All the advice above is spot on, IMO. Where to live depends a lot upon your age, social style, and personal preference. I think you'll like ITP much better if you are in your 20's and like to go out until 4am every weekend. Clubbing in Midtown and living in the burbs just doesn't mix well together (who wants to drive 45 mins home in the wee hours of the morning?)
SPORTS I think Atlanta is the best hub for college sports in the country. It is a great blend of SEC and ACC schools and alums so you get a ton of active interest, TV coverage, chatter, and passion for those schools. Football is king.
WEATHER - It is hot and humid. You can get 90F and humid anytime between May 1 and Oct 1. I always find the nights to be the worst actually. So while it looks like you get relief at night when the temp drops to 60F or 70F, the humidity climbs north of 80-90%. It just becomes thick and miserable. Some tolerate it better than others, but I suspect you coming from the PacNW could be a bit more sensitive to it than local natives.
POLLEN Atlanta is notorious for having terrible, terrible pollen. If you have outdoor allergies youll be miserable the months of March and April. It is the price you pay for being surrounded by so many beautiful flowering trees and shrubs.
PEOPLE There are a lot of transplants in Atl. It is the largest major city in the SE so it attracts a lot of folks from the surrounding states. A lot of Midwesterners and Northeasteners relo down to Atl as well for them hot and humid is a welcome relief from the cold and snow. You get a nicely diverse population because of this.
One place to check out is TacoMac. Theres one in Buford by the Mall of Georgia. It is kind of like a local version of BW3 but with 100 beers on tap. Youll find a good blend of your old favorites (this month they are actually featuring Rogue brewery) and plenty of new ones.
It would take 45 minutes to get like 4 miles consistently during heavy traffic. ....
AGREE. The traffic can be brutally painful during rush hour. You ever heard of sunshine delays? Yeah, thats a thing in Atlanta. It refers to the slowdowns that are caused from driving due east/west into the rising/setting sun. Crazy, huh?
Public transit is really only viable for a very small portion of the city. Plan to drive everywhere, especially if you'll be working in Buford.
Spend some time with Google maps and see how far a 30min, 45min, etc drive from your office at rush hour gets you. That will help you rule in/out home locations.
...Don't just drive around the city areas like downtown, midtown, etc. where all you are going to see is high rise buildings, traffic, and the negative things mostly. Make sure you drive around some suburbs, city neighborhoods like I am speaking of to get the feel of the living situation/daily life too. It wasn't until I started seeing some of those areas that I started really liking Atlanta because it had a different feel to it. ....
Look into Roswell, a suburb in North Atlanta that has a lot going on if you want to do something. I have heard housing is great there too.
ATL is a very short hop from N GA mountains, the App Trail, Lake Lanier, and countless good rivers.
Agree with this advice. Roswell, Alpharetta are nice areas semi-close to Buford. Johns Creek is equally nice. Cumming is going to be closer to Lake Lanier, a bit more rural (i.e. - bigger lots, cheaper cost, less dense), and a shorter drive to the mountains. The North Georgia mountains (really hills compared to what you're used to) and lakes (Blue Ridge, Notelly, Chatuge) are great places to visit, hike, camp, swim, etc. They are also spectacular in the fall.
And what are rent prices like in the area?
I reco using Zillow.com to scout out some houses that are in your specs & price range then drive to those areas to get a true sense for the feel. I've relo'd a few times in my life and have found this to be a really helpful and eye-opening approach. In general, youll find home prices are pretty affordable in Atlanta, I believe about 15% below national average.
Can you elaborate on the archaic laws? Is there anything ridiculously prohibitive that I should know about?
I cant think of anything ridiculously prohibitive. But for perspective, it was illegal to sell packaged alcohol on Sundays until just about 5 years ago.