Quality of life corrodes
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published September 10, 2007
Violent crime, especially murder, plagues St. Petersburg's black community. Experts agree that homicides represent one of the most destabilizing forces in a community, and the corrosive effects of homicides are most acute in low-income areas. During the last three months alone, four men have been shot to death in St. Petersburg's black community.
The ill effects of such crime are evident everywhere, both tangibly and intangibly. Leaders in these neighborhoods struggle to attract businesses that can provide jobs for the chronically unemployed. They struggle to keep the handful of professionals remaining there from moving out.
Without viable businesses and a critical mass of professionals and other law-abiding residents, no community can enjoy a decent quality of life - clean streets and sidewalks, well-maintained homes, beautiful yards, safe parks, well-equipped recreational facilities and friendly neighbors.
Homicides, along with other violent crime, will block all chances for black communities to enjoy the amenities that otherwise safe and thriving neighborhoods take for granted.
In Midtown, Childs Park, Bartlett Park and other black areas, many residents have experienced violence for so long they apparently accept it as being normal. In reaction to the most recent shootings in Childs Park, for example, residents told the St. Petersburg Times that gunshots are "common" in the neighborhood.
Gunshots should not be "common" anywhere in St. Petersburg. As long as gunshots are normal, the amenities that add up to a good quality of life will remain out of reach. The police alone cannot prevent violent crime. They need the eyes and ears and earnest support of residents who are outraged at the violence - who will not hesitate to snitch on violent criminals.
Until residents begin to assist the police in preventing violent crime and catching killers, the city's black neighborhoods will remain depressed.