Letters to the Editor - June 20 2007

Metropolis, ‘Crime is up and the mayor is out’

Crime is up and the mayor is out

??
check, please: I distinctly remember a past article you wrote preaching about how we need to slow the population growth in Georgia. Yeah, well, Franklin could actually be doing us all a favor (joke). Flooding the streets with crime and managing the city poorly makes me think twice about settling my roots here. Pretty sure I’m not the only one.

??
-- kim

??
I’m spooked! The thug/criminal culture in this town is palpable. I’m afraid the recent murder in L5P is a harbinger of the new (current) ATL.

??
-- Boooo

??
City withdraws support for homeless shelter

??
Wake up Atlanta: It’s not just this shelter... the Baptist Mission on Peters St. in Castleberry Hill is totally out of control. When is the city going to wake up and take notice that the neighborhoods they want to revitalize can only be rehabilitated if laws are followed? And where is the Mayor on any of this. Hell, where is the Mayor period? Talk about USELESS!!!!

??
-- Buford

??
Some right, some wrong: This shelter doesn’t do much for homelessness. It is the typical warehousing and enabling of homeless people.

??
I used to live very close to that area and watched drug dealing openly happening along the Peachtree/Pine street area and on Courtland behind the shelter. It’s turned into a bad-smelling, sad-looking hang out spot for the homeless and mentally ill.

??
I wouldn’t say you need to be armed to walk down Courtland though. That’s plain silly. I used to walk through there on the way to work downtown many mornings and up to the Midtown area some early evenings. But it could be less menacing if all those people — some of those who didn’t live at the homeless shelter and just preyed on those who did — could be cleaned from the street.

??
Homeless folks need help. But those who live in the neighborhood shouldn’t have to suffer.

??
At the same time, this shouldn’t be an attempt — which I think it really is — an opportunity for the city to further gentrify the area for dollars.

??
-- ajazzy1