Everyone talks about how West Asheville is the up-and-coming place to live. The houses go on the market for a day before they are sold. Many families and young adults walk the streets.
My husband and I are one of the many enjoying our time in West Asheville with all it has to offer. I’m seven months pregnant and [in] walkable distance to Carrier Park. Everything is great. Or so we thought.
In the last month, there have been 10 robberies on or around our street, with thousands of stolen goods. The thieves are caught then released less then a week later. Our house got hit hard. My husband came home, and the robbers were still in the house. We got fingerprints from a window. They live two blocks from us, and nothing has been done.
I have been left pregnant, sad and violated in my home. A few other neighbors who have been robbed a month ago have already moved out so more victims can move into that home. We no longer want to live in West Asheville. For the residents of this area, be aware and take extra precautions.
— Daphne Cave
Asheville
Crime has always been a problem in West AVL, and the fact is that no matter how much you ‘pretty up’ the place, the problems don’t go away with a fresh coat of paint , curb appeal, and are exacerbated by the tensions that accompany grossly inflated home prices. Those of us who have lived in Asheville for a decade or more know the problems West Asheville has always dealt with, and it’s why I have never ever chosen to live there. Old neighborhood infused with new money, but ignoring the old problems.
They come out of their trailer parks and terrorize us. I’ve called for all mobile homes to be banned. They breed these people. I would raise their standard of living. First, it must start with education. Schools must institute school uniforms/dress codes. “A typical Korean school uniform for a boy usually includes a jacket, a long-sleeved collared white shirt, a tie, dress trousers, and outerwear for the Winter season. A girl’s Korean school uniform generally consists of a bow, a collared white shirt with sleeves, a vest, a pleated skirt and outerwear for the winter, and white socks.” Uniforms educate them to behave professionally. Teenagers in South Korea and Japan are largely too busy studying to out committing crime. Most grow up as hard working professionals. They learn to dress right, study and work hard, and clean up after themselves. The last thing Asheville needs is allowing them to perpetuate this cycle. Have accountability on how students dress, the neighborhoods where they live. No slums please where they can come out and terrorize people who are working hard and living right. Go after them first before they go after us.
AVL LVR – what a strange response.
— how kids dress in school in Korea has no bearing on present day property crime in Avl.
— the learning/respectful thing you speak of is commendable but, this is an old mountain town in the Bible Belt with alot people who’ve never lived anywhere else and are very tethered to their habits and the ways of the past. Learning ain’t their thing.
— a heavy hand either from police or organized neighborhood groups is what it will take. If there is no serious disincentive….well, they will keep on stealing.
The letter writer needs to lean on the police….heavily!
You are too focused on short-term thinking. We won’t need a police state if we change the attitudes of the youth. Don’t let them grow up to be criminals. Schools need to train them to look and behave like professionals. The example of South Korea is very pertinent. South Korea went from being as poor as an African country to one of the richest countries in the world through hard work and education. In a recent documentary I watched, the children were so busy studying most had no time for crime. Let us pressure our disadvantaged youth to study harder (nearly all-day) and not live like a pig in run-down trailer parks.
Good grief, AVL LVR — your 30 – 50 years down the road thinking doesn’t help Daphne Cave and others NOW.
And, yes, I do mean the time frame I stated. Because you have to train THE PARENTS first before they will change how they raise their kids! That will be no easy task b/c of the second point I made above. But, that’s where you’d need to start so, it’s going to be a looong road. Meanwhile, some ass needs to get kicked now and those with the most vested interest in finding solutions are the ones who have already been robbed.
Also, TV or any media can only inform to a certain degree. There is much that is different about South Korea all together. And cultures, attitudes and motivations vary quite a bit even within regions of this country (many would be surprised how much) and media alone cannot capture that. Ultimately, there is no magic bullet. But, yeah, I like to look for solutions NOW….. before others suffer.
An immediate solution is to make thieves repay every penny they have stolen with interest. They will also pay for their meals in prison and their accommodations there. If they have no savings or assets to seize, the state will put them to work for minimum wage in chain gangs picking up trash along the highway and fixing up neighborhoods. They will work until all the money stolen is repaid to the victims and the cost of their meals and accommodations is repaid to the state. Depending on how much they have stolen, it may be their whole life unless the victims agree to let them off early.
Ordinarily, I would dismiss the notion that banning trailer parks and instituting school uniforms would affect crime…BUT…I just returned from a trip to Britain where trailer parks are ONLY allowed as vacation destinations, most (possibly all) children wear school uniforms, and the cops only wear guns when on specific duties requiring them (drug raids, serving warrants to dangerous felons, etc.). Their biggest problem with violence seems to be gangs of hooligans at soccer games and within their housing “schemes” (what we call “the projects” or “ghettoes”). Connection? I dunno, but it DOES beg further discussion.
The teen hooligans robbing my neighborhood were in hovering in a nearby rented house. After law-complying citizens on the block spoke three times with the idiot owner of the rental house saw no resolution to the crime wave, we got a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against the owner of the house. Harboring criminals is a charge to level at apathetic landlords. IF the hooligan house is also a drug house is within a thousand feet from a school then the local district attorney can really do a number on the owner and renters. Call him/her today!