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Old 10-05-2015, 10:25 AM
 
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Why do you think Bankhead Courts was abandoned when I went? There were still plenty of people living there.
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Old 10-05-2015, 11:05 AM
 
Location: Atlanta, GA
1,490 posts, read 2,089,747 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post

Incidentally, I think I had quite an interesting take on Bankhead Courts. I thought Bankhead Highway was pretty dilapidated, but upon seeing the housing project, my first thought was, "I've lived in apartments that looked WAAAAAYYYYYY worse than these!!!!" Of course, I don't know what they looked like on the inside.
You're 100% right . Bankhead Courts didnt look bad at all. And as far as old school Atlanta projects go, the Courts were very tame compared to most of the others. From a street perspective Bankhead Courts was soft. They didnt really get a lot of respect, if any at all. I think it was always kinda looked at as a place that was full of grandmas, young kids and baby mamas. As far as Bankhead goes Bowen Homes was always the one that was wild. But actually Bowen Homes wasn't even as wild as some of the other projects that were around back then. Bowen Homes wasnt as rough as Techwood, Eastlake or Perry. But it was still well known because it was such a huge trap. There was only one way in and one way out, that place was inadvertently designed to be a drug dealers paradise. Add that in with the truck stop down the street and Bowen Homes just became a trafficking hot spot. There are a couple of dudes from Bowen Homes that made a lot of money. Im talking real money, like flipped it into legit business type of money.
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Old 10-05-2015, 11:07 AM
 
787 posts, read 963,488 times
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You'll probably be disappointed, most likely you're not going to see anything exciting like what you hear and see in the media. Not with just one scroll through the hood, you have to live their.
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Old 10-05-2015, 11:14 AM
 
16,212 posts, read 10,758,124 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arjay57 View Post
No, it's not an "adventure." I grew up in this town and simply like to stay informed.

And no, no one has ever shot at me or jumped on my car. That hasn't crossed my mind. If you still lived on English Avenue and invited us over for dinner, I'd have no hesitation about accepting.
The OP and others were the ones indicating that it would be some sort of adventure to venture to specific neighborhoods.

I agree with the bold and feel you are a normal, thinking persons.

It is rare that anyone will jump on someone's car or shoot at them so the idea that it is dangerous to drive through an area, which was posed by the OP and which was spoken about as being a valid concern in the thread are all just plain odd to me.

Ironically, now that I think about it the last time I was driving and was held up in traffic via someone shooting while I was driving was a little over a year ago on North Ave near the Varsity when some guy shot at some cars.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
Why do you think Bankhead Courts was abandoned when I went? There were still plenty of people living there.
I think I confused you with someone else in regards to that comment. Sorry about that.

Glad you went when people were there.

I really did enjoy my interactions with the residents at the public housing communities when I worked in CoA and it is kind of sad IMO that so many people stereotype them in many negative ways when the majority of them were very nice, decent people.
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Old 10-05-2015, 11:50 AM
 
9,008 posts, read 13,985,831 times
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You've got to wonder if Section 8 is really a better alternative.

I mean, I totally get the psychology of getting of the trap and integrating with society at large....but if they had a library, medical center, and other resources right there on-site, how many people can typically get to those resources easily from wherever their section 8 housing is?
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Old 10-05-2015, 12:13 PM
 
114 posts, read 133,944 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by coolieandre View Post
Why not. You can always educate and open your mind to all types of areas and people. Go for it yourself and see for yourself.
EXACTLY.

There is no judgemental intent. If I wanted to "gawk at the poor", I'd already have plenty of opportunities to do that every day since Atlanta is a melting pot of all kinds of people, poor, rich, black, asian, etc

The purpose of driving through these areas is simply curiosity and perspective. I like seeing all different kinds of environments, regardless of condition. And I must admit, the reputation of these places also made me want to see them. Rap videos, Snow on Tha Bluff, and the Noisey Atlanta were an influence.

Yes, I know media is not reality. But in fact, that could be the entire point. I like seeing for myself.

To go little bit more broad and off topic, if I were to visit LA, I'd want to see Compton as well. If I were to visit Chicago, I'd even be curious to drive through the notorious Southside.
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Old 10-05-2015, 12:20 PM
 
Location: O4W
3,744 posts, read 4,763,439 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkobb510 View Post
EXACTLY.

There is no judgemental intent. If I wanted to "gawk at the poor", I'd already have plenty of opportunities to do that every day since Atlanta is a melting pot of all kinds of people, poor, rich, black, asian, etc

The purpose of driving through these areas is simply curiosity and perspective. I like seeing all different kinds of environments, regardless of condition. And I must admit, the reputation of these places also made me want to see them. Rap videos, Snow on Tha Bluff, and the Noisey Atlanta were an influence.

Yes, I know media is not reality. But in fact, that could be the entire point. I like seeing for myself.

To go little bit more broad and off topic, if I were to visit LA, I'd want to see Compton as well. If I were to visit Chicago, I'd even be curious to drive through the notorious Southside.
Thing is that its just different now. If this was 20+ years ago I would have told you to go to Techwood, Lil Vietnam, East Lake Meadows, etc but most of all the housing projects are gone now. Since that group of people are spread out throughout Atlanta it's kind of hard to just give you one notorious area besides the general places like Bankhead, The Bluff, etc
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Old 10-05-2015, 01:20 PM
 
16,212 posts, read 10,758,124 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkobb510 View Post
EXACTLY.

There is no judgemental intent. If I wanted to "gawk at the poor", I'd already have plenty of opportunities to do that every day since Atlanta is a melting pot of all kinds of people, poor, rich, black, asian, etc

The purpose of driving through these areas is simply curiosity and perspective. I like seeing all different kinds of environments, regardless of condition. And I must admit, the reputation of these places also made me want to see them. Rap videos, Snow on Tha Bluff, and the Noisey Atlanta were an influence.

Yes, I know media is not reality. But in fact, that could be the entire point. I like seeing for myself.

To go little bit more broad and off topic, if I were to visit LA, I'd want to see Compton as well. If I were to visit Chicago, I'd even be curious to drive through the notorious Southside.

If you'd like to see for yourself that is fine. But don't ask if it would be dangerous to do so. As stated, it is very rare that anyone gets assaulted while they are driving in their cars. And there is no neighborhood in Atlanta IMO that anyone should not feel safe driving through.

As stated earlier, I am a female and as such I am cautious about walking around after the sun goes down in any neighborhood. I think people too often feel safe or unsafe based on a reputation of an area whereas, it is always good to be cautious of one's surrounding no matter how good or bad an area is.

Also, I think it important to not buy into the perception of an area based on someone else's input on via the media so I do think it is good to go out and experience neighborhoods where you don't usually travel. But if you make up your mind to do it, you should just do it and not be afraid. If you are afraid, then you don't need to go IMO and the fear factor is what made me think that one would like to go poor gawking at people.

In regards to the bold, I'd also think there was a poor and racial component to those comments. I've never been to LA (don't want to go) or Compton but I know people from Compton and they also say it is nothing like what the media portrays it to be.

In regards to the "south side" of Chicago, my husband is from Chicago so I go often. He grew up on the south side. The stuff you hear in the news is ridiculous IMO in regards to the "south side." The "Southside of Chicago" is a majority of the city of Chicago and includes many middle and upper income neighborhoods (it would probably take you 30-60 minutes to drive through the southside depending on traffic). The majority of the neighborhoods in the south side of Chicago look better than higher income neighborhoods (even ones that are considered "poor" look very nice) in Atlanta so you would probably be disappointed in not seeing anything you may think you will see there.

I've only been to the Westside once, but it wasn't bad either. Chicago gets a bad rap. It is never a top 10 crime city but you would think it was the most criminally prone city in the country due to the mostly conservative media focus on every violent crime that occurs there.
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Old 10-05-2015, 01:21 PM
 
16,212 posts, read 10,758,124 times
Reputation: 8437
And OP, maybe you just want to see blight. I know that many people come to Detroit to see the blight.

There is a lot of blight in Atlanta in various locations and not just in the neighborhoods listed as being dangerous and again, they are not dangerous today like they used to be.
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Old 10-05-2015, 01:31 PM
 
Location: Kirkwood
23,726 posts, read 24,731,164 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by residinghere2007 View Post
And OP, maybe you just want to see blight. I know that many people come to Detroit to see the blight.

There is a lot of blight in Atlanta in various locations and not just in the neighborhoods listed as being dangerous and again, they are not dangerous today like they used to be.
Wanna see blight, go to South Cobb.
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