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For instance, getting home from my kid's soccer game took me an hour on Saturday. Yes, I know they're working on 285, but the alternate routes were backed up to the gills as well.
I wish you lived a little closer intown, Roslyn, so that you didn't have to put up things like that. You would be a great fit.
What is the deal with this? It drives me absolutely insane. We turn the TV on in the morning to check traffic before my husband heads out, and we have to listen to ten minutes of who got shot last night. Why is this news? ... As for shootings and such, same thing. Does it really warrant the breathless gavel to gavel coverage they're given in this town?
Perhaps you are right in the sense that the media spends too much time on the crimes themselves, but I certainly feel we need to understand what is happening in our environs. If we are left ignorant of what is going on in our backyard, we'll have no idea we need to fix it. If we don't have an opportunity to fix it, it will just profligate. So, it is useful, in my opinion, to know about these trajic occurences. Gotta take with the bad with the good, I think.
The question is though, is anyone trying to fix it? I mean, I've been here a little over three years and it seems to me that most of the gunplay occurs in the same general areas. So much so that I'm actually surprised there's anyone left alive there. I mean, we all know that poverty and crime go together and we also know there is no real commitment to ameliorating it. So all this media coverage is nothing more than pathology porn and sensationalism.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnsleyPark
Perhaps you are right in the sense that the media spends too much time on the crimes themselves, but I certainly feel we need to understand what is happening in our environs. If we are left ignorant of what is going on in our backyard, we'll have no idea we need to fix it. If we don't have an opportunity to fix it, it will just profligate. So, it is useful, in my opinion, to know about these trajic occurences. Gotta take with the bad with the good, I think.
The question is though, is anyone trying to fix it? I mean, I've been here a little over three years and it seems to me that most of the gunplay occurs in the same general areas. So much so that I'm actually surprised there's anyone left alive there. I mean, we all know that poverty and crime go together and we also know there is no real commitment to ameliorating it. So all this media coverage is nothing more than pathology porn and sensationalism.
I share you feelings and I also think the media around here is addicted to the "If it bleeds, it leads" approach to news coverage. It doesn't have to even involve violent crimes. A couple weeks ago I went to ajc.com and the top 4 or 5 headlines were tragic local deaths. I think one couple died in a fire, two drowned in separate incidents, and one or two others were involved in separate auto accidents. I was just like "geez" and I don't really have a low threshold for bad news. It was just unnervingly morbid.
I'm not saying stuff like this shouldn't be covered but it reaches a point of overload.
Right there is just too much emphasis on it in local media. It would also be bad if it were covered up. It needs to be reported and in the open, but it doesn't need to be the only thing they talk about. I swear, anytime I look at the AJC online it is like 2/3 of the stories are crime, death or something sex related. I just went and looked and here are today's headlines:
Mom w/ kids in car charged with DUI
Couple tied, beaten and burned.
3 kids found bound in home
Thieves prey on Ga. State students
Court: Parents starved baby
Seriously, those are the first five headlines. You would think it is panic in the streets...
I'm not saying stuff like this shouldn't be covered but it reaches a point of overload.
And saturation coverage like this doesn't mobilize people to address the problem. All it does is frighten people until all they want to do is get the heck out of Dodge, just further exacerbating the problem. I swear, I think the news media around here is in league with the suburban realtors.
They also neglect to mention that most of the gunplay involves criminals shooting other criminals. Without that context people are liable to believe that regular law abiding citizens are in continual jeopardy of being shot, when, like in most cities that is extremely rare. Most of us are not in danger of anything more sinister than a property crime, and even those could be avoided most of the time with basic common sense. Criminals aren't very bright, they usually look for the low-hanging fruit.
As an outsider looking in, at least on these forums, I've never seen a city or metro area with so many negative comments pouring in from people from other cities and states, about how another city -- not their own -- doesn't measure up. For example I've never seen another city forum where people post so much everyday crime news, as if far worst hasn't happened in other cites, and as if their goal is to simply throw some negativity out there about the city.
After reading a lot of threads in the Atlanta forum, the city seems to be undervalued in several areas where if it was another city that achieved these accomplishments, there would never be such a strong downplay but instead constant positive praise.
I've tried to pinpoint a specific reason to Atlanta as to why these people think the city falls short but any reason could be said about a lot of other cities in the United States. For example people constantly harp on the lack of mass-transit rail in Atlanta, while true that the system could be extended, the Marta system is superior to most and goes to major centers of the city.
The system is built on a superior Heavy Rail foundation which is rare this day in age and is also superior to the new light-rail systems in Dallas, Charlotte, Seattle, Portland etc. Atlanta's is also more extensive and superior to Miami's. One would never say Dallas has a superior system to the D.C. Metro system which is basically the same as Marta and both were built around the same time. In-fact, D.C. Metro could also use work and extensions.
There seems to be an underlying commonality to all these posts, no one can ever seem to give a valid reason specific to Atlanta as to why it falls short in their eyes.
A lot of the negative criticisms said about Atlanta could be said for a lot of other cities that have been around for far longer but are still unable to get out of third tier where Atlanta has quickly jumped to a first tier in many regards.
Truth be told, Atlanta has achieved a lot in a very short amount of time. These accomplishments have been overshadowed with an inundation of negativity which are distorting the truth and causing confusion.
But there seems to be an underlying tone, when sound factual evidence can't be held responsible for shortcomings. Everything seems to point to the fact that Atlanta has a significant Black population as to why people constantly hate on the city and its metro area. There is a goal by some to paint the city as a failure because of this. But these people have made significant contributions and a lot of the positive significant things would not have happened without them including the Olympics.
Recently, the growing music and film industry that's helping to keep the state's unemployment from rising was pioneered by black people from the city and now others are taking notice and the founders are not getting credit. It's only 'arrived' now that everything non-black wants to partake.
I see how 'diversity' is praised and 'things are getting better' if there is a lacking black population or no majority in the city and surrounding counties yet cities like San Francisco or Miami are constantly praised for diversity even if the black population is falling near 0% in San Francisco or Miami is 70% Hispanic or Latino yet called diverse.
I see the lack of support by the surrounding counties in Georgia and the negative perception from other cities in other states due the Atlanta being a Black stronghold. You never see this kind of negativity towards San Francisco with its black population near 0% and falling but still being called 'diverse' and gets constant hype or Los Angeles with its higher unemployment rate, bad tax structure, companies constantly fleeing to other states and its failing movie industry.
For a city and metro with a high percentage of Blacks it still has more than double the Fortune 500 companies in Seattle, more than Dallas and a better university system than both. And Miami has a far more corrupt government, and has far more serious problems with a higher unemployment rate, lack of companies, office space and overall business climate which are the most important piece to making great cities what they are. None of those cities mentioned even have a taller building than Atlanta which is over 1000'ft.
So Atlanta should embrace its accomplishments while fixing what needs to be fixed and continue its can-do attitude and ignore those who want to make its accomplishments insignificant.
4 things.
1. Saying the term “ghetto” already is race base. A ghetto is a term that refers to a poor minority neighborhood. But some how that term has change to mean everything black dominated. For instance I have heard some posters say The real house wives of Atlanta is ghetto ……… How the heck does that show has anything to do with the ghetto. Compared to other metros Atlanta actually has a highest black own business rate, and rank 3rd blacks with degrees which is ironic. What going on anything that’s dominate by black culture is already call ghetto. For instance if you believe BET makes Atlanta look bad but you would like for MTV, VH1, CMT, to have more of a presence in Atlanta, your racist because the content it's all POP culture. Half of the people going around saying “ghetto” are miss using the term for black pop culture. So it’s the larger negative precipitations of blacks and fear. So Atlanta is known for it’s blacks population so they bash.
This part 2 of part 1, this political. Some conservative have this un rational fear of blacks, so they scream reverse racism reverse racism, Atlanta is full blacks so guess what they think?
But I got something better than Miami or the bay area…….. look at Seattle, Minneapolis, and Boston. Notice on these forum these metro never get bash for diversity think about it.
2. Atlanta blacks vs. other cities blacks. A lot blacks in other cities don’t like there city is getting less attention. Simple as that. I mean a few posters keep saying I know some blacks who have mix view of Atlanta…….. Naw really?……… know why ? Because everywhere has mix view, what was the point of even stating that? You shouldn’t even have to know a person from anywhere to know it has mix views.
3. As silly as it sound that Atlanta is known for black urban culture, Atlanta is bash for being too redneck by northerners and etc, and yes I know. It’s the elitist east coast and etc attitude, no matter how Atlanta grow or become. They WANT to believe negative things it make them feel better about there city. So there’s negative view of southern culture and there’s also a ignorance of what is southern culture. Because when I think of southern culture I think of southern food, maybe accent, they think of the Klan and trailer homes. It tell you where there minds at.
4. General ignorance about Atlanta and sunbelt cities. For some reason posters act like sunbelt cities are 2 days old? Going back to elitist attitudes they don’t WANT sunbelt cities to improve. I say that because this is why they get a hard responds after they criticize they don’t want the criticism to be fix they just want criticize.
On this forums this what I notice about there view of Atlanta.
Right there is just too much emphasis on it in local media. It would also be bad if it were covered up. It needs to be reported and in the open, but it doesn't need to be the only thing they talk about. I swear, anytime I look at the AJC online it is like 2/3 of the stories are crime, death or something sex related. I just went and looked and here are today's headlines:
Mom w/ kids in car charged with DUI
Couple tied, beaten and burned.
3 kids found bound in home Thieves prey on Ga. State students
Court: Parents starved baby
Seriously, those are the first five headlines. You would think it is panic in the streets...
Actually I think the news organizations would do a disservice by not telling us what's going on in the city. For instance, I have a female employee who recently began attending night school at Georgia State. She and I appreciate the fact that the AJC let us knnow about this going on.
I swear, anytime I look at the AJC online it is like 2/3 of the stories are crime, death or something sex related. I just went and looked and here are today's headlines:...
One day late last month the AJC website had these listed as the top 5 stories (I kid you not):
Woodstock couple dies in fire
Teen dies in boat collision
Cumming man dies fishing
Man shot on MLK Blvd
Fatality in liquor store shootout
If you only read the AJC you'd think people in the Atlanta area are dying left and right! Surely there's something else that's news worthy?
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