Stone Mountain.. is it Safe? PLEASE someone tell me (Atlanta: house, neighborhood)

[beefchuck]

Originally Posted by KevK

Stone Mountain is a crime and drug infested ghetto. Decent folks fled for Gwinnett long ago. I would rather live in Chamblee or Doraville!

LMFAO!
It is so true, Gwinnett as a whole is a hole nowadays.

[stanA]

I know that people of Atlanta dance around this, but as someone from the north who came form a state that ranks in the top five for schools nationally it is easy to see why Stone Mountain doesn’t rank like East Cobb. Go to Census.gov and get your answer. (Compare 30068 to 30084). Also check out how the Dekalb tax payer funds are spent, on a statue of "Tupac Shakur" ?? I wish this was a joke, but is it not, or if it is, it is played on the their youth.

I don’t make the rules, but I do not ignore them either. Peace "bros" ha! Got to go shine my 22's with my babies’ diaper.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by stanA

I know that people of Atlanta dance around this, but as someone from the north who came form a state that ranks in the top five for schools nationally it is easy to see why Stone Mountain doesn’t rank like East Cobb. Go to Census.gov and get your answer. (Compare 30068 to 30084). Also check out how the Dekalb tax payer funds are spent, on a statue of "Tupac Shakur" ?? I wish this was a joke, but is it not, or if it is, it is played on the their youth.

I don’t make the rules, but I do not ignore them either. Peace "bros" ha! Got to go shine my 22's with my babies’ diaper.

...this is racist.

[marimoy]

Um, in so far as I can tell, Stone Mountain is trees and big houses. My mum lives there and her neighbors complain that HER music is too loud. Hardly ghetto where she is. It really depends. She is in a big-ish plantation style house. It's like Miami... Coral Gables is fancy, but is only a few blocks away from the ghetto of Overtown. Sure, it's not Kansas, but it is not Detroit for crying out loud. Give me a break.

[Psykomonkee]

Stone Mountain is most certainly NOT ghetto. Just because an area has a majority black population does not make it ghetto. Stone Mountain is a safe place to live, as safe as any in the Atlanta area. The only way you'll find yourself a victim of violence is if you are stupid enough to do something that gets you involved in the violence that happens in the Atlanta area. If you just worry about your family and yourself, you'll be okay. Geez.... It's not ghetto.

[bizchick86]

Originally Posted by xxman777

Ummm...I think you missed the point. Somebody said the entire county was ghetto, myself and some others were saying the entire county was not ghetto, there are some very nice parts. You are right that Dekalb County has high crime but that does not mean the entire county is high crime. There are 665,000 people in the county, some parts are bad, some parts are nice. That point is proved by the counties with worse crime. Johns Creek, Alpharetta and Roswell in Fulton County and East Cobb and Kennesaw in Cobb County are all examples of nice, low crime areas in high crime counties (in fact higher crime the Dekalb). Just because the county has high crime doesn't automatically mean there are no low crime areas. I will reiterate what I said, I lived in a very nice area, low crime, good schools, million dollar homes. They do exist.

That's exactly right. A good word of advice for this forum is to avoid statements made with broad strokes. I lived in Stone Mountain most of my life, never felt unsafe, and when I could purchase my own home did so in Stone Mountain as well. The town is pretty big, so you can't make statements like that.

Stone Mountain, Lithonia, and Decatur are so close to each other that to insinuate that "well I'm in Lithonia, and it's much safer here" is ridiculous. Do people suddenly stop criminal activity once they hit the Lithonia city line..uhh no.

Some good, safe neighborhoods/subdivisions in Stone Mountain that I'm familiar with with:

The Briers: a quaint, mixed (as in a multitude of races) charming community with mostly Victorian style homes off of E. Ponce.

Hambrick Road between Memorial Drive and E. Ponce de Leon: There is a whole line of neighborhoods in this area that are quite nice, and I don't recall hearing about much crime having lived in this area.

Rockbridge Road: Basically starting at its itersection with South Hairston up to the Lithonia city limits is a great area. Many members of my family live here, I went to school around this area, and there are plenty of well-to-do blacks. This is a long stretch of miles and you'll find a plethora of neighborhoods with professional black people. Southland and all of its deviations is a huge subdivision that is beautiful and safe and it's at the crosshairs of Stone Mountain and Lithonia.

I'm sure there are many more areas I am not familiar with, but people making this statement were probably in lower-income sides of Stone Mountain where more crime would be expected.

I can say that yes, some parts of Stone Mountain need some economic growth, and are consequently struggling with crime, particularly that long stretch of Memorial Dr. starting at 285 and up to maybe Ray's Road, but from my personal experience living in Stone Mountain for 20 years, that area was mostly where I heard of criminal activity and that's just one small part of Stone Mountain.

[bizchick86]

Originally Posted by kaiser

xxman777,

One of my best friends just retired from the Dekalb County Police department after 33 years+/-. I know matter of factly that Dekalb has the third highest crime in the entire state of Georgia! Cobb and Fulton are fighting for first and second place, but Dekalb takes an easy number 3 on this count down!

First of all, this absolutely displays the logical fallacy that is evident when calling a whole county ghetto: equating a whole with the sum of its parts (LSAT-speak guys, can't help it, lol). So because the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, the entire U.S. is ghetto?

Likewise, extremely wealthy neighborhoods are in Fulton and Cobb. We wouldn't go around calling Cobb and Fulton ghetto because they, just as Dekalb, are large and diverse. Yet, Dekalb is more associated with being ghetto and criminal, despite having lower crime rates. Why? I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that it is mostly black and not because of a statistical reality. Crime is crime, so to racialize it (I'm not talking about you, but the general tone of the thread) by calling it "ghetto" as opposed to "criminal" puts a black face on a national problem.

Secondly, when you have a metropolis, you have crime, learn how to deal with it, or for those who dare to think about this option, do something about it! Crime is sparked by economic devastation and lack of community/social programs. Instead of constantly running away from the problem, figure out why it's so and help out, otherwise you'll constantly be running.

[bizchick86]

Originally Posted by stanA

I know that people of Atlanta dance around this, but as someone from the north who came form a state that ranks in the top five for schools nationally it is easy to see why Stone Mountain doesn’t rank like East Cobb. Go to Census.gov and get your answer. (Compare 30068 to 30084). Also check out how the Dekalb tax payer funds are spent, on a statue of "Tupac Shakur" ?? I wish this was a joke, but is it not, or if it is, it is played on the their youth.

I don’t make the rules, but I do not ignore them either. Peace "bros" ha! Got to go shine my 22's with my babies’ diaper.

You are an idiot.

[brownhornet]

The hicks are coming out of the woodworks today.

[LovinDecatur]

Originally Posted by mrdkb22

Do not move into an apartment in Stone Mt. or Dekalb county. VERY DANGEROUS!!!

That is bloody nonsense.