The Truths of Greenville, SC From Someone Born and Raised Here (Columbia: rent, work)

[sojones]

LOL I lived in Astoria Queens, e91st, and in Jersey City

I understand you on the living expenses of a house out there. IT's pretty amazing but I hope you land everything here as you hope

Let us know your personal thoughts

[bruthamutt]

Property tax/HOA story:
2 bedroom townhome 1100 sq.ft in South Florida : $3600/year tax, $1500+/year HOA
4 bedroom home 2000+ sq. ft in Simpsonville: $1100 tax, $320/year HOA
I laughed when the realtor told me the taxes and HOA and she thought I thought they were too high! LOL

[tesswin]

Originally Posted by justNancy

It's 4:22 in the morning and I've been up all night reading posts and articles, trying to decide if Greenville (or one of the surrounding areas) is the place for me. I doubt if a short visit will make a huge difference, because I really need to live somewhere for a while to get a feel for its culture.

Well, at 4:18 I decided to visit the Greenville County Sheriff's web site. I'm not sure which thread I was on earlier, but some of the posters described Greenville as a type of fairy tale place like DisneyWorld. I don't think there's a lot of crime in the magic castle, but the Sheriff's Office is reporting some pretty startling crime stats. In 3 months robbery is up 23.3%, burglary up 32.1% auto theft up 36.6% and it goes on and on. What is creating this surge in crime? Greenville online reports that "violent crime rose in three of Greenville County's six cities from 2005 to 2006, while dropping in the unincorporated areas, according to a new report from the U.S. Justice Department."

A poster on this board wrote on another thread that Maudlin is the ideal place to live, but that's not what I'm reading. "With 125 incidents in 2006, Mauldin surpassed Simpsonville as the violent crime leader among Greenville's suburbs, according to the latest Uniform Crime Report."

So who is telling the truth? The Sheriff's office? The newspapers? Or the people here who say it's such a safe, family environment where you can walk the streets at night?
This post isn't meant to stir up any controversy. I'm just confused!

JustNancy,
Just a quick note for your concerns. I work for a Sheriff's Office and I will tell you that every agency manipulates numbers. Law enforcement agencies report crimes as set forth per federal criteria.

However, I have seen agencies (not just mine) report burglaries and thefts with no suspects as "information" and not as a crime in an effort to keep crime rates low. Did a crime occur? Absolutely. Hence, your local law enforcement agency's number may appear lower than the crime rate actually is.

Also, remember that FBI's crime rates are about a year behind and crime can escalate in the time frame of then and now. Our area certainly has and I'm in south Florida.

Our newspaper reports less than half of our crimes in order to keep up the appearance of a safe community.

The only way to know for sure is to contact your sheriff's office and ask for a printout of their dispatch log for certain areas to check out a neighborhood or a report that covers the last month...which would likely be too expensive due to it's length. But you get the idea.

Good luck.

[sojones]

glad somebody is in touch with reality

I've been in all parts of Greenville and listen to people and knwo what's going on

There's plenty of crime going on out here... A LOT

The lock up rate here for those of African & Hispanic descent has to be spectacular.... something they do not want the world to know.....

Greenville's prison system is expanding way to fast

[Skyliner]

Criminals do not own this city and never will as long as we have good men and women who oppose them. Crime is literally everywhere in the nation and it will never be removed unless our whole "justice" system learns how to punish criminals properly. I see no reason for anyone who commits a violent crime to be set free without serious pain and public humiliation inflicted upon them first. Right now criminals only have to attend local "intitutes of crime" for a short while where they learn new techniques of disrespect for law and life. This is the case in every town across the country. Check out the growth in population as it relates to the growth in need for detention facilities in other cities and you will see that Greenville is absolutely no different in that regard.

[sojones]

i never said Greenville was the worst .. I just think people paint an unreal picture

may'be i should take photos of the other side of Greenville for viewers

[flgargoyle]

Our prison system is a revolving door. Just recently here in FL, a man raped and murdered a woman only 6 days after being released from prison for....rape.

[sojones]

Originally Posted by flgargoyle

Our prison system is a revolving door. Just recently here in FL, a man raped and murdered a woman only 6 days after being released from prison for....rape.

egh. Census.gov agrees with me

[g-man430]

Originally Posted by sojones

i never said Greenville was the worst .. I just think people paint an unreal picture

may'be i should take photos of the other side of Greenville for viewers

I actually thought about going to take pics of West Greenville and along Poinsett Highway. Maybe I should take pics of things spray painted with the word "Blood" and other gang slogans.

[Skyliner]

Originally Posted by sojones

i never said Greenville was the worst .. I just think people paint an unreal picture

may'be i should take photos of the other side of Greenville for viewers

And your point would be??? No one has asked for your abnormal opinions on the "other side" of Greenville. When someone asks about a specific place which is known to be located in a less desirable area, we offer advice encouraging them to take a closer look before moving to that neighborhood. That is how to help people who are asking questions. You have shared very little information that is worth anything to anyone seeking knowledge on this forum and it has caused you to appear to be nothing but a hijacker with a grudge. You constantly inject negatives, often misusing information, inevitably creating distrust of legitimate posts by serious members wanting to help. Your aim is clearly to create confusion for people looking for information on a potential new home. If you have nothing positive to contribute, why bother even wasting everyone's time? If you care so little about this city, why would you care to continue complaining about it when you could just as easily move to a "better" place? Do you even live in Greenville? What reason do you have to act in such a disrespectful manner toward everyone living here and those who have reported about their recent visits? How can you help others while being negative 99% of the time?