Possible Reason for Atlanta's Violent Suburbs? (Norcross, Clayton: low income, section 8, crime)

[vsmoove]

I came across a VERY interesting article that details the correlation between the displacement of former housing project tenants to outer suburbs via Section 8 and subsequent increasing crime in those areas. I wondered when I moved to ATL why so many of these suburbs were crime-ridden. This sounds like as plausible an explanation as I've heard/read.

American Murder Mystery

[LovinDecatur]

Funny, this comes on the heels of the news story about the home invasion in Oak Grove today...about 1/4 mile from where I used to live.

[KevK]

Thousands of people displaced from the projects are now making Clayton County home.

[atlantagreg30127]

Various "vouchers" are allowing people who were once in limited areas to spread out much more and into the suburbs. This is creating what some in here have called "suburban ghettos" in pockets throughout the metro region.

Ok - so you have a mother with 4 kids. She works for minimum wage or a bit more and dad disappeared. For now, I'll completely ignore the whole topic as to why someone with a low income job would not use birth control and have four kids with a loser who runs away. Let's assume for a moment she has realized her past mistakes and is moving to the area to better herself and supposedly give her kids a better life.

Well, the problem is, a single mother who's in school and/or working full time a job (or two) can in no way manage or effectively raise several children no matter how great her desire to do so is. So, those kids are latch-key kids who come home and are unsupervised. They "hang" on the streets, with other latch-key kids, and they start getting into trouble. Break into cars, petty theft, etc. As they continue to grow with no real parental supervision, the crime gets into more serious stuff. A few years later - poof - you have a whole new generation of convenience store robbers, carjackers, and home invaders.

While Mom meant well by moving into the suburbs, all she did was move the kids away from a variety of services and programs that MIGHT have kept them occupied that cities provide, but are all but nonexistant in the suburbs. Hence - bored kids = crime. In the cities you have various youth programs from volunteerism to job training to simply recreational complexes - in the burbs you have NOTHING to do but walk the street with other kids looking for stuff to get into.

So, these suburban housing vouchers are doing no one any favors - certainly not the kids who are taken away from programs they could be involved in, and certainly not the communities that suffer the wrath of these bored groups of kids who grow up into something worse.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Various "vouchers" are allowing people who were once in limited areas to spread out much more and into the suburbs. This is creating what some in here have called "suburban ghettos" in pockets throughout the metro region.

Ok - so you have a mother with 4 kids. She works for minimum wage or a bit more and dad disappeared. For now, I'll completely ignore the whole topic as to why someone with a low income job would not use birth control and have four kids with a loser who runs away. Let's assume for a moment she has realized her past mistakes and is moving to the area to better herself and supposedly give her kids a better life.

Well, the problem is, a single mother who's in school and/or working full time a job (or two) can in no way manage or effectively raise several children no matter how great her desire to do so is. So, those kids are latch-key kids who come home and are unsupervised. They "hang" on the streets, with other latch-key kids, and they start getting into trouble. Break into cars, petty theft, etc. As they continue to grow with no real parental supervision, the crime gets into more serious stuff. A few years later - poof - you have a whole new generation of convenience store robbers, carjackers, and home invaders.

While Mom meant well by moving into the suburbs, all she did was move the kids away from a variety of services and programs that MIGHT have kept them occupied that cities provide, but are all but nonexistant in the suburbs. Hence - bored kids = crime. In the cities you have various youth programs from volunteerism to job training to simply recreational complexes - in the burbs you have NOTHING to do but walk the street with other kids looking for stuff to get into.

So, these suburban housing vouchers are doing no one any favors - certainly not the kids who are taken away from programs they could be involved in, and certainly not the communities that suffer the wrath of these bored groups of kids who grow up into something worse.

You are so right, gregory. It's a problem that's accelerating...and not a thing is being done about (or people that even realize it's a problem in the first place!).

[vsmoove]

Originally Posted by aries4118

You are so right, gregory. It's a problem that's accelerating...and not a thing is being done about (or people that even realize it's a problem in the first place!).

Yeah, that's a great point in the article... that folks just assume that moving into the suburbs = better life opportunities. it does not work that way. There is also real agitation that a motivating factor for these programs is to clear the way for developers to make more money from folks desirous of living in-town but previously afraid to because of housing projects.

[JB432]

Even simpler answer...

What common factor in large cities can change the population statistics? Money.

[JB432]

Also within Atlanta you've had substantial migration inside I285. Places like Kirkwood, Grant Park memorial dr, and even the Highlands area were not always so "happening""..

Meanwhile outside I285 places like Norcross, which was once much nicer, continue to fall into an abyss. Now the real question is how much longer before east cobb goes..

[masonbarge]

Originally Posted by JB432

Also within Atlanta you've had substantial migration inside I285. Places like Kirkwood, Grant Park memorial dr, and even the Highlands area were not always so "happening""..

Don't say "even". I can remember well when Virginia Highlands was the opposite of "happening". Until about 1980, it was an extremely depressed and dangerous neighborhood. The only saving grace were two bars -- close to dives -- where Emory students went to drink cheaply (George's and Moes & Joes) and a spattering of students living in the cheap housing.

Other than that, it was a really bad place. I went into a bar one night just to get a takeout six-pack, and almost every patron had a rifle or shotgun sitting right on the bar beside him (since concealed weapons were illegal).

Even later, 10th Street and Midtown -- now the hottest parts of the city -- were the hangouts for whores (including underage boys) and drug dealers.

Heck, if you go back another 20 years, Ansley Park was depressed. Most of the large homes there, now going for multi millions of dollars, were converted to boarding houses. As late as 1995, I looked at a huge (8000 square feet?) house on Westminster Drive, right on Winn Park, that was divided into rooms and in terrible shape. Asking price was about $300,000, if I remember correctly.

[tylert]

I'm not sure why you assume that former public housing residents wanted to move to the suburbs. A lot of public housing has already been demolished and the rest is slated to close in the near future. For many people this is displacement, not a voluntary choice to leave the city.

City services are especially needed by the poor, but increasingly, people can't afford to live here. That is the predictable result of gentrification.

Primarily, this displacement is a crime against the displaced, but it's not surprising that it has negative effects on suburban communities as well.