Virginia Highlands is an odd strip. Hard to find parking and no cohesiveness with the strips of shops.
Definitely hard to find parking and I agree about the cohesiveness, but it is a walking neighborhood. Your quote gives me fuel to quell the quote Ennis found that says,
"Towards the end of the 90s, the neighborhood-oriented character of the business districts gave way to businesses serving patrons from across greater Atlanta." Virginia Highlands is very unlike Buckhead in that it serves almost exclusively intown residents and residents of the neighborhood. Tourists and the millions of suburban Atlanta residents who come into town have a really hard time finding parking and they can't figure it out very well, so they give up (and as coolyfett pointed out there is no MARTA access). Evidence of its neighborhoody associations are Teuscher Chocolate relocating, lululemon going to the Westside, and even Ben & Jerry's shuttering, none examples of bad demographics, all examples of corporations trying to serve people loyal to independent shops. Urban Outfitters, Chico's, and a few other national retailers are still sticking it out, but I imagine that at least the former has customers coming in from other parts, maybe the kids of Druid Hills families. BTW rents are between $40-80/SF and climbing.
Another crucial element of Virginia Highlands and nearby villages, but especially the Highlands, is its use as a social meeting point for Tech and Emory students. It is nearly equidistant between the two schools and filled with college bar staples like Moes N Joes, which has been a staple for students of the two schools for 64 years and serves $3 pitchers of PBR. The ultimate benefit of having two world class universities within miles of each other (and of course the many other great universities, too) is that young minds come together and interact, and it helps when there is a 2 mile strip of about 30 bars in which to do so. The demographics and the turnaround of this neighborhood are a direct reflection on those universities, and this neighborhood has followed, even served as a forerunner to the current trend sweeping the country of young and upwardly mobile professionals moving into the city. Living proof of how a university presence can benefit city neighborhoods
Of course, at this point with all of the transplants to the city, nearly every college is represented very well in VaHi, and everyone sports alma mater stickers of basically every top 25 university in the country...almost like bragging rights or a way to fit in. Another reason Jacksonville should see what Charlotte is doing to attract these same people without actually even having a ranked university to feed it.
Below is a comparison of Avondale and VaHi, both neighborhoods which share many similarities. Both neighborhoods have a 2-lane spine that backs up (St. Johns or Riverside versus Highland Ave). Both neighborhoods have a bar district focused on beer that attracts a young crowd (King St versus Highland Ave). Both neighborhoods are old and have historic preservation status. Both neighborhoods nearly faced the wrecking ball at one point. Both neighborhoods have a Chico's
Both neighborhoods have great "local fare" dining and tradition. I'd say that Avondale never deteriorated quite to the extent VaHi did, but it never rebounded quite to the activity level VaHi has so far. Both have about the same potential.
The difference in this neighborhood and now every other intown neighborhood up here is that they have become the "go-to" place for all the tens of thousands of young professionals moving to town or moving in from the suburbs, whereas in Jacksonville the Southside and Saint Johns County remain the "it" places, and the city is not attracting a quite as highly educated population. Nashville and Charlotte are seeing similar things as Atlanta, of course (I don't see direct neighborhood comparisons to VaHi or Avondale, but I see the uprising of neighborhoods like the West End, Gulch, and Hillsboro Village in Nashville and South End, Dilworth, and Elizabeth in Charlotte, and even Homewood in Birmingham). Nashville's being fed a lot of fuel by Vanderbilt while Charlotte works on stealing graduates from other areas. I would show examples, but not being a resident, I don't know the ins and outs of those cities or the boundaries of their neighborhoods, but I don't know that they have direct comparisons to VaHi or Avondale either.
Finally, on an observational note, it is definitely a truism that much of Avondale appears super wealthy and that all of it appears at least middle class. There are hardly any "wealthy" appearing areas of Virginia Highlands, just restored bungalows, some stately two stories tucked in here and there, plenty of quads and old apartments, and some houses that even appear to need some work. If you look at the demographics, the older, storied Avondale families would seem quite poor in comparison to the young professionals inhabiting starter homes and fixer uppers in Virginia Highlands, and some on Richmond St or Edgewood Ave may even be jealous to learn that their historic 4,500 SF Georgian masterpiece is only worth as much as a cute one story bungalow with a loft space in the Highlands! They might also be jealous to find out that the mansion they have worked hard to pay off and lived in as all their kids have grown up from "babies to married" has declined in value since the recession almost as fast as that 30 year old's $450K investment in his bungalow has appreciated since 2003!
