As crime changes a neighborhood, some stay and fight

The Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 8/18/2002 | Stephen D. Price

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When Arthur Miller and his wife moved to Rosamond Avenue six years ago, they would sit on their front lawn and watch the evening evaporate.

It was a quiet, peaceful neighborhood with manicured lawns and neat homes.

Some of the nearby industrial employers like Firestone and International Harvester had either closed or moved, but Rosamond remained a respectable, racially mixed, working-class street.

Just six years later Rosamond has a much different feel.

"We don't sit in the front yard anymore," said Miller, 55, who works a forklift and owns his home. "The street used to be real quiet. But after people started selling drugs and drug addicts came, it wasn't anymore.

"Sometimes I hate to leave our house because we don't know what will happen. It changed from a nice quiet street to people getting shot, selling drugs and strange people walking up and down the street."

Gangs, guns and drugs.

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Check out the census data contained on a sidebar to the story. It tells the story of what happened to the neighborhood---even if the reporter doesn't want to.

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There are code words, like "ethnically diverse".

Funny, but I was always taught that "diversity is our greatest strength." How can there be anything negative about diversity?

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I forgot my /sarcasm tag. ;-)

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The media is constantly complaining about how Memphians move out to the suburbs as soon as they can afford it.

Why wouldn't you? White or black. Why would anyone stay in a hellhole like this place if they could get out.

My neighborhood is racially integrated. Everyone cares about the place they live and don't allow it to deteriorate.

If that makes us "Bad Americans," than I guess we are guilty.