ATLANTA — Residents of historic South Atlanta and Lakewood Heights in southeast Atlanta are saying it has become almost impossible for them to live there.
Crime continues to rise, and some residential streets have turned into racetracks and party zones.
11Alive has been following the trends there for months now, as residents try to fight back.
One of the residents, Terry Felder, recorded a video this past Saturday night of the street in front of his home, off Lakewood Avenue, SE.
“All the traffic is in the neighborhood, parked everywhere,” Felder said on his video, describing parked and double-parked cars up and down the street--a street taken over, once again, by one of the frequent parties at a music and film studio that moved in a year ago around the corner.
Also in Felder's video: the flicker of emergency lights from an ambulance, which was there, Felder found out, to respond to one of the party guests who was overdosing on drugs.
“They took over this neighborhood,” Felder said Tuesday. “They were sitting all on my steps here. They were sitting up on the side there.”
And Felder said the stretch of Lakewood Avenue near his neighborhood is a two-lane racetrack, with little or no speed enforcement, no stop signs or traffic lights at any of the intersections, and none of the traffic-calming enhancements that the city has installed in nearby neighborhoods.
Felder and his next-door neighbor Myrna Myrick said they are speaking for themselves and their neighbors when they take a stand against the disruptions and speeding and—the most serious issue--increasing crime, as if their part of southeast Atlanta is worse than ever, breaking down into chaos.
Myrick is now afraid to leave her house.
“I have to go to the doctor and things like that,” she said. “So I just do it. But it's scary. I try to make sure that I'm in the house when it gets dark. Because around here, that's the best thing to do.”
In the past 12 months, according to the latest Atlanta Police crime statistics, crime in Atlanta Police Zone 3, which includes South Atlanta and Lakewood Heights, has risen faster than it has in the city as a whole:
- Homicide– up 19 percent
- Rape– up 25 percent
- Burglary– up 27 percent
- Theft from Motor Vehicle– up 45 percent
“It’s almost impossible” to live in his neighborhood anymore, Felder said.
“I won’t stop by any stores around here,” he said. “I won’t go to the gas stations around here because you can get out to the gas station and you're subject to be robbed.”
Felder and Myrick and other residents of these neighborhoods are working to gain support from City Hall and Atlanta Police to address the many issues confronting them. They're also working to attract new homes and new businesses, efforts that are hampered as chaos seems to win, more and more often.
The manager of the business around the corner, who frequently leases part of his space as a party venue, confirmed on Tuesday that the Saturday night crowds and traffic which spilled into the surrounding neighborhoods were from the party hosted by his clients, who had rented his space for their event that night. He said he is aware of neighborhood’s complaints over the past several months, and that he intends crack down on his clients who violate his own rules about too many attendees, too many cars, and loud music. He said he wants to be a good neighbor.
It’s just the sort of commitment and support, Felder said, that they need from the City, as well.
“We want our neighborhood back,” Felder said. “We don't have no peace. We want our neighborhood back. Our neighborhood is gone... We need help,” to try to restore what’s been lost.
11Alive has asked Atlanta Police for information about how officers are now focusing resources on South Atlanta and Lakewood Heights to combat the rise in crime and other neighborhood disturbances.