Found A Loaded Pistol In My Yard Today...It Wasn't Mine

golfduke wrote: Do you mind me asking what part of ATL you are in by chance? I love the city and have a good bunch of friends in Cabbagetown, and it's one city on our 'watch list' for potential career-based relocations. I'm trying to get a feel for good value vs The Hot Zone, but it seems there's pockets of both everywhere... haha.

OHSCrifle wrote: What part of the City? Buddy of mine (ATL) has been buying up cheap but solid unloved homes in East Point and College Park, fixing and renting to airline workers. He says the schools are slowly showing signs of improvement, which is basically a metric for "residents who give a E36 M3".

I live in Clarkston, which is between Decatur and Stone Mountain. Been here 10 years. The city itself isn't too bad, but we back up to Memorial Drive which needs to be bulldozed from 285 to 78. Been here 10 years. Gunfire used to be a regular occurrence, but now we go weeks or months between hearing any now. My street used to be the boundary between the city and unincorporated county, but we annexed in a huge swath of land which has made a fantastic difference in how the places look. We have our own code enforcement and they don't mess around. You can tell where our city limits are because one side of the street looks great, and the other looks like hell.

Housing was cheap, but my neighbor just sold their house after it was on the market a whopping 30 hours for their full asking price. I still think the buyer is insane and that the house is overvalued, but somebody found a bank willing to lend on it so I what do I know. The areas near us are exploding with new development, so we're hoping that it bleeds over into our city. We already have all the retired Decatur hippies and the hipsters have recently invaded ("my favorite Bhutanese restaurant is around the corner, but you've never heard of it...."), so the area is picking up. I'm waiting for rent prices to increase so the Section 8 slumlords will be forced to fix their places up.

itsarebuild wrote: be careful what you wish for with gentrification. It has downsides too. When it gets "nice " enough the kids with money come down. It's like chum in the water for those with little or nothing to lose. EAV goes through this in cycles. In the 13 years I've been here some of the most dangerous have been further along in the gentrification process.

Not to mention the obvious cost downsides. If your income isn't up to it, you could find yourself catching rather than pitching in the gentrification tango.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

I already told my wife once our house is worth twice what we paid for it (adjusted for inflation, naturally) we are selling. We bought low, so our house payments are pretty cheap. I'm hoping for a second Vinings-type explosion of well paid idiots who want to live in a "hip" area so badly they buy a place 7 miles away from it just because some smart developer added "at Vinings" to the townhouse name.

There are lots of things I don't like about gentrification but not having people worry for their safety probably outweighs my hating that every bodega and luncheonette has become a 7-11 or Starbucks. It's been over 20 years since I've had any friends shot. The part that kills me here is that there is a growing "Anti-gentrification" movement made up of white 20-somethings who were not here before it was gentrified. They want the city to go back to the days of cheap rent which were days they've only heard about from the few old folks they haven't pushed out. They don't remember that those days came with 2000+ homicides a year, junkies passed out on their stoops with needles in their arms and of course the squeegemen. 25 years ago these kids jogging around Bushwick at midnight would have been fodder for a Law and Order episode.

In reply to Wall-e:

Hey Wall-e, how much do you want to bet that those anti-gentrification bozo's are the offspring of the 1%ers that ruined the country town in NJ that I grew up in.

You know, tar & chip roads weren't good enough for their expensive European cars, Dairy farms smell bad, the migrant workers at the orchards make them feel unsafe.

Jogging on the now properly paved road was too dangerous because now there was 10× the traffic, and they could go 50mph or faster instead of the 25mph of the old road. So sidewalks and street lights were demanded.

Next these same residents led the demand for open space preservation! It was OK for them to build McMansions on former cow pastures and peach orchards, but God forbid anymore people do it in "thier country neighborhood".

By this time the local taxes were high that the original residents in little "slave quarters" houses couldn't afford to live there anymore.

Yeah, I'm a little bitter. And I'm perfectly aware that gentrification is a two edged sword.

Atlanta always left a slightly scary impression on me. I've had a couple of opportunities to relocate there for work, and each time when I visited the city it seemed like not a place I wanted to be. I'm sure it's got some nice places, but I never had the fortune of finding them. My first trip there I was very nearly mugged while leaving a restaurant in what was supposedly a "better" part of town.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Atlanta always left a slightly scary impression on me. I've had a couple of opportunities to relocate there for work, and each time when I visited the city it seemed like not a place I wanted to be. I'm sure it's got some nice places, but I never had the fortune of finding them. My first trip there I was very nearly mugged while leaving a restaurant in what was supposedly a "better" part of town.

As a visitor with no idea where NOT to be, yeah, I can see it. Some places LOOK fine but sure as hell are not (like Memorial Drive near 285). Other are obviously bad (like the old Bankhead Courts area).

As for the anti-gentrification hipsters, we have some of those too. They move in for the "gritty" area that proves they aren't just trust fund kids from north Gwinnett.

My city prides itself on being the most diverse square mile in Georgia. We have refugees from all over the world here. The city has been helping refugees from across the world for nearly 40 years, across many wars and many presidents. Why here? We had a crap ton of cheap apartments, were located on a major bus line & near the train. Why did we have tons of cheap apartments? The early 70s city council sold us out to developers by doing a bunch of back room deals to approve an explosion of cheap apartment complexes where farms used to be. The shady city people took their cash and moved away, leaving us with now 40 year old moldering apartments with absolute minimal maintenance. The old people in our city bitch about the refugees and run down apartments while completely forgetting their buddies (long dead now) were the ones who sold us down the river.

So now the area is picking up and the anti-gentrification hipsters are screaming that there is some grand scheme to deprive people of affordable housing. All the while they enjoy the cheap rent and scream about the lousy living conditions. Guess what little sunflower, if the landlord fixes the place up, the rent goes up too. And so it begins.

Me? I bought a two bedroom house with a three car garage for dirt cheap because I want a garage lift. And I'm the conductor of the gentrification train on my street. I have the code enforcement officer's cell number, and the local cops know me. I'm THAT guy on the block. We already have an art gallery a quarter mile away, so the gentrification train has already left the station. Now we just need a pretentious coffee shop...

In reply to HappyAndy:

Yeah, I can definitely see parallels between the gentrification crowd and the crowd who move out to the country and then try to "civilize it".

The difference being, in the case of gentrification, its usually trying to clean up a place that really needs ceaning up- i.e., high crime, bad schools, slumlords, etc. In the case of those who go all Green Acres, it's more them (as you point out) trying to make the rurals conform to their perceived notion of an "ideal" place to live.

As someone who moved to a rural area in Maryland, I enjoy the smell of cow poop in the afternoon, and my neighbor target-practicing in his backyard, and tractors chugging down the road. If you don't like it, don't move here- go gentrify somewhere that needs it. Lord knows they need more yoga pants downtown. I prefer overalls.

Back in the 60s and 70s, I had family that lived in Kennesaw. It was quite common then to find dead bodies dumped in the woods and quarry. These were people (pushers, users, prostitutes, etc) who had run afoul of "the mob" in ATL. Times have changed.

So... What kind of gun was it? Condition? Is this a "Finders-Keepers" deal where the PoPo hold it in Lost and Found and if no one claims it in 90 days you get it?

Man, all they dump on my street is cats, dogs, dead dogs, meth lab leftovers, apartments, landscaping debris, tires and dead bodies (human). No boom sticks. OK, only one dead human body and that was a couple years before we moved there.

Dr. Hess wrote: So... What kind of gun was it? Condition? Is this a "Finders-Keepers" deal where the PoPo hold it in Lost and Found and if no one claims it in 90 days you get it?

Hmmm, I didn't ask about "finders, keepers". It was in pretty crappy shape thought. I told the officer whoever owned it had terrible firearm maintenance. Just a .38 Special (said so right on the barrel). Looked cheap, beat up, and a danger to anyone when near when discharged (both the shooter and the target). Hopefully it just gets destroyed.

In reply to slefain:

I want to say it was the Underground area. But Buckhead sounds familiar, too, and I was not really impressed with that area, either. It seemed really expensive for not-very-nice.

I guess it's all what one is used to. I get around Baltimore a lot, and DC not as much as I used to, but I can generally know whether the neighborhood I'm in is a) safe, b) safe as long as it's light out, c) safe as long as I'm in my car with the doors locked, or d) don't show your face here, ever.

spitfirebill wrote: Back in the 60s and 70s, I had family that lived in Kennesaw. It was quite common then to find dead bodies dumped in the woods and quarry. These were people (pushers, users, prostitutes, etc) who had run afoul of "the mob" in ATL. Times have changed.

Ahh yes, when Kennesaw was the "sticks".

volvoclearinghouse wrote: I want to say it was the Underground area.

Yeeeah. That's a borderline area visited only by GSU students and misinformed tourists.

In reply to slefain:

So, junk then. As in "What you givin me dis piece of E36 M3?" Then she pitches it out the window.

nderwater wrote:

volvoclearinghouse wrote: I want to say it was the Underground area.

Yeeeah. That's a borderline area visited only by GSU students and misinformed tourists.

Underground has been up and down more than a Peachtree Street hooker..

Meh, guns. I had the neighbor's cows in my yard yesterday. And a loose donkey the day before. Damn animals.

I remember picking up shells in the Ted parking lot before the season opening autocross while I lived in the ATL back in 99-02.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: In reply to HappyAndy: Yeah, I can definitely see parallels between the gentrification crowd and the crowd who move out to the country and then try to "civilize it". The difference being, in the case of gentrification, its usually trying to clean up a place that really needs ceaning up- i.e., high crime, bad schools, slumlords, etc. In the case of those who go all Green Acres, it's more them (as you point out) trying to make the rurals conform to their perceived notion of an "ideal" place to live. As someone who moved to a rural area in Maryland, I enjoy the smell of cow poop in the afternoon, and my neighbor target-practicing in his backyard, and tractors chugging down the road. If you don't like it, don't move here- go gentrify somewhere that needs it. Lord knows they need more yoga pants downtown. I prefer overalls.

Your post is fine. Except the last two sentences. I don't like that. I don't like that at all.

In reply to joey48442:

Is this what you were thinking?

I found a loaded pistol in my guest room closet. Turned out my prior guest had forgotten it there. Fortunately he texted me about it before the five year old that shares a bathroom with that room found it.

In reply to HappyAndy:

Yoga pants are the "push-up bra" of this decade. Lotta women wearing them that oughtent be.

EDIT: And, even more disturbingly, some men, too.

The gentrification of Brooklyn is interesting. I have a friend working for Wegmans intent on transferring to the Brooklyn store when they open. He had to get a second job when he moved to massachusets. Lord help him if if he tries to go to NYC.

When I lived in N KY, in a fairly sketchy neighborhood, I came home to find a gas grill in my front yard, tucked behind the hedges. I assumed maybe the in-laws left us a gift (wouldn't be out of the question).

An hour later the police showed up asking about it. My new neighbors were easy to quell, I mean if I was going to steal their grill I wouldn't leave it right there in 90% plain sight. For many many reasons, I do not miss that area.

I think the debate on gentrification is interesting in that most of it is based on perceived change. There was a university (can't remember which did it) study of three cities, DC/Detroit/Oakland. The results were that crime didn't really change as much as some would think. It was more that vacant house X was a good dumping ground, out of sight, before the neighborhood was renovated. The dumping grounds shift to inside dumpsters or other out off sight spots. The crime still happened. In the data crimes actually increased as the neighborhood's population increased and postulated that the impression of improvement was simply due to having more positives rather than reduced negatives. The nice whole foods next to the independent coffee shop and north western Chinese restaurant

In DC areas that did increase police actions in either gentrified or non gentrified spaces showed a reduction of all crime. So the study was left with a future question to investigate.

Is gentrification successful due to the people that move in or due to increased police effectiveness?

My impression all along has been that tax base drives it all. For instance Detroit has gone from millions of people to around 700,000 people. So the tax base is less than half as it was 30 years ago. But the city's other dimensions haven't changed, same square miles for police/fire/water/trash to work, same costs to maintain infrastructure, etc. So it is a death spiral without infusion of more people and/or higher earning people. "Gentrification" seems to be more about just getting more tax revenue for the city and state to do more.

O.P. I like that you are open to the reality that government is a strong partner for the improvement of your area. (Unlike many I come across who speak as if they did it all alone.) The question to the OP is if your police didn't show up when you called would you still think so well of your area's progress? If the code enforcement officer said to you that she now has to cover twice as much area due to budget cuts so will get to your concerns in 4-6 months what would you do?