I agree with Detroit. Awful. I disagree with Newark. If you can find your way outside of the airport, there are some nice little pockets in the city. Personally, I hate downtown Atlanta with a passion. The only other place I have felt so threatened was in Detroit or Oakland. There was a reason Sherman burned Atlanta. When people tell me they love Atlanta, after further discussion you learn that the only area of Atlanta they’ve been in is Buckhead. Buckhead ain’t Atlanta. Would that it were.
Atlanta proper is really tricky with areas to avoid and areas that are fine. In general, the tourist area immediately around Centennial Olympic Park, with the Coke Museum, the Aquarium, and CNN, is fine. Go west and south of there, and it gets ugly quick. To the north and east of downtown is generally good.
As you say, Buckhead is not Atlanta, and that part of town is generally all fine, unless Ray Lewis and his posse are visiting the club you have chosen to visit.
And of course, lots of places out in the ‘burbs are fine as well.
I am a born and bred Southerner and the city of Atlanta sucks. The burbs around Atlanta aint too bad.
MY father use to say that Sherman could burn the whole damn city down again and he wouldn’t displace one real Southerner. :)