Settling down downtown
When I started this blog two years ago, my wife and I were looking for a place to settle down with our kid. Our options: find a neighborhood in Atlanta we can be happy with or move to another city.
Looking for a walkable, transit-connected neighborhood to suit our preferences, we had tried out Virginia Highland for a couple of years, followed by another couple of years in Brookwood. Neither of those were as pedestrian friendly as we wanted. MARTA train stations were too far away, bus service was unreliable in the traffic, sidewalks were in bad shape, and major roads (like Ponce and Peachtree) felt unsafe to cross.
Though ready and willing to move to one of the great urban neighborhoods we’d visited in other cities, we decided to give Atlanta one last chance before focusing on a move.
With the help of Walkscore, we picked the most pedestrian-friendly place we could afford: the Fairlie-Poplar district of downtown. We rented a condo in the Healey Building on a two year lease. At the end of the two years, we’d know if we could be happy in Atlanta.
This afternoon, we put our decision down in writing in a law office. We bought the condo we’ve been renting. Our family home is in downtown Atlanta — this is where we’re settling.
Photo by Instagram user zacharylong
