Conley Road

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Conley Road [also Old Conley Road] is a short, two-laned thoroughfare in southeast Atlanta, Georgia, which extends east-west between Jonesboro Road (GA Hwy 54) and another Conley Road in Clayton County. Conley Road is the southernmost roadway in Atlanta, Georgia, beginning 45 inches north of the Fulton-Clayton County borderline.

Contents 1 How Long Is It? 2 Early Stages 3 Middle Corridor 4 The End 5 Conclusion

[edit] How Long Is It?

Conley Road is 1.3 miles in length and covers the Orchard Knob community of southeast Atlanta, snakes southeasterly into Clayton County and changes to OLD CONLEY ROAD, and ends less than 1/2 a mile east of that at Conley Road in the city it's named after: Conley.

[edit] Early Stages

Conley Road begins at Jonesboro Road, a major thoroughfare in the southern half of Atlanta that extends southward through Clayton County and again into Fulton County. The road begins with a check cashing building in one corner of the intersection, a Cash America Pawn, McDonalds, and Home Depot in the other three. For the first 0.2 miles, there is nothing but hills and curves along the roadway. This part of the thoroughfare has two lanes on the westbound side and one on the eastbound side. Once a driver passes Conley Super (a local convenience store), he descends down a hill where the road narrows to one lane on each side and passes an area of trees on the left and an apartment complex on the right. At the bottom of the hill, Conley Road takes a small curve and passes three more apartment complexes and three houses.

This section of Conley Road is the busiest one. Most residents on the Conley Road corridor live in this section, particularly Colony Square, 875 Colony Square, and Southern Trace Apartment complexes. However, in recent years, drugs, prostitution, robbery, violence, and other immoral acts have blanketed the narrow-yet-busy street. An increase in police patrol has been targeted in the area in an attempt to lower the rate at which this type of activity occurs. MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority runs the bus route 78 on this stretch.

[edit] Middle Corridor

Once the third house has been passed, Conley intersects Forest Park Road to the left and Bonnie Lane to the right at which there is a four-way stop sign. Besides Jonesboro Road, this is the only Atlanta and Fulton County intersection Conley Road has with any other streets. Conley continues around a couple more curves and just before one reaches Shieldcrest Way, there is a large green sign that welcomes the driver to Conley, Georgia, and adjacent Clayton County. Upon crossing into Clayton County, Conley Road now becomes Old Conley Road.

[edit] The End

Not long after entrance into Clayton County, Old Conley Road intersects with Thurman Road, less than 50 feet north of the city limits of Forest Park. Just east of this intersection, Conley Road serves as the ending for small, hardly-used Church Street but ends a short distance away with a fork-in-the-road at Conley Road.

[edit] Conclusion

Conley Road/Old Conley Road is known to most drivers who use the street as a connector route between Jonesboro Road and Moreland Avenue. The road is less likely to have traffic jams, mainly because of its "secluded" location and distance from downtown Atlanta (about 9 or 10 miles).

However, Conley Road has had its share of incidents. In early 2006, there was a double murder in one of the units of Southern Trace Apartments in which two Hispanic men were gunned down after their attackers found them hiding in the closet.

Around New Years 2007, a man returned to Colony Square Apartments at approximately 5 A.M. to find his estranged girlfriend sleeping with another man. He gained entry into the apartment via kicking down the door and shot the man to death in his sleep. The estranged girlfriend escaped with her life by jumping out of her window. The apartment is on the western part of the complex in E-building.

On July 29, 2006, there was an emergency evacuation of residents in the same apartment complex at around midnight due to a back-up of fecal water in at least ten units. The back-up had gotten so severe, the back-ups in some residences filled bathtubs, sinks, and toilets with water bearing putrid, intolerable smells.

On June 4, 2003, at around 6 A.M., a Pontiac Grand Prix was speeding at nearly 70 miles per hour near the intersection of Old Conley Road and Shieldcrest Way. It lost control around a curve and struck a Mercury Sable wagon head-on. The driver of the Grand Prix was killed instantly due to him not wearing a seatbelt. The Sable driver, a 66-year-old grandmother on her way to her granddaughter's graduation from Alabama State University, was taken to the hospital with a broken collarbone, fractured knee, concussion, and 5 broken ribs, but fortunately survived and recovered fully. The impact was so severe, someone pumping gas at the Amoco on Jonesboro Road heard it and ducked because she thought it was a gunshot.