Prince George's County? (Calverton: best neighborhoods, for sale, 2014)

[Shadowlynx]

Originally Posted by boreatwork

But to say people should form their own opinion first and leave if they dont like it is ALL you had to say.

I know that my opinion is a strong one and it may ruffle some feathers, but it is a well-formed one, and I am far from the minority when it comes to this opinion. I'm not attacking PG because I have some kind of personal vendetta against the place. Every area has it's good and bad, and that goes for PG. There are nice areas in PG such as Laurel, Bowie, parts of Clinton, and Parts of Oxon Hill. However, there are bad areas too, and the reason why myself and others say that PG is an OVERALL bad county is that the bad areas outnumber the good areas. PG county isn't a nice county with a few bad pockets here and there, PG county is a bad county with a few good pockets here and there. People are getting robbed at gunpoint and having their vehicles stolen in the NICER areas of PG, so of course it is going to be labelled as an overall bad place to live (and deservedly so). I personally know many well-off families in the nicer areas of the county who have thrown up their hands in disgust and moved to CC because THEY said that the county is such a bad place. Some of my friends who were born and raised in PG joke around about how PG is becoming SE DC all over again and now people are running to CC just like they were running to PG years ago. If my opinion were in the minority then you would have a valid point, but the fact that I see these things and many others see these things should be an indicator that maybe it's not just a case of sour grapes on my part.

There seems to be a theme in this and other threads that if anyone says something negative about PG County then they are automatically wrong and everybody must attack them - even if their opinion is well-formed and many others share the same exact opinion, had similar experiences, and have seem similar things in the community with their own eyes. I offer my opinion as someone who has actually lived there and still has friends, family, and contacts in the area who talk to me on a regular basis and tell me what's going on there. I will provide my own opinion and give recommendations based on that, but ultimately, people must make up their own mind whether PG is right for them or not. Some people will love it, some people will hate it, and I will always recommend against it because I personally feel that they can do much better and get a much bigger bang for their buck elsewhere. I can only help by giving them another informed viewpoint to consider, but it is ultimately their choice and they form their own opinion.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by Shadowlynx

I know that my opinion is a strong one and it may ruffle some feathers, but it is a well-formed one, and I am far from the minority when it comes to this opinion. I'm not attacking PG because I have some kind of personal vendetta against the place. Every area has it's good and bad, and that goes for PG. There are nice areas in PG such as Laurel, Bowie, parts of Clinton, and Parts of Oxon Hill. However, there are bad areas too, and the reason why myself and others say that PG is an OVERALL bad county is that the bad areas outnumber the good areas. PG county isn't a nice county with a few bad pockets here and there, PG county is a bad county with a few good pockets here and there. People are getting robbed at gunpoint and having their vehicles stolen in the NICER areas of PG, so of course it is going to be labelled as an overall bad place to live (and deservedly so). I personally know many well-off families in the nicer areas of the county who have thrown up their hands in disgust and moved to CC because THEY said that the county is such a bad place. Some of my friends who were born and raised in PG joke around about how PG is becoming SE DC all over again and now people are running to CC just like they were running to PG years ago. If my opinion were in the minority then you would have a valid point, but the fact that I see these things and many others see these things should be an indicator that maybe it's not just a case of sour grapes on my part.

There seems to be a theme in this and other threads that if anyone says something negative about PG County then they are automatically wrong and everybody must attack them - even if their opinion is well-formed and many others share the same exact opinion, had similar experiences, and have seem similar things in the community with their own eyes. I offer my opinion as someone who has actually lived there and still has friends, family, and contacts in the area who talk to me on a regular basis and tell me what's going on there. I will provide my own opinion and give recommendations based on that, but ultimately, people must make up their own mind whether PG is right for them or not. Some people will love it, some people will hate it, and I will always recommend against it because I personally feel that they can do much better and get a much bigger bang for their buck elsewhere. I can only help by giving them another informed viewpoint to consider, but it is ultimately their choice and they form their own opinion.

It's because it's the most affluent black county in America. Although it's ranked number 10 in Maryland or something.

It's kind of like how Black posters get defensive when over on the P&C forum folks post stories about criminality, welfare dependency etc. which disproportinately feature blacks.

I'm Black but this reflexive need to dismiss any criticism of the black community is short sighted and in fact counterproductive. It prevents an honest discussion of potential solutions from ever surfacing since folks can't even acknowledge that there is even a problem.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by TCR25

So, you haven't lived in Prince George's in how long? I've been in the city of Hyattsville for over a decade now and the county you describe is lightyears different from my experience. There are problems in Prince George's, yes; but you can find problems in every jurisdiction. The fact is that Prince George's is a very large county that varies significantly from locality to locality. There are very rural portions and there are very urbanized portions; and there are a lot of places that are great places to make a home.

PG County homes are valued on average half of what any other jurisdiction in this metro area are valued at except one. The market is shorting PG big time.

The one county that's not atleast double PG's valuation, Prince Williams still beats PG's valuation by 100K. The schools have as bad a reputation as DC and some would even say they are worse. Certainly there are some pockets of normalcy in PG but that's not county wide.

The size of PG is irrelevant. Fairfax has a million people, MoCo has a similar number of people as PG. Both have rural locations within the county borders. Stop making excuses.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by boreatwork

FIRST OFF anyone attacking grammatical errors in an informal opinion site tells who YOU really are. Maybe your friends are the ones not doing sh*t though. I dont see an exodus towards Charles County? I dont do surveys of black families to see how many of them were thinking of moving. What facts do you have to say the nice parts are getting more and more suspect. I dont care about a reputation because I'm out here I know what is and isnt. You sir are not from here and claim facts based on what comes out the side of your neck.

It's a black thing

Also, PG now has the state's worst schools, most foreclosures and greatest number of carjackings. It's second, behind Baltimore, in crime and murders with widespread police exam cheating, and its school board was so dysfunctional in 2002 that the state dissolved it!

PG, once a haven for "black flight" out of Washington, D.C., is now losing people to Charles County, as blacks flee PG's crime, taxes, corruption and crummy schools. Twenty years ago, Charles County was 18 percent black, while today that number is 41 percent.
I don't mean to pile on, but if all this is "a little bit of a cloud," I'd hate to see a thunderstorm. Or, as The Post puts it, "The county's difficulties aren't simply an image problem, they are substantive ..."

[EdwardA]

Like I said the market is shorting PG. What's being done about it?
Fairfax's wealthy are moving on up

Prince George’s became the country’s wealthiest majority-black county beginning when then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry’s civil service bureaucracy gave rise to a class of well-off black households that promptly relocated to raise their children in the suburbs.
That is no longer the dynamic. Growing numbers of singles and couples who can afford to, largely the children of that generation, are moving closer to the office and nightlife core of the city. The county has seen a sharp drop in 30-somethings.
Despite the region’s stability during the recession, 2,775 more families left Prince George’s in 2009 than moved in — a hollowing out more dramatic than all but eight counties nationwide. Many of those families were well-off.
“The African Americans who left the District are not going to PG in droves anymore,” said Lisa Ann Sturtevant, a demographer at George Mason University. “It’s got 15 Metro stations, a great location — if you looked at it on a map and weren’t from here, you’d think it was perfect. The problems have been crime, schools and a bad reputation that has kept employers from locating there

[Shadowlynx]

Originally Posted by EdwardA

It's because it's the most affluent black county in America. Although it's ranked number 10 in Maryland or something.

It's kind of like how Black posters get defensive when over on the P&C forum folks post stories about criminality, welfare dependency etc. which disproportinately feature blacks.

I'm Black but this reflexive need to dismiss any criticism of the black community is short sighted and in fact counterproductive. It prevents an honest discussion of potential solutions from ever surfacing since folks can't even acknowledge that there is even a problem.

I had a sneaking suspicion that race was behind the knee-jerk defensiveness of PG County. I understand that some individuals take pride in their community, but when that pride gets in the way of acknowledging reality, then it is extremely counterproductive. PG County has a well-earned reputation and it is not just crime, it is also horrible schools, ridiculous amounts of corruption at the highest levels of leadership, and a general sense of low class and backwardness all around. These are also factors in why people flat-out avoid the place and why many black families have started to just say "to hell with it" and move to Nova, MOCO, or CC. Instead of living in denial about these things and attacking anyone who points them out, it would be better to acknowledge them and work on correcting them. I'm not just a finger pointer, either. I have gone out of my way to do unpayed volunteer and charity work to help the community as best as I could when I was there. My parents even rounded up other parents and started a neighborhood watch program in an attempt to make the community safer.

The truth is that many in the county like it exactly the way it is and they don't want it to change (which is fine, but don't get angry when others call you on it). They like the thug element, the low class crap, and the backwardness. This is bad for the families there that actually want something better and for the people who were thinking about moving there and bringing additional revenue into the community. It's hard to attract new businesses to your area when barred windows and bullet-proof glass are a necessity to keep your business from being robbed or worse. Very few amenities, but who in the hell wants to do business in an area where the odds of getting robbed are much higher than the richer and cleaner surrounding areas? I think that for the money that people are paying to live there, they could do much better by moving elsewhere.

PG County has a ton of potential, there are great rural areas that are a joy to visit, there is a large amount of money in the area, plus it is located next to the most powerful place in the world in Washington, DC. PG should be one of the leading communities in the nation, but instead it flounders in mediocrity and backwardness due to corruption and complete mismanagement. When you try to point out that there is something seriously wrong with the area, then you get painted as the bad guy, which is why a lot of people have given up or are in the process of giving up and moving to better communities.

My grandmother is black and she has spent most of her life in the county. She remembers when the whole thing was almost all rural. I think that it says a lot when she - a black woman living in the most affluent black county in the nation - tells me that there is nothing there but trouble and that I shouldn't move back. People can say that I've only lived there for less than a decade and that I'm not originally from there (which I'm not, and I will openly acknowledge that every time), but I'd like to think that a woman who has spent the last 65 years of her life living throughout the county would know what she is talking about, and she is only one of a whole boatload of examples I can give you to show that my opinion is not somewhere out in left feild, lol.

I understand that our black brothers and sisters take pride in the fact that PG is one of the few black communities that has a ton of wealth in it, but HONESTY is the only way to move forward with anything in life, and being dishonest just to defend the reputation of something will only ensure its eventual downfall.

[liliblu]

Originally Posted by Shadowlynx

Thread Necro.

I wouldn't recommend PG to anyone. It's better than living in inner city Baltimore or SE DC, but if you want a decent environment to raise your kids, a place where you can walk around outside in the evening and not have to worry about being robbed at gunpoint, and a place that isn't inundated with ignorant thug culture, then I would highly suggest you to move elsewhere. The further you get away from the beltway, then the better things get in terms of cleanliness, crime, and overall community. Just as many of the black families were moving out of SE DC and heading to PG to get away from the ignorance and crime, now many black families are moving out of PG to get away from those very same things, so what does that tell you about PG? If you don't like being around large amounts of riff-raff, then you'd be well served to avoid this area like the plague. The sad part is that there are some good families there (mostly from the military/government, long-term residents who moved there decades ago when things were different, or out-of-staters) and that place has so much potential, but until the nonsense is reduced to more managable levels and the prevailing culture changes to something that isn't demeaning and self-destructive, it is going have a horrible (and well-deserved) reputation. I hate to slag off on any community and I apologize if I have offended anyone, but having lived there for a few years and seen what it's like with my own eyes, there is no way that I can recommend the area to anyone unless they are coming from a much worse inner-city environment where there is greater ignorance and crime. Unfortunately, PG wears her reputation well.

I'm offended but I don't want or need an apology. I don't know much about you and your background in the county. But you have no idea what you are talking about. I've lived in the county my entire life and I've never felt as if I couldn't walk around my own neighborhood even at night. Although, everyone should use caution when walking around outside at night.

I was a high performing student and managed to attend high school without anyone accusing me of "being white" or attacking me for doing well in school. I even had classmates who were good students and graduated on time. I know that's a shocker for some of you. Most of us even managed to get accepted at colleges and universities throughout the nation. Some are serving in our armed forces. A few picked up trades. But there was no "thug" culture and I don't think there is one now.

I don't know how long you've been away from the county but I'm glad your gone. I'm also thankful that you won't be coming back.

[liliblu]

Originally Posted by EdwardA

It's because it's the most affluent black county in America. Although it's ranked number 10 in Maryland or something.

It's kind of like how Black posters get defensive when over on the P&C forum folks post stories about criminality, welfare dependency etc. which disproportinately feature blacks.

I'm Black but this reflexive need to dismiss any criticism of the black community is short sighted and in fact counterproductive. It prevents an honest discussion of potential solutions from ever surfacing since folks can't even acknowledge that there is even a problem.

I don't see people dismissing criticism of the black community. I see people confronting generalizations and sometimes outright lies.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by liliblu

I'm offended but I don't want or need an apology. I don't know much about you and your background in the county. But you have no idea what you are talking about. I've lived in the county my entire life and I've never felt as if I couldn't walk around my own neighborhood even at night. Although, everyone should use caution when walking around outside at night.

I was a high performing student and managed to attend high school without anyone accusing me of "being white" or attacking me for doing well in school. I even had classmates who were good students and graduated on time. I know that's a shocker for some of you. Most of us even managed to get accepted at colleges and universities throughout the nation. Some are serving in our armed forces. A few picked up trades. But there was no "thug" culture and I don't think there is one now.

I don't know how long you've been away from the county but I'm glad your gone. I'm also thankful that you won't be coming back.

Here we go the proverbial meaningless anecdotal story in response to posts based on statistics, trends etc. Your post highlights exactly what I'm talking about, the denial and I would even argue selfishness among many in the Black middle class. I got mine, hey my streets are safe there can't be a problem. Well I'm happy for you that your life long residence in PG has yielded no problems in terms of education and crime.

That simply is not case county wide or we would not be having this discussion.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by liliblu

I don't see people dismissing criticism of the black community. I see people confronting generalizations and sometimes outright lies.

My observations are based on statistics. In the course of a debate I assume the listener is sophisticated enough to realize I am not referring to 100% of any population since to achieve 100% consistency among a population is statistically impossible.

If you have stats that refute the general consensus of the poor quality of PG schools or that crime is not a problem. I'd be more than happy to see it and your interpretation.