What It’s Really Like Living In Decatur Georgia

Let's talk about what it's really like living in Decatur, Georgia. First off, to understand what it's like living here, you really got to know where it is. Decatur is inside the perimeter. The perimeter is Interstate 285 and it goes like a circle around the city of Atlanta. So we often refer to the areas within the perimeter as being more like city-like or maybe more urban. And then all of the areas that are outside of the perimeter, they tend to be more suburban or obviously if you go like super far from Atlanta, more rural. And so Decatur is a suburb of Atlanta. It's not part of Atlanta. It's not a neighborhood of Atlanta. It's actually not even in the same county as Atlanta. Decatur is in DeKalb County and Atlanta is in Fulton County. But Decatur does neighbor the city of Atlanta. They are very close to each other. And it is certainly, Decatur is certainly inside the perimeter. So it has more of that kind of city feel. It has more of that kind of urban feel. And this is one of the highlights, one of the best parts of living in Decatur. What's up, y'all? My name is Victor with Atlanta Suburban Living. We put out videos every week about what it's like to live in Atlanta and the suburbs of Atlanta. Very often, the people who want to have that city feel, that urban environment, you know, they want all of the pros and all of the amenities of living in a city, but they don't want to live in the city of Atlanta. They choose one of the suburbs of Atlanta. But most of the time, if you choose a suburb of Atlanta, you're kind of like far from the city. And if you work in Atlanta or you're regularly in the city there, it can be kind of difficult to be so far and then have to deal with all of that traffic. Decatur is the city where you don't have to deal with that super long commute to Atlanta. If you live in a suburb like Decatur, but you still get all of that city kind of amenities and you have a much quicker commute to Atlanta. Yes, you will definitely have a lot of traffic still. You still are going to have your fair share of traffic there in Decatur. But the commute from Decatur to Atlanta is like 15 to 20 minutes. It's about five miles. And so it's still not that long, but you're still going to have to deal with like 20 minutes of traffic just to go five miles. In fact, Ponce de Leon Avenue would be the road that you would take mainly for the most part to get from Decatur to like Midtown. And so you would cut that commute down by a lot. You still would have to do a lot of traffic, but you're talking about a much shorter commute. And then when we talk about the city feel of Decatur, it still has that easy walkability. You're going to be able to walk to all of the shops, all of the restaurants. And Decatur has one of the best, one of the coolest like downtown city center areas. This is without a doubt one of the best parts about living in Decatur. Very often people who even don't live here, they will often come and visit Decatur for that eclectic downtown that you see there. There are so many cool shops, restaurants, locally owned places there in downtown Decatur that you can't find in other parts of Metro Atlanta. So if you plan on moving to Decatur or you just have any questions about what it's like to live here, feel free to call, text, or email me anytime. Thank you so much to everybody who has reached out. I'm always happy to help. Thank you so much for reaching out, for supporting the channel. It really means so much to me. But Decatur has a different kind of city feel than Atlanta. Atlanta, you kind of get that like typical international major U.S. metropolitan kind of city feel, but Decatur has this like different, like eclectic kind of feel to it. It is very unique. It is different than Atlanta. And this kind of like unique feel that you have here in the city is what draws so many people to this area. Now, is Decatur a family-friendly suburb? The thing about Decatur is that it's kind of like spotty. Like there are some parts of Decatur where there are, it's more of a family-friendly kind of feel. And then there's parts of Decatur that are maybe not so friendly. And so Decatur is a mixed bag. And this kind of comes along with being inside the perimeter. It kind of comes with being so close to the major Atlanta city. And so Decatur has certain parts that are great and certain parts that are not so great. But I mean, Decatur High School is an excellent high school, like a nine out of 10 or something like that. It's one of the best high schools in all of Georgia. And then many residents of Decatur would say that this is an excellent suburb, that it is very family-friendly. And while for the most part it is, and it is a safe city, there are certainly parts of the city that you have to be mindful of. And so it's not a city that I would feel any kind of like danger walking through there with my wife and kids. We would have no problem being in Decatur, walking down the street. It's a safe city in general, but keep in mind there are spots that it's not as family-friendly as the different parts of Decatur. And then because it does have that city feel, you are not necessarily going to be car-dependent in this city. You could totally own a car. If you plan on going far from Atlanta or far from Decatur, you would obviously need a vehicle. But to get around to like the schools and work and all of these things, neighbors and whatever else, maybe groceries, depending on what neighborhood you lived in, you wouldn't need a vehicle for these things. A lot of these things are very close to each other, very different than some of the other suburbs of Atlanta that are super far out. And you're talking about a 10 to 15 minute drive to the grocery store from home. Decatur is not like that. You can be within walking distance to many different things. You can be walking distance to downtown Decatur or to the school. Or if you worked super close to home, which is very possible in Decatur because it's a very big city with a lot of employers, then you wouldn't need a vehicle for that either. But again, to get to midtown from Decatur is about five miles down Ponce, and you're looking at about a 15 to 20 minute commute. So obviously it depends on where you're going and how much you're going to work or if you're working from home and these kinds of things. But in general, you're a lot less car dependent here than other suburbs of Atlanta. When it comes to outdoor space and like green space, one of the biggest parks would be Piedmont Park that's nearby Decatur. It's not in the city of Decatur, but it's close by. Again, maybe 10 to 15 minute drive from the center of Decatur. Piedmont Park is one of the largest parks in all of Atlanta. And so it's kind of maybe like Central Park in New York. It's kind of like a very big green open space surrounded by all of the buildings. Again, it's similar to Central Park. It's not exactly the same, but it is kind of similar in that it is a big park within the city limits of Atlanta. And so this is one of the best options if you're living in Decatur and you're looking for that kind of green space ways to get outside. Also, the Beltline, the Beltline is similar to how Interstate 285 goes around the city for vehicles. The Beltline is for pedestrian traffic and it almost goes around Atlanta. They may have completed it, but the intention of it is to go all the way around in a big loop. And so you can walk the Beltline, ride bikes on there. Obviously, they have those like scooters and stuff that you can rent on there as well. But this is all connected to like neighborhoods and restaurants and grocery stores. Even you can take the Beltline to get to all of those things. And so this is a common way for people to get outside when they live in Decatur as well. In general, the feel of Decatur is a very mixed bag. As you can imagine, within the city or within the perimeter, you have a very different kinds of lifestyles here in the city. You can find a little bit of anything that you're looking for because Decatur is such a big city and you can within the city limits and being so close to Atlanta, there are families, there are single people, there are retired people. There are all kinds of different people living in this area. And that's certainly one of the highlights of being here in Decatur. You have a very mixed demographics, mixed races. You have a different ideas and different kinds of cultures represented here in Decatur. And so this is obviously one of the things that many people are looking for. They don't want to live in an area where it's like all one demographic and you're getting the same thing over and over. Decatur is very different from that. Decatur is an area where you get a completely different viewpoint, all kinds of different viewpoints here in Decatur. And so this is certainly one of the best parts of living in this city. Now, there are definitely some downsides to living in Decatur. Any city would have downsides. And so it's important to really talk about what those downsides are. If you're planning on relocating and like moving everything to a new city, you really want to know what the good and the bad are of that city so that you can make an accurate judgment about whether or not it's worth moving to that city. And so there are definitely some downsides to living in Decatur. And I've made an entire video where I went over the pros and the cons of living in Decatur. You can check out that video here. I'll see you in the next one.