Hey, I just wanted to follow up. I ended up with a pretty good commute by going up to Glenwood, crossing Memorial at BK/Chester (haven't tried going straight through on the Beltline yet -- looks kind've sketch) up to Wylie, then over to Whitefoord/Oakdale, then N Decatur road to Clifton and I'm at Emory. Pretty good deal, about a 15 mile round trip -- tiring but doable and my body's getting used to it. I guess I've made the whole round trip a half dozen times or so, but in addition to that I sometimes ride to Inman Park-Reynoldstown Station and take the light rail to Decatur Station where Emory has a Cliff Shuttle every 15 minutes. Then I either retrace those steps or do the full ride home, usually full ride since at the end of the day I have less patience to wait for a shuttle and less concern about getting sweaty.
Street-level safety seems good all in all. Parts of Wylie are maybe a little concerning, and that's about it. Traffic is heavily time-dependent. If I get home as early as 6, there are still plenty of aggressive types driving around; rush hour seems to just make people meaner and stupider. If I wait a half hour more to leave everyone calms down and the ride is typically super pleasant.