again my words, the south has always took a beating, as i have said our probs of years ago, in schools as the same thing in the north went almost un noticed, just thought this article from san francisco may be of interest..

Influx of black renters raises tension in Bay Area

Dec 30, 3:24 PM (ET)

By PAUL ELIAS


ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) - As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.

In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing.

Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out.

"A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who came here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburg. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here."

City officials deny the allegations in the lawsuits, which were filed last spring and seek unspecified damages.

Across the country, similar tensions have simmered when federally subsidized renters escaped run-down housing projects and violent neighborhoods by moving to nicer communities in suburban Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.

But the friction in Antioch is "hotter than elsewhere," said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman Larry Bush.

An increasing number of poor families receiving federal rental assistance have been moving here in recent years, partly because of the housing crisis.

A growing number of landlords were seeking a guaranteed source of revenue in a city hard-hit by foreclosures. They began offering their Antioch homes to low-income tenants in the HUD Section 8 housing program, which pays about two-thirds of every tenant's rent.

Between 2000 and 2007, Antioch's black population nearly doubled from 8,824 to 16,316. And the number of Antioch renters receiving federal subsidies climbed almost 50 percent between 2003 and 2007 to 1,582, the majority of them black.

Longtime homeowners complained that the new arrivals brought crime and other troubles. In 2006, violent crime in Antioch shot up about 19 percent from the year before, while property crime went down slightly.

"In some neighborhoods, it was complete madness," said longtime resident David Gilbert, a black retiree who organized the United Citizens of Better Neighborhoods watch group. "They were under siege."

So the Antioch police in mid-2006 created the Community Action Team, which focused on complaints of trouble at low-income renters' homes.

Police sent 315 complaints about subsidized tenants to the Contra Costa Housing Authority, which manages the federal program in the city, and urged the agency to evict many of them for lease violations such as drug use or gun possession. Lawyers for the tenants said 70 percent of the eviction recommendations were aimed at black renters. The housing authority turned down most of the requests.

Coleman said the police, after a complaint from a neighbor, showed up at her house one morning in 2007 to check on her husband, who was on parole for drunken driving. She said they searched the house and returned twice more that summer to try to find out whether the couple had violated any terms of their lease that could lead to eviction.

The Colemans were also slapped with a restraining order after a neighbor accused them of "continually harassing and threatening their family," according to court papers. The Colemans said a judge later rescinded the order.

Coleman and four other families are suing Antioch, accusing police of engaging in racial discrimination and conducting illegal searches without warrants. They have asked a federal judge to make their suit a class-action on behalf of hundreds of other black renters. Another family has filed a lawsuit accusing the city's leaders of waging a campaign of harassment to drive them out.

Police referred questions to the city attorney's office.

City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland denied any discrimination on the part of police and said officers were responding to crime reports in troubled neighborhoods when they discovered that a large number of the troublemakers were receiving federal subsidies.

"They are responding to real problems," Nerland said.

Joseph Villarreal, the housing authority chief, said the problems in Antioch mirror tensions seen nationally when poor renters move into neighborhoods they can afford only with government help.

"One of the goals of the programs is to de-concentrate poverty," Villarreal said. "There are just some people who don't want to spend public money that way."

Tensions like those afflicting Antioch have drawn scholars and law enforcement officials to debate whether crime follows subsidized renters out of the tenements to the suburbs.

Susan Popkin, a researcher at the nonprofit Urban Institute, said she does not believe that is the case. But the tensions, she said, are real.

"That can be a recipe for anxiety," she said. "It can really change the demographics of a
neighborhood."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081230/D95D896O0.html

Jeez this could have been written about my area just as easy...welcome to my world...

i know, the neighborhood i was raised in has mainly turned black as white flight set in, when my mom died, that hurt the property value. as we sold her house. after her death.the realestate man told me that flat out,.she always had a white neighbor,and had a corner lot, the same neighbor we had all her life since i was born. i had to sell to a black . but we were lucky, we sold to a retired couple that seemed nice.. not all are bad, but crime there has increased, as i told my nephews about the san francisco, story, we alll got so tickeled, when the whites in cali said " hey they have mean pit bulls ,, its the pit bull thing that we laughed at so. for some reason blacks think they have to have a pit bull not all but alot...and now huge car rims, lmao, when i do retire in years if it is getting bad here i will sell and move to the lake, as that is a white rural farming county as i have said many times. never have seen a black up there..take care

Compliments of Katrina , the lower class population has been spread out , slowly the crime is going back up as they attempt to return.New Orleans has been rated the most dangerous city in the US. Glad I am 35 miles away but the influx on this side of the lake is taking a huge toll on security. Multiple murders all drug related, Robbery is way up, as are shoplifting and drug traffic. I will not say it is all blacks , Hispanics are also playing a large roll in crimes. The gravy train is over here, with the building industry slowing, the illegals have no work nor money to move on, living in abandoned falling down houses like animals.
The pit bull issue is funny, remember Spot on Spanky and Our Gang...a pit bull..the Motorola dog hearing his masters voice..a pit bull..but you are right pits seem to be a very popular black thing . They are cross bred here as catch dogs for wild hogs. I have owned pits , they are very loyal dogs, but insurance companies have all but eliminated coverage if one is at the premises, and local ordinances are pressing laws on bred specific, to ban the bred. AKC does recognize them and allow them in the fancy dog shows, but they are on their way out.

SSC, I thought the Motorola dog was a terrier,like a jack russell

it may have been both, not the breed but it was the RCA white dog by the record player, like i said both motorola and rca , it may have been both, i have no idea about the dog, i probably have some old lps with the pic on them, as i have lots of lps for the 60s ,

oh sorry i ment to put this in, and i may have already posted on it , but my insurance man told me rochwielders, (spelling) as one knocked open a storm door and just the medical bill on the postmans arm was over 100,000 bucks,let alone the probable law suit, so that breed he said they will not insure u with homeowners, he said even a chow is hard to get insured, he said he had to have his picture taken petting a chow for the homeowners insurance company to finally insure some ppl,, and its a major company here. but they have the best rates on cars and houses..

The original was Fox terrier/Bull terrier mix. This was the original Motorola dog, his name was Nipper. If you google His Masters Voice it shows a picture of the dog, his features are resembling a pit with the square head.

Allstate will not insure a cocker spaniel, doberman, shepard, rottweilers nor pit or lab, or chow, you have to have a 8 foot fence with a million in liability

SSC wrote:The original was Fox terrier/Bull terrier mix. This was the original Motorola dog, his name was Nipper. If you google His Masters Voice it shows a picture of the dog, his features are resembling a pit with the square head.

Allstate will not insure a cocker spaniel, doberman, shepard, rottweilers nor pit or lab, or chow, you have to have a 8 foot fence with a million in liability

wow i did not know that about allstate, i imagine most insurance companies will follow.. im glad i had a 4 foot fence that is in front but goes to the back corner of my house, years ago, well there is a double large lot across from me, no one lives on it, but years ago it had a moblile home sitting way back near the back of the deep lot, well they had a G shepard, i was taking the garbage can out to the road, the g shepard started barking and coming toward the road, i thought well he will stop when he gets to the road, i had started back . but no he did not stop he crossed the road, and across my yard, by then i was running as fast as i could, i hit my fence on a run with one hand on the top rail and over it I went, the dog put on the brakes sliding toward the fence,, i never mentioned it to the couple, they were young, it was not long till they moved to a house a mile or so down the road, no one has lived on the property in many years, my daughter called about buying it but thought it to expensive, but i dont, its a real nice lot, 1.6 acres,, i could not have gone over a higher fence on the run, but some of my fence is 5 foot and some is 6,, ill never have another dog, i love dogs but i dont want to take care of one now, since the kids dog died ..