What is so horrible about PG County? (Silver Spring, Aspen Hill: violent crime, house)

[parrotheadmomma]

This thread is about PG County, not DC, Montgomery County or Charles County. I don't think there is a much mention of those places because no one is asking about them as much.

I can't speak for others but in response to your "repeating what the media has told them" comment, the initial poster can take my replies as opinion by someone who actually lives here and sees it everyday, unfortunately. And how do you know "people are simple repeating what the media has told them and skewing statistics"? Why do you not think some people don't know what they are talking about and "suggesting that you don't believe everything people say"?

Hey, you know, some people like the ghetto and crime, obviously or they wouldn't be moving here.

[tercel95]

Originally Posted by tgeneral

My Personal Opinion:
Does crime and violence not exist in the counties surrounding Prince Georges County?

Yes it does but not to the extent that it does in PG county, that is why PG county gets a bad rap. There are nicer areas of PG county, but the majority of it is not some place that I could honestly recommend someone to live...

[North Beach Person]

Prince George's usually has 150-200 murders a year. Montgomery County with roughly the same population usually has less than 2 dozen. Charles County immediately south with about 140,000 people has about 10 or so, which is an increase recently. Anne Arundel with about 500,000 had a bad year last year with about 15. Calvert County with 85,000 people had 3 or 4.

[cool rob]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Prince George's usually has 150-200 murders a year. Montgomery County with roughly the same population usually has less than 2 dozen. Charles County immediately south with about 140,000 people has about 10 or so, which is an increase recently. Anne Arundel with about 500,000 had a bad year last year with about 15. Calvert County with 85,000 people had 3 or 4.

Classically, Prince George's County has a number of murders realted to its distance to Washington D.C., the same where Anne Arundel and Baltimore County have a high concentration of violence with their shared border of Baltimore City.

A big diffrence is that Prince George's County Crosses with DC at about 10 locations, all violent areas of DC.

Montgomery intersects with DC at a few areas, mostly upper crust NW, where as Anne Arundel intersects with Baltimore City at one main gate (brooklyn park/curtis bay which if you looked at a crime index, you would see the high concentration of violence leads here).

Baltimore County has it share of issues, that can be easily contributed to its close proximity to the city.

Even by with what your saying, Calvert and Charles are not affected by the violence in Prince George's County because it does not occur as frequently that deep in the county. The borders at those locations is violence free (for the most part).

I bet, if you take away the border areas in Oxon Hill, Cap. Hghts, Bladensburg, Mount Rainier, Langley Park, etc. the murder rate would reflect like the other areas you named.

I am starting to realize, that these discussions may be pointless, as no matter what is said, some will continue to berate Prince George's County as if you have a deep seeded grudge, no matter what stat is read, or how much sense another makes. Some just hate Prince George's County, and unfortunaly there is not much discussion, that will change their thinking.

[NJ2MDdude]

People coveniently forget that PG County's bad reputation predates its demographic change to a majority Black county. Based on my experience, the DC area "elitists" have always felt a need for a whipping boy to pound on. In MD, it's PG County. In VA, it's Prince William County.

I moved back to PG County in 1997 and have never been a witness to or a victim of crime. Nor have I received any racial slurs or cold, hateful stares from black or hispanic youth. In fact, most of the hate and bigotry I hear are from my educated, white co-workers, nearly all of whom live outside of PG County.

With respect to the PG County school system, I don't believe standardized testing is an indicator of future success. But I would be interested in examining test results by economic class, if such stats were readly available.

[tercel95]

So are people supposed to ignore all of the violence and give PG county a free pass because it borders on bad areas of DC? What kind of argument is PG county shouldn't be known for having bad areas because it has so many bad areas? Who cares why they are bad? People just don't want to move there families around that crap. My parents are from Riverdale, and Lanham and busted their butts to get out of that area and would never go back...

But you are right though, these arguments are pretty much pointless. Every time someone points out all of the violence in PG county, someone either calls racism or just gets genuinely angry because someone is dissing their "hood"...

For the record there are good parts of PG county and PG county does offer attractive things. Nice commute time without high prices being one of the bigger ones.

PG county gets labeled as a violent area because it is plain and simple... There are good parts but there are more bad parts and it has the worst good to bad part ratio of any other county...

[cool rob]

Originally Posted by tercel95

So are people supposed to ignore all of the violence and give PG county a free pass because it borders on bad areas of DC? What kind of argument is PG county shouldn't be known for having bad areas because it has so many bad areas? Who cares why they are bad? People just don't want to move there families around that crap. My parents are from Riverdale, and Lanham and busted their butts to get out of that area and would never go back...

But you are right though, these arguments are pretty much pointless. Every time someone points out all of the violence in PG county, someone either calls racism or just gets genuinely angry because someone is dissing their "hood"...

For the record there are good parts of PG county and PG county does offer attractive things. Nice commute time without high prices being one of the bigger ones.

PG county gets labeled as a violent area because it is plain and simple... There are good parts but there are more bad parts and it has the worst good to bad part ratio of any other county...

Well the key is you are pointing out things that are readily known, as the Washington Post and 7 on your side try their hardest to put Prince George's County on a headline each night for anything that has a negative or violent slant.

How about isntead of harping on what is known, how about dwelling on some of those good areas within the county that you mentioned. And why should it matter to the world that you hate Prince George's County? You don't live there, I take it you will never move their, so what is all of the anger and negativity about? (and if you do live there, then that seems all the more sad that you would spend this much time trying to destroy, instead of building!)

I probably will never move to Baghdad, but would it be right for me to constantly berate an area that I have no intentions of moving to, just to "convince" another that it is bad? If you want to move to Baghdad, by all means move! Tom Brokaw will tell you every night about the trouble there, why do you need to hear about that from me?

But alas, this is still a pointless discussion, since most seem adamant about labeling most things in the county as "hood", "ghetto" or "violent" irregarless of the zip code, or the persons whom reside their, however I like many others, actually reside in the county, and I am happy here. If that makes me someone who loves ghetto, blah, blah, then so be it.

It usually goes something like this:

(Q) Hey Is it snowing in your area?

(A) It doesn't snow in "PG" County, it is too near the ghetto, they might steal the snow flakes! I heard about that from my buddy who lives in Arlington! True Story, I pinky swear!

(Q) Hey, I like Fort washington, I may drive through there to my home in Charles County!

(A) Fort washington! Oh no that is the ghetto, make sure you lock your doors, even on the highway! I heard those hooligans are robbing folks while their cars are going 85 mph! I heard that from my cousin who lives in Ontario, Canada! True story, I pinky swear!

Yes very pointless indeed

Now would I like a top rated school system? You betcha. How about crime free? Oh but of course! How about a Nordstroms in Iverson Mall? Hmm, yeah that would be nice! Will it happen? Maybe, maybe not. I can live with it not happening, as I understand some work has to be put in by the residents, to ensure safety and accountability from the schools, as well as facilitated growth from the county. I am willing (and I do) work within my community, to make a change!

[North Beach Person]

A couple of things from different posts:
Charles and Calvert both are finding that many of the property crimes, thefts, etc. that are happening are being perpetrated by people with PG addresses-if fact the Calvert County Sheriff's Department calls Rte. 4 the "thieve's highway". That's been going on for quite awhile. The malls in Charles County are profiling there,my kids from school usually have a new St. Charles Mall story every Monday.
You will find a correlation between test scores and affluence. Having said that even the affluent PG schools have test scores below where the demographics would indicate they should be. Being involved in AP testing has had me scratching my head on that one for several years.

[NJ2MDdude]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

You will find a correlation between test scores and affluence. Having said that even the affluent PG schools have test scores below where the demographics would indicate they should be. Being involved in AP testing has had me scratching my head on that one for several years.

If black and presumably hispanic students are not thriving in the PG County school system, based on standardized testing results, how are their white and Asian counterparts performing? I'm curious if this could be a systemic issue as opposed to a parental issue.

[North Beach Person]

Hispanic students-generally lower scores.
White students-generally close to where one would demographically expect.

I've been in PG for 26 years and no matter the racial makeup the county has generally lagged behind Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel.
Before anyone mentions Roosevelt please remember, and I posted this earlier, Roosevelt, Flowers and Oxon Hill all cherry pick the best students for their magnet programs with Roosevelt getting the press.

In those 26 years there have been nine Superintendents or Acting Superintendents, all who came in and changed programs to put on their own imprint. One former Superintendent is in federal prison on corruption charges which occurred while in PG. The current School Board has been in office only 2 years, having replaced an appointed Board which replaced a Board which was disbanded by the MD Legislature. The current Acting Super is the only applicant for the current vacancy. I've seen programs start, show results and then get thrown out by the new guy. Time after time after time.