

while I would love to move to the west coast..my husband has been pushing for seattle since we met, i don't want to be that far from family

Kerry, I sure understand. I am fortunate that I have family all up and down the west coast which is wonderful.

Kerryfsu,
Do you need to take public transportation to the airport (MARTA train runs from parts of Dunwoody, Decatur and midtown) or would you settle for a 15 minute drive?
Also, have you made a preliminary trip down to check out some neighborhoods? Gwinnett really isn't close to the airport.

Hi, kerryfsu. My husband has an office at home, and he also flies (averages once a week). It usually takes him about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the airport (in NON-rush hours). We live in the northern part of Gwinnett; I'm not sure I would want to send the kids to some of the schools in the southern part of Gwinnett.

There are KAZILLIONS of new neighborhoods in our area. Well, not really kazillions, but you get the idea. There's a YMCA about 10 miles from our house, but not sure about other locations of YMCAs.

We used to live in East Cobb County. They built a new Y there as we were leaving, darn. The schools are excellent and there are plenty of liberals, in spite of the County Commission. You just have to engage in the right activities and you will meet them.
All that said, have you considered the Research Triange area of NC? I also lived in Chapel Hill for awhile and loved it. Lots of progressive thinkers in NC.