Does anyone know the crime in 5th Ward?

[DrLizardo]

Originally Posted by zbc518

It is said that there are about one hundred churches in 5th Ward, is this a part of the 'strong identity and pride'?

Well, I'm not sure about the 5th Ward specifically, but I do know that churches have always played a very big role in black communities. Today, there are a lot of churches where the congregation consists of a mixture of races, but historically Sunday morning in church has been pretty segregated. There were churches were white folks went, and churches where black folks went, and there wasn't much intermingling going on.

And church in black communities wasn't just about religion, it was also a place where there were a lot of social activities, and politics. The latter is still a big thing, preachers have always been seen as community leaders in religion and many other matters in black neighborhoods. Look at the Civil Rights movement, its leaders were all pastors. And today any politician knows that if he wants to get very many votes from his black constituents, he has to get the pastors on his side because they have that much influence in the community.

Church is where black people know they can find out what is going on in the community, what social and political issues are currently being discussed, and it's where a lot of opinions are formed and community actions and responses originate from.

[Texas Mack]

I notice, interestingly enough, that a lot of this new found gentrification in the Fifth is located along the Baytown East, from about Waco to somewhere around Wayside. It'll take years but the ball's already rolling. A bigger problem for the Fifth (and most of the NE quad) is that there's such a lack of quality retail in the area and as a result the tax base is very low, resulting in an even lower level of city services relative to the rest of the city. I could be wrong, but I don't think there's a single HEB or Kroger, for example, anywhere between I-10 and Little York east of the Eastex and west of Homestead Road.

I'll give you that there are probably a half-dozen or so Fiestas but still...

[pleasesaythe4th]

5th ward is so industrial


the property values will skyrocket though over the next 10-20 years

they actually have some condos by KBR that theyre selling for like 280,000 right now

[rigas]

the jobs i spoke about earlier in this thread would surprise you.
these houses are less then 90k, and the lots where sold directly from teh city.

the short of it:
5th ward and a couple other areas have a ton of "abandoned" lots that the city is not collecting tax money on. several builders where approached by the city (because they work near by i guess) and the city sold them lots for $1 each. the build must build an "affordable home" in a certain amount of time. then if i understand correctly the city is actually going to assist in the financing of the new homes. these homes are less then 1000 sq ft and are bottom barrel so to speak. the new buyers are financing like $60k when it is all said and done (this part i am not 100% about but this is how it was explained to me). this way the city can collect taxes on the property, the builder gets a hell of a deal, somoene gets a new "affordable" home, and it "cleans up the neighborhood".

now if you actually look at the finished product, this isnt "revitalizing" the area, it is just giving another poor family a new home to destroy and not make payments on. this is the quitman/jenson/lyons area.

the area south of 10 and east of 59 as spoken of earlier is a totally different deal as the land was/is all private investment.

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by TexasTheKid

Everybody knows in order to most efficiently worship teh Jesus you need to drive a Chrysler 300 with chrome twenty-twos.

You got it

[zbc518]

Do you know the relationship among the habitants living in the same blocks in 5th Ward?
Are the habitants living next to each other familar with each other?
Is the block a relatively private place where habitants will be aware of the strangers outsider their own block?
If so, do the criminals happen outside the blocks?