Ethelred_the_Unready

Gotta love YouTube:

Moneybrother

I live in rural/semi-rural Virginia and things here is far from the cozy upper middleclass suburban life many of you live. I am sure suburban life in an upper middleclass neighborhood is glorious, but life in the US can sadly be very rough as well, and I wonder how many of you actually see that. The rich are so removed from the poor here.

Take Danville, VA town of 40.000 people.
Crime Danville, Virginia (2010)[8]

Murder 20.9
Rape 60.38
Robbery 132.38
Assault 169.55
Burglary 1275.11
Automobile Theft 153.29

In 2010 report rates were recalculated using the population estimates from the Weldon Cooper database and available from The Danville Police Department.


Sources:
http://danville-va.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/3493

Moneybrother

Ha, ha....Goldie Lookin' Chain looks like that but they are all in their mid 30's.

Ethelred_the_Unready

Interesting, sounds far worse than anywhere in East Sussex! Rye and Eastbourne aren't known for having meth problems.

Moneybrother

My original post is gone. Here it is again:
I live in rural/semi-rural Virginia and things here is far some the cozy upper middleclass suburban life many of you live. Life in rural US can be very violent and fuled with crack and meth. Enjoy your luxurious suburban life, nothing wrong with that, but the UK bashing is too much at times and not put in a very good context.

Take Danvill, Va town of 40.000 people.
Crime
Murder 20.9
Rape 60.38
Robbery 132.38
Assault 169.55
Burglary 1275.11
Automobile Theft 153.29

In 2010 report rates were recalculated using the population estimates from the Weldon Cooper database and available from The Danville Police Department.

Sally Redux

Heavy use of cough-drops.

Ethelred_the_Unready

Only the hard stuff too:

Lion in Winter

Back already?

HumphreyC

Well that's interesting - this town (city in U.S parlance) has a higher murder rate than Mexico!

I live in a similar city so i'm guessing this is because:

1) The manufacturing jobs (i'm guessing textiles & manufacturing) dried up in the post-war period to be replaced by services.

2) The middle classes and the wealthy decamped to suburban neighborhoods en masse in the 60s, 70s and 80s, leaving the city's housing stock to rot. Malls, strip malls and industries are now created in the surrounding towns - moving the city's commercial base to the fringes. The tax base in the old city boundaries disintegrates making the situation worse. There is now an economic divide between the old city and its suburban off-shoots.

3) The city neighborhoods now consist of poor families and new immigrants looking for cheap housing. In the 60s, 70s and 80s drugs become prevalent and gangs emerge to control the the trade. Over time the crime rate increases and makes the situation worse. Suburbanization increases as families flee the crime by moving to surrounding towns.

4) This is the South so the divide that emerges is a racial one as well as an economic one.

There isn't really a parallel for this type of decline in smaller cities in the UK - you'd have to look at larger cities to find comparisons. You find the same factors but not on the same scale.

HumphreyC

It is true though - it is highly regional. You have to be clear on that when someone complains that they pay $66,000 dollars in property taxes or that their local murder rate is 101.9 per 100,000.

Which is also true.

It's booming by all accounts,and here's the thing (which is relevant to my last post). Go on google street view and have gander round Belfast. Then have a look at a hard hit U.S city like Newark, Detroit, Flint or Camden NJ. If you were starting from a blank slate and knew nothing about the US or the NI conflict (and didn't run across murals) then there is a good chance you'd say it was the US city that must have had the 30 odd years of civil war - the boarded up and burnt out buildings the deserted streets etc..

Ethelred_the_Unready

Even the most deprived, grimy and depressing UK towns & cities do not compare to places like Detroit, parts of Miami and Camden, NJ, or parts of Michigan that would make a council estate in Wolverhampton look and feel idyllic in comparison.

Even here in MA, there are many sketchy towns that would rival any chav town back home in terms of low level crime, burglaries, car thefts, etc. An example of this would be the town of Fall River, which I had the pleasure of staying in a couple of years ago:

http://www.cityrating.com/crime-stat...all-river.html

I see plenty of chav-like creatures around in the town I live in (Beverly), so it's not a UK only phenomenon.

HumphreyC

Chavs in Beverly! - and I thought that was such a nice place when I was there the other day (Cabot Street).

Fall River is the place which decided that the best way to revive the city's fortunes would be to to dynamite their beautiful city hall and drive a highway right the way through the middle of the city. Obviously it didn't work because from what I hear it is full of Portuguese drugdealers.

Ethelred_the_Unready

There is indeed a large Portuguese contingent in Fall River. It's a former mill town, reminiscent of the Lancashire mill towns in some ways. The Portuguese have been there since the industrial revolution I believe. It's a bad place though. We stayed at the Lizzie Borden B&B and the only scary thing was the town, not the ghosts. I've never heard so many police sirens. Now I know why those travel programs that feature the Borden B&B only show a snapshot of the street - they want to to think its a quaint New England town, not a ghetto!

Beverly is a nice looking town, but it has it's share of undesirables. If you cruise down Cabot St. on Friday nights you'll see the MassChavs, particularly at the One Stop. There's a decent little Irish pub though.

Moneybrother

I would say that your analysis is quite correct. Good job. Just a few comments:

Danville has no suburbs; it is surrounded by very small towns or villages like Gretna, Chatham and Brookneal. These places are not sleepy hamlets but very worn out and dingy places. The situation here is maybe a bit safer than Danville, but let’s take a look at Brookneal as an example In 2010 the per capita income for the town was $14,164. About 15.2% of families and 19.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 26.5% of those under age 18 and 11.5% of that age 65 or over. The situation is similar in the other towns. The would be suburbanites buggered off to the larger cities in North Carolina and the Washington DC area.

The city is pretty much 50% African-American and 50% Caucasian. There are very few immigrants. Interesting thing here, as with other many rural areas of the US, Danville has a problem recruiting medical doctors and now there is a system were physicians are recruited from India and then signing a contract that they HAVE to work in a specific area, like Danville, VA for several years. (The state of West Virginia has an even larger version of this project). Once most of these doctors can get their green card they move elsewhere. It is what it is, but what a peculiar situation.

Uncle Ebenezer

Look, it's OK, I understand - you couldn't make it over here, you're running home with your tail between your legs and your failure makes you need to paint your enforced destination with a rosy paintbrush.

Just try not to hate those of us who have successfully embraced our new country and enjoy a lifestyle that would not have been possible, back in blighty.

Happy travels!