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

[nscruggs]

I live in Stone Mountain (off of Sheppard Rd) but I won't take offense to it being called ghetto. I guess it's relative. It is not the nicest area in Atlanta but it is quiet. I don't fear for my safety or worry about my home being burglarized (which happens anywhere).

I wouldn't describe an area as ghetto unless it is truly a poverty stricken area, evidenced by lots of boarded up homes & business; lots of people loittering on the street; people walking on the street drinking; broken bottles, needles & other drug paraphanalia littering the streets; car alarms going off several times a day; sirens being heard several times a day; loud in general such as people yelling or blasting stereos ; homeless people sleeping on sidewalks, etc.

Stone Mountain is not like that at all. My biggest complaint is not enough people maintain their homes & cut their grass. So please, if you move here & buy or even rent a home, cut your grass.

[xxman777]

Hey, I never said they should live in Stone Mountain. I would never recommend living there. There are a few nice neighborhoods but it never gave me a good feeling and I've heard lots of bad stories. However to say the entire county is ghetto is a little over the top. I live in Dekalb county and am surrounded by million dollar homes, virtually no crime and pretty good schools. Hardly a ghetto.

[veronicaluv]

what's ghetto to you? Stone Mountain, GA compared to the neighborhoods of NYC is faaaaaar from "ghetto" in the street term of the word. It's "the sticks" to me. A lot of trees, a lot of homes and a lot of cars. Some people take care of their homes better than others. I didn't see any crack houses and boarded up shanty towns....

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by veronicaluv

what's ghetto to you? Stone Mountain, GA compared to the neighborhoods of NYC is faaaaaar from "ghetto" in the street term of the word. It's "the sticks" to me. A lot of trees, a lot of homes and a lot of cars. Some people take care of their homes better than others. I didn't see any crack houses and boarded up shanty towns....

There is a wide range of what people see here before they get paranoid about crime. Some will simply see 4 black teen boys walking down the street and think, "Oh, no.. I'm not living around here". Others will ignore that, but listen to all of the crime stories on the local news and rule out an area after hearing just one or two things about it. In other words, *some* folks overreact to it. However, there are definately suburbs around Atlanta that were once much nicer than they are now, but have slipped.

Atlanta is not like Northern cities when it comes to crime. You can find pot growing operations in very normal looking homes in subdivisions miles out from the city here (they raid places like this on a regular basis). Likewise there was a drug/prostitution ring being run out of home here in a community of million+ dollar homes. Our versions of "crack homes" are not the stereotype of boarded up row homes in NYC.

There are certainly worse neighborhoods than Stone Mountain. However there has been a significant increase in things like burglaries, robberies, drugs, and even an assault or two in the area compared to only a few years ago.

[DSGBBOI]

Originally Posted by cia191630

I stand by my statement. I lived in Lithonia, and while my neighborhood was nice, it was still considered hood. Of course, I would live there again, but I wouldn't live in Stone Mountain under no circumstances. I also feel Atlanta is ghetto, with the exception of the nice areas. But then, every county or city has it's good areas along with the bad areas, and Stone Mountain is definitely a bad area.

well i have several family members in the stone mountain area/redan/lithonia area and i was even raised in the area but i'm just goin 2 say this its the people that make the city not the city make the people so all in all while your'e considering stone mountain a ghetto then you must b ghetto r dont know what the hell your'e talkin bout and just saying ish off the top of yo ead and wanna be seen. comparing Stone Mountain to south ga. would be comparing beverly hills to watts.

[kaiser]

Goldielove,

Let me set the record straight...

I currently live in Provo Utah, but I was born in Macon Georgia.

Despite being born in Macon Georgia, I lived in Stone Mountain for 21 years of my life. I grew up there!

Yes, Stone Mtn. is actually very ghetto! My family in our apartment growing up got burgularized at least 12 times and my mother nearly got raped half of those times; had my mother not been such a well built Germanic woman the rapistists would have succeeded in rapping her! My mother did not own a firearm until my brother and I were old enough to know not to play with guns!

We moved eventually out of old town Stone Mtn and into a newer part of Stone Mtn near Carolyn Drive and that was safe for a awhile, but now is not any longer!

The safest places in Georgia are in descending order; Kennessaw( They have an ordinance which says all who can own guns must own guns); Kenn...., has the lowest crime rate in the US of A.; Second best place you could live is Lawrenceville Ga, Lawrenceville is about 25 minutes drive NE of Stone Mtn and is extremely safe for the metro Atlanta area! It is not as safe as when I grew up, but still is quite good in comparison. My mother lives in Lawrenceville today and she enjoys it! 95% of men in lawrenceville have concealed carry permits and as such are armed, this dramatiocally drops crime! While Alpharetta near Roswell is quite close to Atlanta, but suprisingly has had only one murder in 14 years( so it is said). Carolton is also safe they say!

My vote would be Kenn... #1 and Lawrenceville #2.

[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!

[cia191630]

Originally Posted by DSGBBOI

well i have several family members in the stone mountain area/redan/lithonia area and i was even raised in the area but i'm just goin 2 say this its the people that make the city not the city make the people so all in all while your'e considering stone mountain a ghetto then you must b ghetto r dont know what the hell your'e talkin bout and just saying ish off the top of yo ead and wanna be seen. comparing Stone Mountain to south ga. would be comparing beverly hills to watts.

No, I'm not ghetto. I moved there because I was in a another apt and had to be moved to another location. I choose Lithonia because I heard everything bad under the sun about College Park, which is where their other property was located. I didn't know anything about Lithonia or any other area in the ATL area, I had only been in GA for 2 months when they had to move me to this complex. I am nowhere near ghetto and am not trying to be seen. I gave my opinion on the area and like I said, it's hood. I haven't compared anything to south GA because I never been to south GA except on the interstate going to FL. I'd care less about south GA since I wouldn't live in any other part of GA except ATL area. Now Lithonia may not be as ghetto as College Park (which I don't even feel safe in) but it is still ghetto compared to the neighborhood I was raised in.

[xxman777]

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!

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.

[flynurse33]

Gwinnett County side of Stone Mountain is a better choice. Far more superior schools in comparison to DeKalb. A lot of trouble has been going on on the DeKalb side (inclusive of Memorial Drive area especially)..

With kids, move into Gwinnett County.. not much further than where you're at!

Good Luck!