Has anyone in the Atlanta area moved from southern california to there?

I can only say ditto to almost everything that Meredith says. We lived in Redondo Beach (just a little south of LAX) for four years and had no problems. But, we've lived in a small town in central Florida before moving here; then to Calif; and then back again, and thank God we've never had the crime experiences that Meredith has had. But, Meredith's next-door neighbors might not have either. For lack of a better way to say it, poop happens...sometimes to you, sometimes to the person standing next to you.

ok this answer totally depends. i've lived in both places. [1] if you're going to raise kids, and want a big, steady home for them, then ATL is the place. marietta/buckhead/etc. for upper middle class, you can find pretty good schools and pretty big mcmansions. [2] but if you already live in orange county, stay in orange county. some might say ATL is better, but here's a LONG list...of why ATL SUCKS. 0. NO in-n-out. this has got to be the most inhumane thing EVER. 1. NO beach. no SURF. no SCUBA DIVING. 2. NO good ethnic food. at least not compared to LA's Little Tokyo, San Gabriel, etc. etc. 3. lack of museums. ATL has like...5-8 good museums. LA has like 50. 4. the roads here suck. and traffic can be just as bad as LA's 405 or 110. but hte roads here SUCK. 5. you CANNOT buy booze on SUNDAYS. so, quality of life wise, LA is way better (which is why it's such a tourist spot and arnold sw. is the governor of Cali and not GA). if you'd like to live in a bubble, upper middle class, then GA is not so bad. earn good $, cheap big house, and then use the money later to move back to cali. oh yeah, this is RACIST, but here's the deal: [-] lots of black people and poor white people surrounding ATL. and in ATL. and they DO NOT keep to themselves. they always try to mingle with middle/upper class. sucks.

I lived in Alpharetta for nearly 10 years, and the worst thing that ever happened to me was having my car broken into in Midtown Atlanta, which is a neighborhood in Downtown Atlanta. It was primarily my fault though, as I left an empty laptop bag on the front seat of my car while I was at work. Anyway, I moved back to the Midwest about 3 years ago, but from what I remember, the part of Buckhead where people go out at night had become more crime-ridden over the years (I moved to Atlanta in 1998). Around 1999, I had become more of a fan of the nightlife scene in Midtown and the Virginia Highlands, two other neighborhoods in the city. Buckhead has some very nice restaurants, but some of my friends had even started calling it "Buckhood" back then because it was starting to attract some bad characters at night. I have only visited Los Angeles a few times, but it seems similar to Atlanta in some ways. The traffic seems really bad in both places. It's warm in both locales. And although more people are taking MARTA (the subway) in Atlanta now, most Atlantans are still not very interested in mass transit, which seems similar to the mindset in LA. If you are looking for a great place to raise kids and own a nice home, I would move to the Atlanta suburbs. The weather is nice, the housing is relatively affordable, and crime was minimal in the suburbs where I lived.