Last night I read a really interesting article in Creative Loafing about the Mayor of New York suing quite a few gun stores in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia for selling guns in ways that break the rules. Then the guns make their way up Highway 95 all the way to New York, where they are used in crimes. One of the most interesting facts in the article was the ratio of murders in New York and Atlanta. In New York last year, it was 7.2 in 100,000. Atlanta was 22.something in 100,000.
This prompted me to look around some more, and realize that while Atlanta is definitely not the worst for crime, it does seem to be in the top 5. Especially for violent crime. I guess you don't think of a place in that way when you are from there and you're used to it. I also read that the violent crime rate in Atlanta is actually on the rise, unlike places like New York City, where the crime rate is falling. Then I started thinking about having a baby in a place with a high crime rate. And Justin and I were talking about how many victims of the crimes are sort of innocent by-standers and how many are other criminals or people hanging out with with wrong crowds...
In any case, we are not going to move to the suburbs, as we feel very strongly about the cultural importance of living in a city, and we really want Hosey to be around all of that. I've also been reading how much crime is spreading to the suburbs anyways. I guess the moral is just that you should be careful wherever you are. Unless you are in Honululu, where the murder rate is 1.4 in 100,000 people. Awesome.
This website has really interesting facts (from 2003) about crime rates in all the major cities. It's morbid, but interesting.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004902.html
Well, now that I've brought up yet another not nice topic, I'll sign off and get back to work. Sorry Justin, I know you hate it when I write these kinds of blogs, but I guess I feel that people should be aware of these things.
Friday, July 27, 2007
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I get the sense that a lot of the violent crime in Atlanta is still concentrated in pockets and that it spills outside of those pockets only occasionally. That being said the rapid gentrification of Atlanta that has happened in the last 5-7 years doesn't bode well. When D.C. began being gentrified during the same period violent crime often occurred in places it hadn't before as a result. New targets and old factors (race, class) contributed greatly to those occurrences and it is likely the same thing will happen in Atlanta without proper planning and investment in the police force. Still, statistically speaking the chances are way greater of being in a fatal car accident, a pedestrian accident, etc, than a fatal violent crime incident. And I'm sure unlike many new residents to the city you are more aware of your surroundings and don't have a false sense of security which is generally what leads to being viewed as a target. It was always funny to see people in DC jogging with headphones on, or talking on their cell phones on the streets in the middle of the night or any other silly things you can think of. Stay vigilant, stay safe.
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