Vicious Attack in Greenfield

[Acipenser]

Originally Posted by DreamworksSKG

I thought it was a decent area to live?

It is. Pretty area, lots of outdoor recreation close by, quiet and low key, nice sense of community, and yes, safe. Take a look at the OP's other posts re: the town and area. Someone has an ax to grind.

[dorock99]

Originally Posted by Acipenser

It is. Pretty area, lots of outdoor recreation close by, quiet and low key, nice sense of community, and yes, safe. Take a look at the OP's other posts re: the town and area. Someone has an ax to grind.

I have to wonder if it is an actual axe to grind or if he has a very valid point. I went to another forum to look up info on Greenfield, based on news stories, and pretty much what this guy is saying seems very common in Greenfield. I'd say, gangs, drug dealers, and robberies, would make it a bad area to live.


What really interest me is the racial division for a bad town. For instance Lawrence a town with a heavy Hispanic population is listed with the same attributes as Greenfield an all white town. However, there seems to be more people defending Greenfield than Lawrence, so I'd have to seriously take that into question. I've seen the same thing happen when people used to compare Roxbury and South Boston.

The racial divide would cause people to over defend the "safe" aspect of South Boston, which had the highest murder and crime rates in the city at the time and was majority white. Roxbury,which is a majority black area, would still get labeled as worse part of the city only because the citizens were minorities, not because they actual had the highest crime rate at the time. (not saying it was safe, but in comparison to Southie in the 70's, 80's, and 90's Roxbury was a picnic and still is even though today it certainly is the worst part of the city.)

Anyway, in general basing a city is probably not the best way to prove your point, but bringing up factual events, that happen more than average of the culture of the city, should be viewed as helpful, and not bashing. I've never been to either Lawerence or Greenfield, in fact this form is the first time i heard of Greenfield. However, i'm well aware that Western Mass and certain places are not considerd nice small towns to live and have horrible reputation and should be avoided at all cost. I live right outside of Boston in an extremely safe area, so i feel sorry for those of you that have to experience this sort of stuff. Hopefully these things will improve with the economy.

[Grenoble_slopes]

Originally Posted by dorock99

I have to wonder if it is an actual axe to grind or if he has a very valid point. I went to another forum to look up info on Greenfield, based on news stories, and pretty much what this guy is saying seems very common in Greenfield. I'd say, gangs, drug dealers, and robberies, would make it a bad area to live.

The city's robbery rate is less than half the national average, according to stats collected this decade and listed on this website.

The racial divide would cause people to over defend the "safe" aspect of South Boston, which had the highest murder and crime rates in the city at the time and was majority white.

Do you have a source for this? This would be interesting to read about.

[Acipenser]

Originally Posted by dorock99

I have to wonder if it is an actual axe to grind or if he has a very valid point. I went to another forum to look up info on Greenfield, based on news stories, and pretty much what this guy is saying seems very common in Greenfield. I'd say, gangs, drug dealers, and robberies, would make it a bad area to live.

If you look at the OP's posts, you'll find that he/she regularly has extremely negative things to say about Greenfield -- including starting this fairly inflammatory thread. Everyone's welcome to their opinion, but I thought it worth pointing out that this person has a pretty extreme bias that others in the area don't share. Greenfield recently went through a very difficult school budget crisis and a number of teachers and staff were let go. Given the OP's login name, I suspect there may some connection there. Happily, the situation seems to have resolved and is improving, according to parents I know who are actively involved with the schools. Perhaps getting rid of some dead weight in the system wasn't the worst thing to have happened.

I moved to Greenfield a couple of years ago from out of state. While I'm moving away soon for work reasons, I generally like it here and would have been happy to stay for a long time. I have lived in cities where there was actual crime -- the real stuff, real gangs, real home invasions, real random violence -- and to characterize Greenfield as unsafe is absurd. Most people I know don't even lock their houses, and I can walk the streets of downtown safely at night. It's important to note, too, that the occasional violent crimes referenced in this and other threads (and don't be mislead, there are not many) are not random. The people involved knew each other. That doesn't make it any less wrong, but no one is getting randomly carjacked by roving gangs.

To be fair, the town is not without problems and this economy certainly isn't helping. The downtown is pretty, but there are a lot of empty storefronts. It's the largest town in the county and the location of most social services (hospital, mental health, addiction services, etc.), so yes there are poor people and homeless people here. It's sad, though, that this generates fear in some people rather than compassion. As I said earlier, I'd characterize the town as quiet and low key with a nice sense of community. There are a lot of people here who really love it and who are working hard to improve it. It's a pity some people would rather complain than help.