Crime in Atlanta - Holy cow what have I gotten myself into? (Dallas: rent, new house)

[xavier132487]

Originally Posted by mike7586

Back to crime, I have street smarts and I honestly feel safe in the city, but I'm not oblivious to the problems here. I think crime, panhandling/homelessness and the police force needs to be improved and I know the Mayor has promised to work on these issues, so I'm willing to give him a chance. I know Atlanta needs improvement, but I also know this isn't the most dangerous/horrible city in the country.

Atlanta may not be for everyone and that's fine, but if this place was so terrible 100,000+ people would not have moved into the city and 1,000,000 people would not have moved to the metro area in the last 10 years.

This is the one of the fairest, most rational arguments yet that touches on specifics of the city's problems without painting a grim WWIII scenario or automatically saying Atlanta is a zombie city. The numbers just don't add up for the doom and gloom scenarios people try to paint. There definitely does need to be something done about those issues, especially the police force. They need to get priorities straight, especially after that Eagle raid (complete shame face right there!) But, I keep hearing people harping about the water system infrastructure problems (which have been under construction for some time now... it isn't going to be fixed overnight). I think the transformation of the city has been marvelous, though (albeit, the government targets the wrong institutions, nightclubs and alcohol, to get rid of crime). I only see things getting better in Atlanta's future (maybe a little dip because of the recession, but not the decay we saw).

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by runningncircles1

This is the one of the fairest, most rational arguments yet that touches on specifics of the city's problems without painting a grim WWIII scenario or automatically saying Atlanta is a zombie city. The numbers just don't add up for the doom and gloom scenarios people try to paint. There definitely does need to be something done about those issues, especially the police force. They need to get priorities straight, especially after that Eagle raid (complete shame face right there!) But, I keep hearing people harping about the water system infrastructure problems (which have been under construction for some time now... it isn't going to be fixed overnight). I think the transformation of the city has been marvelous, though (albeit, the government targets the wrong institutions, nightclubs and alcohol, to get rid of crime). I only see things getting better in Atlanta's future (maybe a little dip because of the recession, but not the decay we saw).

Right.All signs point to Atlanta getting better.That's not just being optimistic ,but just reality of what is and has been going on in the city.People who are acting like the sky is falling are just not keeping things in proper perspective.

[WriterDawg85]

I think we'd be remiss to discuss this topic without discussing what colors our perception of crimes and safety, particularly since people are urging us very vocally not to turn this into a statistical thread (why a focus on verifiable fact is bad, I personally have no idea, but I'll take the bait).

The news cycle is very, very different than it was even a decade or two ago, as is the way that the news covers crime. News organizations have more time to fill than ever and we have infinitely more ways to consume it than when I was a kid and crime was verifiably much worse, both in Atlanta and in the country as a whole. It sure may seem like we hear about more serious crimes now, which would cause a lot of people to conclude that's because more serious crimes are actually occurring, but crime numbers just don't support that perception, and I like facts. Crime in the metro area, on the average, is decreasing year-on-year (with maybe a few hiccups on the way, but the fact that they stand out proves the overall trend). All types of crime, not just the petty ones. The news coverage of said crimes is just infinitely more sensational and invasive in our lives than it used to be - our perceptions of the situation, in many cases, just don't match up with the facts.

I grew up in the Atlanta suburbs with a dad that commuted downtown through a lot of really bad times for the city - there was a day during the LA riots when he actually stayed home from work because the local police forces were THAT afraid of crime breaking out here, too. When he used to take us into town for the day to get lunch on weekends, after a certain point, he'd turn around and tell us to roll up our windows tight unless we wanted to buy crack. My dad is not a histrionic person and we didn't really understand what he was saying back then or why it should worry us that he was saying it, but when you view the overall crime trends, we're a lot better off than in those days.

That doesn't mean that Atlanta is objectively a "safe" city overall - it's not as safe as a lot of the places we've discussed. I remember when I visited New York City for the first time and was amazed that there were women walking by themselves after dark - as a lifetime Atlantan, it hadn't occurred to me that any sane female would do that in a city. I still wouldn't recommend it in pretty much any area of Atlanta.

But to all the Chicken Littles out there - the sky isn't falling. It hasn't been in a long time. Atlanta is a city enduring a lot of change right now, and the face of urban Atlanta won't be the same a few years from now as it was a few years ago, let alone back in the 80s and 90s. There's a lot more positivity that could (and should) be happening - we need to increase the police presence in-town by several orders of magnitude, we need a cogent plan for dealing with homelessness and poverty. We need a city government that's serious about tackling these issues instead of just making things look better on paper. But the image that a lot of people want to give you just isn't accurate - there aren't people posted around the Perimeter waiting to shoot you in the face when you enter the city.

Progress is happening and it has been for a while. Hopefully the economy will continue to recover and roadblocks to more progress will continue to be removed. We've got a long way to go, but we've come a long way already, and the facts bear that out even if the anecdotal evidence doesn't always agree. I was born and raised here, and I won't be leaving anytime soon.

[tonygeorgia]

At least we arent as dangerous as Dallas, DC, Chicago, etc

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by AtlantaistheWorstcityEver

Atlanta is a dangerous, crime-ridden h*llhole. The low quality of life is comparable to that of the 3rd world. It's a miserable, awful, violent, destitute place and should be demolished a.s.a.p.

Who put salt in your coffee this morning?

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by tonygeorgia

At least we arent as dangerous as Dallas, DC, Chicago, etc

But your worse then Newark Even though Newark is smaller , it was once #1 back in the 90s....

[R1070]

Originally Posted by back2dc

Every city-data forum has people giving both positive and negative feedback of that particular area. You can't silence peoples' opinions!

I think just one of the many reasons Atlanta gets so much criticism on C-D is because too many of its defenders paint too rosy a picture of what life is like there. It's one thing to boast of a city's merits, it's another to wildly exaggerate what life is like. And then to insist that people not be allowed to speak their minds on the negatives just takes things one step too far.

[R1070]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Who put salt in your coffee this morning?

haha! I love this line! one of the best posts ever!

[R1070]

Originally Posted by tonygeorgia

At least we arent as dangerous as Dallas, DC, Chicago, etc

Tony, like i've said before. I don't understand where you get that Dallas is more dangerous than Atlanta? Because it really isn't, on a numerical base and by perception of the population that is here.

[chiatldal]

Originally Posted by R1070

Chicken and the egg obfuscation. Why do Atlantans, got to even defend the city so much in the first? Because there's so many posters randomly popping up to bash the city. One creates the other stimuli and response.

What rosy picture? that's "assuming the initial point" Begging the question this is my post.

Originally Posted by chiatldal

No more than half of the people in this thread aren’t Atlantans or even metro Atlantans, there from Texas, New Hampshire, Minnesota and etc. A few of them may have been here before but most of these out of towers probably never even been to Atlanta, then either or it’s exaggerating. “They're 15 major cities that have a worser crime rate than Atlanta, I wonder why no care about them, and that. but yet Atlanta is spotlighted in such a way one would think it was number one, or at least top 5” there’s a pattern when there’s a positive thread about Atlanta no one from New Jersey seem to pop up ), but mane let there be a thread about Atlanta fall off or the crime rate, it's happy hour.

Earlier someone was comparing the crime rate of Atlanta to Minneapolis, again Atlanta’s crime rate is not as low as Minneapolis but Atlanta is not the worst, Good for Minneapolis for having it’s crime rate so low as it does, but does this make Atlanta the worst or even among the worst? No, ATL is not even in the top 15 as far as the crime rate of cities, 70th as far as metro that’s right 70th, My thought is why Atlanta? that why I said

"I not saying Atlanta crime rate is low but people are exaggerating it to the point that factual Statistics doesn’t matters. Some people psychologically brand Atlanta as a poster child for crime, regardless of the crime rate and the actual Atlanta crime ranking. So what is so special about Atlanta that yall have to pick it out the hat for the crime rate? When is the last time you even seen a thread about how bad the crime is, in these Metros specifically?

Metros
24 San Francisco, CA
32 Charlotte-Gastonia, NC-SC
55 Columbus, OH
62 Winston-Salem, NC
69 Nashville-Davidson, TN"

these cities
6. New Orleans, LA
7. Birmingham, AL
8. Cleveland, OH
16. Washington, DC

My mistake what I mint is I have seen a few of the crime rate threads from the these places above and there isn’t 2nd parties pop up, comparing 2nd and 3rd party cities that are lower in crime to the topic city of the thread. And if they were to do this, they should go to these places first is my point. The OP want to know about Atlanta's crime rate, no it’s not as low as LA and NY, but it is No where close to how bad posters especially out of towers are exaggerating. It’s like they came here to purposely misinform and scare her.

Name one poster that said anything close to Atlanta crime rate is low and perfect, on the flip side I would gladly show posts with Atlanta crime rate being exaggerate.

Originally Posted by mike7586

It's not that people can't post negatives, it's that people are constantly posting their negative opinions on the Atlanta forum, harping on them, and wildly exaggerating them! It is constant negativity in the Atlanta forum and it's usually the same people over and over just trying to stir up trouble. At the same time, these people don't even bother to research and pay attention to the things this city is trying to improve on. If people would offer constructive criticism and post their negative opinions in a more tactful manner then maybe people in this forum wouldn't feel the need to be so defensive all the time.

Exactly

If someone said Atlanta needs to lower the crime rate is one thing but trying to paint Atlanta a as war zone.