MPSA MAILBAG FOR EYE ON MIDTOWN 4/26/2009
Background: Several weeks ago we asked residents to write to the Mayor demanding an end to the furloughs. One neighborhood wrote a very well thought-out letter too long to run inline with our regular e-blast.
In October of 2000, we purchased what was then a very dilapidated century-old home sitting on 9th St. and lovingly renovated it back into a single family home. Since our renovation, I’ve lost count of the number of major renovations that have occurred on our street, up to and including four razzings with complete rebuilds and home values in the $1.5 - $2.5 million range. We are now living in a major portion of our retirement income which we hope to realize in 10 short years.
We realized when we made our purchase and chose to live in Midtown that the much maligned Ponce de Leon Avenue was just a few short blocks away along with Boulevard and Edgewood Ave. A neighbor warned us we should never leave anything outside that we cared about or that couldn't be replaced. We bravely forged ahead, made adjustments to our "suburbs" way of perceiving the world, as evidenced by our chaining our rockers to the front porch. We had an antique bird bath stolen from our front yard in addition to a bike, a blower, a pillow and numerous other "small" items. I, a 54 year old grandmother of 4, have personally confronted a man on my front porch stealing my mail.
In addition to the "petty" nuisances of loud drunks & prostitutes fighting & screaming in the streets in the middle of the night, beer & liquor bottles thrown in my yard, crackpipes and used condoms on the sidewalks, I have dealt with "disturbances" of all varieties and far too many to mention here. Calling 911 is virtually futile. I regularly deal with people begging money from me at the grocery store, on my street, at my door, and in the park. I have witnessed cars being broken into in broad daylight outside my kitchen window. Seeing broken glass and glass repairmen around here is, unfortunately, normal. Our own cars have been broken into eight times in the eight years we've lived here - they've left blood on my car seat and once they actually stole a pair of pink "Beauty & the Beast" children's sunglasses and when they could find nothing else of any value in the vehicle, they stole my car manual. I totally expect to go out one morning and find they've stolen the children's car seats. We have experienced many things here and we've dealt with many challenges, including a man who was selling drugs out of the house across the street, and the crime associated with the traffic of his "clientele". One bad property on the street was "torched" one July 4th several years ago and the neighbors & MPSA worked to get the owners to be held accountable by authorities.
We have heard horror story after horror story of people we know being robbed at gunpoint in the immediate neighborhood - usually in the early hours of the morning. The little neighborhood grocery several blocks south of my home has been robbed several times in the last year. My husband witnessed & ultimately assisted a young lady in a fight for her purse with a thug that jumped out of a car full of thugs just outside my kitchen window.
Most recently, in the early morning hours of Sunday March 2, my sister-in-law visiting us from Maryland watched from an upstairs window a couple having sex in a car stopped in the middle of the street. Her husband reported hearing gunshots that morning (which, by the way, we hear all the time). Later that Sunday, we learned that a neighbor's friend attempting to return to his car had been held up at gunpoint, again outside my kitchen window about 3 a.m. that same Sunday morning. Earlier in the week, I received a message from Midtown Ponce Security Alliance urging us to leave all lights on, ask guests to announce their arrival by blowing their horn, and to put a flashlight on anyone coming into our home so that we could follow them to be sure they weren't accosted.
For years my husband has felt compelled to walk everyone that visits us to and from their car just to be sure they make it safely. I take off all my jewelry before strolling my grandchildren in the park, and wonder if by allowing them to play in my own backyard I'm putting our very lives at risk. One afternoon two guys were fighting on Argonne and one threw a rock at the other guy which whizzed across the top of my 8' tall fence and barely missed one of my grandchildren. I have to warn my 80 year old mother-in-law and my 9 month pregnant daughter-in-law to blow their car horn so that I can be sure they're not mugged (without me knowing about it).
Yesterday, my mother-in-law and I had been shopping and she was going to her car but had left something in the house. As I turned to go inside the house to retrieve the item for her, I hesitated and felt actual fear to leave her standing on the sidewalk by her car in broad daylight even for the few minutes it would take me to return. I have yet to tell my 77 year old mother in Macon, for obvious reasons, that a woman was raped in her home one block south of me on Argonne one weekday during the lunch hour. I realize now that to go out (or come in) after dark in my own neighborhood to my car or to a restaurant is reckless and extremely risky. I am virtually a prisoner in my own home from sundown to sunrise.
In a few weeks, hundreds if not thousands of unsuspecting citizens of the Atlanta area and Georgia will be in my neighborhood for the Dogwood Festival. They'll be worried about where to park and if that spot is legal and will they be towed...unfortunately that should be the least of their worries. They have no idea how vulnerable they are...They don't know about having to completely clean out their vehicles - no change in the coin holders, no bags, no glasses cases, nothing that a crack-head could hock for $5. They don't know that if they stay in the area past sundown to have dinner or visit a shop (adding $ to the city's coffers) that they put their very lives in jeopardy as the predators will be watching for them...It's like bringing lambs in for the slaughter. It is only a matter of time as the crime escalates and the law enforcement is depleted until someone is murdered over a wristwatch or some pocket change.
If I can't get my elected officials - my representatives in government whose salaries I pay and who are the only ones that can actually do something about this situation legally - to realize or care about the "quality of life" issues as well as the public safety issues I am struggling with, perhaps I can appeal to you in terms that seem to carry the most impact - and that is of course financial. How long do you think it will be before a highly publicized tragedy occurs that will negatively impact the commerce of this entire area?
How long do you think we will continue to try to live here and pay taxes and our insane water bills and the revolving bizarre "parking" permits and the general insanity that is "metro living" these days with the city government depleting our Department of Public Safety and our Fire Department? It was bad BEFORE the furloughs...virtually having to 'call in' crime reports. I know, I know, "the economy...” - I urge you to take money from the "Administration" who has mismanaged my tax money and gotten us in this situation and put my money where it belongs - protecting the people who pay the money to begin with (and their property). I don't need another administrator - I need police officers & firefighters. We, Midtowners, are open-minded, strong willed, intelligent, and determined people and we are weary of doing more than our fair share and yet left to fight this battle alone.