Is Atlanta's crime overrated? (Clayton: home, neighborhood, live in)

[SAAN]

Crime is everywhere. It breaks down to can you live with your surroundings.

Constant home break-ins, car thefts, armed robberies, gang violence toward innocent citizens, and aggravated assault are what make a neighborhood dangerous.

By all the comments on CityData I have seen in the past, you would think Stone Mountain and South Dekalb was the South Bronx. While I would admit alot of Stn Mtn, Decatur, and Lithonia has turned in a big hood compared to what they used to be, its not like it is unlivable in many areas either. What is annoying abut Metro ATL is the crime is spread out to far, so its not like you can avoid it by just moving to another side of town.

[kasuga888]

Originally Posted by SAAN

Crime is everywhere. It breaks down to can you live with your surroundings.

Constant home break-ins, car thefts, armed robberies, gang violence toward innocent citizens, and aggravated assault are what make a neighborhood dangerous.

By all the comments on CityData I have seen in the past, you would think Stone Mountain and South Dekalb was the South Bronx. While I would admit alot of Stn Mtn, Decatur, and Lithonia has turned in a big hood compared to what they used to be, its not like it is unlivable in many areas either. What is annoying abut Metro ATL is the crime is spread out to far, so its not like you can avoid it by just moving to another side of town.

I wonder if the Section 8 voucher program contributed to this in the metro area. Rather than have a concentrated area of "hood", the people causing trouble gets disperse into a wider area.

[thebigATL]

Don't get me wrong crime is in Atlanta, it just certain areas you go to. Like Bankhead,the bluff, cascade and etc.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by kasuga888

I wonder if the Section 8 voucher program contributed to this in the metro area. Rather than have a concentrated area of "hood", the people causing trouble gets disperse into a wider area.

Section 8 has been around for decades. If you are speaking of the demolishing of public housing, then that is another issue, but crime has fallen since the "projects" were demolished and the majority of the residents went back to their former public housing locations after they were redeveloped - over 90% went back or stayed within the city.

Also, Section 8 recipients are background checked every year. If they are even arrested for certain crimes, they will lose their vouchers. The large majority of them are not criminals.

Originally Posted by thebigATL

Don't get me wrong crime is in Atlanta, it just certain areas you go to. Like Bankhead,the bluff, cascade and etc.

I live in "the bluff" and have never been a victim of crime in my neighborhood. See my above post. We rarely have house break-ins over here on the homes that are inhabited. The main crime issues we have fore attached to the drug trade and most of the arrests over here deal in that area. As long as you aren't a drug addict nor associate too much with addicts or dealers then you won't have a problem in most instances unless you are looking for trouble.

LOL on cascade! I also lived in the Cascade area for a while and have friends that live in that area. They don't have issues with crime either.

Most people it seems here are frightened of crime due to new stories. Even the East Atlanta thing was very much overplayed on our local networks IMO. Oddly enough, my neighborhood rarely has crimes on the news. Most of them, due to being drug arrests aren't that "sexy." But we did have a murder a couple months ago that made the news - it was a domestic violence related murder. That is the only one I remember making the news. My neighbors never want to see us on TV and whenever they do, I hear about it lol. Because they feel it just feeds the negative perception of our area and the focus attempts to defeat the progress we are trying to make and have made over here in regards to crime.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by bu2

Murders are down significantly. Atlanta was the murder capital of the country 30 years ago. But violent crime is down pretty much everywhere in the US compared to 30 years ago.

Atlanta's crime rate has gone down at a higher rate compared to many US cities. It went from being ranked in the top 3 most dangerous cities for many years, to barely in the top 25.

[Mal93]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Best suggestion for not getting your car broken into... leave your car unlocked.

I've told this story before...at my apt parking area on 13th st by Piedmont this was a strategy a neighbor used after repairing his convertible roof and dealing with lots of broken windows.

...Then he discovered his backseat had apparently been used as a...ahem...motel room

He went back to locking his doors.


The problem with vehicle break ins is sometimes it is not always people looking for anything to steal. Having grown up here, its just basic instinct to leave absolutely nothing in the car, and park it where it is well lit by streetlights/floodlights, as do many other victims I've known. We've had windows smashed for apparently no reason in Midtown and here in SWATL by what the police and community chalk up to "bored kids" en route to the park. Fortunately, things have been a lot quieter since about 2009 for us, but every summer there's this unspoken dread around my area once school lets out.

As others have said, call the police on ANY suspicious activity. They want us to keep them informed as ATL also has had to overcome a huge "no snitching" culture/threat over the past few decades.

re: Cascade: its a long road between West End and extending beyond 285. So while things get quiet once you get closer to Cascade Heights (near me), there are still some pockets of drug & wanna be youth gang activity and "bad corners" typically in close proximity to...you guessed it...abandoned, burnt-out houses and absentee owner/occupied foreclosed homes.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

Atlanta's crime rate has gone down at a higher rate compared to many US cities. It went from being ranked in the top 3 most dangerous cities for many years, to barely in the top 25.

This is true.

Even in the areas that still have high amounts of crime, Atlanta is nothing like it used to be, hence crime is very much overrated.

[glovenyc]

Unfortunately, paranoia keeps the machine oiled down here in the south.

[joey86]

Originally Posted by kasuga888

I wonder if the Section 8 voucher program contributed to this in the metro area. Rather than have a concentrated area of "hood", the people causing trouble gets disperse into a wider area.

In a way yes, but concentrated poverty creates a hopeless environment for people. Decentralization of poverty, when services are also spread, increases quality of life in a wide variety of ways. Although crime is spread, it decreases in occurrence.

[joey86]

It's a fact that crime is overblown. Folks still warn me to "be careful" when I ride Marta. Driving is much more dangerous.

I'm not fooled into thinking it doesn't happen but crime in cities is blown way out of proportion.