What was I thinking?

The result of crime that hits near and dear to me is that I begin to wonder exactly what I’m doing living in the area that I choose to live in. I don’t wonder about this regularly because I’m not impacted by the crime in my neighborhood on a daily basis, but the one or two times a year it affects me, I begin to question my sanity.

For perspective, you need to know that I live in one of the oldest neighborhoods in our city and that I’m only a couple miles (if that) from our downtown area. I’ve lived there for almost 5 years and have been personally impacted by crime more times than I care to count. The good news is that all the crime that has impacted me and that is most prevalent in my neighborhood is property crime. People want our stuff, not to harm us. Getting two large dogs has helped a lot, but I can’t keep one tied to my truck at night (though I’ve seriously considered it at times).

So why do I continue to live there, you ask. The answer is two fold. The first reason and most obvious to anyone who’s seen my house is that I love my house. It’s about 85 years old, has hardwood floors, 9 foot ceilings and it has character. The floors squeak when I walk through the house. You just can’t build that characteristic into a new house in the suburbs. I’ve got a large front porch, a huge deck and lots and lots of space. Oh, and there are trees (big trees) in my neighborhood. Trees are hard to find in many of the popular suburbs.

The second reason is more financial in nature and is tied to the urban renewal that is going on around me. The area I live in was a DEA war zone in the mid 80’s and property was cheap. This cheap property has led to an overabundance of low income housing. As people have moved back into the older houses and fixed them up our property values have gone back up. The houses are beautiful and our location is convenient to all the popular areas in and around downtown. New apartment buildings and townhouses are popping up on every vacant lot along the major thoroughfares into and out of the area. This is all good and I’m excited, but the crime problem remains. Because the other result of the low property values 20 years ago in a large population of community outreach and drug/crime rehab housing. I get notices of registered sex offenders moving within blocks of me every couple of months. The PD has already determined that there’s a correlation between these self help places and our crime rates, but since they’re not illegal in and of themselves, there’s little we can do?

So I wait. Or move. And since I don’t want to move or miss out on the increasing property values, I must sit this out until gentrification turns the tide and crime starts to go down on an annual basis. Then I can cash out and pay off some of my law school debt. Until then, I guess I’ve got to live with crime, and I don’t like it one bit.