What Have You Personally Witnessed/Experienced To Make You Shun PG County?? (Greenbelt: apartment, crimes)

[emsgoof]

You know Iscalder, you remind me of Gladys Sharp from Over the Hedge, terrified that any bad news would make your property value plummet.
Rather amusing.

[jessy0780]

Originally Posted by Terrapin2212

Jessy....wow if seems like EVERYTHING happened to you. My experiences....I lived in PG County for 4 years when going to school in College Park. I lived on the campus.

- My wallet was stolen from the gym on campus.

- My credit card was stolen from the counter of the Wawa's in College Park one night after I left the bars. Granted I was drunk but that doesn't make it right for whoever stole my card to do it.

- My mom was in an accident in Langley Park on University Blvd (MD 193). The other driver was an illegal without insurance. While our insurance company paid for it b/c the cops said the illegal was at fault, they never found the illegal.

- My mom used to have an illegal co-worker who boasted about how he and his friends always went to PG General Hospital for free treatment. Thanks to the illegals the hospital I believe was privatized.

- Whenever I drive through Langley Park or parts of Greenbelt, there are so many illegals, I feel like I am in Tijuana or San Salvador, and a bad part of Tijuana to be exact.

- My friend was robbed at gunpoint in College Park on campus just outside Alleghany Hall.

- I get crime reports in the email all the time when I was a student. There are regular carjackings and armed robberies on campus, and drug-related shootings near the campus.

- My friend from Hyattsville todl me a story once about how criminals stole a tow truck, then used the tow truck to steal cars from somewhere in Hyattsville.

- The crowd that gets on the Green Line trains is the most ghetto (this definition also includes illegals) of all the Metro lines and the Green Line serves PG County on both ends. The Orange line toward New Carrollton adn the Blue LIne toward Largo is also very ghetto and I have seen fights and arguments there. To be fair though, the Silver Spring and Wheaton end of the Metro Red Line is also very ghetto but not quite as ghetto.

- MS-13, the most violent gang in the US, has a heavy presence in College Park.

- Cops have shown up in my dorm building asking if a suspected drug dealer had been there trying to sell weed.

Well, I lived in the area for about 20 years. My family has been there for about 45.
One good thing that just came to mind- Christmas a year ago, my grandmother lost her wallet in PG Plaza. A hispanic man who spoke very little english found my phone number on a slip of paper, and called me. My grandparents met him somewhere and he returned the wallet, with everything in it. They gave him a Christmas card with some cash inside as a thank you.

[liliblu]

I worked at the Hecht's Store, now Macy's, in Marlow Heights while in college. One day a young man handed me a wallet he found on the ground right outside of the store. When I opened the wallet it contained about $220 in cash and several credit cards. We called a contact number in the wallet and that person informed the wallet's owner that it was being held at the store. He almost cried when he arrived and saw that all the money was still there. He had a bill to pay and did not how he was going to pay it after he'd lost his wallet. The young man who found the wallet didn't leave his name. He just wanted to make sure the wallet was returned.

[jonjj]

suburban sprawl

[md4li4e]

Pg county IS a nice place i hear ppl talkin bout how hyattsville is a bad place. Hyattsville like many other places in PG are nice, many ppl doin crimes are either in gangs and or drunk/high and have nothin better to do so they do somethin stupid. its like alot of places have crime so worse than others. Ppl say PG is so bad cuz you have Montgomery county right next to it. Whenever you have a nice place and a "bad" place where there is more crime than the good place the "bad" place is always being shunned at. PG is doin a better job than previous years. But there will be crime in areas where ppl will WANT drugs to persist! Mitchelleville is gorgeous! million dollar homes! Upper Marlboro beautiful! not everywhere in Pg is bad so dont give a negative rep for the whole county. Jus like every other county there will be nore crime in some counties then others.

[sarahreed87]

I have lived in upper marlboro/cheltenham. I have been to bowie but not much experience there.

What I hear:

Influx of 'dc people' bring bad driving habits. they escape the drugs and crime of dc but some of them bring it with them. the dc culture is vastly different from most of maryland....

what i have personally experienced in DC- lots of graffiti and vandalism. I have witnessed someone running out of a rite aid with some goods. lots of traffic problems. general lack of friendliness.

ITs not that I care enough to slander pg county all the time... but that is my general experience. its not the most horrible place but it does seem to be not flourishing but getting worse. thats my opinion. first hand, but i do hear it also.

[1973 Forced Busing]

Contrary to the opinion of PG county's greatest young female business and luxury home owner the 13 are all over this county!

[Floridahater]

Originally Posted by Terrapin2212

Jessy....wow if seems like EVERYTHING happened to you. My experiences....I lived in PG County for 4 years when going to school in College Park. I lived on the campus.

- My wallet was stolen from the gym on campus.

- My credit card was stolen from the counter of the Wawa's in College Park one night after I left the bars. Granted I was drunk but that doesn't make it right for whoever stole my card to do it.

- My mom was in an accident in Langley Park on University Blvd (MD 193). The other driver was an illegal without insurance. While our insurance company paid for it b/c the cops said the illegal was at fault, they never found the illegal.

- My mom used to have an illegal co-worker who boasted about how he and his friends always went to PG General Hospital for free treatment. Thanks to the illegals the hospital I believe was privatized.

- Whenever I drive through Langley Park or parts of Greenbelt, there are so many illegals, I feel like I am in Tijuana or San Salvador, and a bad part of Tijuana to be exact.

- My friend was robbed at gunpoint in College Park on campus just outside Alleghany Hall.

- I get crime reports in the email all the time when I was a student. There are regular carjackings and armed robberies on campus, and drug-related shootings near the campus.

- My friend from Hyattsville todl me a story once about how criminals stole a tow truck, then used the tow truck to steal cars from somewhere in Hyattsville.

- The crowd that gets on the Green Line trains is the most ghetto (this definition also includes illegals) of all the Metro lines and the Green Line serves PG County on both ends. The Orange line toward New Carrollton adn the Blue LIne toward Largo is also very ghetto and I have seen fights and arguments there. To be fair though, the Silver Spring and Wheaton end of the Metro Red Line is also very ghetto but not quite as ghetto.

- MS-13, the most violent gang in the US, has a heavy presence in College Park.

- Cops have shown up in my dorm building asking if a suspected drug dealer had been there trying to sell weed.

I attended UMD in the 70's and College Pk was a wonderful place and the campus was essentially safe. I'm sure sorry to hear that it is now so dangerous, but you can be sure that the lefties will always provide an excuse. I was so shocked to see the deterioration of Wheaton and other areas in MC. Some people have to be smacked in the face in order to admit that an area is declining. I have said over and over that I have seen this same pattern in other areas that I have lived in CA, CO and FL. I hate to say that it is only going to get worse.
when an incident affects the person on an individual basis would one truly understand what you are talking about. My sister is a perfect example in MC. She talks about the virtues of the multicultural MC, but she sends her kids to private school in order to keep them in a "higher learning atmosphere." What hypocrisy!! MC is about as bad as the SW United States. Luckily, I speak Spanish. Too bad that many illegals have no desire to learn English. Ironically, the most disgusted group of students concerning illegals when I was teaching in CA were other Hispanic kids that came legally and were assimilated. I spoke more Spanish than they did! On many occasions there were altercations between these two groups especially when an illegal would boast how they would take back the SW US and breed the whites and blacks out of existence (La Raza). The patroitic Hispanic kids were furious at such comments. Hey, I've seen it all, but I've given up. Nothing will change and things will only continue to get worse. It's just too late now. I thank God I grew up when MC and MD were wonderful places to live and go to school.

[hairmetal4ever]

Originally Posted by jessy0780

I'm glad to hear that and I hope it continues to go well for you in NC.

I live in Howard Cty near the PG line, but spend a fair amount of time in parts of PG county.

I've spent some time in Landover at my company's satellite office and had no issues, granted, this was in the daytime in an office park off the Beltway. I've spent plenty of time in Laurel (PG side, I live in North Laurel in HoCo) and had no issues except for a couple of black kids taunting me for listening to 80's metal in my car. Not a big deal there.

Only place in PG where I've felt uncomfortable was when I was walking a few blocks in Capitol Heights looking for a customer's house. It was a bit creepy and I got a lot of stares, but I got to the house, then to my car, and was fine. I've also had the same experience in parts of Baltimore City to be honest.

If I spent more time there I'd know more, but I've only lived in MD about a year now.

[dakwilk]

I've lived in PG county for most of my 30 years. I grew up in Old Hyattsville (where my parents still live) and I live in University Park.

The most negative experience I had was when we were parked in a parking lot and someone in my car opened their door and hit the car beside them. The woman who was sitting in the car got out and screamed her head off. We were apologetic and offered money, but she continued to be angry. We just figured that she was having a bad day.

I am moving in a few months to another state and am so sad to be leaving. I love my neighborhood. My neighbors take care of each other. In fact, my neighbor got locked out of her house this morning while she was visiting another neighbor and stopped by to use the phone. I let her stay in my home while I took my son to school and when I came back she had cleaned my house!

I'm sorry for the people who have had bad experiences, but we have felt so welcome and loved. I am white and when I started high school at the predominantly black school, I was nervous. But, my first day, a black student held the door for me and welcomed me to the school. I'm not saying that it is perfect, there are alot of people of different races and economic backgrounds trying to get along. Sometimes there is conflict. But, I am a more open, well-rounded, and loving person because I my experiences here in PG. I will miss my walks to the library and time at the community centers. My children will miss seeing their friends at the park. There are WONDERFUL places to live in PG county. It's not utopia, but it's a great home.