Should I visit the hood? (Atlanta, Roswell: low income, 2014, apartment)

[jkobb510]

I'm talking just driving through ghetto areas like Bankhead, English Avenue and Vine City (The Bluff), East Lake Meadows. I'm very curious about these areas since Atlanta hoods are a bit famous in a way . I'm not going get out of my car. Is this too dangerous of an idea?

[AcidSnake]

Originally Posted by jkobb510

I'm talking just driving through ghetto areas like Bankhead, English Avenue and Vine City (The Bluff), East Lake Meadows. I'm very curious about these areas since Atlanta hoods are a bit famous in a way . I'm not going get out of my car. Is this too dangerous of an idea?

Are you stuck in a timewarp in the 1980s? What you are talking doesn't even exist in large part anymore. Especially not East Lake.

[Koko4]

I'd keep the doors locked, and not linger at stop signs too long. I drove through the English Avenue area a few summers ago...VERY sketchy. Just watch "Snow in da Bluff" and you'll have seen all you need to of that place...You probably won't get mugged / shot unless you do something stupid (Yelling, asking for drugs, etc) but you may get pulled over or tailed by the ATL cops just for looking out-of-place .. lots of drug activity in that area. Be careful!

[ATLTJL]

I feel you! I like doing the same thing. I took a drive through Bankhead Courts before they tore it down just because I wanted to see what it was really like. I stopped short of taking a picture of myself by the sign, which I really wanted to do!

The best times to visit these places are in mid morning. None of the drug dealers are really active before noon and things are pretty quiet. And you won't feel like so much of an outsider because that's when people who have legitimate business in the areas are out and about.

[residinghere2007]

LOL,

Just have to say that people around here are so funny to me to be afraid to drive through a neighborhood.

I'm a woman and am not afraid to drive through anywhere. If someone messes with you, you can hit them with your car lol!

FWIW, I lived in English Avenue (the bluff) from 2007 to 2014. Never had a break-in, never had an issue with crime. Never had anyone try to attack me or sell me drugs and I actually walked places in the hood.

[residinghere2007]

Oh, and I worked in property management for a contractor with the Atlanta Housing Authority so I frequently walked through Herndon, Hollywood, and Bankhead Courts. Bankhead was pretty tame in comparison to Hollywood in particular. Herndon was tame as well.

Most people in the pjs and in these neighborhoods are nice people.

I personally think people are kind of full of themselves if they think that someone will want to attack them just because they are driving through a neighborhood. If you act like a pompose a$$hole they may try to attack you if you get out of the car, but honestly, none of those neighborhoods are all that dangerous. Crime fell in Vine City and English Avenue over 50% over the past 5-8 years.

I stopped at all the stop signs and never had anything happen to me.

That said, if you are white, you may get stopped by the police for being suspected of being a drug addict. There is drug activity but dealers know their customers. There are white people who live in the neighborhood too BTW.

[arjay57]

You sound like someone who is not easily intimidated, residinghere.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by arjay57

You sound like someone who is not easily intimidated, residinghere.

Very true.

Also, I just am not afraid of people just because of where they live. Via my work especially, I have gotten to know a lot of people who live in low income areas and I actually find them to be nicer, decent people in many cases in comparison to middle income people and above. They are more giving and friendly especially.

I remember that the only issue I had living in our house in English Avenue was when a white guy from Roswell nodded off on some heroine and ran into our car, which was parked in front of our house in the street. We were always nice to the people in the neighborhood, even people who looked homeless or looked like drug addicts (you see way more addicts than dealers BTW so there is no reason to fear the dealers, they are usually not just standing around in public anymore, they are in a house/apartment).

The driver who hit our car tried to do a hit and run and took off down the street and the drug addicts and homeless looking people who we spoke to nearly every day when we saw them in a friendly, non-afraid manner, ran after the guy for us, took down his plates and one lady, who always loved my yard and told me how nice I was to her, jumped on the hood of the guy's car and made him stop until police came lol!

So as long as you don't total someone's car, I highly doubt anyone will attack you.

I came to know most of the familiar faces in our part of the neighborhood. And a large amount of the people living over there have been living there for a long time in the homes and are not dangerous people.

There is are a couple church groups as well with whites in their congregation who do work in English Avenue. There is a prominent church that used to be in Midtown which is now in the neighborhood and who has a large congregation over there a few times a week. There is 595 North club/event hall that has events every weekend.

There is way more traffic and all sorts of people in Vine City/English Avenue and I highly doubt any of them, save police, will pay attention to people driving through the neighborhood.

Bankhead is more of a suburban type of neighborhood and I really don't understand why people feign fright at driving through the neighborhood. hwy 78 is a major street and tens of thousands of people drive through the neighborhood every day.

[DirkMcGirt]

You can go, but you prolly gonna die.

[jkobb510]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

Are you stuck in a timewarp in the 1980s? What you are talking doesn't even exist in large part anymore. Especially not East Lake.

Yeah you're right. I just looked up East Lake Meadows aka Little Vietnam and that place is in the past. Only heard about from an elder classmate in my college class that grew up in those times.