Crime in Delaware (Wilmington, Newark, Bear: apartment complex, construction, law)

[doctorjef]

So let me give you a perspective from the opposite side. I lived the majority of my life in Texas, mostly Austin, although I went to grad school in Fort Worth. I've been in Delaware five years now. I don't see Delaware dying a slow death. Overall, the state is pretty healthy and growing, although the City of Wilmington itself is not. I live in the Wilmington burbs, just outside the city limits and about a 10 minute drive from downtown. The riverfront and lower Market Street are constantly improving, and certainly do attract people. There have been other recent projects downtown such as opening a small complex of apartments and studios for young members of the arts community. It isn't downtown per se that is so blighted as it is some of the poverty areas surrounding it. If you left Wilmington in 2010 you are already behind the times here. There has been a lot of commercial development in the downtown and riverfront areas, including the opening of World Cafe Live at the Queen, in the old Queen Theatre on lower Market St. What hasn't improved, however, is the poor-on-poor violent crime in the areas immediately surrounding the commercial downtown. The next mayor - pray God - is going to have to be a lot more competent and effective in delaing with this than burned out Mayor Baker.

BTW, while my partner and I enjoyed our years in Austin for the most part, we'd never move back to Texas, and I can't even imagine why we'd want to set foot in the DFW metroplex.

[Pine to Vine]

A common phenomenon among transplants is the downgrading of places they used to live. It is often subconscious and is a way of re-enforcing that one has made the oh-so-clever decision to move to a new locale.

CD offers a forum for folks to anonymously express such sentiments. I've seen a lot of that in this thread. I mean, really: No gentrification in Wilmington? A slow death? While Wilmington is not without its share of problems, as a one-time resident who returns with some frequency, I can see with my own eyes that this is non-sense.

If folks are happy where they live - god bless 'em. But the fact that one or two feel compelled seek out a forum in order to post non-sense about a place they once lived makes me wonder just how settled they are in their new home.

[Legendof302]

Originally Posted by James420

At that soccer game the first guy shot was going to testify as a witness to a murder back in '08, he was shot six times. Then families started bringing out guns and shooting, I have a friend that was at the pool nearby and thankfully her and her kids stayed down while their car was shot up to pieces. Wilmington is really bad right now, much worse than last summer. Even last summer I went to bars on Union street, this year no way and that's not because I live in Lewes.

The calibers of the guns are getting bigger, not .22s and .25s anymore, 9mm and up are common in these shootings. Hundreds of rounds were flying at that game not 50 or 100. This wasn't at 1am or 4am this was afternoon daylight.

I really hope the state doesn't pay too much for all that work going on at the riverfront cause until the crime problem gets fixed its not going to work.

They put all those cameras up in the city yet the violent crime is at an all time high and your also right about the murder record getting broke this year.

[Legendof302]

Originally Posted by God MC

Delaware has a few issues with possible gentrification. #1 the crime in the city, #2 their is nothing anchoring the gentrificiation. The riverfront nor the downtown area has anything of signifigance happening in the heart of WIlmingotn for those to desire to live in it. Downtown is a joke, everything closes @ 5 pm, no shopping, no hip trendy shops and no unique sense of culture NOTHING!!!

The other issue with Wilmington being gentrified is, most places gentrify due to convenience of location. People generally get tired of moving further and further away from the city. So they tend to move back in. Delaware will never have this problem, because you are usually no more than 25 mins outside the city by a major highway. So there is never really any true stress of commuting to feel the need to live in Wilmington.

Anyways Wilmington I miss you. Northside 23rd & Tatnall ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very good point about everything closing around 5pm. Which I assume is people are scared to be in the city after dark. I agree what James420 said about the riverfront. How they will gentrify the Westside specifically Adams Four to keep the riverfront safe will certainty be interesting. As for Riverside, Northside, Eastside and South Bridge they might be ghetto for a very long time to come.

[ebuch]

Originally Posted by jm02

A common phenomenon among transplants is the downgrading of places they used to live. It is often subconscious and is a way of re-enforcing that one has made the oh-so-clever decision to move to a new locale.

CD offers a forum for folks to anonymously express such sentiments. I've seen a lot of that in this thread. I mean, really: No gentrification in Wilmington? A slow death? While Wilmington is not without its share of problems, as a one-time resident who returns with some frequency, I can see with my own eyes that this is non-sense.

If folks are happy where they live - god bless 'em. But the fact that one or two feel compelled seek out a forum in order to post non-sense about a place they once lived makes me wonder just how settled they are in their new home.

Yeah I moved away and I still have WPD family and guess what they say of the city? It's a s-hole with no tax payers and no citizen support.

And sorry doctor you can't even compare what the Bass family has done compared to Wilmington. The bass turned the section 8 downtown into one of the most prosperous downtowns in the country... Is there really anything to be seen in downtown wilmington? No shopping no business etc.

But sorry Jm because I "moved" away does not mean I don't know what I'm talking about. I have WPD in my family going back from the 60s til present day and they see a little more of the real city life than you ever will.

[ebuch]

And I will agree Delaware as a state is a fine place to live, Im soley talking about the city limits itself nothing else.

[doctorjef]

The Bass family in Fort Worth have had the wealth and noblesse oblige in recent decades to do what the Du Ponts did in the areas outlying Wilmington in the 19th and early to mid-20th centuries. That kind of money just isn't going to be forthcoming these days from private largesse in Wilmington.

Wilmington has no tax base because it failed decades ago to annex all the land surrounding it. Unfortunately now there is no way that residents of the outlying suburban area would submit to annexation. You can contrast that with Fort Worth, which gradually expanded its city limits as far as possible, only being stopped by some outlying burbs that had already incorporated themselves or by older incorporated towns. I spent time in Fort Worth during the summers throughout my childhood and saw the process of annexation unfold over a period of thirty years or so. All that is good for Fort Worth but has no relevance to Wilmington's options in the present day.

I can imagine that Wilmington PD personnel are rightly frustrated and fed up. However, by that same token I think you are getting a biased view. Positive developments within the city itself have and are taking place. Unfortunately, this has not rectified the crime that poor, criminalised people perpetrate upon one another and upon other poor people who are absolutely innocent. What is clear is that the City and the State of Delaware have not had the political will to really address the crime problem aggressively. I'm sure there is little interest in the General Assembly as a whole, so any impetus has to come from the governor's office, together with the administration of the City of Wilmington. The feds needs to be involved as well in coming down hard on drug dealers/traffickers, who are involved in an inter-state racket, whether directly or indirectly. Wilmington, as Delaware's premier city, is too important to allow it to go to hell. The problem is that almost all attention has seemingly focused on development of resources for the middle classes who live outside the city limits or at least on the opposite side of I-95 and who come downtown for dining, recreation and work, while next to no attention is given to the impoverished, crime-ridden areas immediately outlying the commercialised areas of downtown.

I am downtown almost every day, and certainly inside the city limits on a daily basis. We probably eat at the riverfront once a week on average. One shouldn't ignore either, some perfectly decent parts of the City of Wilmington that lie west-northwest of I-95. These include good neighborhoods, entertainment and dining in the areas on either side of Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by ebuch

But sorry Jm because I "moved" away does not mean I don't know what I'm talking about.

I see you are responding to my post. I didn't name you but apparently you felt the shoe fit.

If you are looking for me to respond to your posts, however, prepared to be disappointed. I have a fairly high capacity for ignoring posts I find to be unsubstantiated and silly non-sense. I'm sure if you keep poking around however, you'll find someone willing to engage with you.

[ebuch]

I agree with you that the state of Delaware is a fine place to live, im just against the city being a good place to live.

[doctorjef]

ebuch, I'm confused. Your location says "Newark DE" yet you claim to live in Fort Worth?