Second Murder at Five Points Station in the same week (Auburn: sales, to buy)

[MikeandIke27]

Originally Posted by Bullbear

Im not scared homey: Im armed. Its amazing what having a 40 cal S&W at your side will do for one's self confidence.

I do like your attitude though, and I would offer the same. If you dont think whitey gives you a fair shake here in the US, then relocate elsewhere.

And always remember: Dont let the door hit you in the butt.

Okay...

[MikeandIke27]

Originally Posted by jsimms3

SF does have worse panhandling and other transit systems do have crime. I think the issue is that most of MARTA seems kind of sketchy. In Philly, Boston, Chicago, and DC (I am leaving out NYC because I don't take the trains past 10 there either...usually just cab it) there are so many lines going to so many places that not only is it easier to avoid taking the train through sketchy areas, sketchy people are diluted by non-sketchy people. I feel perfectly comfortable taking many of the lines in the above cities late late at night. I wouldn't even feel comfortable in a group taking MARTA past 9 or 10.

I know a girl (who was half black half white) who went to Agnes Scott who was attacked/nearly raped at Decatur Station, I have a fraternity brother from TX who was mugged in broad daylight on one of the trains coming back from the airport, and I was assualted pretty badly at Art Center Station. All of that in just a few years of me being here (let alone all the crime that happens to people I don't know). There are lines in other cities with similar crime, but you can easily avoid them (there would be no purpose for me to take the trains in other cities to or through ghetto areas). Here in Atlanta I would say 2/3 of the MARTA system goes through what I would call ghetto areas, and the N-S line doesn't take me to where I want to go at night.

MARTA's original purpose was to serve captured riders, not choice riders, and it does a decent job at that (could actually be better...but first we must serve more choice riders). The biggest problem with MARTA, which influences the crime problem and the image problem, is that most of the routes service poor areas and commercial districts (and the airport). There are pretty much no routes hitting white collar residential areas, and some of the city's busiest areas aren't even serviced (Vinings for one, Peachtree Road/Roswell Road for another).

SF panhandlers are very aggressive... Martas image comes from people like you who over exaggerate things. You pass it along to someone who doesnt ride, Now they have this image built up , They pass it to someone else now Marta has a bad image from word of mouth not from experience.

[MikeandIke27]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

I didn't say it doesn't happen anywhere else. I said that there are comparable places where it doesn't happen.

Because of that, it's obviously a preventable condition and not an inevitable occurrence just because Atlanta is a medium-sized urban area.

NYC cleaned up its act. Why can't Atlanta? It's has been on the way to doing so since the 70's, certainly, but it still has a way to go in my opinion.

NYC partially cleaned up its act.. There is still alot of mess on those trains and in the city. You could be right most places dont have heavy rail systems and some are very new. PLease name 5 major cities the size of Atlanta where you wont find similar crime issues...

[Bullbear]

Originally Posted by captaincatfish

I'll say this...even though we don't always agree, you strike me as having better than average intelligence...enough so that you don't fall for bait like the post you responded to...

And enough with the 'whitey' stuff, already...there are more than enough reasonble, educated, and intelligent blacks there in Atlanta, as well as the rest of the country, that realize that term is so played out, and have better things to do with their time than 'hate whitey'---hell, some of us would much rather try to seek common ground!...and what's more, so what if you're white? I would hope your ethnicity wouldn't be a factor in you and I having a debate and at some point agreeing to disagree...

I know this subject might be a dead horse, and you as well as I have taken turns beating it...in short, if dude wants to play tough guy and bust off with a bunch of attitude, don't play tough guy right back and throw your '40 caliber S&W' in his face, because to me, that means you're sinking to his level, and I think a little better of you than that...

(LOL...'homey'? That's even old in the BLACK community)

Fair enough. Sometimes my emotions get the better of me. I cant guarantee but Ill try and not let it happen again.

Being of a certain/different ethnicity does not preclude me having a debate with anyone. Far from it.

Hope you are right about your folks' attitude toward "whitey" being less adversarial. Doesnt seem like it to me. But then I am on the oustide looking in.

PS: He used the term "homeboys". Isnt that just as old?

[BringBackCobain]

Originally Posted by jsimms3

SF does have worse panhandling and other transit systems do have crime. I think the issue is that most of MARTA seems kind of sketchy. In Philly, Boston, Chicago, and DC (I am leaving out NYC because I don't take the trains past 10 there either...usually just cab it) there are so many lines going to so many places that not only is it easier to avoid taking the train through sketchy areas, sketchy people are diluted by non-sketchy people. I feel perfectly comfortable taking many of the lines in the above cities late late at night. I wouldn't even feel comfortable in a group taking MARTA past 9 or 10.

I know a girl (who was half black half white) who went to Agnes Scott who was attacked/nearly raped at Decatur Station, I have a fraternity brother from TX who was mugged in broad daylight on one of the trains coming back from the airport, and I was assualted pretty badly at Art Center Station. All of that in just a few years of me being here (let alone all the crime that happens to people I don't know). There are lines in other cities with similar crime, but you can easily avoid them (there would be no purpose for me to take the trains in other cities to or through ghetto areas). Here in Atlanta I would say 2/3 of the MARTA system goes through what I would call ghetto areas, and the N-S line doesn't take me to where I want to go at night.

MARTA's original purpose was to serve captured riders, not choice riders, and it does a decent job at that (could actually be better...but first we must serve more choice riders). The biggest problem with MARTA, which influences the crime problem and the image problem, is that most of the routes service poor areas and commercial districts (and the airport). There are pretty much no routes hitting white collar residential areas, and some of the city's busiest areas aren't even serviced (Vinings for one, Peachtree Road/Roswell Road for another).

Exactly. Which is why MARTA should not be expanded to Clayton County. I support MARTA expansion, but only to places like Cumberland and Northlake. Hopefully, the eastern side of the east-west line will continue to gentrify, and MARTA doesn't expand to Clayton.

[BringBackCobain]

Originally Posted by DTL3000

I agree. It's the complacency that gets me. The folks who say stuff like "crime happens everywhere" or "if you are afraid just don't ride the train" do not help the situation. I don't think 3 murders within one year in a medium sized transit system should be accepted as "life in a big city" when other cities have lower crime rates on much larger systems. Atlanta should be striving to improve in all areas rather than immediately falling back on cop outs. It's that sense of apathy that seems to permeate this city nowadays. It hasn't always been that way. This city used to aspire to be something greater.

Don't you think the current administration, and the past ones for that matter, have harbored this mentality? When did Atlanta's administration ever aspire to be something greater? Shirley Franklin basically told people to f-off and quit b*tching about crime, because the numbers, not perceptions, are what matter.

The city has made great progress, but the only way it will get to the next level is if the machine over at city hall is dismantled. This whole situation has made me wish even more that Reed is a one-term mayor. He should have blasted MARTA police and pledged to step up APD presence at every station.

[captaincatfish]

Originally Posted by Bullbear

Fair enough. Sometimes my emotions get the better of me. I cant guarantee but Ill try and not let it happen again.

Being of a certain/different ethnicity does not preclude me having a debate with anyone. Far from it.

Hope you are right about your folks' attitude toward "whitey" being less adversarial. Doesnt seem like it to me. But then I am on the oustide looking in.

PS: He used the term "homeboys". Isnt that just as old?

You are not alone when it comes to 'unchecked emotion'---read some of my posts on other threads and you'll see what I mean LOL

And I'd like to believe that my 'folks' attitude towards whites has changed in the last, oh, 10-15 years, and has become somewhat less adversarial, despite some evidence you may have seen to the contrary...

What's more, you don't always have to be on the outside looking in...the mere fact that you're willing to butt heads/debate with yours truly, and admit sometimes that you may be wrong about some things, makes me think you're not quite the stern, uncompromising monolith you come across as

PS...you're right again...'homeboys' should also be sent to the graveyard of outdated slang LOL

[mandmrossi]

Right sorry and stand corrected MTA... Even I am forgetting and getting old. Only spent 42 years there so dumb to not mention it was MTA.

But yes agreed it may be it the cost factor, but if nothing is done, over time, the entire system (MARTA) becomes too far gone and the people that should be using it to get into the city will not. The spiral effect and it takes administration huge effort to regain the riders back.

Originally Posted by PKCorey

I think, you meant the MTA.

PANYnNJ does only PATH and Bus Terminal. PATH doesn't move nowhere near millions of travelers a day...

Sure, the MARTA can do on sight review of other transit systems but if they don't have the money from the state and other resources to implement these plans, its starts becoming a waste of money...

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by MikeandIke27

NYC partially cleaned up its act.. There is still alot of mess on those trains and in the city. You could be right most places dont have heavy rail systems and some are very new. PLease name 5 major cities the size of Atlanta where you wont find similar crime issues...

Sorry, it only takes one to prove that Atlanta can solve those issues.

[mceis]

As if the the snow and ice weren't bad enough, now I have blue lights blocking my home. There was a murder at Auburn and Piedmont. The cops were stuffing the perp into the van next to me at the light. No surprises. What a great town.