Hi Soror. Wow, that's interesting with the vouchers and all that. Do you think that Dekalb county has taxes, etc. that are much less than in other counties in the Atlanta area such as Fulton and Cobb? I was looking at the tax rates (by city) and some of the Dekalb county cities actually seemed to be a little higher than Fulton, Cobb (Marietta) and about on par with Fayette county. I don't know if I was looking at the wrong table. It was some kind of millage?? table as I was trying to figure out, if I moved to Atlanta, the best cities to move to in terms of taxes, services, prices, appreciation, etc.
Perhaps the media is targeting the area as you said. I have just always been surprised that I hear about Dekalb county alot when I would think that I would hear about Fulton county as much or more than Dekalb county as Fulton encompasses the actual Atlanta inner city, where I would think more crime would take place.
Atlanta isn't a bad place and I may have a few offers there now. However, as I mentioned in another post, another one of our sorors has been trying to get a job as a teacher or counselor in Atlanta for months now and can't obtain an interview - and she has two masters in education, etc. and works in higher education now in another state where she lives. I really feel like, when it comes to stuff like teaching, maybe the market is just saturated from all of these people that are flocking to Atlanta in droves like 40 going north (or south in this case - lol). It's just that I am always a little perplexed at why people think it's the promised land. It's cool and thanks for the insight.
SC
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChanelLover
Soror, I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this. 
When I was growing up, we did NOT have as many problems has we do today. I have noticed that there seems to be more crime in Dekalb Cty. After speaking with my mother about this on several occasions, we have some to this conclusion: as you may know, the City of Atlanta and Fulton County have gotten rid of the "projects", in turn they get these Section 8 vouchers, and I mean droves of them have moved to Dekalb.(Don't get me wrong I have nothing agaist lower income people). There has been a noticable change in the dynamics of Lithonia. I do think that we are getting a bad rap. It seems like the news in ATL will pick a county, for about 2 months and tell everything that is wrong with that area, like crime doesn't exist somewhere else.
As far as the housing the main reason people are directed to Dekalb is simple. Property taxes are fairly cheap, public works are pretty good, the schools aren't the best in Georgia, but Georgia schools aren't all that great to begin with; but there are options such as charter schools, optional transfer programs, and magnet programs. You can get a pretty nice house for around $250k with some yard.
As far as the job market, I was just going off of personal expierence. I had a cousin that graduated from Emory last year and had a very very good job offer before even graduating.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Atlanta is the end all be all. After graduating in December, I'm moving to D.C. for grad school. I just think that things may be a little easier here for African Americans, than say Miami. From what I've heard, which I may be wrong, most Blacks in Miami are poor, and if you are not Cuban then its hard as he** to make it. |